W. Hoops searching for first win over break

Surely the Penn women's basketball team did not plaster "0-6 start" on the locker room wall with the rest of its preseason goals. This was supposed to be an above-average Ivy League team, one with a 3-3 record at this point in the season. Instead, the Quakers are left wondering what went wrong. But Penn (0-6), still looking for its first win, is not ready to be counted out yet. All six losses so far have come in the so-called "first season," that magical period when losses are insignificant, unless, of course, you are seeking a national championship. But the Quakers have far more modest aspirations, and they are all centered around Ivy League competition -- the real season. The six losses, while hurtful in the team-morale department, will have no effect on Penn's standing in the Ancient Eight. And should the Quakers pull off a miracle turnaround and win the conference, the early-season slump will not prohibit Penn from accepting the Ivy's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. But before any Cinderella stories can be written, Penn needs to address a number of glaring weaknesses. The inside play of Natasha Rezek and Deanna Lewis has been spectacular at times, solid at others, but never really a problem. It is around the perimeter where the Quakers have struggled. "I never thought our outside shooting would be a strength like it was for us last year," Penn coach Julie Soriero said after the Roger White Tournament at Northwestern. "But I expected it to be better than it has been." Last year's team was feared for its three-point prowess, with guards Shelly Bowers and Erica McCauley and forward Katina Banks all ranking among the league's most accurate long-range bombers. But the new breed of Quakers have not had nearly the same success. Sophomore guard Colleen Kelly, filling Bowers' vacated off-guard position, has yet to find her touch from outside the arc. With no one else able to knock down jumpers, opposing defenses were able to deny McCauley open looks at the basket, forcing Penn to live off second-chance points by Rezek and Lewis. With the Quakers' turnover ratio going in the exact opposite direction of its shooting percentage, Saturday's game against La Salle was the most inopportune time to lose McCauley, who sat out the game for unclear reasons. When she will return is equally cloudy. Turning around the season is not an impossible task. Last year's squad rebounded from an 0-6 start to finish with a respectable 11-15 record. Penn will ring in the new year with five games in 11 days, giving the struggling Quakers a chance to crawl back toward the .500 mark. More importantly, Penn will inaugurate its 1996 Ivy schedule with a January 6 visit to Jadwin Gym to take on Princeton. The Quakers will also travel to Brown and Yale over break and take on non-conference Loyola (Md.) and Marist. If history is any indication, it should be a very happy new year for Penn. Last year, the Quakers swept both Princeton and Brown and split its two games against Yale. Despite a mediocre 11-15 overall record last season, Penn made its few wins count, recording eight Ivy wins, good for third place behind Ancient Eight powers Dartmouth and Harvard. Before beginning the Ivy schedule, the Quakers will take on Loyola for the second time this season. Penn lost to the Greyhounds in the consolation game of the Roger White Tourney, 67-60. After falling behind 45-32 at the half, the Quakers nearly pulled off the comeback. Penn cut the Loyola lead to just three points with 51.1 seconds left. But forced to foul, the Quakers could pull no closer and lost by seven.