Entering tonight’s Ivy League home opener, Penn has not dropped a game to Cornell since 1995. During their last seven meetings, the Quakers have outscored the Big Red 18-1.
While Cornell’s 2-8-0 record (0-1-0 Ivy) doesn’t indicate much change, Penn coach Darren Ambrose isn’t putting much stock in past results.
“History does nothing for me,” he said. “I think it’s all about now and all about this group of girls.”
When Cornell last came to Rhodes Field in 2009, Penn needed a second-half goal to put the Big Red away, 2-1 — a memory senior Marin McDermott isn’t quick to forget.
“You can’t ever overlook a team, especially because that could be your upset game,” she said. “You have to think about yourself and think about playing your best.”
The Quakers (6-2-0, 0-1-0 Ivy) are coming off a 3-0 win over Youngstown State after losing two games last weekend, including their Ivy opener against Harvard. The losses also snapped the team’s five-game shutout streak to open the season.
“That’s the thing about streaks: they all come to an end at some point,” Ambrose said.
“We never really got caught up in it as much as I think other people did,” he continued. “It was nice, but that’s not what were about. It’s [about] game-to-game and performance.”
Ambrose attributed the team’s recent struggles to injury trouble, but he said that the team is ready to move forward.
“We were thrown on our heels a little bit. I think emotionally there were some questions,” he said.
“It’s been a rough time getting through [the injuries],” McDermott said. “But practice has been going well. We’ve been learning from our mistakes.”
Ambrose pointed specifically to the injuries of forwards senior Ursula Lopez-Palm and sophomore Kerry Scalora, who he called a potential Player of the Year candidate.
“Our younger players are having to grow up pretty fast,” said Ambrose, mentioning freshmen forwards Callan Parra and Megan York, two of Penn’s three goal scorers against Youngstown State.
“You can’t rush things like that. They’re freshmen — they need the experience, and they’re starting to get it,” he said. “As long as they continue to work as hard as they have worked, I think we’ll be just fine.”
“I feel really good about coming to our home Ivy opener tomorrow.”
McDermott said that the upperclassmen have stepped up to help lead the underclassmen, who are seeing more time due to injuries.
“The upperclassmen are really trying to come together, set the tone in practice, set the tone in games,” she said.
