Penn men's soccer gets ready for matchup with Brown

Penn currently sits alone atop the Ivy League. But with three games left for everybody, the standings don’t seem to be done shifting yet.

This weekend, Penn (6-7-1, 3-0-1 Ivy) travels to Providence to take on Brown. The last four matchups between the two schools have resulted in a 1-0 score with two going to the Quakers and two to the Bears.

“I think they are a really difficult team to break down and I think we’ve improved defensively as the year’s gone on,” coach Rudy Fuller said. “And in this type of game at this time of year I would imagine it is going to be a tight game with not a lot of chances.”

With five shutouts this year heading into the matchup against Brown (5-6-3, 1-1-2), the Quakers certainly have defensive integrity. But Fuller thinks that there is still room to improve.

“I think one of the things we feel that we can get better at is winning the ball higher up the field and not playing as much in our back half,” Fuller said. “So when we are attacking and turn it over, can we win it back higher up the field rather than allowing the other team in our end?”

But being at the top of the league one year doesn’t dictate where a team might fall the next. Junioradded year Kamar Saint-Louis attributes this to the cyclical nature of the league.

Because starters that play longer together often mesh better, certain teams can be unstoppable one year and then fall right into the middle or bottom of the pack the next season.

“The perfect example is Cornell,” Saint-Louis said. “Last year, that group of guys had been playing together for two, three years so you know in terms of chemistry, they all put it together their senior year. And this year it’s a kind of new team, so they are struggling a bit more.”

Penn’s squad stands in contrast to the shift at Cornell as Penn has shot up the standings after struggling in 2012.

“On our end, we have a bunch of guys that started last year as first-year starters, didn’t do as well,” Saint-Louis said. “But a year of playing together and a year of starting under our belts and now we’re starting to put it all together with a few key freshmen additions and a few guys that were hurt coming back.”

The league continues to grow tighter every year. The team that comes out on top is not necessarily much more talented than the rest, but has the best “intangibles.”

“I think much of college soccer, but especially for us, is going to be the intangible stuff: the attitude, the determination, the chemistry within the team,” Fuller said.

Saint-Louis agrees with Fuller that an Ivy title for the Quakers will not depend on talent alone, but rather their ability to not get complacent.

“Because we are coming from a position where we weren’t as good last year as we are now and we didn’t win as many games,” Saint-Louis said. “[So] being at the top of the league is a new thing for us, so we want to keep our foot on the gas pedal and not get complacent and stay focused.

“If we stay tight and together and focused and crisp in the attack and just really keep fighting like it’s game one of the Ivy League, then I don’t see why we can’t win it going forward.”

SEE ALSO

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