The time has come for the Penn men's soccer team when it "cannot afford to lose," according to junior co-captain Erik Hallenbeck.
The Red and Blue start their Ivy League season tomorrow when Cornell -- a team with a similar playing style to Penn (2-2-2) -- comes to town .
"History has told us that every time Penn and Cornell face off, it's a hard-fought battle," Fuller said. "But we would certainly like to change that on Saturday."
Cornell (3-3) will be a welcome change for the Quakers, after facing Temple and La Salle. Though the Quakers came out with a win and a tie they are two teams Hallenbeck said "don't like to play soccer," because of their tendencies to concentrate more on physical play than tactical strategy.
"We haven't played a game against a team that likes to play in a while," Hallenbeck said. "If you're a fan of the game, I think you will enjoy this game a lot more."
While Hallenbeck described the Big Red's style of play as "simple," he and other teammates agree that they will need to bring their top game to win tomorrow.
"They are going to be a really good team," sophomore forward Richard Brushett said. "They have a lot of good size and skill players in the front and the back, but we have an idea of how they will play."
The Quakers said they needed the local competition to increase their intensity and quality of play.
"Those games got us ready to face other teams," Brushett said. "In the Ivy League, we have to play much better teams than we've played so far."
"The past few games were good for us because they instilled some character in the players," Hallenbeck said. "The 1-1 tie [against La Salle] wasn't good, but it was good the way we fought back.... Having some good physical games under our belt will help us."
The Quakers will have a healthy squad tomorrow, as sophomore defender Erik Violante will return after missing Monday's game.
"That was more precautionary than anything else," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "We knew the type of game it would be, and it wasn't worth risking his health in that type of environment."
Cornell has been impressive lately, winning its past two games after losing three straight. While the Big Red defeated American last week -- a team Penn lost in the spring -- they also lost to Loyola earlier in the season. Penn played Loyola to a 2-2 tie.
Most importantly, Penn thinks it can begin to prove that its Ivy League title was deserved.
"Every Ivy League team will be gunning for us because they think we won [Ivy League championship] last year by accident," Brushett said. "Every game will be twice as big as it was last year."
