Levien haunts Soriero

Since Julie Soriero took over as coach of the Penn women's basketball team five years ago, she has been victorious 47 times. So how many times has she won in Columbia's Levien Gym? Zero. She has yet to win in any of her four attempts. "They've had the ball last in each of the games," Soriero said. "It's something that you're constantly reminded of and that becomes frustrating. It stays in the back of your mind until you win one." Well, Soriero will get another chance to break the ice in the Big Apple tonight when her Penn team takes on the Lions at 7 p.m. It is the first of two big road games this weekend for the Quakers (5-10, 1-2 Ivy League), who will visit Cornell for a 6:30 p.m. game tomorrow. Penn needs a pair of wins to establish itself as a legitimate contender for the Ivy title. "I think we feel that we need to improve this weekend," Penn senior center Katarina Poulsen said. "We know what we need to do. We need to make better passes, take better shots and be more patient with the basketball. Statistically, we're on the same level as Columbia and Cornell right now. But we don't think that we should be. We need to prove that this weekend." The Lions (3-13, 1-3) are clearly a team Penn can beat. Like the Quakers, they have been up and down all season, struggling to develop a formula for winning on a regular basis. "We've had some very good games and we've had some very bad games this year," Columbia coach Kerry Phayre said. "We haven't put two solid halves together yet. We've had problems with our inside game and at times with our defense as well." A strong effort from Poulsen would go a long way toward helping Penn win tonight, as the Lions lack size and depth in the paint. And this certainly isn't lost on the Quaker co-captain. "I need to play smarter," Poulsen said. "I'm hurting the team if I get into foul trouble or don't make shots. I have a big height advantage, and I'm a senior now. I need to step up -- starting now. This is it for me." For Columbia, junior center Cathy Schuneman will try to stop Poulsen, and sophomore guard Heather Haskins will run things in the backcourt. Haskins and the other Lion guards must help out on the glass against Penn in order for Columbia to neutralize the height advantage of Poulsen. "Our defense has a lot of help involved in it," Phayre said. "The thing that has hurt us the most has been not blocking players out and getting hurt by second-chance points. Penn is a competitive team and we've always had close games against them, so we'll have to play well." When the Quakers roll into Ithaca for tomorrow night's contest against the Big Red (5-11, 2-2), Penn will hit yet another team searching for consistency. "We've been really up and down this season," Cornell coach Kim Jordan said. "We won our first three and then lost 10 in a row. We did have a few injuries, but now we may be finally starting to gel." The Big Red is a young team, with only four upperclassmen on the roster, and with two freshmen in the starting lineup. Junior forward Keri Farley, sophomore guard Tasha Harrison and senior center Bee Sponaugle lead the team in most offensive categories. However, Penn will have two advantages going into the game -- its experience and Poulsen. "We don't have a dominant center like Kat Poulsen," Jordan said. "We have a problem matching up because of her size. We don't want to double down all the time, because Penn also has players that can hit the three." The Penn backcourt not only needs to hit the three, but to protect the basketball. If Cornell pressures the ball, juniors Shelly Bowers and Katina Banks and freshman Erica McCauley must be able to run the offense effectively. "It's a matter of making the right decisions and running our press-breaker," Banks said. "It's definitely something we're used to. It's just a matter of keeping our cool and executing." This is Penn's second Ivy road weekend of the year. In January the Quakers won at Harvard and then lost to Dartmouth. A split won't be enough this time. These are not only games the Quakers can win, these are games they must win. And not because Soriero is winless in New York, but because hopes for an Ivy title can disappear very quickly. "I think we all feel the same way," Banks said. "Not winning both games this weekend certainly won't help us in the Ivy League standings."