Vball loses Germanas

Harvard is not a good team?except compared to Dartmouth. The Penn volleyball team will travel north this weekend to battle the Crimson and the Big Green, two of the weaker teams in the Ivy League. The Quakers will have an excellent opportunity to begin their Ivy season with a 4-0 mark. But all is not smooth sailing for Penn (7-3, 2-0 Ivy League). The Quakers were surprised this week by junior Nida Germanas' decision to the leave the team. Germanas was a force at middle hitter. Germanas said her major, Design of the Environment, did not leave her with enough time to play volleyball. "If I were to sleep, or do anything else -- I couldn't," Germanas said. "Because of this, it caused me to re-evaluate my priorities. Right now, I don't feel great about it, but I think in the long run it will be the right decision for me. But right now it hurts." Germanas said the decision was the hardest one in her life. Feeney dismissed the notion that Penn is lucky it is playing Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend, giving the team time to adjust to the loss of Germanas. "It's very difficult that it happened at this time, regardless of who we're playing," Feeney said. Sophomore Joy Williams will get the start in place of Germanas today against Harvard. Freshman Susan Pojedinec will also see added playing time. "I think we had three really good practices," Feeney said. "Things are looking good and we're confident." Last year, Penn whipped both the Crimson and the Big Green in straight games. Harvard and Dartmouth combined for only two Ivy League wins last season. "They're both better than they were last year," senior Keri Gibson said. "We can go in confident, but not cocky. We feel that we're the stronger team, but we never know." The Crimson (3-7, 0-1) was already dominated by Brown this season. The Bears won two of the games, 15-0 and 15-2. Penn is coming off a four-game win over Brown. "Harvard is a lot like the rest of the league, with a lot of freshman," Feeney said. "I think they're improving year in and year out. It should be a good match." The Big Green (1-4, 0-0) is in its first year with varsity status. As a club team last season, Dartmouth was swept in Ivy play. "I think we definitely should come out with two wins," senior Jennifer Richmond said. "We should beat them and we're going to beat them. We're going to be 2-0 for the weekend and 4-0 in the Ivies."