The women's basketball team is working on its consistency and looking for help from freshmen during its opening weeks. Four games into the season, the Penn women's basketball team is still searching for its groove. After a strong effort in an opening-game loss to Villanova, the Quakers have been puzzled by the two losses and win that followed. With three games against nearby teams left to go before semester break, the Quakers have the chance to clean up their game before winter rolls around. · Consistency is a buzzword in college basketball these days. Of course, you are only talked about if you can win consistently. As Penn (1-3) has found out so far this season, a crucial step to winning consistently involves pressure defense and mental focus for an entire game. In the Ivy League, two things matter most of all -- consistency and success on the road. The Quakers have been working on improving consistent play. Early in the season, Penn has blown a big lead to Temple, and had to fight back against St. Francis. "Winning on the road is really big in this league, and we need to pull it together before we start Ivy play," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We were flat at Towson, let a big lead slip away at the Apollo and got behind at St. Francis only to come back and win. That's very erratic and needs to stabilize and improve as the season progresses." · For a team that lost its two most experienced leaders in Michelle Maldonado and Colleen Kelly to graduation, the new-look Quakers led by sophomore Diana Caramanico and junior transfer Mandy West expect to improve as time adds to their experience. The youngest members of the team are very diverse in their talents and have shown the ability to play almost every position on the court in their first four games. Freshmen Melissa Lopez and Julie Epton have shown ball-handling skills, and their strength and quickness havemade them both substitutions for the two forward positions as well. The ability to fill many positions allows Soriero the option of rotating lineups to have fresh legs on the floor as well as working with different lineups. Working out the lineup rotation in this way has been one of the biggest positives for the Quakers in their non-conference play. "These freshmen are very quick learners and they know exactly their role on this team," Soriero said. "Epton is playing the four spot and she has to learn it very quickly. She played the three in high school so she not only has to adjust to a bigger spot but also to the level of college competition." The roles of freshman contributors have been defined from day one, and games against Temple, Towson and St. Francis have been grounds to work on the place of the freshmen. "They have to go in and role play," Soriero said. "Everyone can rebound and everyone can play defense. I don't expect them to go in and score so much but at the same time, they are not uncomfortable at this level. This group is very strong mentally and they don't get rattled." · The freshman have provided not only stability at each position, but also given the Quakers a deeper bench. "We are not as deep as we would like to be," Soriero said. "We go seven deep regularly but I see a lot of promise that makes me confident in going even deeper to our bench. Liz Alexander sees a lot of time at the off-guard and Epton plays big at power forward off the bench. It's a big bonus that Caramanico and Jessica [Allen] can sit when they need to." The bench play has been beneficial as the youthful Quakers try to adjust to playing with one another. Co-captain West and Caramanico played the entire 40 minutes against Temple a week ago without much fatigue. Combining for over 50 points and 20 rebounds in that game, they led the Red and Blue to a big first half lead but the team lost concentration, lost the basketball and eventually the contest. Maybe resting the starters and using the bench is not important if West and Caramanico can keep scoring at over 25 points a game. The ability to go to the bench, however, allows Soriero not only to rest players but also to get different leaders on the floor who can settle a nervous team and regain control of the tempo of a game.
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