Still no goals, but no win for W. Soccer

The Penn women's soccer team recorded its sixth straight shutout. The Penn women's soccer team held Cornell scoreless for 120 hard-fought minutes in Ithaca on Saturday but had to accept its first minor setback of the season in the form of a 0-0 draw. The two-hour contest ended with a flurry of activity at the Cornell (1-3-1, 0-1-1 ) end. Big Red sophomore back Kelly McCutcheon stopped a potential goal in the 89th minute by sending the ball out of the goal mouth. Another Penn (5-0-1, 0-0-1 Ivy League) chance came in the last 30 seconds of regulation. "We had been down at their end for a good while. There was a corner. It came out to about the 18 [meter mark], and one of our players just sent it over the top," senior tri-captain Lindsey Carson said. Truly quality chances were harder to come by during overtime. The defense of the two squads tightened, slowing the offensive flurry. Penn junior goalkeeper Annie Kluetmeier (5-0-1, 0.00 GAA) extended her own shutout streak to six games and to an astounding 570 minutes of soccer, but expressed disappointment following the game. "We were upset about the tie," Kluetmeier said. "We had some great opportunities, but goals just didn't go in for us." The game's statistics back up the claim of the Penn goalie. The Red and Blue outshot Cornell by a count of 26 to 12. Junior forwards Andrea and Jill Callaghan combined for 14 shots on goal, two more than the output of the whole Cornell team. Senior tri-captain Kelly Stevens, whose five goals put her near the top of the Ivies, chalked much of the problems with the Penn offense to simple chance. "Balls that would normally go in just didn't," she said. Chance, however, probably did not have as much to do with the outcome as the Big Red defense, which represented the Quakers' stiffest competition of the season thus far. "The strength of our opponent was a big difference [from the season's previous contests]," Carson said. "Every Ivy League team is going to be a tough game." The stunning part of Saturday's result is the zero sitting in the Quakers' tally box. The Penn offense has been nothing if not productive this season. Until Saturday, the Quakers were averaging 3.5 goals per game. The squad has also benefited from a balanced attack, with different players providing the scoring punch on any given day. Coming into this weekend, there was enthusiasm about the way Cornell's style of play would match up against Penn's. The Big Red's 3-4-3 setup was supposed to prevent them from keeping enough bodies back to contain the Quaker offense. Penn enthusiasm, however, proved misleading. "We were very well-defended. It was not as easy to get behind the players as it's been the rest of the season," Stevens said. Penn attackers forced Cornell sophomore keeper Meghan Cauzillo to make seven saves, but the Quakers' chances were more numerous. "We had a bunch of shots that were right at her, a bunch that were way off-line and a bunch that went right over the top," Carson said. Despite the minor setback in Ithaca, confidence still rides very high. "Overall, I think we played well on Saturday. I know we can play better and beat teams tougher than Cornell," Carson said. The women's soccer team will make the short trip to La Salle on Tuesday and, in the words of still flawless keeper Kluetmeier, "finish the month of September undefeated just like we planned." Undefeated, yes. But the Quakers didn't plan to tie their first Ivy League game.