Women’s Soccer: Penn defense among the nation’s stingiest

With a 2-0 win over Cornell on Saturday, the Penn women’s soccer team recorded its fourth straight clean sheet and extended its scoreless streak to 380 minutes.

Defense has been a reoccurring theme for the Quakers this season. The shutout against Cornell was their seventh of the season and they still have only conceded three times through nine matches.

Their continued dominance on the defensive end of the field moved them into a tie with North Texas for the fourth lowest goals against average in the nation at just .325 goals per game. Only two teams have conceded fewer goals than the Quakers have allowed this season — UC Riverside and North Dakota have each only conceded twice.

Kitty Qu made three saves in the match to preserve her sixth solo clean sheet of the season. The junior from Foster City, California now has 16 shutouts for her career and boasts a goals against average of .34 for the season.

Their 7-1-1 start is the best in program history.

Emily Sands (West Chester, Pa.) scored her fourth of the season in the Ivy League win while Allie Trzaska (Yardley, Pa.) scored her first of the season. Sands is tied for the team lead in goals with Kelsey Andrews and Trzaska leads the team with five assists.

In other local Division 1 women’s soccer action:

-Saint Joseph’s split a pair of league games, beating Richmond 3-0 at home on Thursday and falling 1-0 at Dayton on Sunday. Michaela Finneyfrock (Newtown, Pa.) had a brace and Hannah Racis (Womelsdorf, Pa.) added her fourth of the season in the win over Richmond. The Hawks are 7-4-2 overall and 2-2-0 in Atlantic 10 play.

-La Salle lost a pair of league games to fall to 1-3-0 in conference play and 7-4-1 overall. The Explorers blew a two-goal lead conceding three goals to Duquesne in the final half hour last Thursday and were unable to overcome a two-goal deficit in the first half in a 3-1 loss to UMass at home on Sunday. Molly O’Brien (Media, Pa.), Clarissa Kirsch-Downs and Cameren Cox (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.) scored the goals in the losing efforts.

-Villanova won their first two Big East games of the season to improve to 2-1-0 in conference play. Ciara Terabasso had a brace and Bri Austin scored to put the Wildcats up 3-0 on Marquette at home last Thursday, but they had to hang on to win 3-2 after a couple of late goals. In Cincinnati on Sunday, Claire Fell and Jasmine Ruiz scored to overcome a first half goal for Xavier in a 2-1 win.

-Drexel fell to 4-4-4 and 1-2-0 in conference after a 2-0 loss on the road to William & Mary.

-Temple has an even 2-2-0 record in the American Athletic Conference after splitting a pair of games at home, losing 3-1 to UCF on Thursday and edging South Florida 1-0 on Sunday. Gabriela Johnson (Mays Landing, N.J.) scored in both games, including a winner over South Florida in the 105th minute. The rookie forward is second on the team in goals with four. Morgan Basileo (Philadelphia, Pa.) recorded six saves for her third shutout of the season against the Bulls.