W. Soccer gets two in Delaware

The Penn women's soccer team picked up where it left off last year with two wins to start 1998. What began as an effort to work through their early season jitters ended as a confidence booster for the Penn Women's soccer team as they shut out Radford, 4-0, and East Carolina, 2-0, at the University of Delaware tournament last weekend. The Quakers (2-0) had few struggles with Radford in the opening contest. "[Radford] wasn't an incredibly strong team," Penn goal keeper Anne Kluetmeier said. "But they were a good match for our first game. It was a good opportunity to settle into our own style." Senior captain Kelly Stevens struck first for the Quakers, assisted by Jill Callaghan. It was the first of a series of offensive contributions the pair would make throughout the tournament. "Jill made an amazing pass," Stevens said of the assist. "She took the ball to the end line and cut it back. I was just in the right place." According to Callaghan, Stevens' positioning was not so haphazard. "She was awesome; she knew when to be there," Callaghan said. It's hard to argue with Callaghan's observation as Stevens made the same cut to score in the Quakers' contest the following day. Defensively Penn experimented with a new set up. Rather than utilizing four defenders the Quakers used three, positioning the extra player in the midfield. "We executed the new set really well and shut them down," Kluetmeier, who had to make just seven saves on the weekend, said. "My job was pretty easy in goal." Callaghan was equally pleased with the Quakers defense, calling their efforts, "pretty soccer." In the second half, with the Quakers already ahead 2-0, Stevens and Callaghan picked up where they left off. Stevens scored first on a breakaway. Waiting until the goalie came out of the cage, she placed the ball on the right side to build the Quakers' lead to three. Callaghan scored next with 18 minutes remaining in the contest. "It was phenomenal soccer," Stevens said. "Our coach didn't say anything negative about the way we were playing." Going into the East Carolina game, Penn did not know much about their opponent aside from the impressive four goals they managed to score in the second half of their previous tournament game against Delaware. That figure, along with the size of their line-up, made for a few nervous Quakers. But size proved to be a surmountable force as Penn ran the Pirates to exhaustion. "We tired them out, so they were just booting the ball," Kluetmeier said. Once again Penn controlled the game -- maintaining possessions, winning loose balls and getting good shots. Stevens' cut to the center of the field opened her up for a Kelianne Toland pass that led to the Quakers' first goal. Penn's next goal came when Callaghan received the ball in an ideal location midway through the second half and scored to put the Quakers up 2-0. "I wasn't far off the goal," Callaghan said. "I was just messing with the ball and then I fired a shot into the left corner." Despite their difficulties possessing the ball, the Quakers kept their lead alive with strong defense. With three defenders matched up and a sweeper roaming the area, Penn forced their opponents to take difficult shots as time wound down. "When we switched our defensive formations to match them it really worked," Kluetmeier said. "We had our lapses, but once we get over the bumps we'll be amazing." Coming off two victories, Kluetmeier's optimistic tone is a popular one among the Quakers. "We have set our goals -- to win the league and reach the NCAAs," Stevens said. "I think anything less than that would be disappointing."