Penn tops William & Mary on the road

Quakers end three-Quakers end three-game road losingQuakers end three-game road losingstreak with 2-1 win As time expired at a hot and humid Busch Field last Saturday, the scoreboard read: Penn 2, William & Mary 1. The Penn field hockey team's defense withstood a second half surge from the Tribe to break a three-game road losing streak. "It was a great win," Penn coach Val Cloud said. "That was our fourth game on the road. It was a nice turn around. We finally got it together." "We finally came together as a team," Quakers senior co-captain Curran Kelly. "We went out with confidence." After an opening win at home against St. Joseph's, Penn (2-3) had lost three straight on the road entering Saturday's game. The Quakers got on the scoreboard first with 17 minutes, 17 seconds remaining in the first half. Penn junior forward Tara Childs knocked a loose ball past William & Mary goaltender Jenn Rinella. "We proved to ourselves that we could score off the field, which was definitely a really positive thing," said Kelly, noting that the scoring came without the aid of a corner attempt. About four minutes later, the Quakers struck again. Childs sent a penalty corner to her sister Erica, who set the ball up for junior co-captain Michele Canuso-Bedesem. Canuso-Bedesem shot the ball to the back of the cage to give the Quakers a two-goal lead. That proved to be enough as the Penn defense held off the Tribe (4-5) for the rest of the game. Lisa Dixon put W&M; on the board with 22:45 remaining in the game, but the scoring ended there. "The whole team contributed to the defense," Kelly said. "We really went after the ball and made our own plays." "Our team defense has really improved," Cloud said. "The key to our success is really playing together because we have no stars. It was such a team effort under adverse conditions." Cloud added that many of the younger players were able to substitute successfully when the Virginia heat began to take a toll on the starters. After what Cloud called their "preseason games," the Quakers now look ahead to a three-game homestand in which they will be playing Harvard and Columbia. "I really had no idea what we would do [in the first five games] with the inexperience," Cloud said. "Even though we had some disappointing games, I'm very happy with our progress. This was a great win, especially away. I couldn't be more pleased. I feel really good about being 2-3 right now."