Jesse Spector: Ready to chase for a banner

When the Palestra re-opens on December 7, the first team to take the floor there may feel a little bit underrepresented. There have been plenty of renovations to the Palestra's concourse, but inside the hallowed gym, the southwest corner is still longing for proper decoration. That corner of the Palestra is the space that is reserved for the Penn women's basketball team's Ivy League championship banners. The Quakers were picked first in last year's preseason Ivy League poll, even though they had a first-year coach in Kelly Greenberg, and only one senior, Mandy West. They started out on track to fulfill that prediction, winning six in a row to open Ivy play. But the bounces did not go their way at all in five losses in their last eight games, and the chance for a banner slipped away. Now, the Quakers have five seniors, a difficult pre-conference schedule crafted by Greenberg, and are once again the preseason pick to win the Ivy League title and make their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. "I don't want to call it pressure, but there's a sense of urgency, and maybe that's good in a way," Greenberg said. "Maybe that means it'll keep a fire under us to not go 6-0 and feel good, which maybe we did last year. 6-0 doesn't mean anything.... We want to hold ourselves accountable and say we can do this." That sense of urgency isn't just about the Ancient Eight. The Quakers practice in shirts that read "Big Five, Ivy League." The City Series comes first -- Penn plays four of its first six games in the Big 5, and the Quakers know that there's just as much room to build on what they did in the city last year as there is in the Ivy League. "They were all close games [last year, except St. Joe's]," Penn senior guard and Drexel Hill, Pa., native Claire Cavanaugh said. "We have a whole year of experience under our belt, and coach Greenberg played in the Big 5, she knows it. She got another taste of it last year, and now I think it's our chance this year." It is indeed their chance. The Quakers have success from last year to build on, and with so many seniors in key roles, that urgency is unmistakable. The Quakers didn't have such urgency last year. Coming into the season, they weren't quite sure what to expect, and once they got off to the flying start, they were in utterly uncharted territory. This time around, the Quakers will be well aware of what lies ahead, and they know that the opposition will know what they're bringing to the table. With a tough schedule out of the league, the Red and Blue should be more battle-tough when the grueling weekends of Ivy League play roll around. So, there's one thing left for the Quakers to do -- play the games. "We know that this is our last chance," Cavanaugh said. "We're expecting a lot of ourselves this year.... This year we're just hoping to take care of business. We know that we're the team to beat and everyone's got a big X on their schedule the day we come to town. We've just got to do it." What's almost lost in all this, and why it may be surprising that the Quakers are the preseason favorite, is that they have the challenge of replacing West, the first team All-Ivy guard who scored 20 points a game last year. She was responsible for more than a quarter of the Red and Blue's offensive output. Her graduation not only means that Penn will miss her scoring threat, but that defenses will be paying even more attention to forward Diana Caramanico, the only player in the entire Ivy League who scored more points than West did last season. But the Quakers expect to be able to cope. There is, after all, a reason that they're the preseason favorite in the Ivy League. "Everyone likes to say, 'Oh, you lost Mandy, that's a huge loss,'" Greenberg said. "Well, some people out there must know it's a huge loss, but must think pretty highly of Erin [Ladley] and Jen [Jones] and Tara [Twomey] and Julie [Epton] and Jess [Allen], and expect them to step up, which has done wonders for our team." The Quakers know that it won't be easy, and they know that there are a lot of expectations now. They also know that there are those who will believe it when they see it with the Red and Blue. "We got picked first last year too," Cavanaugh said. "Maybe this year that we got it again people are like, 'Well, they'll fall apart.' We'd really like to prove [ourselves]. What would really make me happiest is to have a banner hanging in here with our name on it." There's no doubt that this team can play better in the Big 5 than it ever has before this season. There's little question that the Quakers are a high enough caliber team to win the Ivy League. It's no easy task to do so, but all the Quakers have to do this season is play as well as they are capable, and they will fulfill not only everybody else's expectations, but their own. And they'll finally get to start filling that corner at the Palestra.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.