W. Lax shows auspicious signs at William and Mary

The Penn women's lacrosse team faced stiff competition last week in a pair of exhibition games leading up to Saturday's season opener at Yale. Penn performed well, showing a great deal of improvement in their scrimmages. On March 7-8, the Quakers participated in the 15th annual William and Mary Invitational Tournament. This event, which takes place in Williamsburg, Va., featured William and Mary and Penn in addition to over 30 other teams, including two national squads -- the United Sates and Wales -- playing simultaneously on three fields. The matches in this Invitational were different from those in the regular season -- the scrimmages were only 30 minutes long instead of the normal 60, as Penn played six games of this shortened variety over a two-day period. The Invite gave the Quakers a chance to play against a wide variety of playing styles. On Saturday, the Quakers began their day with three consecutive difficult opponents. The Quakers lost to No. 9 James Madison to start the day, but were able to defeat 15th-ranked Old Dominion in their next scrimmage. The Red and Blue then were faced with the daunting task of taking on the U.S. National Team. Not surprisingly, the nation's finest beat Penn. The Quakers, however, later proved better than Wales' finest, beating the Welsh National Team later that afternoon. Throw in a win over Drexel between the two games against the national teams and the Quakers ended Saturday at 3-2. Sunday, in a schedule shortened by "torrential rain," Penn defeated Johns Hopkins, the 3rd ranked team in Division III, in their only match of the day. "We became very, very competitive by the end of Sunday," Penn head coach Anne Sage said. "We could see a difference." The team quickly moved from one site to another, and spent the next four days practicing and competing in Hilton Head, S.C. Eighteen team members, including all five upperclassmen, went on the trip. "It was good for the team to spend a lot of time together outside of lacrosse," freshman attacker Amy Weinstein said. "[The best part] was practicing at night in the dark." Last Thursday night in Hilton Head, the Quakers faced 10th-ranked William and Mary, a team that starts eight seniors. Penn played well but fell to the Tribe, 12-8. This match was an exhibition as well -- one designed in part to bring a collegiate-level lacrosse match to an area of the country that would not normally see such an event. "We are improving individually and as a team," Sage said. "We have a lot of versatility." Overall, the Quakers' theme for spring break was development and improvement -- which is important to this year's relatively young team. The team was able to solidify under the leadership of senior co-captains Emily Hansel and Darah Ross, though the team's lineup is still in the tentative stage.

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