Coming into Friday's game, the women's soccer team was 0-10 all time against Villanova.
Unfortunately for the Quakers, they still haven't beaten their rival from the Main Line.
Despite leading, 2-0, after 47 minutes, Penn gave up three late goals to fall, 3-2, to the Wildcats, who ended up winning the Penn Invitational at Rhodes Field.
But the weekend wasn't a complete washout, as the Quakers responded by beating East Carolina, 3-1, on yesterday afternoon.
Sophomore Sarah Friedman started things off for the Quakers (2-2) against Villanova, scoring the game's first tally on a free kick in the 32nd minute. The "odd" goal, as Penn coach Darren Ambrose described it, was only awarded once Villanova keeper Molly Williams backed into the net after catching the shot.
Senior captain Natalie Capuano followed with her third goal of the season, tying her total from last year. She scored two minutes into the second half on Penn's only corner kick.
But around the 60-minute mark, things started to unravel for the Quakers. Villanova's Kaitlin Ryan bulleted a shot on the ground to the lower far post, just past Penn goalkeeper Sara Rose's outstretched fingertips.
Penn still lead for the next 15 minutes, but in just a five-minute span, Villanova (7-0) took over the lead for good. Off one of the Wildcats' seven corner kicks, Justine Wollner put a head on the ball that had been bounced around by several players. Her shot sailed to the far post near the sport of Ryan's goal.
Five-plus minutes later, at 79:26, Wollner got a breakaway and chipped the ball over a charging Rose.
Ambrose attributed the second-half collapse to Villanova's better conditioning.
"They're fitter than us," he said. "We were very opportunistic in the first 60 minutes, but we just didn't have a full 90 minutes in us."
That couldn't be farther from the truth in the second game of the weekend, when Penn dominated the Pirates.
"We told them in the locker room, 'Come out like fire out of a cannon,'" Ambrose said. "We wanted to get up on [ECU] and then control the rest of the game. I thought we did a great job of that."
In fact, the ECU match was practically the mirror opposite of Friday's contest.
Against Villanova, the Quakers took fewer corners (7-1) and shots (18-5), and were clearly outplayed by the Wildcats in the second half.
But against ECU, Penn earned more corners (4-1), outshot the Pirates (11-7) and always looked like the stronger team.
Even the weather was drastically different. On Friday evening, it was chilly and damp with occasional rain. Yesterday afternoon, it was sunny, hot and humid, with temperatures breaking 90 degrees.
The Quakers, still upset by the heartbreaking loss on Friday, came out firing on all cylinders early against ECU. No one better epitomized this than senior Molly Weir, who finished with one goal and two assists.
Just three minutes into the contest, Weir crossed a pass to freshman Ursula Lopez-Palm, who turned, shot and scored the afternoon's first goal.
Weir then assisted on Kristin Kaiser's goal four-plus minutes later. Although East Carolina (5-2) got one back when Jessica Woodward headed in a beautiful free kick, Weir's goal in the 22nd minute - which turned out to be the game's last - pushed Penn's lead back to two.
The Gaithersburg, Md., product joined Friedman and junior Michelle Drugan on the all-tournament team.
"It felt good to contribute, especially after Friday's loss," Weir said.
