Women's Soccer dominates Lehigh

The Lehigh women's soccer team hit a crossing last night against Penn -- literally.

Trying to end their disappointing 4-13-1 season on a positive note, the Engineers failed, giving up goals to the Quakers' Carolyn Cross and Katy Cross.

"It feels good," Katy Cross said of Penn's second straight victory. The Quakers now stand at 7-6-3 overall and 2-1-3 in the Ivy League.

"We're back on top of our game and getting the results we want, not just good performances," she added.

The Quakers' game plan was crucial to the victory. Competing on artificial turf -- a surface totally foreign to most of Penn's players -- ball control became a central strategy.

The defensive emphasis can be seen in the box score. Lehigh failed to record a single corner kick and registered only five shots on goal.

"It was a tremendous performance given the conditions," Penn coach Darren Ambrose said. "They played in freezing conditions and it was practically spitting rain. And it created a different kind of environment with the artificial turf."

In the 40th minute, Carolyn Cross finally broke through for a Penn goal. Off a Devon Sibole pass, Cross one-timed the ball from 15 yards out. The Quakers went up, 1-0, after the shot rang off the right goalpost and into the net.

After 22 minutes, the Quakers struck again. Following a missed shot off of a free kick, Katy Cross took a one-touch pass from Sibole and punched it in for her 14th goal of the season.

Cross now has 66 career points and has only Saturday's game at Dartmouth to tie the Penn all-time scoring record during the 2002 season. Cross, however, said that her burden is no different than that of the other players.

"It's the same pressure that the rest of the team is feeling," she said. "It's the pressure to win so that we can be toward the top of the Ivies instead of toward the bottom."

The Quakers' Ancient Eight ranking still hangs in the balance. They must go through their nemesis, the Big Green, to finish with a winning league record.

Dartmouth has defeated Penn in overtime in each of the past two years. The Big Green handed the Quakers their lone regular season loss last season.

Ambrose, who has not beaten Dartmouth during his three-year tenure at Penn, called the game a "grudge match."

"We feel like we owe Dartmouth," he said. "They won last year's game in overtime on a questionable call. They robbed us of our undefeated [regular] season."

Penn was forced to share the Ivy League title with Dartmouth, as well as Princeton.

The Quakers can pay back the disfavor this year. Having won 11 straight, the Big Green can garner a share of the league title with a victory Saturday. They are 5-1 against Ivy opponents -- the lone blemish came against nationally-ranked Princeton.

"We can't win the league, but we can make sure someone else doesn't," Ambrose said. "There's a lot of pride on this team. There's a lot at stake."

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