W. Lax defeats Lions to break into 'W' column

The Penn women's lacrosse team stopped an 0-7 start to the season with a 10-8 victory at Columbia. NEW YORK -- Before the Penn women's lacrosse team faced Columbia yesterday, the public address system at Baker Field was blaring Bruce Springsteen's song "Glory Days." The Quakers have not had many of those this season but yesterday was a big one. Under a cloudless sky, the Quakers (1-7, 1-2 Ivy) put a halt to the worst start in team history with a 10-8 victory over Columbia (5-4, 0-4). The Lions, now in their third year as a varsity program, have never won an Ivy League contest. "I give a lot of credit to Penn," Columbia coach Celine Cunningham said. "We didn't look at them as an 0-7 team, we looked at them as an Ivy team and it could have gone either way. We executed pretty well but it just wasn't enough." By beating the Lions, Penn avoided a record eighth consecutive loss. Earlier in the week, Penn senior co-captain Jenni Leisman said that a loss to Columbia would be "devastating" to the team's confidence and season. The Quakers were aggressive from the opening draw, and jumped out to a 2-1 lead less than five minutes into the game. But they were a bit too aggressive and began making mistakes. Penn assistant coach Alanna Wren, who has been leading the Quakers for over a month since the team petitioned for the removal of head coach Anne Sage, yelled from the sideline trying to get her team to relax. The team listened but relaxed a little bit too much, allowing Columbia to score three of the next four goals to take a 4-3 lead with 4:23 to go in the first half. "You say relax and they can take it one way or another," Wren said. "They can be relaxed and have confidence or be relaxed and make mistakes. I think that they took it the wrong way there for a couple of minutes, and it was a little scary." Penn came back, however, and at halftime the score was tied at five. After the intermission, it was a different Quakers team on the field -- the Red and Blue displayed a newfound confidence and scored the first four goals of the second frame. "[The players] decided at halftime that they just really wanted it and that it was a new game," Wren said. "That's where their intensity and drive kicked in. They [showed] the ability to dig down and pull it out." Penn took control of the ball off of the draw to start the second half and never looked back. After drawing a foul deep in the offensive zone, co-captain Brooke Jenkins brought her team-leading total to 13 goals with a scorcher from the right side of the net. "We knew that we needed to step up and put them away," said Jenkins, whose goal was her first while wearing a large knee brace to protect her torn right ACL. "I'm very happy that a lot of players are getting more confidence, too, like Amy Weinstein. We need to have all seven players on our attack be a threat so that they can't focus on any one player." Weinstein's hat trick led the Penn attack today, in which seven Quakers scored. Columbia also had good offensive balance, with Sara Brubaker's hat trick leading four Lions scorers. Columbia's balance, however, actually helped Penn concentrate on defense. "It was a goal of ours to stop their attack, and we worked hard to do it," said Penn sophomore Sara Evans, who stepped up from the defense spot to score her first goal of the season. The Quakers' hard work finally did pay off yesterday. At the final whistle, all of the players rushed out onto the field and celebrated before the postgame handshake with the Lions. They then lined up and sang "The Red and Blue" -- all with ear-to-ear smiles. "We needed this so badly," Leisman said. "It's good to know that after seven losses, we can win a game. I think that everyone out there just really wanted it." The Quakers are already much more confident for tomorrow's game at Harvard (2-4, 0-1). Penn has beaten the Crimson two seasons in a row. "Now the ball is rolling," Penn midfielder Lee Ann Sechovicz said. "We're psyched." "I think it's huge just to have a win," Wren said. "It's great to have some confidence, with the fact that it was away [and] that for the freshmen it's their first big trip. Harvard's going to be a tough one but with this game going as well as it did, I think that'll make it a lot easier."

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