Men's Soccer Kicks Off Saturday's Princeton-Penn Rivalry

Nov. 6, 2003

PRINCETON, N.J. - The men's soccer team travels to Penn this Saturday for its last away game of the year and a chance to improve to as high as second place in the Ivy League before the end of the season. Princeton is 5-7-3 overall and 2-2-1 in the conference while Penn is 5-7-2 and 1-4 in the Ivies.

With just two league games to play, the Tigers are in a four-way tie for third place and two games away from second place, which is occupied by Yale (4-1-1). If Princeton defeats Penn and Yale in the next two weekends, it can finish the 2003 season in second place behind Brown, who remains undefeated in the league.

The Tigers had a six-day break from games last week after competing in one of their toughest weeks of the year. Princeton lost 3-1 to regionally-ranked and local rival Rutgers, defeated Ivy foe Cornell 2-1 in two overtimes and fell to No. 12 Fairleigh Dickinson 4-1.

Senior co-captain and defender Jeff Hare scored two headers during the week, including the overtime gamewinner against Cornell. Princeton's other co-captain, Gianfranco Tripicchio, who has started in nearly every game of his career, scored his first collegiate goal at Rutgers to help avert the shutout. Hare and sophomore Darren Spicer are tied for the team lead in goals with four while freshmen Kyle McHugh and Jame Wunsch each have two goals and two assists.

Princeton's offense faces a Penn team that allows just 1.00 goals per Ivy League game and averages 5.11 saves. The Quakers aren't as strong on the offensive end, averaging just 10.38 shots and 2.85 points per league game. Princeton leads Penn in both categories, although in their last non-conference game, the Quakers took 21 shots and scored a season-high seven goals.

Penn comes off a landslide 7-1 win over Saint Joseph's that helped the Quakers clinch a share of the Philadelphia Soccer Seven title. Head coach Rudy Fuller was quoted in a Penn article saying, "Although it was a good result ... We need to be much sharper against Princeton this weekend."

Leading the offense for Penn is junior David Maier, who has three goals and a team-high five assists for 11 points. Junior Stephen Kroculick leads the team in goals with four while Matthew Waddell adds three goals and two assists. Matthew Haefner has played 11 games in goal, with a 1.02 GAA and a .821 save percentage. Freshman Daniel Ceparo has seen more time recently, playing in three games with a 0.67 GAA and .867 save percentage.

Princeton and Penn meet this Saturday at 11 a.m. at Rhodes Field in Philadelphia.

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