Looking back on the 2008-09 Penn sports year, this wasn't exactly one to remember.
Despite a strong start, things seemed to go downhill as the year progressed. In the fall, M. Soccer won the Ivy League, while Football, Field Hockey and Volleyball finished third. In the winter, M. Fencing went undefeated, while only two other teams came in the top half of the Ivies (W. Squash and Wrestling). Finally, this spring saw W. Lax go 7-0 but M. Golf was the only other squad to finish in the top of the League.
Overall, Penn teams had a combined record of 196-185-8, 86-90-3 Ivy, which equals a .513 overall and .489 Ivy winning percentage. If you take away the three Ivy champs, that winning percentage drops significantly - .460 and .440, respectively.
Today the DP announced its All-Penn selections. Let's take a closer look at the picks, as well as some other highlights and lowlights of the year.
Men's Team of the Year: Soccer. This honor came down to Soccer and Fencing, the two men's teams that won Ivy titles. The fencers did have a better record (17-0 versus soccer's 11-3-4), but their success is nothing new, as they finished seventh at the NCAA Tournament both last year and this year. Soccer, meanwhile, had only won one Ivy title since 1980 (2002).
Men's Player of the Year: Soccer GK Drew Healy. Healy had without a doubt the most impressive individual accomplishment of any Penn athlete this year with his seven-straight shutouts to start the season - a Penn record.
Honorable mention: Soccer M Alex Grendi; Hoops PG Zack Rosen.
Women's Player of the Year: Squash No. 1 Kristin Lange. While lax was the best women's team by far this year, no single player necessarily stood out. Instead, we went with Lange, the junior squash star who was Ivy Player of the Year and finished second in the national individual tournament for the third consecutive year.
Honorable Mention: Hoops F Carrie Biemer.
Men's Coach of the Year: Dave Micahnik (Fencing). Just like male P.O.Y., this award came down to fencing and soccer. While Rudy Fuller did lead the soccer team to its second title in 28 years, Micahnik coached men's fencing to an undefeated season, while also coaching a successful women's team. And because the Hall of Famer announced his retirement April 20, consider this a lifetime achievement award.
Women's Coach of the Year: Karin Brower (Lax). Brower didn't really have any competition for this award, but it's important to note that the Quakers lost seven senior starters from last year's national runner-up squad, yet started out 2009 with a program-record 13-game winning streak. If nothing else, that shows that Brower's player development and recruiting efforts have successfully paid off.
Game of the Year: The M. Soccer game against Harvard that clinched the Ivy League title was one for the ages. In a classic defensive struggle, the game was 0-0 at the end of regulation. Five minutes into OT Loukas Tasigianis emerged as the hero, scoring on a one-on-one breakaway to give Penn a share of the Ivy title.
Honorable Mention: W. Lax's 7-6 overtime win vs. Dartmouth, Football's 24-21 loss vs. Harvard that ended when Penn threw an interception in the end zone.
Play of the Year: Kevin Egee's buzzer-beater at Columbia was incredible even if it was in a meaningless game. With just 1.9 seconds left and Penn down by two, Egee nailed a 35-footer off an in-bounds pass to beat the Lions - and his younger brother Steve, a freshman on Columbia's team. It was an exciting finish toward the end of what was otherwise a disappointing season (see below).
Honorable Mention: Tasigianis' overtime goal, W. Lax attack Becca Edwards' OT goal versus Dartmouth.
Best non-Penn sports story: The Phillies' 2008 World Series championship beats out Villanova's Final Four run in a close race because it ended the 25-year streak without a major professional championship for Philadelphia.
Biggest women's disappointment: Soccer. Darren Ambrose's squad won the Ivy League title in 2007 with a 13-4-1, 6-1 Ivy record. With every single player returning for the 2008 season, the Quakers had high hopes of repeating. But for whatever reason, Penn just couldn't get it going, as a disappointing 2-1 double overtime loss to rival Princeton capped off an 8-6-3, 2-3-2 Ivy season.
Honorable mention: W. Tennis.
Biggest men's disappointment: Hoops. Unlike W. Soccer, Penn was not favored to win the M. Hoops Ivy title. But almost all preseason publications predicted Penn would come in second or third. Yet the Quakers ended up going 10-18, 6-8 Ivy - their first losing Ancient Eight season since 1990-91. In addition, the team got swept by Dartmouth for the first time since 1959 and lost two Ivy home games in one weekend for the first time since 1968. By the end of the year coach Glen Miller was glued to the hot seat.
Honorable mention: Baseball, M. Tennis.
Zach Klitzman is a junior history major from Bethesda, Md., and is Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is klitzman@dailypennsylvanian.com.
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