Field Hockey plays for Ivy crown tonight

With newspaper clippings of two Ivy League field hockey championships already tucked away in her scrapbook, Penn senior defenseman Sue Quinn seemingly has done it all at the college level. Many laughed when the Quakers expressed their intentions to win back the Ancient Eight crown that has resided in Princeton, N.J., for a year. But Quinn and her teammates persisted. Losses to West Chester and Temple gave validity to the critics. Yet at 7:30 tonight, Quinn will take the field against Princeton with a chance to add one more clipping to her collection. Down by a game in the Ivy standings, Penn (10-6, 4-1 Ivy) will square off against the conference-leading Tigers. Princeton (12-3, 5-0) has already clinched at least a share of the crown. But a Quakers victory would even the two teams atop the leader board. In fact, because of the head-to-head tie-breaker, Penn would gain the Ivies' automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton would have to hope for an at-large invitation. "Two years ago, nobody expected us to win the league," Quinn said. "And nobody expected us to be in this position this year. Everybody else saw us as the underdog. But we knew we could surprise some teams."a The Quakers' five leading scorers -- Kara Philbin, Quinn, Abby Herbine, Amy Shapiro and Marla Maiorano -- are all seniors. A loss to the Tigers would end their collegiate careers. "When we won the first Ivy title, looking back, I think I took it for granted," Quinn said. "And any time we lost, I always thought, 'Well, there's always next year.' But there is no next year anymore." A win would make the Class of '95 just the second in school history to graduate with three Ivy championships. But Penn will again be the underdog tonight. Led by senior forward Lisa Rebane, the Tigers are ranked 18th in the nation. With 17 goals and 37 points in 15 games, Rebane is the obvious choice for player-of-the-year honors. "She's definitely the backbone of the team," Quinn said. "But we know if we can shut her down, that she's their main girl." Indeed, freshman forward Kirsty Hale is the only other serious scoring threat on the Princeton roster. Hale has chipped in with eight goals and a team-best eight assists. The Tigers will let Rebane, the Ivies' leading scorer, run wild and hope senior goalie Liz Hill can prevent the Penn forwards from doing the same. Hill has had plenty of success shutting down opposing scorers, allowing a conference-low 1.06 goals-per-game. Hill has stopped 89.6 percent of opponents' shots, another Ancient Eight best. But there is only one Ivy statistic that truly matters -- wins. And the Ivy leader in that column is yet to be determined. "Tomorrow, we can turn a good season into a great season," Quinn said.