W. Lax aims to overcome past defeats

There are some experiences that no sports team would ever want to endure -- especially not a second time. For the Penn women's lacrosse team, getting outscored 97-47 during a six-game losing streak last year would be one of those experiences. After standing 5-2 with seven games remaining, the Quakers ended their 2000 campaign at 6-8 overall and 1-6 in the Ivy League, just one game ahead of perennial Ivy League cellar-dweller Columbia. But the Red and Blue are getting a second chance. Penn will face the same six teams -- Harvard, Rutgers, Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown and Temple -- in the exact same order this season. Tomorrow at 1 p.m. in Cambridge, Mass., the return trek down this disappointment-filled road will begin for the Quakers (4-5, 1-2 Ivy League), as they attempt to avenge their 11-9 loss last season to the Crimson (5-3, 0-2). Penn coach Karin Brower welcomes the challenge. "It's good to end with the best [competition]," Brower said. "It's a hard road coming up, but we'd rather see [No. 3] Princeton and [No. 11] Dartmouth at the end than in the beginning." The Quakers will face a Harvard team that has played extremely well as of late. In their last three games, the unranked Crimson have pulled out one-goal overtime victories over No. 7 Boston and No. 20 Stanford and were just one goal short of pulling off yet another upset against No. 8 Yale. The Quakers' key to success against the red-hot Crimson will be getting off to a good start. "[We need to] come out intense in the first half because we're usually flat when we come out," Penn sophomore midfielder Kate Murray said. "That leads to bad second halves and bad next practices." Sophomore attacker Alison Polk-Williams agreed with her teammate. "The bottom line is we need to come out hard right away, get on their heels and catch them off guard early," Polk-Williams said. However, getting on the scoreboard early will not be an easy task. Harvard's defense has many veteran players and is anchored by co-captain Jeanne Ficociello and fellow senior Becca Brown. The team's only two seniors have led a very stingy Crimson defense that has given up double-digit goals in just three outings this year. To stand a chance against the Crimson, the Quakers will need to do a good job executing their attack strategies. "We've been working on our attack a lot," Polk-Williams said. "We've been trying to get more quality shots off. The last two games [against Columbia and Monmouth] have been pretty high-scoring, so hopefully that is indicative of how we've improved." The match against the Crimson also promises to be high-scoring if Harvard junior attacker Alli Harper gets a lot of touches. The Crimson co-captain led her team in scoring during her freshman year, when she put up 30 goals and three assists. Last year, Harper was sidelined for most of the season due to injury. But this season, she has returned to her freshman form, hurling lacrosse balls into the back of the nets of her opponents. "Alli Harper is really good," Brower said. "She scores around six goals for them a game. And we can't foul her because she has a great eight-meter shot. So we have to try not to foul her but still key in on her." In spite of all of Harvard's offensive and defensive weapons, Brower still believes the outcome of the game is up to her team. "Right now we are the underdog against them because Penn hasn't beaten Harvard in a long time," Brower said. "In everything they do, Harvard kids think they're better than you. And they're going to come on with confidence. "But how the game ends will depend on how we take the field."

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