Penn women’s soccer won only two games in 2024, its worst-performing season since 1991.
After just one offseason, the team has made a 180-degree turn — doubling the previous season’s win total in its first nine games. Despite going winless in its last three matches — dropping two to Villanova and Princeton, and tying Dartmouth, 1-1 — the team has still succeeded in eclipsing last season’s goal total in nine fewer matches.
Next up? A weekend trip to Rhode Island to take Brown on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN+). The inspiration behind their sudden improvement? An intervention.
» READ MORE: St. Joseph’s is playing the role of tortoise in the race to another NCAA tournament appearance
“Some of the things that we did in the spring were ideas that the players had shared and things that they wanted a little bit more of,” said Dr. Krissy Turner, Penn head coach. “We said, ‘Great, we’ll give you everything that you want to provide the environment that you think you need to be successful.’”
Honest conversation
Last December, the players held their own postseason meetings. Veteran leaders on the team, including Mallory Lucas, decided that something had to change after the team failed to make the Ivy League playoffs for the second straight year.
Senior leadership decided to open a dialogue with Dr. Turner, who was hired in 2022, challenging her to hold the team to a higher standard.
“I feel like the first time we pulled her aside was right when we got back from Christmas break, when we were starting our spring training…,” Lucas said. “I think we are just a little frustrated having gone through three losing seasons, not doing super well out of conference, not doing well in the Ivy League either. We were like ‘something needs to change and it’s going to have to start with us.’”
Turner and her coaching staff took the players’ feedback to heart, revamping training, film, and practice rules heading into the new season.
“I don’t really care whose idea it is, I couldn’t care less,” Dr Turner said. “ …let’s try to operate in the space of, if it’s a great idea, let’s do it. And it doesn’t matter if it’s my idea or [assistant coach] Fred [King’s] idea, or [fellow assistant] Boomer [Steigelman’s] idea, or the players’ idea, I don’t care, it doesn’t matter to me. What matters is what’s going to best serve the team.”
All new attitude
Turner responded to the athletes with an open ear, but described the relationship between coach and player as a “two-way street.”
“We come together and agree that both groups have to be better, but we have to be better together, we can’t be better separate, because being better separate isn’t going to cure this,” Dr. Turner said. “…We need certain things from them, and they need certain things from us.”
» READ MORE: Penn lands commitment from three-star basketball recruit Isaiah Carroll
For every bit of effort the coaching staff applies to meeting the players’ needs, Turner expects every bit of effort returned on the pitch.
“We have this newfound sense of accountability where if the level isn’t high enough, we’re going to say something about it,” said Abbey Cook, a senior forward for the Quakers.
Win above all else
The team has been unrelenting since opening the season with a 5-0 win over Mount Saint Mary’s, a match that saw five different players score a goal.
While Cook and Lucas lead the team in shots attempted and shots on goal, the Quaker offense truly depends on team play, with four players being tied for top scorer and nine players having notched a goal so far this season.
And despite the early success, the team didn’t implement these changes to have a good start to the year — but a good end.
“We want to make it to the Ivy tournament, we wanna make it to the NCAA tournament,” Lucas said. “That was our number one goal and with that I think a lot of the past seasons obviously that was the goal as well.”