Disappointed W. Lax forgets its winning ways in loss at Harvard

After earning their first win last week, the Quakers played below their ability in an 11-5 loss to the Crimson. On Thursday, the Penn women's lacrosse team's victory at Columbia gave the previously winless squad some much-needed confidence. Seven players scored for the Quakers in New York and the team had every reason to believe that it could go up to Harvard this weekend and come away with a win. The Crimson (3-6, 1-2 Ivy League) had other plans for Saturday afternoon's game, and handed Penn its eighth loss of the season. Only two players -- freshman Traci Marabella and junior co-captain Brooke Jenkins -- put balls in the cage for Penn (1-8, 1-3), and the Quakers came back to Philadelphia with an 11-5 loss. "A bunch of people took shots but just weren't lucky," Jenkins said of the Quakers' lack of scoring diversity. "Some of our shots were off-angle and at the side of the cage. Alanna [Wren] is working at getting us at a good angle and shooting low." For Wren, who has been leading the Quakers for over a month since the team petitioned the Athletic Department for the removal of head coach Anne Sage, it has been a constant struggle this season to get the team to take better shots. On Saturday, however, shot selection was not the only problem for Penn, which trailed 5-2 at halftime. In losing to Harvard, the Quakers played down to their opponents' level. The same problem cost Penn games that could have helped to build their confidence level against Stanford, Boston College and Notre Dame. "When we've played teams like that, we've hesitated," Penn sophomore attacker Annie Henderson said. "And when we have nothing to lose, we play better. We have a tendency to play up against teams like Yale but also to play down. Harvard was not that much better than us. If we didn't win, it should have been a closer score." The root of that problem for the Quakers may lie in their intensity level. In the midst of such a frustrating season, many players have gone through a sort of doldrums, with a lower level of intensity. "I think it varies every game," said Marabella, whose hat trick brought her season scoring total to 8 goals. "There are times when I've gone out there not into it. A lot of people just get sick of losing, and everyone goes through that and has a game where they don't really seem to care. Harvard was a beatable team but three or four people can't really win a game." The Quakers will need to play "up" for their final four opponents of the season. Penn will face only ranked teams the rest of the way -- Rutgers, Dartmouth, Princeton and Brown. "Rutgers, Dartmouth and Princeton will be very tough," Jenkins said. "Brown is a lot like Harvard and I hope to see some positive results. On Saturday some people played well and others didn't. We need to raise the intensity level and it's something that we've been looking for all season. Sometimes it's hard to still be intense and I feel like I need to be more intense." In fact, Jenkins may be one of the only members of the team whose intensity level has been consistently high. She leads the Quakers attack with 15 goals, just four below her career high, set in 1997. Since her freshman season, she has torn her right ACL twice and her two goals on Saturday showed that she has now adjusted to the bulky leg brace that she will be wearing for the rest of the season. "[Brooke is] so consistent, and we need that," Marabella said. "Otherwise, we would be lost. She's out there every game to win, and this was really one of the first games where I was like I really want to win this game, and it's so much more fun like that." In order to avoid compiling the lowest winning percentage in team history, Penn needs to have a lot "more fun" in two of its final four games by putting wins on the board.