For the first time since the Penn field hockey team's season opener, starting off strong wasn't a problem.
Although coach Val Cloud didn't put peppers in their socks, the Quakers got on the scoreboard first. They passed more effectively and generated more chances.
But in the end, the result was the same. The Red and Blue picked up their seventh-straight loss, falling to Villanova, 2-1.
"I'm just glad they had enough heart to believe in themselves," Cloud said.
Senior co-captain Margaretha Ehret opened the scoring after seven minutes with her team-best third goal of the year. The Quakers (1-7) passed the ball up the right side before Ehret capitalized on a shot from the top of the circle.
There was a sense among the players that, after they went ahead early, this game would be jumpstart their turnaround.
But after finally having the early momentum that Cloud so desperately coveted, they relinquished it.
"Five minutes after we scored, we were really excited - everything went great," Meredith Moran, the other co-captain, said. "Then when they scored, we went into a little bit of a slump . started to get a little sloppy."
That goal belonged to freshman Abby Sordoni, who fired a shot from about 10 yards out for her fourth of the year.
By the time the half was over, Penn found itself outshot, 13-2. The Wildcats (8-1) had taken four penalty corners to the Quakers' one.
Then Villanova's Meg Ryan became the evening's top gun. Michelle Arfuso controlled a rebound and found the sophomore from Wayne, Pa., who mailed home the game-winning tally.
"They were just lucky to get a second goal," Cloud said. "It could've been as much in our favor as theirs. We gave them a game; maybe they didn't expect it, but we stepped up."
They stepped up with their enthusiasm, but not necessarily their smarts.
The Quakers have learned the importance of playing physically, they said, even if they couldn't quite match Villanova's bruising style.
But Ehret lamented that her teammates couldn't find a balance between energy and composure - a comfort zone for which they will be searching when they open Ivy play this weekend.
Penn hosts Harvard on Saturday in a match it considers quite important, searching for revenge from what Moran called "a really ugly, ugly" loss.
To get that, even though they were pleased with last night's effort, the Red and Blue still have a ways to go.
"You can't become used to losing," Ehret said. "So I think that, though we came away with some positive things, we can't just accept that."
