Opportunity missed for Penn to stay on top

Penn's women soccer team missed a golden opportunity to solidify its place atop the Ivy League this past weekend. The Quakers lost their place as the conference leader with a loss in Cambridge, Mass., against Harvard on Friday night. The Red and Blue avoided a complete collapse with an overtime win against Columbia yesterday afternoon. The game against the No. 20 Crimson, a team Penn lost to, 5-0, last year, was a key game for the Ivy League race. Harvard (7-3-2) improved to 3-1 in the Ivy League with its shutout win and knocked Penn into second place. The Quakers were coming off of an eight-day break and had last Monday and Tuesday off due to fall break. The extra time to rest and practice did not seem to pay off. "It seemed like we were the ones [who had been] in classes all week, not Harvard," Penn coach Patrick Baker said. The Quakers offense, which scored five goals against Lehigh a week earlier, only managed one shot. Harvard goalkeeper Ann Browning earned the shutout without making one save. "From an attacking point of view, we could not have played much worse," Baker said. The blame did not rest solely on the shoulders of the offensive players, according to Baker. Poor decisions in the backfield killed many offensive attempts. While Penn's offense was stagnant, earning only one corner kick to the Crimson's eight; Harvard was giving Penn goalkeeper Annie Kluetmeier a workout. The sophomore kept the Quakers in the game with 10 saves, as the Crimson took 17 shots on goal. "Individually some people didn't have good games, which happens," Penn junior Jacky Flood said. "It was unfortunate that it happened against Harvard." The lone and decisive goal came 25 minutes into the second half when Gina Forster beat Kluetmeier off an assist from Ashley Berman. Penn (8-4, 3-1 Ivy League) salvaged the weekend with a 2-1 victory in New York City. For the second time in as many years, the Quakers needed extra time to defeat the Lions. Penn has had Columbia's number since Baker's tenure began in 1994. The Quakers have come out on top all four times against the Lions. However, on the other side of the history coin, Penn had only won one Ivy road game in its history. Columbia opened the scoring 13 minutes into the second half after a scoreless first half. Kerry Martin put a header into the back of the net off the assist from Rose Frances to put the Lions in front. Seven minutes later, the Quakers earned one of their five corner kicks. The corner kick bounced out to the top of the penalty box, and Flood, a Penn defender, was there to put the ball into the back of the net past Lions keeper Alison Ahern. The Quakers beat Ahern for the second goal in the second, sudden-death overtime period. Penn forward Andrea Callaghan played the role of heroine with the winning goal after 17 minutes of scoreless extra time. Callaghan finished off a pass from freshman Angela Konstanteras. Callaghan's goal may have had a tint of revenge to it according to Baker. Earlier in the game Ahern "leveled" Jill Callaghan and her sister "took it personally." The Lions played a very rough and physical game, according to Baker. Columbia was whistled for 19 fouls to Penn's 10 during the game. "Any chances we had near the box, we got fouled," Baker said. "We got some cruel hacks." The Quakers have five days to recover from the grueling, two-game weekend before their game against Brown on Saturday at home. Penn has three more Ivy games against Brown, Yale and Princeton. If Penn had won, it would have put itself in firm control of the league race, where the conference champion earns an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Dartmouth is 4-1 in the Ivies, but the Quakers own the head-to-head tiebreaker due to their 2-1 victory over the Big Green a month ago. With the loss to Harvard, the Crimson own the tiebreaker over Penn. The Quakers are hoping for a Big Green win against Harvard next weekend to put the Red and Blue back in first place and make up for the opportunity they missed on Friday night.