Although the men’s soccer team lost its opportunity for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament last weekend, the Red and Blue do not expect this Saturday to be their last game of the fall.
The No. 19 Quakers host Harvard in their regular season finale, and the seniors will be fighting for another opportunity to play before a home crowd at Rhodes Field.
Though Princeton clinched the Ivy League’s automatic NCAA bid last weekend, the Quakers (12-4-0, 5-1-0 Ivy) hope to grab one of the championship tournament’s 26 at-large bids.
A win over Harvard (4-7-5, 1-3-2) this weekend increases the likeliness of Penn receiving a bid and getting a preferential seeding that, according to coach Rudy Fuller, “puts Penn in a position to host a first-round game.”
However, Fuller recognizes that he has no control over the tournament seeding. As a result, the coach does not want his team to worry about the postseason just yet.
“We’ve taken this whole season one game at a time, and this game is no different,” he said. “We haven’t earned a selection yet, so all those thoughts about the postseason are a week away.”
And despite suffering a disappointing 2-1 loss at Princeton last Saturday, Fuller is not discouraged by the way his team played against the Tigers (12-3-1, 6-0-0).
“The effort and performance we gave against Princeton would be enough to win against many good teams,” he said. “We feel like the way we’re playing, we can beat anybody.”
A win over the Crimson on Saturday could also give Penn a shot at splitting the Ivy League title. If the Quakers earn a victory and No. 11 Princeton loses to Yale (3-11-2, 1-4-1), both the Tigers and the Red and Blue will sit at the top of the Ivy standings with one loss apiece.
Saturday’s game was bumped up from its original start time of 7 p.m. to 5 p.m. so that it will not conflict with the basketball season opener, and Fuller hopes that student support will give the Quakers a strong home-field advantage.
“The fans have really created an electric atmosphere in our last few games and we’re hoping that they continue to support us,” Fuller said. “Saturday is really going to be tremendous for Penn sports fans, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
