Sophomore goalkeeper Kevin Sweetland played a near-perfect game for the Quakers.
The Penn defense, however, did not allow him to work his magic on the only goal scored by Princeton.
"To be quite honest we sort of came out half asleep, and they took advantage of that," senior defender Keith Vereb said. "They came out of the gate real sharp."
That was the goal that mattered, giving Princeton a 1-0 win and its first road victory of the year. Taking advantage of a dawdling Penn defense early, the Tigers (5-8-2, 3-2 Ivy) punched in the winner before the game was even six minutes old.
"We didn't give him a chance on the goal they scored," Quakers coach Rudy Fuller said of Sweetland. "We weren't ready at the get-go today."
After the terrible start-off, a problem which had haunted the Quakers (5-8-2, 2-3) early in the season but that they seemed to have shaken off, both teams settled down.
Sweetland made two clutch saves that kept Penn within one goal of the Tigers.
"When given the opportunity to come up with a save, he came up with a save," Fuller said.
Likewise, Princeton goalie Joe Walter also delivered a gem, thwarting charges by the Quakers in the middle of the first half and at the end of the second.
"The keeper made some big saves for them," Fuller said. "We tested him not as much as we would have liked, [but] he came up big when he needed to."
Furthermore, Walter had solid goal kicks that kept the field position against the Quakers. This key advantage led to Princeton outshooting the Quakers eight to two in the first half. The Quakers outshot the Tigers, however, four to one in the second half.
"We gave a much better account of ourselves in the second half than we gave in the early part of the first half," Fuller said.
Penn, coming off the loss against Brown (12-1-1, 4-0 Ivy), was for all practical purposes already eliminated in the Ivy League championship race. Fuller, however, refused to attribute the sluggish start to this fact.
"Whenever Penn plays Princeton in anything, I would expect that both teams come to play," he said.
Unfortunately for Sweetland and the Quakers, the defense could not when it mattered.
