A Philly tussle for W. Soccer

The Quakers' two-game winning streak is one the line against local foe Temple this afternoon. If last Saturday's hard-fought victory against Dartmouth represented many steps forward for Penn women's soccer, today's all-Philadelphia matchup between Penn (3-1) and struggling Temple (2-4) should be a piece of cake. Right? Maybe. "Last year was the first year we had ever beaten Temple, and it was at their place, and I'm sure they've got some revenge on their mind," Penn coach Patrick Baker said. "They're not off to the best of starts, but that doesn't fool me one bit. They've got the capabilities of coming over here and sticking it to us if we're not ready to go." No matter how ready the Owls may be when they arrive at Rhodes Field for a 3:30 p.m. contest, they will have to do a better job on the scoreboard. They have given up an average of just over four goals per game, but have only scored about one goal per contest. Add Penn's defensive performance last weekend against the Big Green, and it spells trouble for the visitors. "The effort and the ability to score two very good goals and hold Dartmouth to just one when they've scored 15 goals in the last three games against us is kind of a scary thought," Baker said, giving credit to everyone for the overall team defense that made the difference. "All of our frontrunners were tracking back to catch wide midfielders, to catch central midfielders going to goal. Our forwards, our midfielders, our defenders are playing more cohesive defensively as well as individually. They just don't want players to get in behind us." That type of effort will be needed against an Owls squad that has historically played Penn tough and rough. "I expect them to come out hard, physical, very Temple-like, and try and be as disruptive as they can, and we're just going to have to keep our cool, knock the ball around, create our chances and stick the good chances," Baker said. According to Baker, sweeper Deane Kocivar-Norbury is expected to return to the lineup today after struggling from illness on Saturday. However, midfielder and co-captain Tina Cooper is doubtful after also playing through illness against Dartmouth. Nevertheless, Cooper is in very good spirits about the team's performance so far. "Physically and mentally we're a lot stronger this year. If we can keep working on teamwork and the mental aspect, we should have our best year ever," Cooper said. "Well, I think they're very confident," he said. "The Dartmouth win did a lot for the group. The thing that myself and [Penn assistant coach] Katherine [Remy] are guarded against is that we don't want a letdown. We just want to continue in the fashion that we have from the beginning of the season. That's play exceptionally well defensively, create our chances, play attractive soccer and hopefully we can stick one or two goals. It would be nice to get another win here at home."