W. Soccer splits scrimmages

Even though the Penn women's soccer team breezed by Mercer County Community College in a scrimmage at Princeton on Tuesday, the game proved to be an inadequate warmup for its next contest. After soundly defeating MCCC, 6-0, the Quakers fell to Ivy rival Princeton. The Tigers ultimately edged Penn, 2-1, after scoring a goal with one minute remaining. "Princeton is pressure," newly minted Penn coach Darren Ambrose said. "In the first half, it took time to adjust to the speed of the game. The [Princeton] game was four times faster [than Mercer County], and it took us a while to get going." Penn senior captain Kellianne Toland believes that by the second half of the Princeton game, the Quakers had adjusted to the fast pace. "We committed ourselves and kept the ball more," Toland said. Penn sophomore Leigh Castergine also believes the Quakers were making better runs and more accurate passes in the second half. "We really picked it up," she said. "We put a lot of pressure [on Princeton] in the second half." Though Toland finds it especially disappointing to lose to Princeton at the beginning of the season, Ambrose believes the games served as a means of evaluating the Quakers' play. "The point of a scrimmage is to see where we're at as a team," he said. "In the second half, we showed that we can play with and beat Princeton. As a team we need to work on technical speed and quicker decisions on the ball, and that will come with time and practice.

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