For the the men's soccer team, it's pretty simple.
Beat Harvard, and take home Penn's second Ivy League Championship in 28 years. Lose or tie, and start praying for an at-large bid.
When the Quakers face off tomorrow night against the Crimson (11-4-0, 5-1-0 Ivy) - who lead the Quakers (10-2-4, 4-1-1) by only two points - the Ivy trophy will be on the line.
Fortunately for the Red and Blue, though, they control their own destiny. A win would give the team at least a share of the title and, by virtue of its Oct. 18 win over Dartmouth, the Ivy League's automatic bid.
"This is why I play soccer, this is why I think we're all competitive players," senior forward Omid Shokoufandeh said.
"For moments like this, where it's all on the line and it's all about who comes out harder, who plays better and who's there to finish."
And though the Quakers technically find themselves in a tie with the Big Green for second place, few would deny that this game features the Ancient Eight's two best teams.
They're one and two in goals and assists and feature many of the League's best players. Harvard senior Michael Fucito and junior Andre Akpan - who last week became the school's all-time leading scorer - pace the team and conference, with 22 and 24 points, respectively. Feeding them the ball is senior John Stamatis, tops in the Ivies for assists.
They'll be squaring off against Penn senior Drew Healy, who tied the school shutout record with his 10th goose egg last week against Princeton.
But Harvard freshman Austin Harms is the only player to allow fewer goals per game. Since taking over the starting job on Oct. 4, Harms has allowed only four goals over 10 games.
The Quakers know, however, that they are a tough team to beat when they're playing their style.
"They've got a lot of guys who can hurt you," Healy said. "But I think as a group we'll be determined and we'll just play the way we've been playing."
Penn hopes to not get too caught up in the external factors surrounding the game. It is more important, coach Rudy Fuller said, to look at how to beat the opponent than to look ahead at the significance of a potential win.
"If you buy a model car, you have to follow the instructions to put the car together," he said.
"You can't just look at the final picture and have it be guesswork. So what we're trying to do is focus on the next play, focus on what we need to do step-by-step within the game and we feel that if we do that, we're going to give ourselves a good chance to be successful."
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