F. Hockey falls again, drops to 0-3

The Penn women's field hockey team continued its early season woes yesterday against the Lafayette Leopards losing 4-2.

The loss was the team's third straight and dropped the Quakers' record to a dismal 0-3.

Penn struggled on both sides of the ball in last night's defeat.

While the offense was able to generate 11 corners, Penn was largely unable to capitalize, as it netted only two goals for the second straight game.

The Red and Blue fired 18 shots at Lafayette goalie Casey Devlin. The shot total was the most they have had so far in the season's early stages.

The defense gave up four goals for the third time in as many tries.

"Giving up four goals a game has been the problem," Penn coach Val Cloud said. "We have to start playing a lot smarter and tougher in our end. They get so much pressure on our defense and it makes them very tired."

Penn was able to get on the board first, jumping out to a 1-0 on Cecilia Carriquiry's third goal of the young season.

Lafayette came storming back right before the half.

Defensively, the Quakers were just no match for the one-two punch of Meredith Hahn and Megan Monahan.

Within a three-minute span the two were able to hook up for two goals, both scored by Hahn and assisted on by Monahan.

"They are a dynamo pair," Cloud said. "They just play together so well, they are very difficult to defend."

Defending Hahn and Monahan has been a struggle for Lafayette foes all season.

"We aren't the first team that they have done this to," she said.

The Leopards would not relinquish the lead in the second half as Jen Stone capped off the Leopards' scoring with two second half goals of her own.

Her first goal, which gave Lafayette a 3-1 lead, was assisted by Hahn, completing her three-point evening.

"We need to stop offensive momentum," Cloud said. "They are getting into the defensive zone too easily and that makes it very hard."

Jackie Lang also tallied her third goal of the season, scoring on Anna Mitchell's first assist of the season.

Things don't look to get any easier for the Red and Blue as they move from their preseason games into league play.

The Quakers travel to Cornell on Saturday to play their second Ivy League game of the season.

After winning the first game of the season, 4-1, over Stanford the Big Red have dropped their last two.

Lafayette beat them 4-3 in a game that needed overtime to decide a winner. No. 19 Kent State shut out Cornell 1-0 to hand them their second-straight loss.

Much like the Leopards, Cornell is led by a "dynamo" offensive duo of its own.

The Big Red are anchored by junior Carissa Mirasol and sophomore Stephanie Maher.

The two have combined to score nine points in three games to lead the way for Cornell.

In order for Penn to pick up its first victory of the season, the Quakers will need to pick up the intensity and pressure on both sides of the ball.

The Quakers begin against Cornell at 12:00 in Ithaca, N.Y.

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