Soriero has found the way to motivate W. Hoops

After nine unremarkable seasons, the good news for Penn women's basketball fans is that coach Julie Soriero has finally found an effective strategy for swinging her team's momentum around midseason. Unfortunately, it took her resignation to spark the Quakers. Since freeing herself from the pressure of contract woes on January 20, Soriero has led her squad to four straight wins, as Penn has improved to 3-2 in the Ivy League. "It's a different atmosphere now that she resigned," Penn sophomore Diana Caramanico said. "We don't get into a frenzy when things aren't going well. We used to get really worried when we were losing; everyone would be thinking, 'Oh no, we're going to have to run forever in practice.' Everyone would get in a bad mood and that would loom over us. But now there's a lot less tension." "She's become a lot more relaxed since the decision," freshman Julie Epton said. "She's not stressed all the time because winning doesn't encompass everything. She's not getting mad at every little missed free throw." According to sophomore Jessica Allen, Soriero's new outlook has translated into a more constructively critical attitude toward her team. "It's made her a better coach," Allen said. "She's not focusing as much on what we're doing wrong but more on what we can do better." And what the Quakers have been doing better is winning games. "Everyone has been talking about how since she resigned we haven't lost," junior co-captain Mandy West said. "We'd won three games the whole season and then we won four in a row." The Quakers added two wins to their tally by disposing of Cornell 71-68 and Columbia 87-71 at the Palestra this weekend. In a weekend that also saw Harvard fall on the road to both Yale and Brown -- the Crimson's first Ivy League losses after 2 1/2 undefeated years -- Penn's two victories may have paved the way toward a respectable Ivy League finish, something that did not seem realistic just 12 days ago. But aside from affecting Penn's standings, the wins also contributed to the positive attitude that has been fueling the Quakers for the past two weeks, according to Epton. "We're having a lot more fun out there," Epton said. "I knew that would happen once we started winning. Practices are going better, too. It's a different environment and I think we're really responding and getting more done." Penn's last two games each provided a chance to put its new attitude to the test. Against the Big Red, the Quakers struggled with a familiar foe -- a second-half drought. But despite watching their lead shrink from double digits down to two points in the final three minutes of play, the Quakers did not collapse under the pressure of the comeback by the Big Red. Instead, West and sophomore Erin Ladley ended a pattern of unsuccessful Penn trips to the charity stripe. West sank her two free throws and Ladley added 1-of-2 to help Penn narrowly escape with a victory. "The entire season we've been losing close games, but now we're getting better at finishing," West said. "We were a little nervous and now we're more calm and confident. I think that just comes with experience." Against Columbia, the Quakers faced another challenge as it looked like Penn could fall victim to the Lions' underdog pride. Columbia entered the contest having lost 19 straight Ivy games, five this season. By the end of the first half, the Lions were on pace to turn things around at the Palestra as they took a 39-38 lead into the locker room. But Penn was not fazed by the thought of giving Columbia its first Ivy win since the Lions beat the Quakers on March 1, 1997. Instead, the Red and Blue put together a second-half run that squelched the Lions' plans. Penn finished the game by outscoring Columbia 12-2, resulting in an 87-71 victory. "We're on a little bit of a roll now and it's hard to put a finger on what's different," co-captain Sue Van Stone said. "It's just some intangible [thing] that we have and luckily its coming through at an important time of the season."