1993-94 IVY LEAGUE W. HOOPS STANDINGS: W. Hoops attempts to gain some respect

If one does not instill fear in its adversary, one strives, at the least, to command respect. Seventeen games into the season, the Penn women's basketball team is still searching for that respect. The Quakers (5-12, 1-4 Ivy League) realize that an opponent's respect has to be earned, and their potential has to be demonstrated. Penn will have two chances to gain that respect, and at the same time send a message to the rest of the league when Ivy rivals Brown and Yale come to town for 7 p.m. contests today and tomorrow at the Palestra. Brown (10-7, 4-1), the consensus conference favorite, is living up to expectations, coming into town sitting on top of the Ivies, in a three-way tie for first with Princeton and Dartmouth. The Elis (11-6, 3-2), who are currently one game out of first place in the league, will visit the Palestra tomorrow night hoping to improve on their second-place standing. Penn will have its work cut out for it, having to deal with two competitive teams and the skeletons of the weekend past. The Quakers were swept out of New York and probably the Ivy title race when they were bested by both Columbia and Cornell. "It's tough on our morale as a team," junior guard Shelly Bowers said. "Those were two teams we expected to beat, and it destroys us mentally that we lost because we thought that we had elevated our games to another level -- but we just didn't do it. It is important to us to improve our game, and that is what we need to work on." As the first full Ivy League weekend came to a close Saturday, the Quakers found themselves just one game out of the cellar in the Ivy standings, only one notch ahead of a winless Harvard squad. Not surprisingly, Penn's only Ivy win has come against the Crimson. "If we want to win, we have to concentrate on everyone playing more consistently," senior forward Julie Gabriel said. "That is what it all comes down to, and it includes all parts of our game. Individually and as a team, we need to be more consistent." Entering the second weekend of league play, Penn may find that the cellar is where it will be hanging come Monday, especially when considering its opponents. Brown is attempting to three-peat as Ivy League champions and make it to the NCAA tournament. This year the Ivies have an automatic bid for the first time. The Bears are led by 6-5 junior center Martina Jerant, who was the 1993 Ivy League Player of the Year and a first team all-Ivy selection. Jerant is tearing up the league once again, averaging 15.7 points and 9.6 rebounds, while leading the league in blocks (2.4 a game) and field goal percentage (52 percent), and is a prime candidate for all-American selection. There will definitely be some banging in the paint when Penn's 6-3 center, Katarina Poulsen, meets Jerant. Poulsen will have her hands full, and unfortunately for the Quakers, will not have much relief from the bench. With a season-ending injury to backup center Deana Lewis, Poulsen and Penn will have to rely on double-teaming Jerant to try to stave off her offensive prowess on the court and attempt to keep Poulsen out of foul trouble. On the offensive end, the Quakers may run into what may seem like a brick wall. Brown is the stingiest defense in the Ivies, holding opponents to a league low 36 percent from the field, and surrendering only 57.7 points per contest. Penn, which has had been plagued all season with poor shooting, is hitting only 36 percent of its shots, tied for last in the conference. "Maybe this past weekend's losses was the dose of reality that we needed," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "Losing, especially when we expected to win, was a good lesson for us to learn. But the good thing about this league is that on any given night, anyone can be beaten in our conference. We just have to come out ready to play." If there is any hope for a Quaker victory tonight, it lies in recent history. Ironically, Penn was the only team to defeat Brown last season, preventing a perfect Bear season by stunning them on their home floor. The 78-68 overtime win came in the final Ivy contest of the season and followed a 29-point debacle at the Palestra earlier in the season at the hands of that same Brown squad. The Bears may be thinking revenge tonight. Yale, which swept Penn last season, promises to be an equally tough matchup for the Quakers. The Elis come into town with the defending Ivy Player of the Week, junior forward Mary Kalich. Kalich helped Yale sweep both Harvard and Dartmouth last week. The 6-0 forward and 1993 all-Ivy selection was unstoppable, tallying 43 points and grabbing 17 boards over the weekend. For the season, Kalich ranks first in the league in free throw percentage (80 percent), second in scoring (16.9 ppg), fourth in field goal percentage (46 percent) and ninth in rebounding (7.2 rpg). The upcoming games will definitely be tough ones, but the Quakers are hoping the home court will be to their advantage. "We are at home, and we only have one loss at home," Soriero said. "We have to let people know that they are in our place and that we play tough in the Palestra." "As an athlete, it's tough to motivate ourselves now that we are out of the race in the Ivies," Bowers said. "But we have something to prove. We want to show that our win last year against Brown wasn't a fluke. We want to prove to ourselves, and to everyone, that we are a better team than we appear to be." It's all about respect.