While the Penn women’s lacrosse team entered rare company on Wednesday by defeating Princeton for a share of the program’s seventh straight Ivy title, this weekend, senior attack Caroline Bunting will meet a familiar face.
Penn (8-4, 6-0 Ivy) travels up to Providence, R.I. to take on a Brown (9-4, 2-3) squad that needs a win to stay in contention for the final bid into the Ivy League tournament. The Bears are led by Bunting’s sister, sophomore midfield Abby Bunting, who is second on the team with 28 goals.
“There’s a lot of hype-up around it,” Caroline said. “I just look forward to playing [Abby] all the time. Obviously we have a lot of history playing with each other, and playing against each other is a lot of fun. We know each other’s tendencies. Then just being able to go out there and see her, she’ll play well, and I’ll play well, so it’ll be a nice thing to watch.”
While the Bunting sisters reunite, Caroline and her fellow Quakers will look to build off the momentum that victories over two then-undefeated Ivy foes provided, enabling them to win the Ivy League title outright.
“It’s a great thing to say that you are better than all the other Ivy League teams,” she said.
It is a short turnaround for Penn going into its final Ivy contest of the regular season. Coming off a game that ended around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, the Quakers will be on a bus heading to Providence today.
The initial shock of beating Princeton in overtime Wednesday still hasn’t worn off for junior midfield Shannon Mangini, who scored the game-winning goal with two minutes left in overtime to seal up a share of the title.
“It’s been really exciting,” Mangini said. “It’s also been surreal. Waking up this morning and just thinking, ‘We just won the Ivy League championship last night.’ And also, being the seventh [championship] in a row — it’s just incredible.”
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But Penn can’t revel in its victory over the rival Tigers for too long due to the short turnaround.
The Quakers are confident that they will be able to get up to speed on the Bears’ offense in time for Saturday’s contest.
While studying up on Brown will prove to be no problem for the Red and Blue, there is always a worry about coming out flat after playing an important game. But both Mangini and Bunting said that the team will come out with full force.
“Brown’s had a fantastic season,” Bunting said. “They’ve really picked themselves up from previous seasons. They have a lot of good scorers, but I don’t think we’re going to let up. We’ve learned our lessons from that in the past, taking opponents for granted.
“I don’t think we’re going to fall back into that hole.”
Since losing its first three games of the season, Penn has rebounded, going 8-1 since and losing only to top-ranked Maryland.
While the outright regular season title is on the line against Brown, Penn is keeping things in perspective and knows the even greater significance of the Ivy League tournament that will take place at Franklin Field just two weeks from now.
“We still have to win the tournament,” Bunting said. “So that’s really what we’re looking forward to. A title is a great thing to have, but the tournament is really what counts.”
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