W. Hoops continues record start

The Quakers moved to seven games over .500 for the first time in school history with two Ivy wins. The members of the Penn women's basketball team awoke on Sunday morning in an unfamiliar position. Having swept New York's Ivy League teams on Friday and Saturday nights, the Quakers were tied atop the conference with Harvard with a 3-0 record in league play. The Quakers, who have never won an Ancient Eight title, have started their conference schedule with three straight wins only one other time in the 29-year history of the program. Furthermore, the Quakers (12-5) have never been seven games above .500 at any point in any season. "We're not really thinking about it," junior forward Diana Caramanico said of the Quakers' fast start. "It's nice to be 3-0, but we're definitely not taking any teams for granted or sitting back and relaxing, because we've got 11 games to go." Despite a slow start by Caramanico on Friday, the Red and Blue got out of the gate quickly against Columbia (3-12, 2-2 Ivy League). After taking a 10-point lead with fully 16:30 remaining in the first half, the Quakers never looked back as they extended the margin to 26 before settling in at halftime with a comfortable 17-point cushion. "We came out early and just ran and ran and ran," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "Di wasn't on early and if somebody had told me we'd have 41 points at the half, and Di would be off, with seven? I wouldn't believe them. Erin [Ladley] was on, Mandy [West] was on early and people are finishing inside." Caramanico regained her stroke in the second half, adding 12 points to bring her total for the evening to 19, while the Quakers rolled, 79-43. "It was an easy win," Greenberg said. "It's still one of those nights we've got to learn from. Julie [Epton] can't get in foul trouble like that." With the game well in hand, Greenberg left many of her starters in until the six-minute mark in the second half. Greenberg explained that she left the first five in to allow junior center Jessica Allen, who missed nearly a month with a stress fracture in her foot, to get some actual game time experience with the starters. Although Caramanico did not have her shooting touch early in the game, she did shine in another category. Her 19 points against the Lions was over six points below her season average, but Caramanico posted another 19 on Friday night -- in rebounds, which tied her career high. Caramanico was a veritable rebounding machine this past weekend, as she outdid herself the very next night, posting yet another double-double in scoring 23 points and grabbing a career-high 20 boards. With typical modesty, Caramanico said she was just doing her job. "That was one of coach's points, that rebounding was going to be a big factor," Caramanico said. "I was just trying to get the ball so we could turn around and run the floor." If Columbia was a cakewalk, then Cornell was a mini-marathon, as it took a while for the Quakers to outlast the Big Red, 66-57. "We played real well in the first 10 minutes," Greenberg said. "Then we kind of went a little flat. But we answered every time they made a run." Indeed, the Quakers built their lead in the first half, and then spent the next 20 minutes maintaining it, as both the Big Red (10-6, 2-2) and the Quakers scored 31 second-half points. "If Dartmouth (10-6, 2-1) and Harvard (10-6, 3-0) come in and play like that, it's going to be a very interesting conference this year," Greenberg said. Greenberg, having emerged unscathed from her very first Ivy League weekend, said she enjoyed the league's unique Friday-Saturday scheduling. "I liked it," she said. "I actually think it's pretty neat getting to play back-to-back." Greenberg did mention that she had decided on a variation of the old coaching mantra of "one game at a time." "I'm going to start telling my team that we're going to take it one weekend at a time," Greenberg said. "Friday night's win doesn't mean anything if you lose on Saturday. They just cancel each other out." With the two wins over the weekend, the Quakers not only vaulted to first place in the conference, but they also now own the league's best overall record at 12-5. So what about the team's chances at a league title? "It's too early [to talk about]," Greenberg said. "I see a lot of long-time fans getting real excited and talking about postseason play, and I'm like 'Whoa, we've still got a lot of these weekends to go.'"