As the season wears on, the Penn field hockey team is putting itself in contention not only for the Ivy League title, but for the Philly City Six trophy as well.
The Quakers continued their torrid play of late, routing Temple, 4-0, at Franklin Field last night. Senior Liz Lorelli had two goals and one assist as the Red and Blue scored three goals in the first half and never looked back.
"We've never beaten a Temple team this easily," Penn coach Val Cloud said. "But we played great offense and moved the ball very well. We really passed the ball and gave ourselves some great opportunities."
While the Quakers (8-4, 2-1 Ivy) had won six of seven coming into last night's game, they had compiled a long list of 1-0 and 2-1 victories. The team has a sparkling goals against average, just 0.71 in its last seven games. But getting the offense to click has been one of Cloud's stated goals over the past couple of weeks.
Lorelli vehemently disagreed with the assertion that the Penn offense has not played up to the level of the defense. But she acknowledged that the team was hungry for a big offensive output.
"Our goal today was to win, and win big," Lorelli said. "We haven't been doing that."
Not surprisingly, it was Lorelli who took it upon herself to jumpstart the Quakers' offense. The All-American scored an unassisted goal just two minutes into the game. When senior Sara Shelley found junior Lea Salese for a goal off of a penalty corner, Penn had a 2-0 lead 10 minutes into the game.
Lorelli found the back of the net again just before halftime to give the Quakers a three-goal advantage over the Owls (6-7). This halftime cushion gave Cloud the chance to clear her bench in the second half, something she has been wanting to do for some time.
"We have a lot of depth and we haven't been able to show it because all of the games have been so close," Cloud said. "It was nice to be able to use the entire bench."
The Quakers found themselves in a bind just before faceoff, as junior Cara Calahan took ill and was less than 100 percent. She played only 15 minutes last night.
But Lorelli and the rest of the squad more than made up for her absence. Sophomore Tracy Statter made the most of her enhanced playing time, scoring her first goal of the season. It was the lone second half goal, as Penn sophomore goalie Liz Schlossberg was barely tested before giving way to backup Amanda Jacobs.
With a 2-1 record in the Ancient Eight and a 3-1 record in the City Six, the Quakers have a realistic chance at grabbing both titles.
Just as important, teams such as Princeton and Harvard -- Penn's top competition for the Ivy League title -- are beginning to look over their shoulders at the Quakers.
While Harvard came out of Franklin Field with a victory earlier this year, Penn is not ready to concede the title just yet.
"The big teams are surprised at how well we're doing," Lorelli said. "We're scaring people now. We can and should win the rest of our games. Hopefully someone can beat Harvard."
