Penn finds security in the 'rookie'

After a season-ending injury, Annie Kluetmeier has returned to the improved Quakers women's soccer team. "Annie likes to say 'If you're going to be a goalkeeper, you've got to have something loose upstairs,'" Penn sweeper Deane Kocivar-Norbury said jokingly. "With Annie, I think that's true." Whether or not Annie Kluetmeier has any loose bolts did not stop her from becoming the No. 12 ranked goalkeeper in the country before last weekend's rout at the hands of No. 1 North Carolina. What makes this accomplishment all the more impressive, is that the Penn sophomore goalie missed all of last year due to an elbow injury and played her first collegiate game only a month ago. "Last year was the most frustrating year of my life," Kluetmeier said. Five days before last year's preseason opened, Kluetmeier tore her medial colateral ligament in her elbow while training with the goalkeepers coach Bob Rigby. Kluetmeier had a full arm cast for six weeks before she even began rehabilitation. "A lot of rehab was just getting my elbow to go straight again," Kluetmeier said. Kluetmeier was unable to play her position even through the spring season. Instead Penn head coach Patrick Baker had her playing one of the field positions in order to keep her fit. Kluetmeier had yet to play a collegiate game as a goalie when preseason came around this summer. Doubts had entered Baker's head about the recovering goalie after a year without seeing what she could do in front of the net. "Do I really remember a good goalkeeper?" Baker said referring to the Kluetmeier he recruited two years ago. After seeing a healthy Kluetmeier in the preseason and the first few games, the doubts were erased. "We had definitely gone after a good goalkeeper," Baker said. "She's been the biggest surprise as well as the the most needed player." Baker has not been the only one caught off-guard by Kluetmeier's collegiate success. "My club coach in high school told me 'You can never make it as a Division I goalie, Division II, Division III yes, but Division I -- you're too short,'" Kluetmeier said. The 5'5" Kluetmeier has been surprising a lot of people with her superb start, but no one is more surprised by her progress than Kluetmeier herself. "I didn't even think I'd make the team this year," Kluetmeier said, chuckling. This modesty is far from merited. The sophomore has played an integral part in the historic first half of the season for the Quakers. Penn (6-3, 2-0 Ivy League) has turned around last year's dismal season, a season that Baker has called multiple times his "longest season ever." Penn's metamorphisis has come on the shoulders of a vastly improved defense. Kluetmeier has allowed 14 shots to find the back of the net in nine games. While this 1.75 goals-against-average is far from top-notch, all but one of the goals has come against top-10 competition. Eight goals came in one half alone against North Carolina. "It was neat to play a team at that level," Kluetmeier said. "But it also sucked." At halftime, Baker took Kluetmeier out in favor last year's starter, Amy Jodoin. A fellow sophomore, Jodoin gave up one goal against the Tar Heels' second string. Baker confirmed Kluetmeier's guess that the reason she was taken out was to "preserve my sanity." In just 45 minutes of soccer against the defending national champions, Kluetmeier's goals-against-average went up by almost a full goal. The game against the Tar Heels put a large dent in her previously impressive stats. Kluetmeier will have to wait to try to recover her old stats because she will miss today's game against Lehigh because of a critical bioengineering lab. Despite the drop in stats, the Quakers have complete confidence in their goalkeeper, according to Baker. "[Annie is the] best goalkeeper I've ever had the opportunity to play with," Penn midfielder Kelly Stevens said. The modest goalie refuses to acknowledge her key role in the team's dramatic improvement. Kluetmeier credits her success to the defense in front of her. "The defense that's in front of me is doing an amazing job.," Kluetmeier said. "It's been great just to be a little part of our team doing so well." This team mentality can be seen when Kluetmeier says the team's best game so far this season was Dartmouth, not one of her five shutouts. Kluetmeier, essentially a rookie, is only at the outset of her collegiate career. "How much better can she get is the question," Rigby said.