No. 20 F. Hockey loses OT thriller

Miserable weather and a second-half collapse spelled doom for the Penn field hockey team in New Haven, Conn., on Saturday. In a game that Penn coach Val Cloud characterized as "extremely disappointing," the Quakers blew an early two-goal lead against Yale to fall by a score of 3-2 on penalty strokes. Tara Childs tallied her 11th goal of the season with 16 minutes left in the first half, and Maureen Flynn added her eighth six minutes later to vault Penn (10-6, 3-3 Ivy League) in front. Yale, which has now won five games in a row, stormed back with two goals of its own within a four-minute span midway through the second half to tie the score. Penn goalkeeper Sarah Dunn turned in a 20-save performance, but 22 penalty corners resulted in several strong scoring opportunities on which Yale (8-8, 3-3) capitalized for its goals. The game remained tied through the end of regulation and two overtime periods to force penalty strokes, where each team sends five different players to try to score from seven yards out. The first round of shots ended in a tie, and Penn lost the game when the 10th player of the sudden-death round failed to convert on a match shot. On a team that Cloud admits is devoid of one player who can carry the it, consistently bad play in the second half has plagued the team throughout the season. This was the third game the Quakers have let slip away in the second half. While driving rain and sloppy field conditions were a factor, Cloud attributes of the loss more to mistakes and a lack of aggressiveness on her team's part. "We let the game go in the second half by playing only defense," she said. "There were mistakes in execution and mental letdowns which didn't help our cause." Although Cloud feels the defeat will not affect Penn's current position at No. 20 in the national rankings, the loss does hurt its chances at second place in the Ivy League. The defeat could be looked upon as a missed opportunity in a schedule which included two losses to the third- and sixth-ranked teams in the country. The Quakers look to bounce back on Friday evening in its season finale at home against Princeton.