Behind Enemy Lines with Dartmouth midfielder Emma Brush

Penn’s women’s soccer team will take on Dartmouth under the lights at Rhodes Field tomorrow at 5pm. In advance of this matchup, we caught up with the Ivy League's third-leading goal-scorer, Emma Brush, on her mindset regarding the matchup.

Daily Pennsylvanian: As the third-leading scorer in the Ivy League, what factors have allowed you to become such a great scorer?

Emma Brush: I think a lot of it is motivation from what my teammates are doing. So I look at our back line and they have gotten a shutout in six of our last seven games and the only time we’re not gonna get a result is if we’re not scoring. After tying UNH 0-0 and Johns Hopkins 0-0, I realized - especially as a forward and fifth-year player - I really need to make it my responsibility to score a goal and get on the board because that’s what I can do best for the team. If I went into a game thinking I would get on the board, I was more likely to do so.

DP: What are the keys to the matchup at Penn this weekend?

Brush: It’s an away game and Penn is physical. They’ve got a lot of heart and lot of drive. We have to make sure we come out with lots of intensity, way more than they bring. If we do that, we can set the tone of the game, and hopefully keep doing the things we have done well to get a result. But I really do think it comes down to how we come out, from the very beginning.

DP: Do you have a plan to thwart Penn’s shutdown defense?

Brush: I think that has to do with us using a wide variety of attacks, really switching it up. I think we have proven that we’re really good at going wide and crossing the ball in. But if Penn shuts us down wide, then we can change our minds and centralize. We’re gonna try to get a lot of shots on the keeper. We have our outside back who can drive the ball up field and serve it in. We have attack coming from a lot of different points on the field and I think that will be a good way to take down their defense.

DP: How will you guys handle Penn’s offense?

Brush: I just hope our defense will keep doing what they’ve been doing. Strong individual performances, but also cohesion as a back line. And it all starts with our keeper Tatiana [Saunders]. She has been a great leader in the back, and if she continues to do that, along with our center back and direct the back line so that we’re all on the same page, I think we’ll really be able to stop them. And then it applies to the entire field. Like our center mids, Kim [Rose] and Marina [Moschitto], are both captains, they know what it takes, they know how to go in hard, they know how to stop shots, and give us turnovers. So I think that’s important as well.

-by Corey Henry