W. Hoops travels to Bethlehem

The Quakers are looking for a consistent, 40-minute effort in order to win their second game in a row. Last Tuesday at St. Francis, the Penn women's basketball team had to erase an 18-point deficit to earn its first victory of the season. Tonight, the Quakers hope consistency will pave the way to victory when they travel to Lehigh (3-2). In the Quakers' last three road games, they have been unable to play consistently for an entire game. Even in their win at St. Francis, the Quakers (1-3) played flat for the first 20 minutes. "My goal is for us to go up to Lehigh with another opportunity to play on the road and be consistent for a full 40 minutes," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "If we come and play a good, hard 40 minutes we will be able to beat them." Last year, Penn defeated Lehigh under almost exactly the same circumstances. After dropping their first three games of the 1997-'98 season, the Quakers beat East Tennessee St. 79-73 to improve their record to 1-3 entering their game with Lehigh. Subsequently, Penn dominated Lehigh 75-57 with help from Liz Alexander -- a freshman at the time -- who scored 14 points for the Quakers. "I think they'll play with more confidence than they did last year, and I think we need to go out and not allow them to get an early lead like St. Francis did," Soriero said. Lehigh is led by guards Danielle Baldwin and Kelly Collins, and forward Maureen Trigo. Baldwin leads the Engineers with 12 points per game, while Collins and Trigo are averaging 10.8 and 9.2 points per game, respectively. Lehigh's most impressive statistic is three-point shooting. Collectively the Engineers are shooting 31.3 percent from behind the arc, whereas they have held their opponents to a .159 percentage. Trigo and back-up guard Charlotte Muller lead the Engineers, hitting 35.7 percent from downtown. This could be trouble for the Quakers, who have allowed opponents to go 23-of-61 in three point attempts -- good for 37.7 percent. "We need to make sure we're ready to step out on those shooters and not let them get good looks at the basket," Soriero said. "Their guards right now are leading them. We need to make sure we get out on them and make sure they don't have any rhythm on their shots or get any rhythm into their offense where those guards can come off screens and look at open threes." While the key for Penn will be to shut down Lehigh's guards, the Engineers will have just as much trouble containing the Quakers inside game, and the one-two scoring punch of sophomore power forward Diana Caramanico and junior guard Mandy West. Right now both West and Caramanico are averaging over 20 points per game, and they are coming off season-high performances against St. Francis. Therefore, Lehigh's main defensive objective should be to shut them down. "I want to be able to step up on offense if they overplay our go-to players," senior captain Sue Van Stone said. Lehigh will also need to contain Penn's front-court in order to be victorious. Penn has a distinct size advantage down low. Both Caramanico and sophomore center Jessica Allen are over 6'2", while Lehigh's tallest starter, center Christina Henry, is only 6'1". Despite their winning record, height has been an issue for the Engineers. Going into last Sunday's game against Towson, Lehigh had been out-rebounded 179-160. If Penn uses its height advantage and plays its first game of 40 consistent minutes, the Red and Blue should extend its winning streak to two games.