Tri-captain Eileen Larkin said that this season, the women's soccer team is focused on improvement.
She and her teammates seem to have forgotten that they're the Ivy League champs.
It also must have slipped the Quakers' minds that they did not lose a single player from last year's squad, whose 13 wins were the second most in in program history.
Yet the Red and Blue haven't forgotten how to prove themselves, which they hope to do this weekend. They travel west to take on Pittsburgh - which they've faced once before, a 1-0 loss in 1999 - tonight and Robert Morris on Sunday. The Quakers have beaten the Colonials in each of the past two seasons, 4-1 and 6-0.
Coach Darren Ambrose is looking forward to seeing how his team compares with the competition, and he knows the only way to do that is to get on the field and play games that count.
"We don't expect to have the whole picture together yet, and a lot of players are going to get a chance to play, so we'll figure out how deep we are," he said. "This is also the first opportunity for us to get game fit."
In Ambrose's eyes, the team is just as hungry for a title, not resting on last year's accolades. His roster now consists of 29 players, bolstering the depth it already had.
That depth will be tested a lot earlier than expected, however, due to injuries to five players, including three starters: Jess Fuccello, Jess Rothenheber and Ellen Gregory. None of them are traveling with the team this weekend.
The Quakers are hoping to build on training camp and put their hard work into action.
"We've been working a lot on defensive shape and a little attacking," senior tri-captain Eileen Larkin said.
"We are going to put those into our minds and then learn from our mistakes this weekend."
To be sure, the Quakers are looking to begin the journey to another title. But the season hasn't even started yet and they are already eying progress.
"It's a long road, so we're not expecting perfection, but we are expecting to be confident and get some wins," Larkin said.
