W. Soccer hungry after disappointing season

Like the rest of the Penn women's soccer team, midfielder Natalie Capuano went into last season with high expectations. But after a couple of ugly losses and a fifth-place Ivy League finish, the Red and Blue closed out their 2005 campaign on a sour note.

"We were pretty disappointed with that result," Capuano said. "We expected to finish - if not first - to be in the top three of the Ivies."

Capuano and the Quakers don't plan on suffering that same fate again.

While Penn's overall quality of play was not sub-par, a few mistakes led to vital losses that cost the Quakers a shot at the Ivy title. But according to coach Darren Ambrose, the letdown of last season may serve as a stepping stone for this year's squad.

"We had some lapses in front of goal . that could have changed the season for us," Ambrose said. "Overall, I think we played as well as any team has played here for me.

"Is it motivation? Sure. We want to be back competing in the top half of the league again."

In order to do this, the Quakers will have to work out a couple issues on the field, including replacing last year's graduating seniors.

"The biggest, most obvious loss was Robin Watson," said Ambrose of the three-time all-Ivy first-team defender. "Robin had always had a central role."

While the back line remains relatively intact despite the loss of Watson, the Penn frontline has been spread thin with the graduation of forward Carolyn Cross, the team's leading scorer.

Despite their youth, the Quakers expect to stay competitive this year. This may all depend on the freshmen coming in and making names for themselves early in their careers.

"We're expecting them to" play right away, Capuano said. "They're a really good class. They're going to step in and make an immediate impact."

Coach Ambrose shares these expectations, but also knows that the team's success may lie in its ability to define itself as players and find a system that fits them.

While the Quakers haven't found this balance quite yet, Ambrose is confident enough in his young players that he may stick with the system the team has used in the past.

"We haven't gotten ourselves into a rhythm yet," Ambrose said. "We're not convinced one [side of the ball] is better than the other. It doesn't change our approach, necessarily."

With only a few days of preseason under its belt, it's not surprising that Penn is still searching for its equilibrium. However, it is for precisely this reason that the Quakers can't go into their season opener against Rider on Saturday taking a victory for granted.

Although the Red and Blue has beaten the Broncs two years in a row - including in last year's season opener - Penn is not waltzing onto Rhodes Field expecting anything less than a hard-fought contest. According to Rider's senior captain Lauren Terzyk, this familiarity may even help the Broncs score an early-season upset.

"Basically, going into this game we know their style of play and how they play," Terzyk said. "It's also a good game for us to play against a really good opponent."

The Quakers will certainly be taking Rider seriously this weekend and may find themselves doing the same thing against other less-heralded opponents this year.

Ambrose, for one, knows that the season is a marathon, not a sprint, and a lot can happen throughout the course of the season.

"You don't want to look at the end of the season before you've kicked the ball," Ambrose said. "Half a dozen teams are capable of winning the league, and Penn is one of them."

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