In a break from its usual Sunday routine, the Penn field hockey team started the day with a team breakfast and film-watching session. The pregame warm-up at Franklin Field featured mini-games, allowing each player to work out individual skills.
And coach Val Cloud decided to switch around her lineup to add a fourth player to the midfield line in order give her squad an offensive edge.
The result of these changes: A 3-1 win for the Quakers (3-10, 2-2 Ivy), their first in three weeks and third of the year.
"I have never seen them play so well as they did today," Cloud said. "They played together. Different individuals stepped up. It was awesome."
One of those individuals was senior midfielder Rachel Eng, who scored two goals in the first half. In the 15th minute, she received the ball inside the circle from fellow senior midfielder Nina Ferrier and quickly maneuvered around a Lions defender to place the ball in the bottom right of the cage.
Ten minutes later, junior midfielder Kelsey Tahan found Eng on the right side of the field, from where she snuck the ball past Columbia senior goalkeeper Gena Miller in the bottom-left corner of the net.
"I dreamed about scoring goals and I dreamed about winning this game," Eng said.
Soon after Eng's second goal, Columbia coach Katie Beach called a timeout, during which she replaced Miller with sophomore Erin Conway.
At first it seemed that with the change of players came a change of tone. After the half, the Lions (9-3, 1-3) managed to keep the ball in the Quakers' end and earn several corners.
Columbia capitalized on its increased pressure at 49:03, when senior midfielder Megan Davidson passed the ball to Christine Buszczak, Columbia's single-season assist record holder. Buszczak had time in the circle and lifted the ball over the head of Penn goalie Alanna Butera.
The defense, which according to Cloud was "just magnificent", began to look a bit uneasy. The Lions began to take more shots but couldn't tie it up.
And at 66:50, junior midfielder Katie Rose iced the Quakers' victory with her second goal of the year.
"Everyone was on the same page that we were going to win this game," Eng said. "We weren't going to leave the game any other way."
