Penn travels to West Chester to try to kick some grass

The Penn field hockey team gets its third chance to compete on grass, which is slower than turf. The Penn field hockey team hopes the grass will be greener in West Chester, when it travels there today to face the 14th-ranked Mountaineers at 3:30 p.m. This will be the Quakers' third game on grass this season, where they have a 1-1 record, beating Ursinus October 1 and falling to Harvard October 4. In both games, the style of played differed drastically from turf of Franklin Field. "The speed of the ball, the unpredictability of the bounces, there's not as much little passing because the ball doesn't move as quickly," said Penn coach Val Cloud, describing the changes in the game. "You have to be ready for more mistakes, more misfielding and the ball usually stays in play longer." Although a lack of short passing should open the game, this is not necessarily the case. "Grass has a tendency to be more spread out because if you overplay a big ball, on turf it will probably go out of bounds, but on grass it will probably stay in," Cloud said. "You see less dribbling, more big passes, but it just depends on who you're playing, whether it's more wide open or not. That part of the game doesn't really change considerably." One aspect of their game that the Quakers (5-3) will try to change considerably is their scoring slump. Penn has been shut out in its last two games, losing both in overtime. Despite playing well defensively, the Red and Blue have not gotten as many shot opportunities as they had earlier in the season and have not been converting on the shots they do get. After a day off on Tuesday, the Quakers took the field yesterday to attempt to remedy the scoring situation. "We'll work on circle play, and shots on goal, but scoring is a lot of innateness, it's having the anticipation for what's happening and the quickness to react to what's happening," Cloud said. "And some of it is luck." Luck couldn't hurt against West Chester (8-2), which currently share the 14th spot in the national Division II rankings with Delaware, which dealt Penn its third loss on Monday. The Mountaineers as in a lower division of college field hockey, but have upped their play to a Division I level. "I think West Chester is a little bit less talented than Delaware, but they're really on a high and playing well," Cloud said. "They have a very mature junior/senior team. They play good grass hockey, good sticks, good hits and that's what you need on this stuff. They're also well-coached." Lineup changes may also affect the game for the Quakers, in order to save the starters' energy and play some of the younger players. "[I'm] taking into account the tiredness of people, and giving people opportunity. I'd like to say that I anticipate getting some youth more experience, but it's very difficult to do in a 0-0 game, or a 1-1 game," Cloud said. "But I think that if we're not going to get the job done with the experience that's in there, we might as well get some experience for the younger kids."