M. Soccer heads north to look for Ivy win

After falling to Cornell in its Ivy opener last Friday, the Penn men's soccer team will head to Dartmouth tomorrow afternoon to see if the Quakers are capable of beating a league team for the first time in coach Rudy Fuller's tenure. The Red and Blue bounced back from the Cornell loss on Tuesday when they crushed Temple 4-0 at Rhodes Field. Penn junior defender John Salvucci believes that after an up-and-down start to the season, the Quakers are finally ready to maintain a high level of play. "We definitely learned from our mistakes against Cornell, and we worked really hard to fix them," Salvucci said. "We learned from Cornell that we have to give it 100 percent every time. Even if Temple [had been] a better team, we would have finished the same." Both Salvucci and Fuller noted improvement in the Quakers' backline, which Temple was rarely able to penetrate. In some of this season's losses -- such as those against American and Richmond in early September -- the Quakers played well for a majority of the game, but occasional mental lapses cost them. Fuller believes that his team showed improvement in the Temple game, in which the Quakers maintained intensity for the full 90 minutes. "More than anything, we have to come out very focused and with the right intensity," Fuller said. "We have to stay focused on winning." Beating Temple brought the Quakers to a 3-3 overall record. But while the victory gave Penn a boost in confidence, beating Dartmouth will be a tougher task. The Big Green (4-2, 1-0 Ivy League) are likely to be especially confident after beating defending Ancient Eight champion Princeton last Saturday and then topping Vermont on Tuesday. "[Dartmouth is] very direct," Fuller said. "They're a very well-organized, very structured team. They're difficult to score against." But the third-year coach has his side up for the challenge. "I think it's a winnable game for us," Fuller said. "If we come out with the same commitment as in Tuesday's game, we should do very well." Even though beating Dartmouth will be a challenge, Salvucci believes the Quakers are hungry for the win. "We're ready, and we're not doubting ourselves at all," Salvucci said. "We just have to focus on finishing and defending. It's a matter of being mentally smart and staying alert."

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