A championship is a championship, right? The Penn field hockey team (8-8, 4-2 Ivy) faces Princeton (12-4, 5-1 Ivy) this Friday for a share of the Ivy League title - a potentially small share.
Penn, Cornell, Harvard and Columbia all enter their final Ivy game with a 4-2 league record. Sitting pretty at 5-1, only the Tigers control their own destiny.
"It kind of sucks that if we do win it we have to share it with half the league," senior captain Meghan Rose said.
"But, I mean, a championship's a championship."
Claiming even a piece of the title will be no easy task. Princeton has won eight games in a row, outscoring opponents 33-7 over that span.
The Tigers' only losses on the road this year have been against No. 16 American and No. 2 Maryland.
Coach Val Cloud remains confident.
"We've beaten [Princeton] before. We've upset them for the championship before," she said, referring to her team's 2004 Ivy title. "They take us seriously, and we take them seriously."
A win this Friday gives Cloud's team a chance at an NCAA berth as well.
"Our freshman year we were [Ivy League] co-champs and, unfortunately, did not get to go to the [NCAA] tournament," senior Nicole Black said. "It means everything. We've worked for four years."
Black, who leads the team in goals and total points, noted that the senior class has been leading the way.
"When we step up as a class it really gives strength to the whole team as a unit."
The Quakers will need all the strength they can muster. Princeton has claimed at least a share of the Ivy League title 13 of the last 16 years.
Cloud's advice to her team is simple.
"I'll say to them . don't try and be the hero, just play as a team."
"Come with your 'A'-game," she added.
The Quakers will be seeing black and orange through the end of the week; Cloud gave the team Monday off from practice and had a Halloween party Tuesday night.
"We had a best-costume award and goodies afterwards," Cloud said.
The 2004 Quaker team that upset Princeton was the last to earn a league title. It ended up with 13 wins. Although this year's squad is only at .500, Cloud says they are better in some respects.
"Definitely this team's more individually talented," Cloud said. "But they haven't showed the heart that team had."
That heart better show Friday if the Quakers want to keep playing.
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