M. Soccer improved its play, not its record

The men's soccer team ended its season the same way as it began -- with three straight losses. The confidence, a constant presence throughout the season, had done no good. Neither had the senior leadership. And now Penn can only think of what might have been had it fulfilled its potential. "A lot of times after games we thought we should've won, we knew we could've won, we had chances to win," forward Steve Cohen said. "We just came up short in the last couple of minutes of the game." The Quakers (5-11-1, 1-6 Ivy League) had difficulty scoring throughout the season. They struggled to replace forwards Pat Larco and Tim Rusche, who both sat out the season recuperating from injuries. The vast majority (64 percent) of the goals came from the midfielders. Co-captain Steve Marcinkiewicz dominated the Penn offense with 12 goals and five assists. The senior had more points this season than in the previous two years combined. While the offense struggled, the Penn backfield also had trouble finding the right mix. After losing their first three games of the year, the Quakers switched Brendan Sullivan to sweeper. Penn went undefeated in its next four games, proving the merits of the new system. During that time the Quakers defeated a nationally-ranked Columbia team for the second year in a row. "It was a total team effort," defenseman David Choi said of the Columbia game. "I don't know about the Ivy title, but we want to shoot for the stars." Penn's success would be short-lived. The Quakers' roller coaster took a downward turn over the last third of the season. The defense, so dominant during Penn's wins, was heavily taxed by the scoring drought. The resulting exhaustion led to mental errors, which in turn led to goals by the opposition. "In so many games we beat ourselves," Penn coach George O'Neill said. "We made bad mistakes at the wrong times. You would hope it would go away, but it didn't. I thought we were going to have a real successful season. That didn't happen, obviously." Despite the losing record, Penn showed a great deal of improvement this season. The Quakers lost only two games -- at Seton Hall and Lafayette -- by more than two goals. Penn proved to be able in Ivy competition as well, instead of the doormat it has been in recent memory. Three Ivy teams -- Cornell, Princeton, and Brown -- will be going to the NCAA tournament. Penn lost to these teams by only four goals combined. "The record doesn't necessarily show everything," Cohen said. "The guys always worked hard. Luck has something to do with it, and we really didn't have any. We hit so many posts. Our team really showed a lot of character." The buzzwords for the season were confidence and potential. Unfortunately, as the Quakers failed to fulfill the latter, the former dissipated. Character and leadership may do wonders in the locker room, but for Penn it didn't translate into wins on the soccer field. "We had a chance to win every game we played in," O'Neill said. "No matter what adversity was in front of them, they hung in there and kept fighting until the end." In recognition of their achievements, five Quakers were named to the All-Ivy soccer team. Marcinkiewicz and Sullivan received second-team honors. The anchors of the Penn backfield -- defensemen Alan Waxman and Matt Stern and goalie Andrew Kralik -- were given honorable mentions. Though unrecognized by the Ivy League, the freshmen were also an integral part of the Penn squad. Up to five played at once, contributing on both ends of the field. On offense, Cohen and midfielder Austin Root chipped in five goals between them. Midfielder Ralph Maier may be the Quakers' speedster of the future, showing his skills in limited action. Former high school teammates Greg Kroll and Morgan Blackwell proved themselves on both ends of the field. "We're serious about winning," Cohen said. "The guys who come back next year are going to have to pull together and realize that we're missing a lot of good players and a lot of the guys who stepped up for the team. New guys are going to have to step up. New guys are going to have to bring it together." Despite losing nine seniors, next year's team is already highly anticipated. Larco and Rusche will be returning. The freshmen will be sophomores with lots of playing experience. The Quakers will have a solid core around which to add a complement of recruits. "We had such high expectations for this year," Kralik said. "It definitely hasn't turned out the way we planned it, but we still didn't give up. We still tried to work things out. It's not the end of the world." But it is the end of another losing season.