Penn women’s soccer coach Darren Ambrose has a fever, but luckily the Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers may just be the prescription his team needs.
Still recovering from a frustrating 3-2 loss to Harvard in their Ivy opener, the Quakers (3-2-2, 0-1 Ivy) are set to square off with a lowly UMBC team (0-7-1, 0-1 American East) that has been out-scored 25-2 this season.
Ambrose is hoping his players can use the match at UMBC Soccer Stadium in Baltimore to revive their season.
“We need to clean up some decision-making,” he said. “Individual mistakes cost us [the Harvard game.] … I want to make them aware of some things on an individual basis and clean them up [tonight].”
One member of the Red and Blue who remains on a roll is senior forward Jessica Fuccello. The co-captain’s goal Saturday was her Ivy League-leading ninth of the season and the 29th of her career. She now has sole possession of the second position on Penn’s all-time list.
But the Quakers’ 2009 second-leading scorers — senior Michelle Drugan and sophomore Marin McDermott — have just two goals apiece, highlighting Ambrose’s concern about his team’s aggressiveness with the ball near its opponents’ nets.
“We have to be much more assertive and much more urgent when we have possession,” the tenth-year coach said. “We have to be much more direct when we get the ball and we have to get the ball to our forwards.
“Having possession is one thing, but what you do with the ball when you get it is another. We need to make better chances and take more risks in the final third [of the field].”
Getting shots off against the Retrievers’ defense shouldn’t be too difficult if recent history repeats itself. UMBC has been out-shot 156 to 53 thus far in 2009, or an average of about 20 to seven each game.
And the Quakers have already proven that they can dominate in such a fashion. The Red and Blue have defeated the Retrievers 3-0 and 4-0 the last two seasons, respectively, combining to win the shot battle, 42-12.
Still, Ambrose is focused on the bigger picture with tough home matches against Cornell and Army coming up this weekend.
“We have to put together a complete 90 minutes,” he said. “It can’t be a 20 minutes here or a 20 minutes there sort of thing.”
Earlier this month, Ambrose saw his team bounce back from tough matches against Northwestern and St. Joseph’s with strong performances against Pittsburgh and Georgetown, so he has reason to be confident going into today’s game.
“I think we will respond,” he said. “I think that the girls will be motivated to pick up a win against UMBC that we should have gotten [Saturday].”
