W. Soccer overcomes slow start, hammers Lehigh

The Quakers won another midweek game against soft opposition, 5-0 over Lehigh. Again, the Penn women's soccer team scored early. Again, the rest of the first half did not meet expectations. "Frustrating" was the word Penn coach Patrick Baker said in summing up the first half. "We thought that we would be a better team and just play like a really good team," Baker said. "We have learned some things, but at halftime we hadn't learned a whole lot based on our first half performance." "We had to remind ourselves to keep pushing, go to every ball and pick up the intensity because the only way to win games is to keep on trying," Penn sweeper Deane Kocivar-Norbury said. The Quakers kept trying while holding the opponent, in this case Lehigh, scoreless for the sixth time this season in a 5-0 win at Rhodes Field yesterday. The game followed a path similar to the 8-0 rout of La Salle last week. Penn (7-3) opened the scoring in the fifth minute on a solo effort by co-captain Darah Ross from just past midfield all the way to the front, slipping the shot past the Lehigh goalie. However, the Engineers (2-8) proceeded to press in Penn's side of the field. When the Quakers tried to come out of their own half with long passes, Lehigh received most of the balls at midfield. "I don't mind that pattern, but it's after [the early goal] that concerns me because it's like the lessons learned from the La Salle game," Baker said. "We scored early and we should say 'Hey, if it's that easy, let's keep coming back for more, let's score some goals and keep pouring on'." Penn came back for one more after midfielder Lindsey Carson came into the game in the 25th minute. One minute later, Penn went up by two on a play that started with her going through traffic in the midfield. "I saw Emily [Goodman] making the run down the flank, played the ball to her and she played a great ball across to Jill Callaghan, who finished well," Carson said. "It was what we really needed to get us going." From there, the going got rough as chances were few and far between for the Quakers. Add some turnovers that led to a few more Lehigh runs at goal, and the halftime result was a players-only gathering on the Penn side. "I told our group at halftime that this was almost the third weekday home game in a row where we've dropped our level of play," Baker said. "I told them that I felt like I was a broken record. "This is a stretch run now where there are seven games left, and I said, 'Ladies, I am going to walk away from this group right now, and you are going to decide what you want to do, not only for this second half, but for the season.'" In contrast, the Engineers were excited and still felt they had a good chance of pulling an upset. "We looked at this game as a chance for an upset victory, and we were in it at the end of the first half," Lehigh coach Julie Leonhardt said. "We tried a completely new system of play today -- we tried playing with three frontrunners for the first time, and we went into a man-marking system where we had two players on just those two forwards (Andrea and Jill Callaghan), following them anywhere. We don't usually do that." The changes continued to work early in the second half, as Lehigh had one more quality shot, which was headed wide seven minutes into the second half. Penn took control of the game from there. Two minutes later, off a scramble in front of the Engineers' net, three Quakers had a shot but missed. A header from Ashley Kjar off a cornerkick from sweeper Deane Kocivar-Norbury sealed the victory for Penn. For Kjar, it was her first goal of the season, coming in her first collegiate start. Penn's final two goals resembled the earlier one that started with Carson. In the 65th minute, midfielder Kelly Stevens re-entered the game. One minute later, she received a pass from Kelli Toland, blew by the Lehigh defender and found the net on a slow, rolling shot. In the 75th minute, Leah Wulforst also re-entered and received a pass from Toland. She too shot a slow roller and scored. Baker credits midfielder Aidan Viggiano and forward Jill Callaghan for doing their part before being switched for Stevens and Wulforst, respectively. "[Andrea Callaghan] and Aidan deserved great credit for working their opposing players over so that Stevens and Wulforst were able to step in and get immediate results," Baker said. Overall, in the second half, Penn drove harder and harder towards the Engineers' net. However, Lehigh tied Penn for 50-50 balls won after winning that statistic 26-21 in the first half, according to Leonhardt. "Talent for talent, Penn had the stronger side," Leonhardt said. "But, heart for heart, we evened them out. I told my team at half to keep digging in and keep working hard, and the 50-50 balls show that we didn't quit." Baker's goals are set higher in preparation for a stretch run that will make or break Penn's Ivy title hopes. "I want them to be perfect out on the field, and I know that if they're just trying to do all the things that we ask of them, they're going to succeed," he said. "When they don't, that's what gets frustrating because I feel like they're not listening to what the coaching staff is saying."