Although her squad defeated Ivy League foe Cornell by a score of 14-2 last season, Penn women’s lacrosse coach Karin Brower Corbett says Sunday’s matchup in Ithaca, N.Y. should not be taken lightly.
“I think that’s always nerve-racking, beating an Ivy League team by a lot the year before,” she said. “You don’t know what the team will think of that, and how lightly they’ll take people.”
Last season’s outing may be misleading, however, as the Big Red (2-5, 1-1 Ivy) finished nineteenth in the nation and fourth in the League.
Although the No. 7 Quakers (7-1, 2-0) walked away from Cornell’s Schoellkopf Field victorious last time they visited, Corbett does not have fond memories of the team’s trip to Ithaca.
“There’s no question, it’s a tough trip. They love their field and they’re good,” she said. “I don’t really remember many years that we’ve played well there, to be quite honest.”
But it seems that the Quakers have not been playing their best at home either. In Wednesday’s 11-7 victory over Johns Hopkins, Penn let its guard down after halftime, allowing the Blue Jays to score five goals in the second period.
Corbett attributed this scoring spree to a lack of focus — particularly in Penn’s transition game — which she has been making efforts to amend this week in practice.
“We’ve been working and analyzing film and figuring out new ways to bring [the ball] up the field,” senior co-captain Emma Spiro said. “We’re one of the top teams in the country, we have the skills to do it. We just really have to execute.”
This uncharacteristically poor play in the midfield could be a determining factor in the game’s outcome, as both Cornell and Penn are ranked one and two, respectively, in turnovers committed in the Ivy League.
Not only will the Quakers have to step up their midfield play, but their solid defense will have to come out strong against Big Red sophomore attack Jessi Steinberg, who has tallied 18 goals this season — ten more than any of her teammates.
Steinberg is ranked fourth in the League with an average of 2.83 goals per game.
“We’ll have a matchup on her, but we’re a helping defense and there’s seven of us out there and we’ll be ready to slide no matter who it is,” Spiro said. “No one player is going to beat our defense.”
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