M. Soccer throws 1-2 record at Lions

Over the past week, the Penn men's soccer team battled through diversity. After suffering one of its toughest losses against Cornell on Sunday, the Quakers came back to defeat Delaware, 1-0, on Wednesday. The victory ended Penn's seven-game losing streak, rekindling the Quakers' morale. On Saturday, Penn will try to end its two-game Ivy League losing skid as they play Columbia in New York. Against the Big Red, Penn (3-7, 1-2 Ivy League) took the initial lead late in the first half on a Steve Cohen goal. Cornell fought back and forward Rudy Lawrence scored the equalizing goal less than 10 minutes into the second half. Both Penn and Cornell had opportunities to win the game in regulation. In the second half, the Big Red had a breakaway broken up by Penn goalkeeper Michael O'Connor, who had seven saves in the game. With the score tied at one after regulation, the game proceeded to sudden-death overtime. Cornell (5-2-2, 1-1) made the crucial blow as Brian Murray scored the winning goal on an 18-yard strike, just over three minutes into overtime. It was the first Ivy League victory this year for the Big Red. "It was frustrating," O'Connor said. "We were all up for this game. We were really hoping for this to be the turnaround." On Wednesday, the Quakers roared out of the gates against Delaware. Less than nine minutes into the game, Penn midfielder Read Goodwin crossed the ball to Ted Lehman, who volleyed it into the right side of the net. For the rest of the game, the Quakers were able to dominate most of the play but could not capitalize on any other offensive strikes. "Ted Lehman had a tremendous shot from a magnificent pass from Read Goodwin," Penn coach George O'Neill said. "We had a few more chances. A couple of guys cleared through and should have scored." Although equaling Penn in shots with 12, Delaware (2-9-1) was unable to maneuver a goal around the stellar play of O'Connor. "He came up big against Delaware when it was needed," O'Neill said. "When he has had to step up, he has been stepping up." O'Neill credits the Quakers' new confidence as the cure to their struggles on offense. "They are taking the shots," O'Neill said. "Before they would get the ball and look and then take another half of a step and let the defender get in instead of putting their head up and seeing the goal and firing." Awaiting the rebounding Quakers are the Lions (3-6-1, 0-2). The Quakers are hoping to even their record in the Ivy League by repeating last year's 2-0 victory over Columbia. Coming off a 1-0 loss to Iona, Columbia has also had their share of misfortunes this year. The Lions are led on offense by their two top scorers, Jamaican Khouri Mullings and Jesse Leff, and on defense by goalkeeper Matt Napoleon. The Quakers are feeling confident heading into the weekend game. "The whole team is out there and running through people," Huebner said. "Before we were not playing as aggressive as we should have been playing. Now we are going to the ball more. I don't know why we go into these slumps, but it seems right now we are on the upside of it."

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