W. Hoops looks for new start

Freshman forward Michelle Maldonado has been "counting down the days" all season. Tomorrow the much-hyped date arrives as the Penn women's basketball team faces Princeton at the Palestra at 4:30 p.m. "It's a home game, a big crowd and an intense rivalry," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We're going in feeling confident at solely having to meet the challenge of the Ivy League." Home-court may not be in the Quakers' favor. Princeton (9-5, 1-1 Ivy League) is 10-6 in Palestra games. Penn (3-11, 0-2) hopes the early-arriving crowd for the men's contest will inspire them and break the Tigers' concentration. "We have to control our home court," sophomore point guard Erica McCauley said. "Princeton loves playing in the Palestra. Their best games are here, but the Palestra is a different gym when it's full, and we're hoping that will throw them off." This will be the first in a string of Ivy weekends for the Quakers. Though Penn was beaten by Harvard and Dartmouth earlier in the year, it feels this matchup with the Tigers is the start of a new season. "We have a new look now that we're only playing Ivy teams," Maldonado said. "We used the independents to see what we need to work on." The Quakers have had a problem with consistency. While the defense has been solid of late, Penn's shooting percentage is a paltry 34.6 percent. "We play great defense and give great efforts," Maldonado said. "If all of us play the way we're capable of for a full 40 minutes, we're pretty great." The Quakers showed signs of that greatness in their blowout victory at Lafayette Monday. Though Penn's offense was still below average, the Quakers excelled at distributing the ball and senior center Natasha Rezek has been a force on the boards, hauling down 14 rebounds against the Leopards. Like the Quakers, Princeton relies heavily on its bench. Eight Princeton players are averaging at least 18 minutes per game, but only junior guard Andrea Razi is playing more than 28 minutes. For Penn, Maldonado has come off the bench and proven herself as a future star. She had nine points and six rebounds in the Quakers' loss to Loyola last weekend. "Whether it's two or 17 minutes, I want to be in there doing something positive," Maldonado said. "Scoring is nice, but it's little things like rebounding, making good passes and playing solid defense that are most important." The Quakers will draw on recent game experience as they enter tomorrow's contest. The Tigers, on the other hand, had an 18-day layoff for exams before Wednesday's loss at Rider. According to Kowalik, her team is just trying to get "back into the flow." "We're at a real disadvantage," Kowalik said. "We need to get back in sync." Both teams had been decimated by injuries early in the season. McCauley and freshman guard Colleen Kelly, however, have returned from their injuries, bringing Penn back to full strength. The Tigers are still feeling the losses and have switched to an outside game. Led by sophomore forward Kim Allen they boast a 38-percent shooting percentage. "We are prepared for a hard-fought battle," Soriero said. "We've been working on maintaining control and special situations for the end. We're playing well and shooting the ball well -- doing things to make Penn fans proud." The big day has finally arrived. Now it's time to see if the Quakers can measure up to the hype.