W. Hoops hopes to fare better in second Ivy trip

After being decisively beaten last weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth, the Quakers are looking to simply get better. For trauma victims, the best therapy often includes facing the awful tragedy that has wreaked havoc on one's life. For the Penn women's basketball team, the trauma they are forced to face comes this weekend in the form of their second Ivy League road trip of the season -- a mere week after both Harvard and Dartmouth, two of the top teams in the Ivy League, played the role of the rude host and sent the Quakers packing in two of the Red and Blue's most decisive losses of the season. "It revealed a harsh reality," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. The Penn team (6-11, 2-4 Ivy League), however, is not new to adversity. Soriero, though she admits last weekend's losses have given her players a wake up call, expects them to come back this weekend with renewed resolve. "They have a lot of pride in their ability to play better both on offense and defense," Soriero said. "I expect them to respond in a positive, productive way." "It's important that we get our heads back in it," Penn junior guard Colleen Kelly said. "We need to get refocused." The two teams that hope to make a repeat of the Penn shellacking this weekend are Brown (11-9, 6-2) and Yale (6-14, 2-6), both of whom the Quakers have played at home this season, and both of whom they know they can beat. In the Yale game earlier in the year, Penn turned a close, one-point game at half time into a 57-47 rout. In the Brown game, the Quakers fell in closing minutes as the Bears two leading scorers, guards Vita Redding and All-Ivy selection Liz Turner, proved to be too much to handle, as Penn fell 87-79. Not that Penn is the only team who has had trouble with the dastardly duo. Redding, who currently ranks third in the nation in scoring, leads the Ivies with a torrid 25.1 points per game average. Turner is not too far behind, ranking third in the conference with 17.25 ppg. The two have been wreaking havoc on the Ivy League all season, and it is Soriero's intent to make sure that trend does not continue. "Against Brown, [Redding and Turner] accounted for 82 percent of their offense," Soriero said. "One of the things we need to do is extend our perimeter defense. We're changing some matchups to see if that doesn't make a difference." One of those matchup changes includes freshman point guard Chelsea Hathaway, who draws the unenviable task of guarding Redding. Soriero, though she does not expect her young prodigy to shut the potent Brown guard down completely, does hope that Hathaway's smart defensive play will make a difference. "Chelsea's a very smart player," Soriero said. "She'll know from experience, now, a little bit more about what Vita can do." Kelly, who leads the Penn team with 15.2 ppg, feels that any hope for a Quakers victory over Brown rests not only with stopping Brown's scorers, but with minimizing mistakes. "We need to key on their top scorers," Kelly said. "Hopefully, if we can do that and minimize our turnovers, we'll do fine." As far as Yale is concerned, the Quakers hope to simply to make a repeat of January's decisive victory. They know it won't be easy, however, especially considering that this time the Elis will be playing host. The Penn team, as Soriero is quick to point out, has not yet shown that it can win in the Ivies away from the Palestra. "To me," Soriero said of her team's road woes, "that's a by-product of a young team." Injuries, which have hampered the Quakers all season, continue to plague the young squad. Against Dartmouth last weekend, Kelly, the only Quakers starter who had stayed relatively healthy the entire season, suffered a concussion and a neck injury after diving for a loose ball. The guard, who has lead the Quakers in scoring almost the entire season, has not practiced all week but still hopes to play. "We have a lot of people who are struggling," Soriero said. "Chelsea and Shelly have nagging injuries that determining the practice status daily." The ailing Quakers, in the heart of the Ivy League schedule, know they have no time to recuperate as their league games continue to take on much greater importance. "We're getting treatment every day and we just have to tough it out these last three weeks," Kelly said. "That's all we can do right now." "Every game is vital in the Ivy race," Soriero said. "Any given weekend you can move up or fall down two, sometimes three spots. "This weekend is vital for some of the goals we've established and some of the things we've talked about as a team that we want to do as the season winds down."