W. Hoops travels to meet the defending Ivy champs

Tonight, Penn opens its first Ivy League road trip at Harvard. Having split their first four Ivy League games of the season, the Penn women's basketball team enters its first big East Coast swing of the season in a position to make some serious noise. With first place and defending conference champion Harvard (11-6, 5-0 Ivy League) awaiting them on Friday, followed by a visit to Dartmouth (7-10, 2-3) on Saturday, the Quakers (6-10, 2-2) are preparing themselves for their biggest test of the season. "Harvard is the creme de la creme of the league right now," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "And Dartmouth is one of the teams that we're battling with for the top echelon of the league." As tough as the weekend promises to be, Penn is determined to take it one game at a time. That means the foremost matter on the mind of the Quakers right now is Ivy champion Harvard and their wide-open style of play. "We have to be prepared for [Harvard] to run-and-gun," Penn senior co-captain Deana Lewis said. "We're taking people off the line for free throws, and we're also releasing two people off of the offensive boards, so we'll have three people hitting the boards and two people getting back on defense so that they don't have that opportunity to break into transition." Leading the way for the Crimson is junior forward Allison Feaster, who places second in the Ivies in three categories -- scoring (20.8 points per game), three-point shooting (42.3 percent) and rebounding (9.8 rebounds per game). Feaster, last year's Ivy League Player of the Year, is complimented by point guard Jessica Gelman, who averages 16.8 ppg and leads the league with 6.0 assists per game. As for Dartmouth, Soriero admits that she feels more comfortable with their style of play, but doesn't think that the Big Green will in any way be a pushover. "[Dartmouth] has a real good shooter in Sally Annis (12.8 ppg)," Soriero said. "And they have a real good point guard in Nicci Rinaldi (13.4 ppg). Their strength is really in their guards." Of particular concern for the Quakers is their tendency to tail off a bit in games where they've played the night before. Both of their Ivy losses, to Brown and then to Cornell, came off of an Ivy victory the night before. It's a trend, mainly attributed to the team's youth, that has Soriero a bit worried. "I think one of the lessons we've learned over the season -- and it's a hard lesson for a young team -- is pacing yourself for that second game," Soriero said. "Hopefully, my freshmen, whom I depend on a lot, are beginning to realize the need to step up on that second night." The Quakers' inexperience, with two freshmen in the starting lineup and only one senior, is yet another concern. "This is the first road trip for eight people on the team," Lewis said. "Although we tell them what to expect, they'll never know until they experience it, especially against such good teams." On the bright side for the Red and Blue, the injury bug that has plagued the team for practically the entire season has finally decided to cut the team a break, as the Quakers are relatively injury free. That, coupled with their impressive showings in their Ivy games, gives the players some serious confidence going into this weekend. "I think that we're determined," Penn junior co-captain Amy Tarr said. "We're concentrating on what we have to do to beat them, not what they are going to do to beat us. We haven't been on the road for a while, and it's going to be a challenge, but I think we're up to it." Despite all the doubts that hover over their first Ivy road trip of the season, the team hasn't forgotten how sweet a pair of victories against two of the top teams in the Ivies would be -- especially when one of them happens to be the defending champ. "It would be a huge win," Soriero said.