With the Ivy League still undecided, the men’s soccer team could put itself back in the thick of things with a win this weekend.

After dropping two of their first three conference contests, a win against visiting Penn (8-2-3, 2-1 Ivy) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Reese Stadium would move the Bulldogs (5-6-2, 1-2) up considerably in Ivy League standings, and tie them with the Quakers, who are currently knotted at second in the conference.

In a contest that pits two of the Ivy League’s strongest defenses against each other, goals will surely be hard to come by. The Quakers lead the Ivy League with only 10 goals conceded. But the Bulldogs are not far behind, having given up just one more goal so far this season, tying them for second in the conference with Harvard (7-3, 3-0) and Dartmouth (6-5-1, 1-1-1) in goal against average.

The discrepancy lies on offense, with the Quakers having scored 25 goals to Yale’s 13 so far this season.

Following his team’s 0-0 overtime tie with No. 15 UConn (9-3-3), Yale head coach Brian Tompkins said Penn’s technical skill is something that his squad will have to deal with in order to be successful on Saturday.

“Penn is a very good technical soccer-playing team,” he said. “We’re going to need to be very sharp. …We need to show the same kind of tactical discipline, the same level of self-belief that we had tonight.”

The Bulldogs lost their last two contests against the Quakers, losing 2-1 in overtime last season on the road and falling 1-0 at Reese Stadium in 2006.