W. Soccer | Penn does some tweaking, but JMU counters with own trick

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - The Penn women's soccer team came into its first-round NCAA College Cup match against James Madison expecting to have its hands full with the Dukes' speed and athleticism.

In the game's opening minutes, it looked as if the Quakers would have no chance to stop the speed of James Madison's attacking players, let alone slow them down. With only five minutes off the clock, forward Cate Tisinger had already zoomed past the Penn defense twice in transition.

Coming away unscathed, Penn settled down, not allowing Tisinger or fellow forward Annie Lowry to cause much damage for the remainder of the half.

The game, instead, turned into a back-and-forth battle at midfield, with Penn successfully holding the ball and not letting the Dukes run in transition.

Penn's first-half adjustments kept the Quakers in the game, but it was a halftime adjustment by James Madison coach Dave Lombardo that turned the tides in his team's favor.

With both teams employing a 4-3-3 formation in the first half, Lombardo felt the even number of midfielders on each side was creating a stalemate of sorts in the middle third of the pitch, which didn't allow his attacking players to take advantage of their speed.

"There wasn't a lot of movement up top so we came out in the second half and switched to a 4-4-2 and gave our two frontrunners [Lowry and Tisinger] more area to run into," he said.

Lombardo said he felt the change also allowed his team to control the midfield better with four Dukes midfielders to Penn's three. This led to the one-minute span during which the 6-foot-1 Lowry and 5-7 Tisinger scored the game's only two goals.

Quakers coach Darren Ambrose made adjustments of his own at halftime. He felt a reason his team struggled on offense in the first frame was its lack of ability to get numbers in the box.

The Quakers did this more effectively in the second half, sending more players forward and putting the Dukes' defenders on their heels at times.

Ambrose replaced right back Ellen Gregory midway through the second half with Marisa Schoen, who had lately been used as an attacking player. Schoen often left her defensive post in the latter portion of the game, pushing forward and joining the attack.

But the change came only after the Dukes had put two up on the board, and the deficit was too much for the Quakers to overcome.

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