What a difference a year makes.
Last year, alumni who returned to Rhodes Field for Homecoming were treated to a double-overtime victory over Brown by a No. 22-ranked Penn men's soccer team en route to the Ivy League championship.
This season's Homecoming game was a stark contrast to last year's affair, as Penn fell to arch-rival Princeton, 3-1, while remaining in seventh place in the Ivy League standings.
The Quakers (5-8-2, 1-5 Ivy) fell behind the Tigers (6-7-3, 3-2-1) early in the first half and found themselves trying to catch up for the rest of the game.
"It seems to be a trend in the past few games that we go down early, at least in the past few Ivy games," junior defender Erik Hallenbeck said. "I think we need to show some character and we need to learn how to come back from going down early.
"Most importantly, we need to not go down early, but if we do we need to just get back and start winning some games after going down."
Princeton sophomore midfielder Alex Reison put his team on top in the 16th minute of play as he found the back of the net off a pass from freshman forward Kyle McHugh.
The Tigers were able to preserve their 1-0 advantage into halftime despite the Quakers holding an 8-5 shot edge in the first half.
In the second half, Reison notched his second goal of the day on a shot within the goal box that got by Penn senior goalkeeper Matt Haefner in the 57th minute of play.
"Princeton did very well with the chances that they were given and punished us for each one of them," Penn coach Rudy Fuller said.
Down by two goals, the Quakers pressed harder at the offensive end of the field and eventually capitalized as freshman forward Derrick Jumper put the rebound of junior forward Stephen Kroculick past Princeton goalkeeper Bobby Guelich with 17:32 left in the game.
"Steve got the ball, and I was looking for a through ball so I was already on my toes," Jumper said. "He had a good shot and [we] just went to [the rebound], me and the keeper. Luckily, I got to it before him and just slid it in."
The Tigers responded with a goal less than two minutes later by sophomore Ben Young to give Princeton a 3-1 advantage.
The Quakers were unable to find the net for the rest of the game, as they continued to play aggressively on offense to no avail.
Fuller saw many mistakes that his team made in a 7-1 mid-week win over St. Joseph's manifest themselves again in the defeat to Princeton.
"I think we came out and made the same mistakes today that we made against a lesser team on Wednesday and got away with it," Fuller said. "It's a situation where against a lesser team you get away with a thing that you won't get away with against a better team."
The Quakers will look to rebound as they head to South Orange, N.J., today to face Seton Hall in a rematch of last year's first round NCAA College Cup match -- this game was originally scheduled Oct. 29, but was postponed due to inclement weather.
Last year the Quakers defeated the Pirates, 1-0, at Rhodes Field during the playoffs. They also played at Seton Hall in last year's season opener, in which they fell, 1-0.
