Softball to face two Ivy foes

The Quakers are still looking for their first win in league play during Carol Kasshow's tenure. Penn softball coach Carol Kashow perfectly summed up the current state of her team in one short sentence: "Right now we have this huge Ivy monkey on our back." Since Kashow's tenure began last season, the Quakers have gone 0-16 against Ivy League opponents, including an 0-4 start to their league season this year. Tomorrow, Penn (9-16, 0-4 Ivy League) continues its quest for an Ivy League win against Harvard (12-12, 4-0) at 1 p.m. on Warren Field. The following day, Penn hosts Dartmouth (8-15, 2-2) at the same place and time. In Penn's first four Ancient Eight games, the Quakers have managed just three runs while hitting .122 as a team. This means that Penn is just half as successful at the plate in Ivy games versus non-Ivy games -- out of conference, the Quakers are hitting .242. "Last year [hitting] was a problem overall," Kashow said. "This year, out of the league, we scored runs. There's really no reason why we don't score runs in the Ivy League." And according to Kashow, the other Ivy League pitchers are not even superior to the those the Quakers have faced this season; Penn has just failed to produce against them. "We faced a couple of tough pitchers in Florida and the pitcher from Drexel [Lori Swanson] is one of the best in our region when she's on her game," Kashow said. Acknowledging the problem is coming from within, the Quakers have been trying to remedy the situation in practice this week in preparation for this weekend's games. Normally when the team scrimmages in practice, innings start with runners already on base to put pressure on the defense. This week, however, Kashow has changed things up given Penn's recent inability to manufacture runs. "In [Wednesday's] practice, we didn't put runners on base, but made the [players] get runners on and move them along," Kashow said. Penn will see if the new types of scrimmages help when Harvard, the defending Ivy League champion, comes to town on Saturday. "A lot of times if a team is coming in and they are stronger than you on paper, they will look past you," Kashow said. "I think that is one thing Harvard won't do because their coach is a pretty savvy coach and she won't let them look past us." If last year is any indication, the Crimson will not be looking past Penn. Eventual-champion Harvard could have focused ahead on a season-ending doubleheader with contender Cornell; instead, the Crimson showed no mercy, allowing the Quakers just five hits in the two games, winning 5-0 and 2-0. "Harvard was aggressive at the plate," Kashow said. "As soon as the ball got to the outfield, they were looking to go for two bases." Harvard has continued its winning ways in Ivy competition this season, going undefeated so far. The Crimson swept doubleheaders against Yale and Brown last weekend. If Penn cannot get over the hump against the Crimson, it will get another chance on Sunday against Dartmouth. In the last two years Penn has had its greatest Ancient Eight success against Dartmouth. Last year's 9-4 loss to the Big Green marked the only time Penn scored more than one run in a league game. Moreover, Penn's last Ivy victory was a 5-3 win over Dartmouth in the last game of the 1997 season. The Red and Blue also ended their campaign with Dartmouth in 1998. The Big Green swept the doubleheader 11-1 and 9-4 to leave Penn with a winless Ivy League record. "We had lost 10 Ivy games, and it was an ugly, rainy day and that's the way we played," Kashow said. The weather forecast calls for rain on Sunday, but unlike last year, maybe the rain will wash away that proverbial monkey that sits on Penn's back.

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