This was a game of ifs for the Penn women's soccer team.
If the Quakers had played in the first half with the intensity and pace they displayed in the second, the end result would have likely been different.
If Yale's Mimi Macauley had been called offside in the 29th minute when receiving a through-ball from Christina Huang, which she would controversially slot past Penn's Vanessa Scotto for the only goal of the game, the end result would have likely been different.
If, after receiving Cathy Roe's free kick, Rachelle Snyder had shot the ball under the crossbar at Rhodes Field instead of straight into it, the end result would have likely been different.
If any of the eight shots Penn recorded in the second half had resulted in goals, the end result would have likely been different.
If this game had not come after 2-0 and 4-0 losses for the Quakers, the defeat would probably not have been taken so hard by the squad. The Penn attack seemed, at times, to be at full throttle but simply could not find the back of the net.
But all those ifs remained just that, and Yale (8-5-1, 2-2-1 Ivy) took a 1-0 win out of Rhodes Field on Saturday, disappointing a sizable Family Weekend crowd and leaving the team frustrated once again.
"I think that unfortunately we did not put forth the effort in the first half that we put forth in the second half," Penn assistant coach Chris Kouns said. "We've just got to put our game together and put some balls in the net."
Penn is now 6-5-3 overall and 1-3-1 in the Ivy League, and will carry a 300-minute scoreless streak into Wednesday afternoon's game against Lehigh at Rhodes Field.
Yale has also posted some impressive results this season, including a scoreless tie against Harvard and a 1-0 overtime loss to Dartmouth -- the team currently in first place in the Ivy League.
The Elis had the run of play for much of the first half. Their pressure paid off just under half an hour in when Huang fed a through-ball to Macauley, which she received behind the Penn backline.
Macauley may have been offside but the linesman -- on the same sideline and end of the field as the home fans -- kept her flag down and Macauley slotted the ball past Scotto.
Trailing in a game yet again, Penn's frustration on the field was fully evident. Perhaps the most telling instance of this came a few minutes after the Elis' goal when senior defender and team co-captain Heather Issing settled an errant pass and took the ball up the field herself past three Yale players.
"I've always believed more in leading by example than talking about it, so that's what I was trying to do," Issing said.
But try as they might, the Red and Blue could not find a way past Yale goalkeeper Sarah Walker and suffered their fifth loss of the season.
