WOMEN'S SOCCER SEASON REVIEW: W. Soccer turns the corner

It can take months, even years, to understand what a season means. But in the case of 1995 Penn women's soccer team there is no doubt: this was the turning point. Finally, after four years of futility and frustration, the program rose to respectability. When the team gathered for practice in August, half the players were unknown freshmen and the rest were survivors of a more miserable era. At the close of the campaign last Saturday they were a team, unified by success. Nothing was certain when the season began. "We had such a large group coming in and we didn't know how certain freshmen would adapt," second-year coach Patrick Baker said of his first recruiting class. But before anyone had noticed, the team was off to an unprecedented 2-0 start. "It was a great feeling to be undefeated," said senior Kelly Nolan, no stranger to the opposite feeling. The magical victory tour would be circuitous, though. The Quakers then entered a four-game period in which they lost by one goal three times and drew a winnable game in the other. What is worse, Penn held leads at some juncture of each of the three lost matches. All three games were against schools with more soccer tradition -- opponents who presented an opportunity for Penn to make a name for itself. "I think it was a lack of experience. We [the returnees] were so used to losing, winning was a novelty to us," junior Anne Davies said. This rough stretch was crucial in the team's development. "A lot of good things happened," Baker said. "We got people feeling comfortable with the system." Whether it had been inexperience or just dumb luck, the Quakers did not stay in the slump for long. They emerged from their malaise by blowing away an overmatched Lehigh squad. The 5-1 win, which was not nearly that close, demonstrated what the new Quakers could do when everything came together. The team then hit the road, not seeing the green grass of Rhodes Field, the field the University provided after four years on Franklin Field's carpet, for three weeks. The trip began with the Quakers' first, and only, Ivy win of the season at Columbia. On a high, the squad travelled to Cambridge, Mass., hoping to upend then-nationally ranked Harvard. Penn was crushed by the Crimson 6-2. "The only day we did not come to play [this season] was against Harvard," Baker said. Showing a fighting spirit, the Quakers reacted to the Harvard debacle by reeling off three non-conference wins in preparation for defending Ivy champ Brown. Through a torrential rain that made the playing surface resemble the Everglades, Penn earned a 1-1 home draw. After picking up its eighth win of the year against Delaware, doubling the program's previous best, Penn prepared to close the season against Ivy opponents Yale and Princeton. Wins would give the seniors a proper send-off and put the team in line for postseason action. It didn't happen. Yale withstood a strong challenge from Penn and grabbed a late goal to win 3-1. The women's soccer team, in a great show of unity, joined the rest of Penn athletics in losing to Princeton Homecoming weekend, in this case 2-0. The final record: 8-6-2. The list of heroes is as long as the team's roster. The Quakers played every minute with a freshman in goal. The sweeper position was occupied by Heather Herson, a converted attacking midfielder. She and Jill Brown, who specialized in marking star forwards, led a defense that cut its Ivy goals allowed from 25 to 16. Without winning a championship, without any remarkable individual performances, 1995 will still go down as a key year in the program's history. This is the year Penn turned the corner and started on the way towards success.