After battling No. 2 Maryland Tuesday night, the Penn men's soccer team has more to deal with than just the 2-1 loss.
The Quakers (4-5-2, 1-2 Ivy) are coping with a number of injuries on the defensive side of the ball as each member of their starting backline went down against the Terrapins and is questionable going into tomorrow's pivotal Ivy matchup with No. 16 Yale.
"We're pretty banged up," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. "A bunch of guys got banged up on Tuesday and we're trying to get them healthy for this weekend and it's day to day."
Penn's starting defenders -- junior Erik Hallenbeck, sophomore Erik Violante and freshman Andy Howard -- all succumbed to injury in the loss to the Terps and have been held out of practice the last two days.
The Red and Blue are preparing for the possibility that some of their defenders will not be fit to play tomorrow.
"I feel like we're confident in our depth," junior forward David Maier said. "If some people can't go, we're still comfortable with others because everyone's been through a lot of training sessions and everyone's been together at this point in the year."
The Elis (7-5, 2-1) come into tomorrow's game on the heels of a 4-3 victory over Quinnipiac on Tuesday and have won six of their last eight games.
"They're one of the more talented teams on paper in the Ivy League," Fuller said. "They've got some good team speed and a couple of individuals who are capable of doing some special things on the attack."
Yale's only Ivy loss was to Cornell this past Saturday. The Elis outshot the Big Red (5-4-1, 2-0-1) by a tally of 19-2, but found themselves on the short end of a 1-0 result.
Earlier in the season, the Quakers suffered a similar fate after they outshot Cornell, 8-3, and lost by the same 1-0 score.
Penn senior goalkeeper Matt Haefner will look to continue his hot play as of late. Saturday he recorded a shutout against Dartmouth to help notch the Quakers' first league win.
On Tuesday, the third-team All-American had a solid performance against a formidable Maryland lineup, making 11 saves in the 2-1 loss.
The reigning Ivy League Player of the Year is hoping that Penn will put forth the same effort that they did against Maryland into tomorrow's game.
"I want to have the same performance -- myself and the whole team as we did," Haefner said. "And I think we can definitely do very well against them if we just do the same things. We need to win the game basically."
The Quakers find themselves currently in sixth place in the Ivy League standings and a win against third-place Yale is a must as the defending Ivy champs seek to climb back into title contention after two early league losses.
"Obviously, if we still have a chance at the Ivy League, we can have nothing but a win for the rest of the year," Maier said. "And that's what we expect."
