Field Hockey plays weekend twin bill

Penn's field hockey team faces Columbia and Pacific this weekend. Penn field hockey gets ready to take on its fourth Ivy League competitor, the Columbia Lions, tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Franklin Field. The Quakers will then take on Pacific in a non-league match up on Sunday. The focus however, remains on Columbia. On Wednesday night, Penn (4-5, 2-1 Ivy League) played its strongest game of the season against Temple. The Quakers executed their game plan to a tee. It is this game plan that Penn coach Val Cloud wants her team to emulate for the remainder of the season. "If we play like we did [against Temple] we should definitely win," Cloud said. Confidence from Wednesday's game is not the only thing that the Quakers have on their side when they take on the Lions. The second factor is the outcome of last year's game. A year and a day ago, Penn showed no mercy on Columbia, defeating them 6-0 -- the worst lost dealt to Columbia in the 1997 season (Princeton handed the Lions a 12-0 loss). "Last year there was complete domination," Penn sophomore Bess Freedlander said. "It will be a devastating loss tomorrow if we lose." The odds of winning weigh heavily on Penn's side. However, every game is a new challenge and the Quakers cannot afford to solely rely on their previous performance to win tomorrow's game. Last year Columbia field hockey officially entered the Ivy League. However, the Lions' strength shouldn't be underestimated given that they have 13 returning letter-winners, 10 of whom started in the 1997 season. In addition, Columbia recruited an outstanding Class of 2002. "[The recruiting class] are players that we were looking at. Some of them are producing very well for [Columbia]," Cloud said. The formation of the talented freshman class can be attributed to the Lions' third year coach, Susan Eichner. Eichner is the key aspect to Columbia's program. She is determined to make them a force to be reckoned with in the Ivy League -- one of the most competitive conferences in the nation. For the past three years Eichner has brought in talented and athletic recruiting classes. As a result, the Lions finally have a team with at least two years of Division I experience. This will play a key component in how the Lions will fare in the 1998 Ivy competition. However, a win won't come easy to the Lions given that Penn played well in Wednesday's game and is looking for revenge from its last Ivy loss to Harvard. The latter part of the second half of the season includes the toughest teams in the Ivies; to gain respect, not to mention a decent ranking, Penn must defeat Columbia. The focus will then turn to non-league visitor Pacific. If the Quakers can play well against the west coast team, and then have a good showing against Maryland, they should build momentum for Brown. "We need this win to give us a boost since we have Brown next weekend. That will be a very tough and competitive game," Freedlander said. But before they look ahead to Brown, Penn must concentrate on its next opponent. Next up, Columbia.