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Penn Woman's Soccer Vs. Harvard at Rhodes Field Credit: Henry Lin , Henry Lin

Penn women’s soccer is looking to get the ball rolling this weekend in Ithaca after a rough start to conference play, and the team knows it will be in for a fight.

Last weekend, in its first Ivy game of the season, the Quakers suffered a tough 3-0 loss to Harvard, the defending Ivy League Champions.

Despite the loss, Penn is excited to rebound this Friday in its game against Cornell. The Quakers’ spirits remain high as they prepare to take on the Big Red, who finished last in the Ivy League in 2013.

And the team will undoubtedly be ready to redeem itself when Friday comes around.

“It was only the first game,” junior goalkeeper Kalijah Terilli said. “We have six more, and we are going to do better in all of those, so the season is not over.”

Coach Darren Ambrose echoed Terilli’s sentiments, stressing the importance of looking at the positives and learning from their loss.

“As disappointing as the loss is, losing is a part of playing sports,” he said. “And the thing about losing is what it teaches you. We have a lot of young players who are learning this year, and I’d like to think we are going to compete a lot harder.”

With young talent up front, the Red and the Blue are only looking to get stronger as the season goes on.

“We are always looking to improve,” Terilli said. “We talk about the things that we are doing well and then the things we have to work on.”

After some defensive mistakes and offensive struggles despite solid scoring opportunities against Harvard, Penn will focus on being both efficient and aggressive for all 90 minutes of its upcoming match, as all three of the Crimson’s goals came in the second half.

“We are trying to be more aggressive in the final third in the attacking part of the game,” Ambrose said. “We are trying to get to grips with the speed of the game and creating opportunities. When they fall to you, you got to take them.”

As for the competition, Cornell finished last in the league last year, but Ambrose says the game will still be a tough test.

Although Penn defeated the Big Red 1-0 at home in 2013, “they were a little young last year,” Ambrose said. “They are a little more experienced this year, so it will be a good game.”

With a second-place finish in the Ivy League last year and a first-place finish the year before, the expectations for to Penn to succeed this season are undoubtedly high. But both Terilli and Ambrose view this as a positive for the team as a whole.

“I think pressure is a good thing,” Terilli said. “Our success in the past just sort of sets a precedent so that every year we should be doing just as well or better. That’s what we strive for.”

Ambrose looks at the expectations as a complement to the program’s success.

“Consistency is what we pride ourselves on,” he said. “It’s a standard. You want to be a team that everyone respects, and I think we have earned that, but you have to work hard to keep it.

“Every Ivy League game is war.”

As the Red and Blue lace up this Friday, you can be sure they will be ready for battle.

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