Young W. Lax team opens year with Yale

The Quakers lost their top two scorers to graduation but get Brooke Jenkins back this year. The Penn women's lacrosse team may have a hard time in its season-opening match tomorrow at noon at Franklin Field, but nevertheless, the Quakers are loaded with potential. With eight freshmen and eight sophomores, it could take some time before Penn (4-9, 2-5 Ivy in 1998) gets going against the tough competition of the Ivy League -- just as it took time to get the Quakers going on their recent Florida training trip. "At first, we were a little shaky because we have a lot of young players stepping up into action," sophomore attacker Annie Henderson said. "But by the end of the week it was starting to come together. I think that we're still somewhat unsteady but we're going to get there -- we've got to have confidence. It's going to be a challenge to start with Yale." Henderson, who scored 15 goals last season and recorded eight assists, does not have to take the challenge of leading the Penn attack by herself. Junior captain Brooke Jenkins returns to the Red and Blue attack this season after a knee injury ended her 1998 campaign in the very first game of the season. Penn will, however, have to deal with the departure of Darah Ross and Emily Hansel, last year's top two scorers. Also absent from the Quakers tomorrow will be Anne Sage, the only coach in the 26-year history of Penn women's lacrosse. Sage is currently on leave after the team expressed concerns about continuing with her at the helm. Assistant coach Alanna Wren, who played for Penn from 1992-1996 -- including one year with this year's seniors when they were freshmen -- accompanied the team to Florida, assisted by field hockey assistant coach Donna Mulhern. The team is responding well. "It's great now -- our practices are more productive and more structured [with Wren and Muhlern]," senior captain Jen Leisman said. "I think it's very important that we did get to play in Florida and we've been in game situations already." The Elis will come to Philadelphia with plenty of experience. Yale, which starts six seniors, has already played twice this season. The Elis were dominant in both games, beating Hofstra 13-3 at the Yale Bowl and winning at Holy Cross 16-6. "I'm very pleased with our performance so far," Yale coach Amanda O'Leary said. "We have a strong group of players who have a lot of experience. I'll be real pleased with one aspect of the game one time, and then another group steps up another. [Against Penn], we're going to go and try to do all of those things." On Monday, Penn will face Stanford at Franklin Field. Like the Elis, Stanford beat Holy Cross -- but when the Cardinal did it, it was a huge shock. "It's the first time in my two years that we've beaten an East Coast team," Stanford coach Heidi Connor said. "Each year when we take our trip east, we know that we'll be facing our toughest competition of the season. But I feel like we've gelled early this year, and our girls seem to pick up their games against higher caliber teams." Penn did beat Stanford 19-8 in last season's first game but cannot take the Cardinal lightly this year. Stanford will be coming to Franklin Field with confidence and the game will be a good early-season test of the Quakers' mental preparation. "We have a lot of talent," Henderson said. "We just need to stay composed and confident and play smart." After Stanford, Penn faces a Cornell team that O'Leary describes as "up and coming [in a]? very strong Ivy League," before playing four straight non-conference games. The Ivy League schedule resumes for the Quakers April 8 at Columbia. The Quakers beat the Lions and Harvard for their only two Ivy wins last season. After a home game against Rutgers, Penn will face its three toughest tests -- Dartmouth, Princeton and Brown. All three beat Penn by 10 or more goals last season but the Quakers are not worried about that home stretch yet. "The main focus is to continue improving with each game," Leisman said. "I'm optimistic for the season and we can come out hard and surprise a lot of teams."