Last time Villanova senior Lisa Karcic made a visit to the Palestra, it was a dark day for Penn women's basketball.
"Two years ago she shot the lights out here," coach Pat Knapp said.
Unfortunately for Knapp and the Quakers, the scene at Villanova's Pavilion last year was even drearier. That 40-point defeat, coupled with the Red and Blue's season-opening loss at Lehigh on Friday night, leaves the squad with a lot of questions to answer in tonight's home opener against the Wildcats.
"Every game this year, I really think we have something to prove because last year wasn't a season that anyone would consider to be that great of a season from any standpoint," junior guard Sarah Bucar said of the team's 7-22 campaign. "Especially the Villanova game."
Indeed, in a season of lowlights, the contest with the Wildcats was especially striking. The Quakers managed a paltry 26 points, their third-lowest output in program history.
Villanova (1-1) will enter West Philadelphia fresh off a win over Fairfield, in which its other star shooter, Laura Kurz, put up 25 points.
The fact that the Wildcats can shoot - and often do - from three-point land is no secret to the Quakers.
In the 2007 matchup, 66 percent of Villanova's shots were threes. The Wildcats made 13 of their 27 trifecta attempts, a 48-percent completion percentage. Karcic went 5-for-7 from behind the arc.
Penn (0-1) thinks its four-guard system will allow it to better contain the three-point blitz that Villanova is sure to bring.
"A year ago, we had a bunch of guards hurt and we played Villanova with a bunch of post players and we couldn't guard them," Knapp said. "We will play smaller and quicker tomorrow."
Senior tri-captain Kelly Scott added: "That's something on defense that I know we're focusing on - getting out on shooters.
Defense has, in fact, been the name of the game for the Quakers this week.
"We really need to step up our defensive intensity, and that was pretty evident after the Lehigh game," Bucar said. "We have had two good practices. What that means will be seen tomorrow, because we have to carry it on the court."
Knapp says the lineup will look different from the one he put on the court on Friday, although he didn't specify who will be in the starting five.
Scott, Bucar, sophomore Kim Adams and seniors Carrie Biemer and Anca Popovici got the nod against the Mountain Hawks.
"We clearly didn't like the way some combinations played together," he said. "Some combinations clearly did not give us the best chance to win, and we probably weren't going to know that until we played them."
If there is ever a time to forget the past, this may be it for the Red and Blue.
"We don't talk about last year," Knapp said. "We just don't."
