The Penn women's soccer team closed yesterday's practice by chasing a group of geese that had wandered onto Rhodes Field.
Not what one would expect from a team that just suffered its first loss of the season. The Quakers, however, are not in bad spirits after Saturday's 2-1 overtime home loss to Dartmouth.
"We did some very good things," Penn coach Darren Ambrose said. "Yes, we're disappointed that we didn't win the game, but we took a lot of positive things away from it."
The Red and Blue (4-1-1) look to get back to their winning ways when they take on next-door neighbor Drexel (3-5-1) tomorrow at 45th and Market streets in a non-league matchup.
The Quakers are not concerned about being able to bounce back after such a heartbreaking loss, even though half the members of the team are freshmen.
"It was a good first Ivy League experience for our young players," Penn junior mid-fielder Jen Valentine said. "Everyone -- not just the young players -- learned something from Saturday's game, and we'll improve."
Ambrose is especially concerned about improving the speed of the Quakers, as he felt they did not move the ball across the field quickly enough in Saturday's loss.
The Quakers will also look to try to convert scoring opportunities today. ,Penn has scored just two goals in the last three games and squandered opportunities to put away the Big Green on Saturday.
"There were aspects of play that Dartmouth controlled that we should have been able to [control]," Ambrose said. "We shouldn't have been in the position to have been put away by a penalty kick."
The Quakers look to address those problems area in today's game against the Dragons before they move into the heart of their schedule. After tomorrow, they have a home game against Cornell and a rescheduled match against Lehigh before traveling to crosstown rival St. Joe's.
The first concern, however, is tomorrow's test against Drexel, a team the Quakers shut out, 4-0, at Rhodes Field last season. The Red and Blue watched the tape of the Dartmouth game and assessed the mistakes they made at yesterday's practice.
"We're putting our competitive nature to the test," Ambrose said. "We need to put our foot on the gas now."
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