Tarr fills in wherever needed

There have not been many smiles on the faces of Penn women's basketball team of late. When you have one of the nation's worst records at 0-13 and have had your starting point guard quit the team, it is hard to be optimistic. But Quakers junior guard Amy Tarr has not let the team's struggles get to her or affect the effort she puts forth on the court. "The thing that I admire most about her is her gutsiness," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "She is always trying to make something happen by putting in that extra effort." Tarr and her teammates hope that extra effort pays off in a win for the first time this season. The 0-13 Quakers travel to Temple to face the Owls (3-14) tonight at Temple's McGonigle Hall at 7 p.m. So far this season, Tarr has averaged 2.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game as Penn's starting off guard. But her value to the team is not measured best through the numbers she puts up in the boxscore. Tarr can often be seen setting the key screens on offense or blanketing the opposing team's best scorer on defense. "The way I approach the game," Tarr said, "is that whatever role you have, you just go into the game and make a contribution in any way possible." At the start of this season, Tarr's contributions to the team were in the sixth-man role. But the departure of starting point guard Erica McCauley pushed Tarr into the starting lineup. Tarr willingly accepted her role, but still has to improve her scoring, which has not increased significantly with her playing time. "I would still like to see her score more points," Soriero said. "But she has done a great job filling a void, and she has done it with a good attitude and great effort." The multi-talented Tarr, who is also plays on the women's lacrosse team, is accustomed to stepping into different roles. Besides starting at the shooting guard spot, she has seen time at every position this year except center. "She makes a sincere effort to fill any need the team has," Soriero said. This is not Tarr's first time as a starter. Last year she started six games when McCauley was out with an injury. The experience she gained last year in the starting rotation prepared her for her unexpected role this year. "You get a different perspective for the game from the bench then from when you are starting," Tarr said. "When you are on the bench, you are able to see what the flow of the game is before you go in." But Tarr's greatest adjustment at Penn has been moving from a low-post player in high school -- a position she was too short to play in the college game -- to a mainly perimeter player at Penn. Since her freshman year, her skills and understanding of her new position have grown enormously. "It's a constant effort to improve my ball-handling and shooting from outside," Tarr said. Tarr's immediate goal is to try and pick up some of the offensive burden so that opposing teams can not key on center Natasha Rezek and guard Colleen Kelly. "We need a more consistent effort in each game," Tarr said. "We need everyone working as a cohesive unit, more of a team focus on offense." The Quakers crushed the Owls by a 65-29 score last year, but nothing is a given during this year's trying season. "People have come up to me on campus and said 'Oh my god, you are on a team that is 0-13,' " Tarr said. "But the team has stuck together. We can still laugh and have fun playing basketball."