W. Soccer to make NCAA Tourney debut

the 13-3-1 Quakers won an at-large bid and drew a first round matchup at James Madison tonight. Throughout their four years wearing the Red and Blue, the current seniors on the Penn women's soccer team have always been promised one thing. Now, for Andrea and Jill Callaghan, Jen Danielson and Deane Kocivar-Norbury, that promise will finally be fulfilled. Tonight, these four veterans will lead their squad into the opening game of the Quakers' first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, where Penn will take on James Madison at 6 p.m. in the first round of the 48-team tournament. Both the Quakers (13-3-1, 6-1-1 Ivy League) and the Dukes (13-6-1, 6-1-1 Colonial Athletic Association) took second place in their respective leagues before receiving at-large bids from the NCAA selection committee Sunday night. For the Penn seniors, the starting whistle of the match under the lights of the JMU soccer field will signal an accomplishment they've been told would be reached ever since their freshman year. "Four years ago, that's what we were always told -- that we would help build the program up and bring it to another level," Danielson said Monday night, hours before boarding the team bus bound for Harrisonburg, Va., and the big dance. "It's nice being there when it's improved so much. This is just a huge change." It's a huge change that began coming about when Danielson, a team co-captain along with Kocivar-Norbury, was a sophomore. After finishing last in the Ivy League in the previous year, the Quakers skyrocketed in 1997 to second place in the Ivies with a 5-2 league record and a 12-3 overall mark, then won the ECAC title in the postseason. With the maturation and leadership of Danielson's class, the 1998 Quakers were anticipating building upon the success of '97 by winning the first league title in team history and earning an NCAA berth. These high aspirations were dashed, though, when Penn went a disappointing 1-5-1 in the Ivy League despite posting a perfect 10-0 non-league record. Because of the sub-par Ivy performance, the last-place Quakers weren't invited to postseason competition of any kind. This year, though, with a new coach -- Andy Nelson replaced Patrick Baker, who took a job at Florida State -- and a new "one game at a time" perspective, the Quakers rolled through their opponents en route to the best Ivy League and overall records in team history. "We had high hopes for this season but we also had high hopes for last season and that really didn't get us too far," junior midfielder Kelli Toland said. "We really made sure to not look past anybody this year." This new attitude paid off and now the Quakers get to play in a match tonight that's as sure to solidify the future of the program as it is to validate the effort of every player who's worn the Red and Blue in the team's nine-year history. "For a while we've been saying we needed to earn our respect," said Danielson, a Quakers defender. "This is a good opportunity to do it. "Now that we're in, anything we do is going to be noticed. This is going to get our name out as a quality program. We're in the top 48 in the nation right now, and with a good result, we'll be in the top 32." The Quakers can hardly afford to look past James Madison to the Round of 32, where they would face No. 16 Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. With their fifth straight berth into the tournament, the Dukes, led by coach David Lombardo, field a young but talented team. "We graduated seven seniors [last year] so it's a situation where we're starting five to seven freshmen and sophomores every game," Lombardo said. "But even though we're young, this was a season of firsts for us. This was our first time ever beating [then-No. 9] Virginia and first time beating Maryland in five years." Unlike the surging Quakers, though, the Dukes have had a slight dip in the waning moments of their season, dropping two straight -- a final regular season game against No. 10 William and Mary and a CAA Tournament quarterfinal match against Richmond -- heading into the NCAAs. Penn, on the other hand, is riding a five-game win streak into tonight's match, which Quakers coach Andy Nelson hopes will give his team an edge over James Madison. "They're a team that has had a bunch of great results? but they have struggled a bit of late," he said. "We just need to keep doing what we've been doing and we'll be fine." The problem for the Quakers, though, is that they're doing something they've never done -- playing in the NCAA Tournament -- and it's playing with some of their nerves. "We're just really, really excited," Danielson said. "It's new to everybody so it's a kind of nervous excitement. It will help us, though, because we'll have a lot of energy to play." Luckily for Penn, Nelson was there last year, when he coached Wellesley to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Tournament. "It was in Division III instead of Division I but he's been there so he might have some good ideas on how to prepare us because he's more prepared," Danielson said. With this experience under his belt, Nelson also has a good idea of the level of competition that every team in the tournament could show Penn, and how his team must react. "Basically at this point, no matter who you play they're going to come to play like every game is their championship," he said. "[My players] need to bring their 'A' game to the field tonight. "This is the whole shebang."