In taming the Princeton Tigers last Saturday at Rhodes Field, the Penn women's soccer team secured an automatic bid to the NCAA College Cup and clinched a share of the Ivy crown.
For this year's squad, that wasn't quite enough.
The Quakers overcame what their coach deemed an early week "celebratory hangover" to outlast the Crimson 1-0 Saturday afternoon in Cambridge, Mass. In so doing, the Red and Blue became the first team in program history to claim the outright title in the Ancient Eight.
"It's a huge accomplishment," captain Natalie Capuano said. "It says so much for this team and for the whole program."
"I'm extremely proud to be associated with group of kids," coach Darren Ambrose said. "Having that sole possession and being known as the team that won the league on [its] own, it's very significant."
As they have done all season, the Quakers (13-3-1, 6-1 Ivy) got on the board early and never looked back.
In the fifteenth minute, sophomore Jessica Fuccello tallied her League-leading eleventh goal of the season, redirecting a shot from classmate Jess Rothenheber after Rothenheber had received the cross from classmate Mara Fintzi.
"I beat the defender [and] had a little bit of time to get the cross off," Fintzi said. "Rothenheber had a good strike on it, and Fuccello slid and got a touch on it."
Fuccello's eleven goals place her in a fifth-place tie on Penn's all-time single-season scoring list.
From then on, the match rested in the hands of the defense, which had allowed just one goal in its previous three contests.
On Saturday, the back four and midfielders were up to the task yet again, allowing just one shot on goal in the first half and none in the second.
"In the second half, as you would expect, a team that's at home and down a goal came at us pretty hard," Ambrose said. "I think we absorbed a lot of pressure, [and] I don't really think they got a significant chance."
Part of Penn's effective defense was its persistently aggressive offense. Even with the lead, the Quakers remained on the attack throughout the match, outshooting Harvard 8-3 in the second half despite the Crimson's desperate attempts to tie the score.
With the Ivy title in hand, Penn now awaits word on its NCAA College Cup matchup, to be announced tonight at 8 p.m. on the ESPNews selection show.
