PHILADELPHIA – To open its 2019 season, the University of Pennsylvania women's soccer team will embark on a cross-country trip for an early-season test like no other: third-ranked Stanford. Kickoff is set for Friday, August 30 at 10 p.m. EST, televised nationally on the Pac-12 Network.
The incredible opportunity will also serve as a reunion of sorts for the Quakers as Douglas N. Brush Head Coach of Women's Soccer Nicole Van Dyke spent three seasons as Assistant Head Coach and then a final year as the Associate Head Coach for the Cardinal, who went 81-9-7 in Van Dyke's tenure. Additionally, an astounding 15 players – half the team – hail from the Golden State.
MATCH DAY 1 – Penn (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. #3 Stanford (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12)
Friday, August 30 | 10 p.m. EST | Stanford, Calif. | Live Stats | Watch on Pac-12 Network
Series Information: First meeting
Going Going Back Back To Cali Cali…
Van Dyke's return to Stanford isn't the only going home story for the Quakers' coaching staff. Assistant coaches Melissa Phillips and Lizzy Johnson each were plucked away from the northern Calif. area to join Van Dyke in University City. Phillips became the youngest head coach in Division I when she took over Cal State Bakersfield in 2011 and stayed in Calif. before moving to Penn in 2015 while Johnson spent a combined eight years coaching youth soccer at San Mateo County Football Club – as the director – and San Bruno Lowen Soccer Club.
Home Away From Home
Fifteen Quakers call Calif. home when not in University City, ensuring the jam-packed crowd will be full of Penn supporters that normally wouldn't have the opportunity to watch the Red and Blue in person. Stanford announced on Tuesday the game was sold out.
The Sandstorm Enters TopDrawerSoccer's Preseason Top 100
Senior forward Emily Sands, who finished 2018 with an unthinkable seven game-winning goals – the third-most in the country – begins her final campaign inside TopDrawerSoccer's Preseason Top 100 watch list at No. 97. Sands led Penn last year with eight goals and two assists, earning first-team All-Ivy honors.
Ivy League Champions
Last season, Penn clinched a share of the Ivy League championship, its first since 2010 and fourth all-time. The Quakers became the first team since 2008 to win the title without winning its league opener, a 0-0 draw with Harvard. Penn shared the title with Princeton, who handed the Quakers their only league loss of the season and snatched the NCAA Tournament bid in the process.
Reloading All-Ivy Honorees
The Quakers return a bevy of difference makers from last year's championship team, including first-team All-Ivy standouts Sands and goalkeeper Kitty Qu, honorable mention All-Ivy pick Megan Lloyd and Chase Geffert, an honorable mention pick from 2017.
Defensive Prowess
Penn hung its hat largely on its organization defensively, leading the nation in multiple categories. Penn allowed just five goals in 2018 – the fewest in program history – and wrapped up the year as the nation's best in goals-against average (.30), save percentage (.924) and shutout percentage (.75). The Quakers will attempt to run it back with a stifling group, returning Qu in net, Geffert at center back and both starting outside backs in Laura Hamilton and Jadyn Wilensky. Lloyd, the holding midfielder and key cog in disrupting opponents' attacks, retakes her place just in front of the back four.
Penn went more than 1,000 minutes without conceding last year and finished with 12 shutouts in 16 matches.
Leading The Qu
Qu snapped the single-season program records for GAA (.35) and save percentage (.912) and also broke the career record for solo shutouts (19).
Winning At The Death
In 2018, Penn entered the halftime break deadlocked at 0-0 nine times. In eight of those second halves, the Quakers found the difference maker to win while drawing the other.
Sizing Up Stanford
The Cardinal enter Friday as the third-ranked team in the first United Soccer Coaches National Poll and fresh off wins over two top-15 teams. In State College, Stanford defeated No. 6 Penn State 2-1 before toppling No. 11 West Virginia 3-1. Catarina Macario and Sophia Smith were both named to the MAC Hermann Trophy watch list, the highest individual honor in college soccer. Macario garnered the award the past two seasons and ESPNW Player of the Year accolades.
#FightOnPenn
