NOTEBOOK: No-show by officials leaves W. Soccer hanging

George Mason traveled up from Virginia only to see the game postponed. Complaining about officials has always been a major part of American sporting tradition. There is nothing worse, it seems, than losing a game because of a blown call or two. George Mason's women's soccer team would probably beg to differ. The Patriots made the journey from Fairfax, Va., to Philadelphia yesterday to try to avenge last year's 1-0 loss to the Quakers. Unfortunately, when game time arrived there were no referees. Forty-five minutes later, the officials had still not appeared and the game had to be canceled. "We haven't really been able to do a postmortem on the situation yet," Penn coach Andy Nelson said. "We want to be careful about not wrongly blaming anyone. Somehow there was a lack of communication between Penn and the ECAC in getting the officials." The Quakers are trying to reschedule the game for Sunday afternoon -- which would be Penn's second game of the weekend -- but no scheduling has yet been confirmed. The lesson of the day is that even bad officials are better than no officials. Just ask George Mason after its day on a bus. · As a freshman in 1997, Penn midfielder Emily Goodman played in 16 games, starting half of them. Last year, Goodman made 17 appearances and seven starts. As a junior this year, Goodman is sitting out the season. The Potomac, Md., native, who had 21 points to her credit in two years playing at Penn, went out for the team in August but decided not to play this year. "Emily was struggling with injuries which was a factor in her final decision but I think she had been thinking for a long time about not playing," Nelson said. "She was feeling kind of burned out and I think she made the right decision about not playing." According to senior co-captain Jen Danielson, the midfielder's absence was a huge loss for the Quakers, who were also affected by goalkeeper Anne Kluetmeier's decision not to return. · The play of several freshmen has helped take much of the hurt away from the losses of Goodman and Kluetmeier. Katherine Hunt was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week after holding Dartmouth scoreless in Sunday's 1-0 overtime victory. The goalkeeper has allowed four goals in her first four games at Penn. Hunt is the only goalkeeper on the roster and has had to handle the lack of a training partner, which can often be a significant help. "Kathy's been awesome for us," Danielson said. "She comes to practice everyday and gives it her all. She's had really big shoes to fill since Anne did so well for us last year, but so far she's done a great job." The lone freshman goal this season was scored by Heidi Nichols last Wednesday in Penn's 2-2 tie against Monmouth. The score gave the Quakers a 2-1 lead in the final minutes of the first half. Right now, Hunt is the only freshman starter, while Nichols, Melissa Mandler and Sarah Zielske regularly come off the bench. "I certainly feel that we have freshmen capable of playing good minutes for us," Nelson said. "They will understand more tactically as the season goes on and should get more playing time." · Rhodes Field has seen better days. Penn's soccer facility, located near University City Station, suffered greatly during the summer drought and has countless spots of bare dirt where the grass has died. Facility workers have been putting a great deal of effort into making the field playable but it still does not look significantly better than the ill-worn Hill Field. Nelson expects the field to be in much better shape next fall if the summer weather in 2000 is more typical. · Nelson has been pleased with both the maturity of the Quakers and the team's ability to adjust to his coaching style. "The players have done a tremendous job of adjusting to a new coach, especially the older players who have played in a different system," Nelson said. "I'm also very pleased with the way they've handled situations like the postponement today and the postponement last weekend. It shows a lot of resilience on their part."