With the 2003 campaign behind them, the Penn field hockey team (10-8) has reflected on the changes that occurred during its most successful season in five years.
Heading into the season, coach Val Cloud and the players wanted to erase the previous season's memories of seven one-goal losses.
"We are tired of coming so close and just falling short," Cloud said in September. "This year we want to change that."
Last year's history seemed doomed to repeat itself, however, when senior co-captain Jackie Lange went down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the Quakers' fourth game of the season against Lafayette.
Without their second leading scorer, the Quakers offense struggled to find a quick answer, eventually giving up the game-winning goal with 46 seconds remaining.
"That Lafayette game was really difficult," senior Courtney Blenheim said. "We were down to 1-3 and we had come so close to winning."
But then Penn's players started stepping up -- on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.
Junior Liz Lorelli more than filled in the gap left by Lange's injury. The Greenwich, Conn., native finished with 20 goals and three assists -- including at least one goal in her last nine games -- while breaking Penn's all-time points in a season and goals in a season records in the process.
Lorelli's outburst doubled her goal output from last season while earning her first-team All-Mid-Atlantic and All-Ivy honors.
More importantly, her 1.11 goals per game average all but guaranteed that the Quakers would score at least one goal each game, leaving it up to the defense to step up as well.
And it was the Quakers defense that played its best in years, ending the season having allowed only 1.55 goals per 70 minutes.
"Our defense came up big all season long," Lorelli said. "A lot of credit has to go out to [senior co-captain] Emily Farnesi, Kelly [McFadden], Kate [Murphy] and Bernice [Raveche]. They kept us in the game and really helped out our goalies."
The Quakers began their turnaround with a 3-0 shutout of Cornell. After a 2-0 loss to nationally ranked Penn State -- their only shutout loss of the year -- the Quakers were ready to post their longest winning streak since 1988.
"The La Salle game was the first game of our winning streak and it was definitely a turning point in our season," Blenheim said. "We began to have the mindset that we knew we were going to win any game we played."
The Quakers' seven-game win streak did more than clinch their first overall winning record since 1997 -- it gave the team a sense of confidence and camaraderie that helped it win the next game.
"Some of those wins during the streak were definitely team wins -- we had girls step up and play hard at every single position," Farnesi said.
And although the Quakers lost their final three games -- including a 2-1 loss to Yale for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship -- the winning streak left an indelible mark as the Quakers look back on the season, and even their losses, with a positive note.
"We know we are a different team this year, in all aspects of the game," senior Marianne Rogers said after the Quakers concluded their regular season with a 3-1 loss to Princeton.
Rogers cited the new mindset that Penn field hockey had established this season. While the seven game winning streak was inevitably bound to end, that winning attitude can remain.
