'98 University of Pennsylvania Women's Basketball Team

Princeton hopes to win the Ivies. This year's Ivy League women's basketball race figures to be wide open -- at least according to the almost-always erroneous media preseason poll. Here's a look at Penn's Ancient Eight foes for the 1998-'99 season. · Princeton, the nightmare that keeps on coming in other sports, has been chosen to win the Ivy League this year. If the Tigers go on to win the League championship, they may look back at their biggest turning point -- a 56-53 upset over eventual champions Harvard last February. With that experience under its belt, Princeton returns an army of juniors who have played together for the last two seasons. In the process, they have forced conference opposition to deal with the dreaded back-door system. "They have really tended to adopt the Princeton men's style of play, which is really unique for the women's game" Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "Princeton is going in with a lot of their confidence based on their returnees and a rhythm of play that other teams are not used to." Other teams can expect Tigers junior guards Maggie Langlas and first team All-Ivy Kate Thirolf to provide the bulk of Princeton's scoring. Langlas and Thirolf averaged 12.9 and 13.6 points per game respectively last year. · Allison Feaster is gone, and the memories will live on for Harvard. Last season's 22-4 record was only a prelude to the Crimson's upset against top-seeded Stanford in the first round of the NCAA tournament, breaking the Cardinal's 59-game home winning streak. Whether others will fill the void left by Feaster may be a different story. "I think they have people who will score points for them, but I don't know if those people are necessarily the go-to players that Feaster was," Soriero said. The Crimson return some of its core players in their bid to win a fourth straight Ivy League crown. Co-captain and guard Suzy Miller is back, after going crazy against Penn at the Palestra in early February. Miller hit 8-of-13 from three-point range, en route to 33 points. · Another team with a one-two punch in the backcourt, Dartmouth is slated to be third, according to the Ivy poll. It is the same spot at which the Big Green finished last year. Senior guard Nicci Rinaldi will lead the offense. Rinaldi's core strength is as a passer, racking up 112 assists last year to place herself fourth on the Big Green's all-time assists list. That leaves junior guard Courtney Banghart as the Big Green's main source of points. Banghart led the team in scoring with 12.0 points per game, and hit 53 three-pointers. · Last season was a frustrating and disappointing one for Brown as it finished below expectations in sixth place. The Bears will count on guard Vita Redding for the bulk of their scoring. The senior led Brown with 18.2 points per game last year. Joining Redding in the backcourt will be fellow senior guard Julie Amato, who led the Bears in assists (113), rebounds (6.2 per game), and steals (76). · Yale was in the thick of the Ivy League race for some time, and will seek to improve on its fourth place showing during the 1997-'98 campaign. One of those players will be first team All-Ivy center Katy Grubbs. The 6'3" senior gave the Elis production from inside the paint, leading Yale in scoring with 13.2 points per contest. Another player who served notice was then rookie and current sophomore forward Alyson Miller, who finished the campaign with 112 rebounds. She will see some time behind senior forwards Natasha Archer and Christina Bertao. · The expected cellar-dwellers are all too familiar. Cornell returns eight letterwinners, including senior forwards Fristie Riccio and Carolyn Janiak. Riccio led the Big Red with 11.6 points per game and 112 buckets from the field. Columbia had the highest team free throw percentage in the Ivy League, hitting 70.2 percent from the line. Sophomore forward Shawnee Pickney was an Ivy All-Rookie selection, and led the Lions with 7.7 rebounds and per game.