Field hockey: First cut is deep, but Nos. 2, 3 & 4 hurt too

The Penn field hockey team has already made history in its 2007 campaign. Too bad it's negative history.

This year's 0-4 loss start, including a 3-1 loss to Harvard in its only Ivy League game, is tied for the worst start for the Quakers since they opened with five losses in 2001.

However, the Quakers will face the Lafayette (2-2) team tonight that has lost to the Red and Blue three straight years.

Last year the Quakers beat Lafayette in Easton, Pa., overcoming an early Leopard goal which resulted in a 3-1 victory. Current junior Margaretha Ehret, who has a team-leading three goals this season, scored the equalizing goal, and teammate Christina Ferrier scored her first career goal to put the Quakers ahead for good.

In addition to last year's victory, the Quakers won 2-0 in 2005, and 1-0 in 2004.

However, the Quakers won't look too hard into these past wins since Lafayette coaching legend Ann Gold retired after 25 years this past April. Replacement Andrew Griffiths, the former associate head coach at Boston College, will likely change things up.

"They're going to definitely show us something different," coach Val Cloud said. "We've seen some tapes . so I think we'll be prepared."

The Quakers had better be, as they simply haven't gotten the job done so far this season.

They have held the lead just once this season - but only for a paltry 16 minutes. In addition, they've been outshot 62-39.

While any 0-4 start will certainly be testing, the Quakers feel especially exasperated this year due to the high hopes at the opening of the season.

"It's particularly frustrating," senior co-captain Jamie Calahan said. "We've had high expectations since the beginning. Our entire class is extremely disappointed to start out like this."

Cloud has largely one area to look to for that sluggish start.

"I think the biggest adjustment has been the defense, with a new goalie," Cloud said.

The Quakers had to replace All-Ivy goalie Liz Schlossberg, who tallied 59 career starts for Penn.

Junior goalkeeper Alanna Butera hasn't exactly been horrible (in fact her .679 save percentage is higher than her Lafayette counterpart's .625), but at the same time she hasn't been spectacular.

Coupled with an offense that relies heavily on Ehret (the mid fielder has taken 18 of the team's 39 shots, and scored three of the team's five goals), the Quakers find themselves in the 0-4 hole.

The Leopards also started slow, as they lost their opener to Rutgers 3-2, and then lost 2-0 to Cornell. However, the Leopards responded with two consecutive wins last weekend, beating Drexel 2-0 in Philadelphia, and blanking Quinnipiac 2-1 back at home.

"Hopefully Lafayette won't be [as hard as] Harvard, and we can get our act together," Cloud said.

With the season a quarter over, the Quakers need that to happen sooner rather than later.

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