W. Hoops must rebound tonight

After losing to Yale, women's basketball looks for improved glass play against Lafayette. Eight days after a disappointing 67-61 loss to Yale, the members of the Penn women's basketball team hope to remove that bitter taste of defeat which is still very much fresh in their mouths. Heading into tonight's Palestra showdown with Lafayette (7-8), the Quakers (5-8) have had plenty of time to think about that Saturday contest against the Elis which slipped away, and make the needed preparations for a sharper performance. "We have been doing a lot of drills and making sure that our intensity level is up," Penn freshman guard Erin Ladley said. Last Saturday's loss overshadowed Friday's 10-point upset win of Brown. While the Quakers now stand one game behind preseason favorite Harvard in the hunt for an Ivy League title, Penn players recognize that they could easily have been tied with the Crimson atop of the standings. "There was a general sense of disappointment, considering the effort of the game before," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. Tonight's matchup is the next-to-last non-league game on the Quakers' schedule. It gives Penn another opportunity to fix problem areas before Ivy League weekends arrive rapid fire. Penn expects the Leopards to play the same style of basketball as Yale -- patient, run-down-the-shot-clock offense. "We have basically made an emphasis on boxing out in the last couple of days," Soriero said. The phrase "boxing out" sounds like a broken record by now with Soriero. Entering this evening, opponents have out-rebounded Penn by an average of 3.9 boards per contest. Last season, the Quakers were out-rebounded in their visit to Lafayette, despite having a height advantage over the Leopards. The Quakers also did not shoot well in that contest, hitting just 33 percent from the floor. In tonight's game, Penn will once again count on freshman Diana Caramanico and co-captain/guard Colleen Kelly for the bulk of their points. Caramanico is nearly averaging a double-double (18.7 points, 9.8 rebounds) on the season. Kelly is shooting 45 percent from beyond the three-point arc, a marked improvement from 33 percent last year. The Quakers will have the advantage of being better rested than their visitors, who come into this evening after only one day off. Despite the visible tiredness of some Penn players in the latter stretches of the loss to Yale, Soriero played her starting five most of the way, with Kelly serving as the only Quaker to play double-digit minutes off the bench. In an indication of how different this season has been, Soriero explained that Penn was not out of reach in any game this season. "We always seemed right in it if we could get an offensive spurt," Soriero said. With a "W" tonight, Penn has a chance to equal last year's win total of six. However, the opponent will not be easy to beat for old reasons. Yale came into the Palestra off an embarrassing loss. Similarly, Lafayette comes onto the Penn hardwood hungry to reverse the losing trend of their last four games, losing three in that span. "Lafayette is one of those teams that will stay in the game and will stick around," Ladley said. The Quakers will try to keep the Leopards tamed tonight, setting the tone for the second half of the season, and proving that they are indeed a stronger team than the one that fell six points short in New Haven eight days ago.