Harvard Looks For Revenge Over Penn

The final whistle of the 2007 season provided a bittersweet moment for the Harvard women’s soccer team. Sure, the squad had turned in its best campaign in quite some time, racking up 10 wins for first-year coach Ray Leone. But the 1-0 loss to Penn dropped the Crimson below .500 in league play, and established the Quakers—who had already clinched the Ivy title—as the team to beat in the Ancient Eight.

Tomorrow evening at 7 p.m., these two teams will resume Ivy play against each other as Harvard (3-2-2) travels to Penn (3-3-1, 0-0) to take on the defending conference champions. This time around, the Crimson hopes to send a message on a potential shifting of power at the top of the league standings.

“Our team is really excited to get into the Ivy League,” captain Nicole Rhodes said. “We’re just trying to play good soccer and hopefully get a win.”

Harvard enters this weekend’s matchup on a six-game unbeaten streak after Tuesday’s scoreless tie at Fairfield. Thus far, the season’s highlight reel includes a 2-1 win over previously-unbeaten Davidson, a 2-1 overtime victory over Northeastern, and, last weekend, a 1-1 draw with 12th-ranked Boston College. But if the team can’t start on the right foot against the Quakers, these high points will mean little.

“It’s something we focus on all season,” Rhodes said. “Building and leading up to the Ivy League is our focus.”

In last year’s season-ending meeting, the Crimson felt an all-too-familiar thorn in its side: a lack of offensive production. As junior goalkeeper Lauren Mann enters her third year as the cream of the league crop in net, the team’s struggles for goals and wins have gone hand-in-hand.

The signs in the offseason and early going in 2008 all point to upward movement in the standings for Harvard. Last year’s talented freshmen and sophomores are a year older and wiser, and Leone recruited a solid crop of rookies—highlighted by early scoring leader Melanie Baskind (three goals, two assists)—to complement the core already in place. Old standbys Erin Wylie (two goals) and Katherine Sheeleigh (one goal, two assists) give the Crimson a dangerous trifecta up top.

Still, Mann and her reliable back line will have their hands full with an opportunistic Penn offense. Sophomore Sarah Friedman, who has had her way in enemy territory this season, is the player to watch for the Quakers—and for an early Ivy Player of the Year pick. So far, Friedman has figured into nine of the team’s 11 goals (two goals, seven assists) and leads the league in assists per game.

Penn’s mediocre record thus far speaks to the quality of its opponents: the last four teams it had played before Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over UMBC have combined for a .797 winning percentage in 2008. This strength of schedule should have the Quakers more than ready to defend their title. In cruising to a shutout victory last night, they used goals from three different scorers.

Perhaps the most daunting: Penn’s 2007 roster included not one senior, so everyone is back for coach Darren Ambrose. Just as the Crimson returns with another year under its belt, so do the Quakers.

“They’re the defending champions, they’re returning every player, basically, and they’re playing at home,” Leone said. “They’re going to be quite a challenge for us.”

But while Leone and his team recognize the strength of their first opponent, they realize that the key to a win tomorrow—and throughout their Ivy slate—rests with them: their ability to keep pressure out of their own zone and to create more chances up top.

“We’ve got to focus on our play,” Leone said. “That will be the main focus of our week.”

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.