Crown of Ivy for W. Hoops

BOSTON -- The rafters in the southwest corner of the Palestra will no longer be barren, as the Penn women's basketball team clinched its first-ever Ivy League championship with a 62-57 victory at Harvard on Saturday night. A weekend sweep that also included a 59-55 win at Dartmouth on Friday night assured the Quakers of their first title in 27 years of Ivy League play, and the team's first berth in the NCAA tournament. With the two victories, the Red and Blue have now won 18 consecutive games, marking not only a program record, but also the nation's longest active winning streak. The unprecedented success and overall turnaround of Penn women's basketball can be largely credited to head coach Kelly Greenberg and senior forward Diana Caramanico, a two-time Player of the Year and perhaps the best women's basketball player in Ivy League history. In just her second year at the helm, Greenberg has taken a club that had gone 12-14 in the 1998-1999 season and molded it into one that has now reached the pinnacle of its conference. "I really didn't think it would happen so quickly," said an emotional Greenberg after the Harvard game. The championship, though, may be even more special to Penn's two co-captains, Caramanico and senior Erin Ladley, who carried the team down the stretch of Saturday's game by scoring 24 of their team's 28 second-half points. To top things off, each also reached a personal milestone against the Crimson. Ladley, in the first half, became the 13th woman in Penn history to score 1,000 career points. Caramanico, meanwhile, became the Ivy League's all-time leading scorer on an eight-foot jump shot in the second half. Caramanico now has 2,321 points in her illustrious Penn career, with three games remaining in the regular season. Yet, in the end, there was no question that the title mattered most. "We've gotten closer every year," said the characteristically modest Caramanico, one of five seniors on this year's team. "This is all we've ever wanted for the team and for the program." Many Penn fans packed into Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday, and they made their presence felt with their boisterous support. With just a couple minutes remaining in the game, the Red and Blue faithful could taste victory, and broke into a chant of "Ivy champs," anticipating the glory that no Penn women's basketball team had ever experienced before. Following the game, Penn players and coaches embraced on the court, and then met up with the friends and family that had made the trip to Boston. And when the commotion had subsided, the 2000-2001 Ivy League champions posed underneath the basket for a celebratory team photo. This moment didn't always seem destined to happen, but the Quakers have enjoyed a magical run over the last two months after opening the season with a 1-5 record. In the 74 days since a December 12 loss to Villanova at the Palestra, Penn has not again suffered a defeat. Modestly beginning with a 68-56 victory over Stony Brook on December 28, and continuing on a snow-filled night two days later with a 60-42 win against Air Force before an announced Palestra crowd of just 43, the fledgling Penn win streak was born. The momentum and the fan support would soon build, as Penn then swept a long and difficult six-game road-trip to open the new year. The rest has been history, literally. Penn has prided itself on being able to beat an opponent with any player and in any fashion. The results bear it out, as the Quakers have proven themselves to be just as capable of winning low-scoring, defensive battles, as shootouts over this present stretch. It's been a long road for Penn, a team that was just 6-20 four years ago.

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