Coach Rudy Fuller is not worried that his team will fold under pressure. The No. 13 Quakers, who are 3-0 in overtime games this season, have showed their resiliency time and time again.
Penn will need that poise under pressure Saturday when it faces Princeton.
The two teams enter the game tied for first in the Ivy League with 5-0-0 records. As a result, the winner of the game will clinch at least a share of the Ivy title and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
“The reason this team is where it is, is because the guys haven’t gotten caught up in the hype,” Fuller said.
The championship might be on the line, but the Penn squad is treating the weekend’s match like any other.
“So far, we’re just taking it like it’s another game and we’re going for the three points, but in reality this game means everything,” said midfielder Loukas Tasigianis.
The senior played a key role on Penn’s 2008 Ivy League championship team, scoring an overtime goal in the deciding match against Harvard.
However, for Tasigianis, a second Ivy title would mean even more than the first.
“For us upperclassmen, this title would mean so much more because it really is our team now, whereas last time it was mostly seniors,” he said.
While the players are different, junior Christian Barreiro sees the same hunger in this team as the 2008 champions.
“The team is ready to go out and play,” he said. “They all know what is on the line and are ready to go out and win this game.”
On the field, the Quakers will have to contain a Tigers’ attack that boasts three of the top four scorers in the Ivy League.
“They wouldn’t be in the position they’re in without being a great team,” Fuller said. “They’ve rattled off ten wins in a row and scored like 83 goals in those ten games,” he added jokingly.
In reality, the Tigers have only scored 27 goals in those ten wins, but that still puts their total well above the rest of the conference.
However, everything the two teams have achieved this season means little to the one who loses this weekend.
“We’re in a position where we have to win,” Tasigianis said. “We just can’t leave it up to the last games.”
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