SEASON PREVIEW: W. Crew begins tomorrow

Teams without a lot of dedicated members rarely have successful seasons. Last year's Penn women's crew team had the necessary dedication – however, the sheer lack of people outweighed its will to win. "We had just enough people to fill the boats," Quaker coach Carol Bower said of last year's 16-person team. Bower and senior co-captains Sonia Johnson and Melanie Onufrieff expect this season to be much more successful than last year's 10th-place finish in the Eastern Sprints. Although the fall season is merely a warmup for the all-important spring racing season, the rivalry among the Quakers to make the team is in mid-season form. "The competition [to gain a spot on a varsity boat] is so great [this year] that it will make people rise to the occasion," Onufrieff said. "We have a lot of strength, finesse and will." "People realize that we have a lot of potential," Johnson said. Bower believes that a high level of dedication and harder practices have helped elevate the Quaker program to a higher level, but nothing helps more than winning races. "We have to win a few races and make a few turnarounds so people start believing in themselves," Bower said. "[But] there are no teams with whom we can breathe a sigh of relief." Johnson remains cautious, yet optimistic on the upcoming fall season. "We want to take everything one step at a time and not look too far ahead," Johnson said. "Altogether, it's going to be a much better season." For it to be a "much better season," the younger members of the team must provide a significant boost to the success of the team. This year's sophomores, who were last year's novices, come in to their first varsity season with impressive track records, as they finished fourth in the novice level at Eastern Sprints last year. Penn will compete in the Navy Day Regatta tomorrow on the Schuylkill River. However, the first meet against other Ivy League schools will occur October 24, at the Head of the Charles competition, when the Quakers will face the reigning national champion Princeton and the rest of the Ancient Eight excluding Yale. At the Head of the Charles the Quakers may face some of their main competitors including Cornell, Radcliffe and Boston University. Bower intends to maintain a stringent practice schedule throughout the fall season, for any extra second can mean the difference between winning and losing. "If we finish 10 seconds faster or slower [than the competition,] it can make a dramatic difference in the standings," Bower said. Onufrieff feels that the team has a legitimate opportunity at finishing at the top of the Ivy League. "If we're all dedicated and committed to winning, no one knows what will happen," she said. With the dedication and commitment learned by the Quakers in only one year, indeed no one knows what will happen.