The No. 13 Cornell women's lacrosse team has won each of its five games by an average of nine goals, almost shutting out Cal Berkeley 14-1 March 10.
The No. 17 Quakers (5-2, 1-0 Ivy) want to make sure that they won't be on the receiving end of a similar scenario when they travel up to Ithaca, N.Y. for their second game of their Ivy League schedule tomorrow.
To do that the defense will certainly need to be at its best.
"They have seven kids that can score," coach Karin Brower said of the Cornell offense. "They're strong and they're fast."
Leading the charge for the Big Red (5-1, 1-0 Ivy) are junior attacker Margaux Viola and sophomore midfielder Katherine Simmons, who is coming off a career-high five goals in a victory over Vanderbilt.
The Quakers' have a plan, though, which includes plenty of double-teaming and trapping.
"We're looking to just control tempo on defense, which you can only do by being aggressive and trying to cause turnovers," senior midfielder Kate Parker said.
Sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Waxman will play a large chunk of time in net and is confident the other defenders will help her by preventing Cornell from taking many shots.
"We've been working on being more of a team defense and also working on our one-on-one defense," Brower said.
Junior defender Sarah Eastburn agreed, saying that team defense is important. She believes the team has been working well as a unit this week.
In order to create scoring opportunities for the offense, the Quakers need to cause turnovers and get the ball down the field quickly.
The attackers have been doing extra shooting drills all week in an effort to be able to connect on their open shots, an area in which the Red and Blue has recently struggled.
Another key to tomorrow's game is the five days the Quakers have had to prepare for it. They didn't have to play their usual Wednesday-night game this week, thus allowing extra practice time.
"We needed that break to get back to the basics, then start preparing for Cornell instead of us going right into preparing for this game," Brower said.
The team may be without sophomore midfielder Melissa Lehman, one of the Quakers' top scorers this season. She is recovering from bruised ribs and Brower says it's questionable whether or not she will be playing.
It will be a tough game, but one Penn has a shot at winning.
"We're even in a lot of ways," Brower said. "I think they're just a team that can capitalize on opponents' mistakes."
Last year against Cornell, Penn jumped out to an early lead, but lost by two goals in the end.
This time, the team will go into the game with more energy and more focus. And while ending their four-game road streak, they will get some more time to prepare on the long bus ride to Cornell.
