Weary W. Soccer suffers split

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Quakers had a chance to become the queens of the city this weekend. It turns out they are squarely in the middle of the pack in Philadelphia's soccer hierarchy.

After defeating La Salle at Rhodes Field 3-1 Friday, Penn was blanked on the road by Villanova 4-0 yesterday.

Coming into the weekend, coach Darren Ambrose thought his team would be able to hang with the undefeated Villanova squad (7-0-2). But the Quakers (5-2-1) were outclassed during most of the contest, athletically and in terms of effort.

Ambrose said he felt his team suffered from "dead legs" coming off a match with only one day's rest. The Wildcats seemed to want the ball more than the Quakers and almost every loose ball went to the home squad.

Villanova opened scoring just under 10 minutes in when Nikki Mabery got just enough on a Stacia Hartung cross to send it into the corner of the net. But it was the Villanova defense - which has surrendered only two goals so far this season - that caused the most problems for Penn in the first half, as the Wildcats' backs knocked the Quakers out of rhythm from the start.

"Our touch was off and we didn't connect on passes," Ambrose said. "We looked out of sync and our attack was too individual."

That is not to say the game was a complete domination. The Quakers showed spurts of quality offensive play but were unable to put the finishing pieces together.

"One of the main reasons we couldn't score was that our last pass was off by a little," forward Jessica Fuccello said. "We just didn't seem to get good shots off."

Penn seemed to be in the game, trailing 1-0 at the half, but Villanova poured it on with three second-half goals. One goal was worthy of the highlight reel - a long cross finished by an Erin Hardiman header at the far post.

Everything Penn did wrong against Villanova, it did right against La Salle (5-3). The offense was sharp and organized, as the forwards and midfielders timed runs and through balls nearly perfectly.

Jess Rothenheber gave Penn the early lead seven minutes in with a nifty chip shot into the corner of the goal. She would later get credit for another when the Explorers knocked the ball into their own net.

Villanova dictated play early in their game yesterday, but it was Penn who imposed its style of play against La Salle.

"In the first 15 minutes, we tried to make our opponent adjust to us and I thought we did a great job of that," Ambrose said. "We didn't play well the entire game but we did enough in the first half to win."

Despite Friday's victory, the Quakers will have to regroup after the shutout loss as they enter the Ivy League schedule next weekend.

"It was a great time for a good, humbling lesson," Ambrose said. "When you play well you gain a false sense of security, but we need to get better if we want to do anything in the league."

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