After playing a very difficult non-conference schedule, the Penn women's basketball team will tonight be playing an opponent much closer to Ivy League caliber.
Tonight the Quakers finish their grueling non-league schedule, one of the 60 toughest in the nation, when they travel to Lehigh for their final game before the beginning of Ivy League play. With a win at Lehigh (11-4), Penn (6-6) will head into conference play above .500.
This is a feat more impressive than it sounds considering they have played two top-25 teams, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 16 Maryland, and a variety of other tougher opponents including Temple andVillanova.
"Those teams are real physical, and we went in not as tough as we should have been," sophomore guard Joey Rhoads said. "Every Ivy game is tough, and playing these teams will prepare us."
Sophomore forward Monica Naltner also believes the team has benefited from the tough schedule.
"It's hard because we've had games against top 25 opponents, but we know we can play with those teams, and we'll take what we've learned to the Ivy League games".
Through their first 12 games, the Quakers, not an overwhelmingly big team, have been outrebounded by a slight margin, losing the battle by one per game.
"We've been stressing rebounds" Rhoads explained. "We know we can get many more rebounds than we have been getting, and should be limiting how many he other team gets."
The defense has been good so far this season, but as Rhoads says it is an area that is always in need of improvement.
"We've always been working on our defense, and helping each other out [when we get beat]."
Another aspect that needs to improve before the conference games begin is starting games stronger. While the Quakers have scored almost the exact same amount of points as their opponents, they start slower, and do much better in the second half, scoring over 60 percent of their points after intermission.
"We've been working on starting off stronger, but that's the way our team plays," Naltner said. "We get used to the way the opponent plays, and then finish the game strong."
On the positive side, Penn has done some things very well that would point toward a good Ivy League season. It has shot well (41.6 percent from the floor), has only lost to one team (Marist) with a lower RPI than its own and is currently on a three-game winning streak.
Although Lehigh has played a weak schedule so far, the team has already won 11 games, they are still among the nation's best in field goal percentage.
The Mountain Hawks are led by Jessica DePalo, who is averaging 19.1 points per game. The 6-foot-1 forward is effective near the basket, but also can step out and hit the open jumper.
"Our gameplan against DePalo is to consistently be playing defense on her, and take her out of her game," Naltner said.
Looking ahead toward Ivy League play, Naltner said, "An Ivy Championship is what we're looking for, but we have to beat teams like Lehigh."
