Four losses and each by one goal. Three wins and each by one goal.
Close games and parity are rampant within the Ivy League, but this year Penn was afflicted by what is becoming the Ivy’s least predictable sport.
“As I look back on my four years, there have only been only two or three games decided by more than one goal,” senior center back Jake Levin said. “We knew from the very start of the season in the Ivy League the parity is incredible.”
Penn wrapped up its season on Saturday night in Cambridge after hat-trick hero Thomas Brandt led a 3-2 come-from-behind victory against Harvard, which played down a man for much of the game.
“You always want to win the last game,” midfielder Nick Unger said. “But this is not how we wanted the season to end. It was just a year where the ball wasn’t bouncing our way.”
It was a storybook ending to an otherwise disappointing year given the program’s high expectations heading into the season.
The Red and Blue came into the year with only five returning starters, but eager to build upon the success of an NCAA win against Bucknell in 2010. However, after starting the year 5-2-1, the Quakers sputtered just as the Ivy slate began, losing five of seven.
The result was a sub-.500 season for Penn.
“We’re comfortable playing in those types of games, but unfortunately in those first five games the results just went against us,” Levin said.
Even the standings look very different from last year. Dartmouth and Brown shared this year’s title after finishing in the middle of the pack a year ago, while defending champion Princeton finished in seventh and Cornell, a last place finisher in 2010, challenged for the title up until the last game of the season.
Nevertheless, after a disappointing campaign, the Quakers will have to adjust to the loss of key pieces that helped lead Penn to last year’s NCAA victory.
Coach Rudy Fuller will have to replace two center backs in Brandt and Levin, who have been paired together the last two years, and Eric Guo, who was plagued with injury for much of the early part of the season.
Penn will also miss its fulcrum in attack, Christian Barreiro, and the versatile Unger.
While the Quakers will lose some key mainstays, they also have a young nucleus developing, including four freshman who saw major playing time.
“To get exposure to the Ivy League is great for any young player,” Unger said. “To see the intensity, the rivalries that have been established throughout the years … and getting that experience is valuable.”
While it would be easy to say that the Red and Blue have a bright future, it may not matter. In this new-look Ivy League soccer, a bright future, an entire off-season, or a great start to the year can be thrown off by one goal.
