W. Lax looking for first win of season

When the Penn women's lacrosse team takes the turf at Franklin Field tomorrow (3 p.m), it will have a unique opportunity to match its conference win total for all of last year in its season opener. After earning just a single victory in the Ivy League play last season, the Quakers hope a victory over Cornell will erase the dubious memory of a year ago. Penn (0-2) also hopes to gain for its first win of the season after two losses against national powerhouses. Although they were able to take William & Mary to overtime eight days ago, the Quakers were blown out by Loyola (Md.) Tuesday in a rainy affair. Loyola took an early lead in that game and pulled away in the second half to defeat Penn by a score of 15-6. Sophomore midfielder Darah Ross led the Quakers with three goals and senior attacker Amy Shapiro chipped in with two. Cornell (1-0) is coming off a 16-5 win over Bucknell last week. Although Bucknell is a much weaker opponent than those Penn has faced, it was a very impressive performance by the Big Red. Attacker Cari Hills equaled the output of the entire Bucknell team. Penn expects the outcome to be different for both teams this week. "[Cornell is] on a par with us, but we should win this weekend," senior defender Alex Brill-Edwards said. "They beat us last year in a close game that we should have won. And we're better than we were last year." One of the primary obstacles facing Penn in tomorrow's Ancient Eight matchup is the fact that Cornell employs a style of play which many of the Quakers' players have yet to encounter. "Cornell plays a zone defense," freshman midfielder Jenni Leisman said. "Very few teams do that at the college level." Penn has been practicing breaking down Cornell's defense in preparation for tomorrow's game. "We've been getting a lot of the kinks out, so the zone shouldn't give us too much of a problem," Brill-Edwards said. "Another key for us in this game is that we have to establish our fast-break offense." The Quakers are not alarmed by the fact that they are still looking for their first victory this season. "Hopefully, we'll start a winning streak [against Cornell]," Brill-Edwards said. "We always get better as the year goes on and the players get used to working with each other."