At this time last year, the Penn men’s soccer team entered a matchup at Lehigh with an undefeated 7-0-3 record.
The Mountain Hawks prevailed, 2-1, in double overtime, but after the Quakers graduated 12 seniors, they aren’t consciously seeking revenge in tonight’s 7:30 p.m. rematch at Rhodes Field.
“It’s a new group of guys, so we kind of just need to make a statement for ourselves this year,” sophomore defender Thomas Brandt said. “Just to get a win under our belt would be really good getting back into Ivies.”
Penn has not defeated Lehigh since 2005 — before any of the current Quakers were on the roster — and their in-state foes will likely provide a stiff challenge again this season.
As a barometer, the Mountain Hawks lost, 1-0, to Princeton and tied Brown, 1-1, in the first week of September.
But since then they have recorded several impressive performances, including a 3-2 victory over then-No. 24 College of Charleston and a 1-1 tie against Penn State, who crushed the Quakers in Happy Valley, 5-0, just last week.
“They’ve been a very good team for a number of years now,” Penn coach Rudy Fuller said. “It’s always a very big regional game for us, and hopefully we’ll be up for the challenge.”
Fuller said his team straightened out its defensive kinks against Cornell Saturday. Now the challenge for the Quakers will be to break the unyielding Lehigh defense.
The Red and Blue have recorded at least two goals in six of nine games this season, but Lehigh’s opponents have achieved the same feat only twice all season, as Mountain Hawks goalie Jonathan Nydell boasts a 1.06 goals against average.
Lehigh’s leading scorers, freshman Austin Decker and senior Adam Welch, have only eight points apiece, but Penn is not overlooking the Mountain Hawks’ attack.
“They’ve got some guys that are a handful on restarts and they’ve got some guys that can hurt you in the run of play,” Fuller said.
Brandt mentioned that a key for the Quakers will be to compete for a full 90 minutes — or more if the game reaches overtime — which they have not done consistently of late.
“It’s just [about] a lot of heart,” he said. “It’s a lot of just wanting to win and just refusing to lose.”
