As the weather has gotten colder, the field hockey team has only gotten hotter.
Penn (9-7, 4-2 Ivy) will carry its six-game winning streak into New Jersey tonight for its season finale against arch rival Princeton (10-6, 6-0).
The Quakers have not lost in over a month, when a 2-1 defeat to Dartmouth effectively ended their Ivy League title hopes.
A few weeks later, senior captain Liz Schlossberg said that, after that loss, "We really just started enjoying playing again and playing for ourselves."
Since then, they have outscored their opponents by a three-to-one ratio, 15-5, behind goals from six different players. They have outshot their opponents by a similar ratio, 99-39, and have taken 42 penalty corners to the opposition's 19.
Most importantly, they have not lost.
"It's basically a team that has come together as a team and gets better each game," coach Val Cloud said.
The latest chapter in the Quakers' second season came last Sunday, on Senior Day at Franklin Field. Senior Kristin Connelly, making her first career start in four years on the team, scored the lone goal in a very emotional 1-0 victory over Brown.
That victory moved Penn into sole possession of second place in the Ivy League, and Cornell's subsequent loss ensured that Penn will finish the year no worse than that. A win tonight will leave the Quakers with second all to themselves.
However, they face off against the one team ahead of them. The Tigers, undefeated in the Ancient Eight, have already clinched the title and their berth in next weekend's NCAA Tournament.
"It's not as meaningful as we had hoped, but we're still confident," assistant coach Jeremy Cook said. "We're right where we want to be, in terms of how we're playing and the chances we're creating, so we're very confident going in."
Schlossberg agreed with her coach, illustrating the players' confidence.
"We're very excited about Princeton," she said. "We've beaten them before, and we'd like to do it again."
Penn was the last Ivy League team to defeat Princeton, a 2-1 victory to close the 2004 season. Last year, the Tigers scored two late goals to down the Quakers at Franklin Field.
Neither team has an edge in the all-time series, which currently stands at 15-15-3.
Tonight's game concludes the Penn careers of seniors Schlossberg, Connelly, Nyssa Liebermann, Tracy Statter and Melina Tsui. It also brings this bizarre tale of two seasons to a close.
"Who knows if we got off to a quicker start what would happen," Cloud said, trailing off.
"But," she added, "I'd much rather end this way than start out big and die at the end."
