Field Hockey ends skid with win over W

The Quakers continued to struggle on Friday in a loss to lowly Columbia but rebounded yesterday with a stunning win. Years after an athlete has hung up her jersey for the last time, a few games will remain in memory, every detail as sharp as if it happened yesterday. For the members of the Penn field hockey team, yesterday was one of those days. Penn was not supposed to beat William and Mary. The Quakers had lost six straight and few expected Penn to even put up a fight against a Tribe squad with a 7-5 record and battle-tested with close losses against four nationally ranked teams. After Columbia -- which had never before beaten an Ivy opponent in its history -- beat the Quakers 1-0 on Friday to hand Penn its sixth straight loss, the Quakers (2-7) certainly needed a boost. On Friday night in New York, junior goalkeeper Alison Friedman made 10 stops but the Quakers' offense sputtered and managed only four shots on the Columbia cage. After reaching that low point, however, the Quakers did something miraculous, shutting out the Tribe 1-0. Friedman reached the ultimate milestone that every goalie practices for -- her first career shutout. Thanks to excellent support from sophomore Monique Horshaw, senior Jen Murray, junior Lauren Cornew and senior co-captain Maureen Flynn, Friedman picked up the Quakers' first shutout since last November 3. "The defense stepped up a lot better today and went out with the ball better," senior defender Brooke Jenkins said. "Defensively we stepped up on them, didn't let them dribble too much with the ball and we were constantly pressuring them," Flynn said. "We got so many balls that were crucial because of our defense." The Quakers' noteworthy defense was complemented perfectly with a goal-hungry attack. In the first half, senior co-captain Leah Bills, assisted by Murray and senior Courtney Martin, netted the first and only goal of the game off a corner with 16:20 remaining before the half. For the entire season Penn has been struggling to draw fouls in the circle to create corners, essential for tallying points on the scoreboard. "We can't win if we don't score," Penn assistant coach Donna Mulhern said. "[Yesterday] we scored." From the get-go yesterday, the Red and Blue -- which had struggled in its previous six games, scoring just three goals -- "came out with a lot of fire and a lot of heart," Flynn said. The fire and heart that the players showed on the field converted into corners and shots on goal on the stat sheet. The first half was played perfectly even. Penn had four corners. William and Mary had four corners. Each goalie denied two shots and each attack attempted to net five goals on cage. The only difference was one of Penn's shots hit the back of the cage and none of William and Mary's shots made it past Friedman. "We played hard for the first 35 minutes and the momentum carried over [into the second half]," Martin said. Although Penn played on an even slate on both sides of the field in the first half, the Tribe started the second half of the contest determined to emerge with the win. William and Mary shot 10 times inside the circle, doubling its first-half attempts. The Tribe also created nine corner opportunities but failed to capitalize on any of them. Penn, on the other hand, took only one shot on the cage from inside the circle and zero penalty corners in the second half. Despite Penn's lack of challenges to the cage, the team controlled the midfield as a result of recognizing William and Mary's 3-2-3-2 formation, which also freed the sides of the field for the Red and Blue. Penn knew it would need an insurance goal in the second half to not let up and watch the talented Tribe come back to tie or win the contest. When the attack failed to capitalize, the defense and midfield raised their level of performance. William and Mary's nine returning starters -- all of whom remembered and hoped to repeat last year's 2-1 win over the Quakers -- refused to die. The previously struggling Quakers, meanwhile, had nothing to lose. "We played with guts today," Penn head coach Val Cloud said. And they did not let up for the whole afternoon. "We had no fear," Murray said. "We stayed on our player; stepped up to the ball and communicated a lot on the field, which makes a huge difference because we weren't scared. "We had nothing to lose, so now we just have to build up from the bottom. We could totally turn our season around right here. This game was big for us." Here is where the team wants to stay. While the Quakers can't rest on the glory of one game, the team hopes that a remarkable victory like this can turn the team around with eight games left.