Notebook: W. Soccer's Toland named Ivy Player of the Week

Toland is one of several Quakers on the cusp of setting school records. For her outstanding and consistent offensive contributions to the Penn women's soccer team this season, Quakers' midfielder Kelli Toland was honored Monday as the Ivy League Player of the Week. On Friday, the Penn junior and Philadelphia native scored the deciding goal in the Quakers' (12-3-1, 5-1 Ivy League) 1-0, double-overtime victory at Yale off a pass from Penn co-captain Deane Kocivar-Norbury. The overtime goal was Toland's eighth of the season and her second game winner against an Ivy League opponent. She also scored the lone goal in Penn's 1-0 home victory over Brown on October 23. These eight goals, added to her total of seven assists, give Toland a solid lead in the Ancient Eight scoring race with 23 points, six ahead of teammate and second-place scorer Andrea Callaghan (six goals, five assists, 17 points). Despite the near-equal scoring output of the two Quakers, Toland said that there is not much of a rivalry between herself and Callaghan. Instead, she said that they are more concerned about and pleased with the increased scoring of the entire Red and Blue squad. "We're excited that our offense is so successful," she said. "Since it comes from so many people it speaks volumes about our team." The Quakers have outscored opponents 10-3 over their last five games, with six different players putting the ball into the net. · If the Penn defense earns a shutout against Princeton on Homecoming this weekend -- which would give the Quakers a team-record five shutouts in a row -- then freshman goalie Katherine Hunt will not only tie for first in one goalkeeping category but take top honors in two others. With nine perfect games on the season for Hunt and a four-game streak pushing her along, a Tigers' doughnut Saturday would help the freshman tie Annie Kleutmeier's record of 10 shutouts in a season, which was set last year. If Hunt manages to completely deny the Princeton offense on Saturday, then she will also break Kleutmeier's 1998 records for least goals allowed in a season (14) and lowest goals against average in a season (0.87). Hunt has allowed only 13 goals so far and boasts a 0.78 goals against average coming into this weekend's season-ending match. · Toland is also vying for a place in the Penn record books at the end of her extraordinary offensive season. With her eight goals scored so far, Toland is only one goal behind Dara Ross' single-season scoring record of nine, which was set in 1995. The Ivy League Player of the Week is also only a goal and an assist behind Jill Callaghan's single-season points record of 26, which the current Penn forward set last season. Toland has recorded at least a goal or an assist in seven of Penn's last eight games. Penn coach Andy Nelson said that these potentially record-setting performances are not only a testament to the ability of the individual players, but a reflection of the team's quality as a whole. "The team's done a good job of making it possible for these players to do what they've been doing," he said. "If the team wasn't doing so well, then these situations wouldn't be possible right now." · With one of their best regular-season performances in team history coming to a close, the Quakers are hoping to earn their first-ever NCAA tournament bid through an at-large selection by the NCAA nominating committee after the Princeton game. Penn has a slight chance of sharing the Ivy League title with No. 9 Harvard. For the Quakers to do so, the Crimson must lose at Brown and the Quakers beat the Tigers this weekend. Nevertheless, the Quakers are out of the running for the automatic tournament berth that goes to every league champion, because Harvard defeated Penn 2-1 in overtime early last month. With Harvard already in, Penn is banking on its respectable record, the strength of its schedule and its high regional ranking -- No. 6 in the Mid-Atlantic Region -- to earn an at-large bid from the NCAA selection committee. Both Nelson and his players are confident that, with the right result Saturday, the team will have a good chance of qualifying for its first national tournament -- especially in looking at the teams Penn has faced. "It's not like we've been playing patsies," Nelson said. "We beat a good Navy team 6-0 [on October 24], and six of our nine shutouts have been 1-0. At this point, the sky's the limit." Nelson, though, is making sure to keep his players' eyes steadily on the ground, focusing on Saturday's match against Princeton on Rhodes Field. "First things first, we've got to get a win on Saturday," he said, "or then it would be a moot point."