W. Hoops to take on two teams from Texas

Break out the cowboy hats. Strap on your buckles, boots and spurs and turn on the country music, because here come the Texans. This weekend, the Penn women's basketball team (0-2) will have two opportunities to notch its first win of the season, and both chances will be against teams from the Lone Star State. Tonight, the Quakers will travel to Princeton to take part in the annual Penn/Princeton Ivy Challenge. Penn will take on the first of its Texas opponents when it tips off against Baylor (1-0) at 6 p.m. at Jadwin Gymnasium. The Quakers will then return to Philly to prepare for tomorrow night's game at 8 p.m. at the Palestra against Southern Methodist University (2-0). The game will be the Quakers' home opener. Both the Bears and the Mustangs are from the South West Conference, home conference of the 1992-93 National Champion Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Quakers recognize that the upcoming games against the two highly-competitive SWC teams will be tough games, as both teams style of play reflects the conference as a whole. "[The SWC] is known for its aggressive style of play and defensive intensity," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We expect very physical-type games from both teams this weekend." In order to have a successful weekend, the Quakers believe that defensively they must pressure the opponents' shots on defense, and on the other side of the floor, exhibit more patience and discretion in their shot selection. As a team, Penn is only shooting at a 32-percent clip from the floor, and the Quakers feel that there is definitely room for improvement in this aspect of their game. "I think one of the keys to this weekend will be to challenge their shooters and get back to basics," Soriero said. "Also, offensively, we need to show more patience than we have in the last few games. I'm happy to see that we are not shy to shoot the ball. We are firing up a good number of shots, but I'd like to see us hit a few more. "We are not working hard enough to find better shots which leads us to settle for some shots we maybe shouldn't take. Overall, we just need to show more patience and look for better shots." In addition to showing better judgement on the offensive end, the team feels that it needs to focus more, and not lose its concentration during the games. As a team, the Quakers feel that they know each other well enough to be able to step up to challenge and work together effectively. "We all know what to expect from each other on the floor," junior guard Katina Banks said. "We need to realize this and not lose our focus to our opponents during our games. We have high expectations for ourselves and we know we have the chemistry to play effectively on the floor." Of this weekends' matchups, the greater challenge will most likely come from the Mustangs on Saturday at home. SMU is coming off its second-consecutive highly-successful campaign and is predicted to reach the NCAA tournament this year. The Mustangs employ a run-and-gun offensive philosophy that has resulted in 37 wins in the last two seasons and a great deal of scoring. SMU is coming off a school-best 20-10 season, which also included a postseason NIT bid in which they reached the championship game before bowing out to Arkansas State. SMU expects to do more of the same on the offensive end at the Palestra, even though Penn may have the home court advantage. "It's no secret that we love to run," said SMU coach Rhonda Rompola, winner of the SWC Coach of the Year award for two years in a row. "We love to go out there and have fun and run up and down the court. Our goal is to push up the tempo in any game we are in. We also strive to step up our defensive intensity, which we will need to do since [the Quakers] will be at home." This year, the Mustangs expect to build upon their past success, as nine of last year's freshmen, who made great contributions to the team, are now more experienced sophomores. However, the Quakers see this weekend's games as an opportunity to make amends for its last loss to La Salle, and they believe that they are capable of rising to the challenges that await them from the pair of Texas teams. "In our last loss, we didn't play like we are capable of playing," senior co-captain Katarina Poulsen said. "We weren't confident out there and we started losing our concentration as things started getting to us. This weekend, I see our games as a challenge to our team, and I think we are capable of stepping up to the challenge."