Penn youth movement gets underway at St. Francis

Freshmen will be prominent for the Penn women's basketball team, even at point guard. With 10 freshman on the roster, inexperience at crucial positions could pose a problem for the Penn women's basketball team tomorrow as they open the regular season at St. Francis (Pa.). The new players will have no time to adjust to collegiate play from the bench. Penn's success is contingent on their early contributions, beginning tomorrow at 3 p.m. in Loretto, Pa. The Quakers' youth will be particularly felt at the point guard spot where leadership is essential for effectively running the offense. Freshman Amy Nolan is expected to start at the point against the Red Flash and share time with two other freshmen, Elisabeth Alexander and Erin Ladley. "It's going to be hard for them to learn by example," Penn senior forward Michelle Maldonado said of her new teammates. "The probability that they're going to see something done the way it should be is much less because there's only three upperclassmen to go around." Maldonado, Penn's leading scorer (15 ppg) and rebounder (10.4 rpg) last year, is joined in the starting lineup by senior guard Colleen Kelly (14.2 ppg). Penn's other returnee is Sue Van Stone, who rarely played more than 10 minutes per game in 1996-97. In discussing her experiences and improvement as a player, Maldonado emphasized the importance of learning from upperclassmen in practice. "When there are six or 10 [upperclassmen] everybody catches your little mistakes," Maldonado said. "I think we're going to improve tremendously in the first month, once the freshmen get involved and learn how we do things." Ninth-year Penn coach Julie Soriero agreed. "Every one of them is truly capable of stepping up and making a contribution," she said. The Quakers defeated the Red Flash, who finished with a 21-9 record in the Northeast Conference, by a score of 73-67 at the Palestra in last year's opener. Penn's key to defeating St. Francis (0-1) again is stopping Mary Markey and Jessica Zinobile, two strong offensive threats inside who scored 19 and 10 points, respectively, in their opener against Georgetown. The Quakers will look to minimize their offensive opportunities with a variety of strategies. "We're going to play a little bit more zone against them this year," said Soriero, "and I think that might catch them off-guard." According to Soriero, the Flash's backcourt is its major weakness. The Penn guards will look to apply pressure on the perimeter in order to limit the passes inside. "Although it seems like the responsibility lies with our posts," Soriero said, "if our guards do a good job defensively then they'll make the forwards' jobs a lot easier." In last year's matchup, Kelly recorded a career-high six steals against the Red Flash. Kelly, the team captain, and junior guard Van Stone are Penn's only returning players who can provide a threat from outside. But according to Kelly, this season's struggles in exhibition play against an AAU team and visiting Slovenians did not stem from the guards' weak offensive execution, but from a lack of intensity and poor shooting, most notably at the free throw line. "We have to better our percentage," Kelly said. "We've been practicing a lot with that. We've been getting good shots but we're just not making them. We're not being aggressive enough so that's our major focus. We're going to try to go out harder." Kelly's four treys during last year's game against the Red Flash were the first of 59. That total placed her second on Penn's all-time list for threes scored in a season. Three players scored in double figures that game, including Maldonado, whose 22 points were a career-high.