Penn women's soccer to build on record-setting year

A year after the Penn women’s soccer team achieved the greatest regular-season winning percentage in school history and delivered 13 shutouts, it’s back to square one.

At least that’s how coach Darren Ambrose is approaching the upcoming season.

“We’re just trying to get our game legs right now,” Ambrose said. “We’ve done okay, we’re reasonably fit.”

Thanks to the return of several key components from last year’s squad, the Quakers should find themselves well past square one soon enough.

Junior Kerry Scalora returns after having last season cut short by injury. She earned Ivy League and Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year honors in 2010 and figures to be a major force in Penn’s offensive attack once again.

“It’s been about 10 months since the surgery so I feel pretty much normal,” Scalora said. “The strength in my leg is probably about 97 percent. I feel strong. I wouldn’t put myself in a situation where I would play if I didn’t feel like I was 100 percent.”

Ambrose agreed.

“She’s in pretty good shape,” he said. “She’s got to get her game legs. But she looks good the way she’s been.”

Scalora’s injury didn’t come without a lesson.

“I had never been injured before and I learned a lot about myself,” she said. “I climbed to the top of the pedestal and had to kind of get shot back down and work myself back up again.

“I was developed as a player completely but maybe I needed to develop a little bit more as a person. My only role wasn’t on the field — it was helping players off the field.”

But Scalora also learned that her teammates can get by on the field just fine without her. Midseason injuries to both her and 2011 senior captain Ursula Lopez-Palm resulted in greater offensive responsibilities for the younger players on the team — four of Penn’s top six scorers were underclassmen and three were freshmen.

“Last season we scored 39 goals, gave up seven and we were 14-2-1,” Ambrose recalled. “So I don’t really see what we lacked last season. I think [Scalora] adds some power, she has an ability to score goals from the left-hand side. She’s an additional threat for us.”

“I thought the underclassmen definitely produced a harder offensive attack last year,” Scalora said. “If anything, they made up for [my absence] completely.”

Scalora and company will have to find their game legs more quickly than Ambrose would like.

“Unfortunately, the way the Ivy League allows us to schedule, our first game will be against James Madison,” Ambrose said. “So we’ve got our work cut out for us, that’s for sure.”

The Quakers will host the Dukes at Rhodes Field on Friday seeking their second all-time victory over the program after eking out a 1-0 win last year. Sunday, Penn hosts Temple for the first time since 2005. Both matches are critical early-season tests for a team that has all the potential to take the Ivy crown.

“We just have to push each other a little bit more,” Ambrose said.

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