Missed opportunities have plagued the men’s soccer team throughout its 2009 Ivy League season, and Saturday’s loss to Harvard was no exception.
“We had two really good chances at the beginning of the second half,” coach Rudy Fuller said. “And we probably should have been up 2-0, but we didn’t take them well and the score remained 0-0.”
Harvard took advantage of Penn’s inability to put the game out of reach early and converted on a scoring opportunity in the 68th minute. That was all that it took for the Crimson to defeat the Quakers, 1-0. With the victory, No. 11 Harvard clinched the Ivy League title.
“I give Harvard credit; they continued to try and find the goal,” Fuller added.
Although the Quakers (6-8-3, 2-4-1 Ivy) only conceded one goal Saturday, Fuller was not too happy with the performance of his back four in the first half.
“We got off to a pretty slow start defensively,” Fuller said. “I don’t think either team came out with a lot of energy to start. The game was a bit of a non-game for the first half.”
But the second half was a completely different story for both Harvard (13-3-1, 5-1-1 Ivy) and Penn.
“In the second half we came out a lot stronger,” junior Zach Barnett said. “We had four or five shots on goal in the first 15 minutes of the half.”
Penn’s offensive woes have been the major reason for its poor Ivy record. The team only scored six goals in seven Ivy League games and finished fifth in the conference behind Harvard, Brown, Princeton, and Dartmouth, respectively.
“I’m a little bit disappointed we didn’t finish in the top four of the Ivy League,” Fuller said. “With that said, those four teams finished ahead of us for a reason, and I would expect all four to get into the NCAA Tournament, which would set a record for the Ivy League.”
In addition to the missed opportunities that cost them later in the season, the Red and Blue have also struggled with inconsistency.
At the beginning of the season, the Quakers traveled to California where they defeated current No. 14 San Diego and tied San Diego State, two very good teams.
Just over two weeks later, however, Penn lost 5-0 at Penn State in its most lopsided game of the season. The Quakers then kicked off Ivy League play by failing to earn a win against two lower-tier teams, Cornell and Columbia.
“We dug ourselves a big hole early,” Barnett said. “In the middle, though, we got two good wins against Yale and Brown.
“But it’s tough to have to win five straight games in conference; we needed to come out better early in the Ivy League season.” he added.
Overall, Fuller was satisfied with how his team matured throughout the season. Penn entered with nine new starters after graduating 12 seniors from last year’s Ivy title-winning squad.
Regardless, next year’s team should be able to build on the experience gained this season.
“We have ten starters coming back next year,” Barnett said. “And after this year, I think everyone is going to have a little extra fire, so that we can do better than how we did this year.”
