W. Lax still winless after 0-2 weekend

The Quakers dropped home games to Cornell and Boston College. The Penn women's lacrosse team had another long weekend at Franklin Field. After losses to Cornell on Friday and Boston College yesterday, the winless Quakers will have to search for their first 'W' of the season on the road this week. Penn may also have to get that win with its coaching situation still unresolved. Head coach Anne Sage's job has been in limbo for 24 days now, since the players unanimously petitioned the Athletic Department for her removal. No changes have occurred in the situation, with assistant coach Alanna Wren and field hockey assistant coach Donna Mulhern assuming the job in Sage's absence. Penn (0-4, 0-2 Ivy) came out flat against the Big Red (5-0, 2-0), who raced out to a 7-0 lead behind senior Marissa Perman's hat trick on the way to a 14-6 win. The Quakers did not net their first goal until 25:51 into the game, when senior defender Jenni Leisman tallied her first of the year. With just one tick left on the clock in the first half, the co-captain scored her second goal of the game to make Cornell's lead 10-2 at intermission. "I was aware of the clock when they scored [with nine seconds remaining, to make it 10-1] but once I got the ball, I forgot completely," Leisman said. "I looked over and tried to get it to Jenny Hartman but the defender was kind of in the way, so I shot it. I really don't remember the last time [I scored two goals]." In fact, Friday was the first time in her career that Leisman had scored twice in a game. Yesterday against Boston College, however, on her 22nd birthday, she did it again, raising her weekend -- and season total -- to a career-high four. "The thing with Jenni is really her speed," Wren said. "It's really her ability to run by people rather than her flashy attacking abilities." Leisman came up from the backfield because defenses have cracked down on Penn's other captain, leading scorer Brooke Jenkins. The junior attacker did not score on Friday until 19:17 remained in the second half, at which point the game was already in hand. "Shutting down Brooke Jenkins was the key for us," Cornell coach Jenny Graap said. "She's a fine player and we did a very good job marking her up. One of our best defenders, Amy Chong, was on her -- and she did a great job, which was big for us." While Cornell shut down Jenkins Friday, it was Penn which effectively quieted a top scorer yesterday. Against Boston College (3-5), the Quakers concentrated on -- and shut down -- the Eagles' Julie Lufkin. The Eagles could not stop Jenkins either, as the junior scored three times. But Penn did not have an answer for BC junior Susan Pitt, who scored six times in the 14-11 contest. "It was a great day for me," Pitt said. "It can be me doing this today but some other day it'll be someone else. The key was that we never gave up, and stayed intense." Penn, too, played with intensity, but hit a cold spell after Amy Weinstein's second goal cut the Boston College lead to 11-9 with 14:53 to play. The Quakers did not score again until 1:35 remained. "We really didn't have the ball much over that time," Wren said. "Our defense is very tentative? I want them to be more aggressive, but if you're too aggressive you get burned. If you sit back, then [the other team] just plays with the ball for 10 minutes, so I think that our defense is having a hard time trying to find a happy medium where we're not overly aggressive but not overly complacent. It's difficult but something we have to do." Something else that Penn has to do is create more opportunities in midfield transition. That aspect of the game should especially improve over time as two of the Quakers' three freshmen starters are midfielders. Yesterday, both teams had some difficulty moving the ball down the field. "The midfield transition was sloppy for both teams," Boston College coach Mary Ann Foley said. "It comes down to focusing on maintaining possession of the ball in the midfield and getting past the pressure." During the two games this weekend, the young Quakers made their greatest strides yesterday on the attack. Penn's 11 goals and 25 shots were its best totals of the season and it was the first time all year that the Quakers equalled an opponent's shot total. "We have some very good attackers," Jenkins said. "It's frustrating but we just have to build some confidence and know that it is getting better." While Penn did get off more shots than it has all season, the Quakers' persistence with high shots played right into the hands of Eagles goalkeeper Melissa Cole. "The plays really worked," Wren said. "But we had some poor shot selection. We knew that [Cole] was weak on bounce shots, but we didn't make that conscious effort to shoot bounce shots." It was strong play from Cole that preserved the victory for the Eagles as the Quakers held Boston College without a goal over the game's final 11:23. "Melissa came up huge with some very nice saves," Foley said. "That really helped us out a couple of times." Penn will now head to Lafayette, which beat the Quakers 7-2 at Franklin Field last season. To beat the Leopards, the Red and Blue will need to finally put it all together for 60 minutes of consistent lacrosse. "I'm basically looking for 100 percent [effort], 100 percent of the time," Wren said. "If we can give it our all consistently, we'll have a really good shot."