No need to adjust to Bulldogs' Brown

When the Penn women’s soccer team hosts Yale tomorrow at 5 p.m. on Rhodes Field, it won’t be thinking of how to adjust to the second-place team in the Ivy League.

Instead the Quakers (8-3-2, 2-2) will attempt to force the Bulldogs (8-5, 3-1 Ivy) to adjust to them.

However, the offensive prowess of junior Becky Brown, the League’s second-leading goal scorer — she’s netted 11 goals this season — may be tough for Penn’s defense.

“We’ve played [Becky Brown] for two years already,” junior defender Kaitlin Campbell said. “She’s fast but she’s nothing we haven’t seen or had to prepare for.”

Coach Darren Ambrose agrees.

“We don’t go into it with the idea of man-marking. Our philosophy has always been [to] try to impose ourselves on the other team,” he said. “We’re good enough and play well enough to make other teams worry about us.”

Campbell also stressed that despite Yale’s record, “Every Ivy team is aggressive and strong and wants to win, so it just comes down to fighting it out, just like every other game.”

Ambrose will be paying close attention to the team’s transition play after focusing on it heavily in practice.

“Our transitions have to be good both ways,” he said. “That’s something we’ve talked about all year, some games we’ve done really well with it, some games we’ve struggled with it.”

The Bulldogs and Quakers share a similar aggressive style, as both have averaged more than two goals a game this season.

“It’s fun to play against a team that tries to play the game the way that we do,” Ambrose said.

An interesting facet of the game will be who sees time on the field. Senior Jess Rothenheber thinks the depth of the bench and the overall strength of the team will prove itself Saturday.

“Our underclassmen, especially our freshmen, are doing really well, so I [think] they’re going to make an impact,” she said.

But according to Ambrose, “the best players will play on Saturday.”

Although the players that have more experience are at an advantage, those that have worked hard in practice still have the opportunity to impact the outcome of the game, as there is no fixed line up.

“In every practice everyone’s fighting for their position, nothing is set in stone at all,” Campbell said.

The Quakers will also be looking to work off the momentum they gained last weekend in a win over Dartmouth.

Yale suffered a loss to Ivyleader Harvard last weekend and will be looking to improve their League play.

“They won’t be letting in a lot of goals,” Ambrose said, “[Goals] are hard to come by, especially against a good team like that.”

The Bulldogs’ opponents have averaged 1.08 goals a game. Penn, however, can very well compete with Yale’s defense, as they have allowed an average of 1.33 goals per game.

In addition, the Quakers are hoping to use Rhodes Field to their advantage. The team is undefeated on its home turf, while two of Yale’s five losses have come on the road.

“The girls are more comfortable with the routine and the field,” Ambrose said. “We’ve always played well here and done well, so it’s always nice to play at home.”

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