Quakers hope for first win

After tough Cornell game, PennAfter tough Cornell game, Pennhas winnable contest with Lions With both teams seeking their first Ivy League win of the season, Columbia and Penn have sat down and tried to figure out what went wrong in their respective seasons. What they did not realize, however, is that they should have sat down together to figure their problems out. After tonight's battle in Ithaca, N.Y. against Cornell (8-8, 3-1 Ivy), the Penn women's basketball team heads to New York to face the Lions (1-15, 0-4), who have had a virtually identical season to that of the Quakers. The first stumbling block which sent Columbia for a loop was the loss of its point guard after the first game (and only win) of the season. Emily Roller tore her anterior cruciate ligament in practice, forcing guard Colleen Touey to shift over to the point. Coincidentally, the Quakers (0-14, 0-3) also lost their starting point guard, Erica McCauley, who quit the team before the end of the first semester, and replaced her with a Colleen -- Colleen Kelly. Although Columbia coach Kerry Phayre can not put her finger on any specific thing which has gone wrong, she did mention that shots were simply not dropping, despite getting good looks at the basket. Flashing back to early this semester, Penn coach Julie Soriero said almost the exact same thing: "We're getting good looks and good shots -- they're just not falling." Meanwhile, both coaches seem to be happy with the effort their teams are putting forth. "The ladies are working real hard," Phayre said. "We were in a lot of games that we lost in the last two minutes early this season. Now, we need to win to get confidence. But we just can't get over that hump." Similarly, the Quakers feel they need just one to get on track. "With every remaining game, we're going in with a positive attitude," Penn guard Patti Loyack said. "In every game, we want to win." With nine freshmen and sophomores on the roster and four starters returning next year, the Quakers have a reasonably young team. The Lions can make the same argument with 10 rookies on their roster. It is those 10 freshmen on whom Phayre places the blame for her team's problems. "All 10 freshmen see regular playing time," Phayre said. "We just suffer from a lot of freshmen mistakes." The Big Red will pose more of a challenge for the Red and Blue with its strong perimeter game. Cornell's new head coach, Marnie Dacko, an assistant for nationally-ranked Northwestern last year, has revamped the entire Cornell coaching staff and brought in a new attitude. "In order to change, we had to get the right attitude in the young ladies," Dacko said. "And now they're starting to believe."