Stingy defense, timely offense has Penn women off to 6-1-0 start

Penn’s women’s team improved to 6-1-0 on the year after a pair of shutouts over Maryland opponents over the weekend.

The Quakers hosted UMBC on Friday night and picked up their third straight win behind a brace from Kelsey Andrews and a combined shutout from Ashley Gabor and Kitty Qu. Two days later they traveled to Maryland to take on Towson and came home with a 1-0 win.

Emily Sands (West Chester, Pa.) scored the game’s lone goal in the 48th minute off an assist from Sasha Stephens and Qu made seven saves to record her fourth clean sheet of the season and 14th solo shutout of her career (a new program record). The goal was Sands’ third of the season to go with a pair of assists. Andrews leads the team with four goals.

Penn has outscored opponents 15-3 through their first seven matches. Incredibly, there are 14 teams in the nation that have conceded fewer than the three goals the Quakers have allowed this season.

Those goals came in a 4-2 win over Navy in Annapolis and a 1-0 loss at home to NC State.

While Penn has had an impressive start to their 2018 campaign, La Salle isn’t far behind their city rivals with a 5-1-1 record.

Madison Bower scored her fifth of the season and her fourth game-winner to lift La Salle to a 2-1 win over Fairleigh Dickinson last week at home. The goal doubled the Explorers lead after Molly O’Brien (Media, Pa.) opened the scoring in the fifth minute, but the visitors made it interesting late when Viktoria Miseljic cut the lead in half with a 76th minute penalty.

St. Joseph’s improved to 5-2-2 on the season after bouncing back from a 1-0 defeat at home to Villanova on Thursday with a 1-0 win over Cornell on Sunday. Aleksa Peev (Chalfont, Pa.) scored the game-winner on Sunday in the 67th minute off an assist from Taylor Ryan (Medford, N.J.) while Grace Bendon (Doylestown, Pa.) kept the clean sheet.

Villanova added to their St. Joseph’s win (Chlose O’Neill scoring the winner in the 31st minute) with another one-goal win over Siena at home on Monday to improve to 6-3-0 on the season.

Bri Austin, who had an assist on the game-winner over St. Joe’s, scored the 33rd minute equalizer from the penalty spot and then took advantage of a goalkeeper misplay to tap home the winner in the 93rd minut off an assist from Niki Molina.

Drexel made it three matches without a win after losing in overtime at Providence on Thursday and playing to a scoreless draw at Princeton on Sunday.

Doylestown native Shaelyn McCarty’s fourth of the season put the Dragons up in the 35th minute in Rhode Island, but a pair of goals from Hannah McNulty in the second half and in overtime was the difference.

The Dragons head into Colonial Athletic Association play this week with a 3-2-4 non-conference record.

Temple put an end to their four-game skid with a convincing 3-0 win at Wagner on Sunday in Staten Island.

Morgan Morocco (Burlington, N.J.) opened the scoring with her first of the season in the 6th minute and Jules Blank (Philadelphia, Pa.) added her third and Emma Wilkins (Galloway, N.J.) her fifth in the second half. Morgan Basileo (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Jordan Nash didn’t have to make any saves for their combined clean sheet in goal.