W. Hoops seeks revenge against Harvard

The Penn women's basketball team will try to avenge a 26-point loss to Harvard this weekend in Cambridge. This weekend the Penn women's basketball team will take on Dartmouth and top-ranked Harvard in a fight for second place in the Ivy League. If the Quakers come away with two victories, they can secure a second place ranking, breaking the tie with Dartmouth. A win against Harvard Saturday night would be Penn's first victory over the Crimson since 1994. Penn won its first meeting with Dartmouth 62-54 at the Palestra earlier this month. Freshman Diana Caramanico led the Quakers with 31 points and 16 rebounds. Penn coach Julie Soriero said the Quakers will need another solid performance from the freshman, as well as from team captain Michelle Maldonado. "Michelle has been a little inconsistent," Soriero said of the senior forward. "We need her to come to play." According to Soriero, when the two forwards work together they are a force inside. This was certainly exemplified in last weekend's match-up with Brown when they combined for 51 points and 26 rebounds. "When they do well for us, we can build the numbers around them," Soriero said. But all the action probably won't take place in the paint this weekend. Both Penn and Dartmouth have exceptional three-point shooters in Penn co-captain Colleen Kelly and the Big Green's senior guard Courtney Banghart. Banghart recently set the school record for threes in a season with 46 while Kelly's 153 career treys are nearing the Penn record which stands at 160, held by '92 grad Jen Dorfmeister. Soriero is expecting a better shooting performance from Dartmouth on their home floor than the Quakers witnessed last game. "I think we need to expect Dartmouth to shoot well," she said. "To win, we're going to have to step up the defense." Beating Harvard is another story. The Crimson are 8-1 in the Ivy League, having lost only to Princeton two weeks ago. Penn's last contest with the Crimson resulted in a 26-point loss at home -- a loss that Soriero blamed on poor Quakers' defense. Perhaps her reasoning on this came from examining the box score, where it was clear Harvard struck Penn from an unlikely source. When most teams prepare for the Crimson, they talk about forward Allison Feaster who leads the league in scoring (29.33 points per game), rebounding (10.29 per game), steals (3.24 per game) and field goal percentage (54.2). In fact, just last Friday the senior broke Harvard's all-time rebounding record in the victory against Cornell. Despite scoring 25 points, however, Feaster was not the star in Harvard's last game against Penn. The Quakers were scorched with 33 points from junior forward Suzie Miller. "We need to respect her more as a perimeter shooter this time," Soriero said. "She came into the game averaging around eight points so we let her go a little and she got some momentum going. We did well on Feaster and the she cranked up 33." Offensively, Penn will need to work hard in the key where the Harvard posts are bigger and stronger. According to Caramanico, Penn can overcome its size disadvantage if the Quakers forwards concentrate on quickness. "I had trouble moving inside with their big posts last time," Caramanico said. "But now I know what to expect so I'm going to focus on moving quicker. I know I'll lose in a battle of brute strength." In a three-way tie for second with Princeton and Dartmouth, there is a lot on the line as the Quakers take the floor this weekend. According to Soriero, the match-ups will "set the tone" for the season's conclusion. "How we play and who we beat has a lot of bearing on the top rankings," Caramanico said. "What we do matters and it's great to be battling it out for a possible first place."