PRINCETON, N.J. - The women's soccer team had played a hard-fought 105 minutes against rival Princeton, but with just one kick and a touch of the head, Saturday's game - and the Quakers' 2008 season - ended abruptly.
Off a corner kick in the second overtime, Princeton senior Taylor Numann headed in her second goal to negate Penn's comeback and give the Tigers a 2-1 victory at Roberts Stadium.
With the win, Princeton (12-2-2, 5-1-1 Ivy) technically secured a share of the Ivy League title with Harvard. But because the Crimson beat the Tigers, 2-1, on Oct. 25, Princeton will have to hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
For Penn (8-6-3, 2-3-2), meanwhile, the heartbreaking loss ended a campaign that fell well short of high expectations after last year's Ivy crown.
"It was a season of ups and downs," a slightly stunned Penn coach Darren Ambrose said after the game.
"Given some of the injuries we had, I think we had a lot of inconsistencies and no real continuity. It was very disappointing."
Unfortunately for the Quakers, their season-long inability to finish on scoring chances haunted them Saturday.
Despite earning just one shot in a first half that saw the Tigers get on the board when Numann headed in a free kick from Jen Om in the 28th minute, Penn outshot Princeton, 12-5, after the break. But of those 12, only five were on target, including the Quakers' lone goal.
"We've put ourselves in the position to win every game this year," said Ambrose, who did not make any players available for comment. "But too many times we have not been able to finish off teams."
Despite the Quakers' failures to put one past Princeton goalkeeper Alyssa Pont, the one that did reach the back of the net was quite a beauty.
Just 110 seconds into the second half, sophomore Sarah Friedman lofted a perfect corner right into the middle of box. Waiting for it was senior Maggie Devitt, who put a head on the ball and scored her first career goal. For Friedman, it increased her program single-season assists record 15.
Devitt wasn't the only player to use her head, though. In fact, all three goals came off headers after dead-ball opportunities.
"Today, [set pieces] came back to bite us," Ambrose said.
The hero of the day was Numann, who came in with just one goal in her career as a defender for the Tigers.
"It had been my goal all season long to score off a set piece and it hadn't happened yet, so it was kind of like my last shot," Numann told Princeton Athletics. "I guess we made them count."
And nothing counted more than the last touch of the day. Although Penn outshot Princeton, 5-1, through the first 15 minutes of the two overtimes, the Tigers earned a corner at 100:05. Sarah Peteraf took the kick and placed it in front of the Quakers' net, exactly where Numann could head it past goalkeeper Cailly Carroll.
"She's a hell of a player," Ambrose said.
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