Penn starts Big 5 season

W Hoops faces La Salle To the winner goes Philadelphia bragging rights. The Penn women's basketball team travels to St. Joseph's tonight to take on La Salle in a Big 5 contest. The game will be hard-fought, a very physical battle inside. Both teams are looking to score in transition. For Penn, tonight's game is a battle for respectability. "They're blood matches," senior co-captain Shelly Bowers said. "Big 5 matches are always really intense. They always go down to the wire, and we're expecting that." Penn is used to facing challenges from the opposition. Tonight at 6 p.m. in St. Joseph's Alumni Fieldhouse (WXPN-FM 88.5), however, the Quakers' worst enemy may be in their own locker room. Penn played two games at the Rocky Mountain Invitational in Colorado during the weekend, losing both. These games proved detrimental to more than just Penn's record, as the Quakers lost guards Colleen Kelly and Erica McCauley. McCauley fractured her hand three minutes into the first game of the tournament and will be out four to six weeks. "It's had a bad effect in regard to us being prepared to play our best," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We were very confident and comfortable in our original starting positions and our substitution patterns, and basically ready to go, then the double whammy happened so close together that we really didn't have enough time to prepare." The adjustment is made easier by the fact Bowers has played point guard for her entire college career. Though she had hoped to return to her natural off-guard position this season, Bowers is willing to sacrifice to help the team. And it may take an outstanding effort. Penn has no one to fill in off the bench. La Salle will probably try to exploit Penn's lack of a "true point guard" in tonight's game. "We've been working since the beginning of the season on a specific rotation having me at the two," Bowers said. "This is going to change things around. We're going to have to depend on other players to help bring the ball up. Physically, I don't feel there's a problem, because we're all in really good shape. Mental preparation is going to be the key, and that just comes from within. Mentally, I'll have to be focused for the full 40 minutes, which can get pretty tough." The transition will be eased because Penn is senior-dominated. Co-captain Natasha Rezek excelled in her first competition back from Russia, coming "back with a vengeance," according to Soriero. Strong leadership from the returning players and all-around teamwork will be the keys to the game. "I think we need to help each other out with the basketball," Soriero said. "We can't just put it on Shelly Bowers' shoulders. Katina Banks is going to have to come back and help, and our three player is going to look to go up the floor a little bit or set a screen to relieve the pressure off Shelly. We'll play aggressive defense to get quick high-percentage shots in transition." Bench strength was supposed to play a large role in the team's preseason plans. With the losses of McCauley and Kelly, sophomore Amy Tarr will step into a starting role, and several freshmen will be forced to contribute more minutes. "We have some question marks because of the suddenness of what happened," assistant coach Rick Pergolini said. "We're asking freshmen to play a lot more time than they might have this early in the season. We were counting on our bench, but we didn't think we'd have to do it this early. We hoped by January we could rely on them more and more. "Unfortunately now we're asking the freshmen to do the job some of our veteran players should do this early in the season." The Quakers' freshmen have shown they are up to the task. At the tournament in Colorado, they all came off the bench to make major contributions right away. "It's a situation where we have to get those things done," Soriero said. "We're expecting our bench to do a lot this year, stepping up so they can not just support us, but actually make a contribution. We can build those little things into bigger things." The Explorers also have a young team, led by three juniors. Chrissie Donahue, last season's Big 5 Rookie of the Year, is the Explorers' top returning scorer and rebounder. The sophomore averaged 13 points and six boards per game. The Quakers will concentrate on shutting her down on both ends of the court. "We execute very well sometimes, just not consistently enough," Soriero said. "La Salle is going to look to do the things that hurt us this weekend, pressure the ball, deny our wings and try to then run transition." Coach John Miller is in his ninth year at La Salle. During his tenure, he has never had a losing season, compiling a 165-69 record. Soriero, on the other hand, is under .500 in her five-year Penn career. This will be La Salle's first contest of the season. "Suddenly we're confronted with more of a challenge from within than from our opponents," Soriero said. "Our first step is to meet and overcome that challenge, then go after La Salle."