After a poor end to last season, Penn women's soccer eyes the Tigers

For Penn women’s soccer team, 10 months has been a long time, but a new class and a new year offer another shot at a league title.

Last year with the Ivy title on the line in their regular season finale, the Quakers ran into a Princeton squad firing on all cylinders. For one of Penn’s more successful athletic programs, the disappointment of the third-place finish shows the tremendous expectation the team has year in and year out.

“The culture breeds itself and the kids have ownership of the program now, and they’re proud to be considered a contender ever year, but they realize that’s not something given to you, you earn it,” coach Darren Ambrose said.

“Overall, it’s not the question of what we do as coaches, but what we started with the program over time, how it’s grown and it attracts quality players, kids that come here that want to be in a program that want to win a league championship. We’ve done it a couple times, but we’ve been right there at the wire a couple of other times.”

Moving into first place will be anything but easy. Last year, Penn graduated a quartet who set a program record with 18 Ivy League victories over their career.

Sarah Banks, Erin Thayer, Erin Beck and Alex Dayneka helped to form one of the most successful classes that Penn women’s soccer has ever seen, finishing in the top-three in the Ivy League every year, and winning the title as sophomores in 2010.

However the graduation of the four will undoubtedly leave the team with holes to fill, particularly across the back line. The defense, which has been the strength of Penn women’s soccer teams for years, will now suddenly see many new faces.

“Every year you graduate players, and every year new kids come in,” Ambrose said. “That’s the rejuvenation of the program and … I love [them] to death, they’re great kids and they really served this program well, but it’s time to have … faith and confidence in the kids we have and the kids coming in.”

One of the questions Ambrose will face in the first few weeks of training is choosing a starting goalkeeper. Last year, Sarah Banks posted six shutouts, including four in Ivy play. Her graduation, however, will open the door for two returning keepers, junior Katherine Myhre and sophomore Kalijah Terilli, as well as freshman Carrie Crook.

“You put different complements of players together and it might take us a few days longer to figure it out, because we are graduating two off our back line and our goalkeeper,” he said. “But we have two goalkeepers who were here last year, and one that’s come in … so I’m excited for the opportunity for them.”

Due to Ivy restrictions on preseason, Penn will only have the opportunity to play two exhibitions after the start of preseason. This Ivy rule, in contrast to the NCAA rules, prevented the team from beginning to train until this Friday, a marked disadvantage in comparison to other Division I schools which began training a few weeks ago and start their regular season slate on Sept. 6. Each Ivy team will be on equal footing, and based on previous years, Penn’s quest to make it back to the NCAA tournament will be paved with challenges.

“Looking at the league, Harvard and Princeton have been up there the past few years, and Dartmouth had a great year last year.” Ambrose said. “I think this league is very unique because there is no tournament … and every game means something. At this point, it is up for grabs. We want to be in it the last two weekends.”

With a new season set to begin in two weeks, a fresh start with fresh faces means a new chase for the title.

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