After sweeping all three Ivy Player of the Week awards, Penn freshman Alyssa Baron will be put to the ultimate test as she faces another of the best freshmen in the league.
The women’s basketball team will kick its Ivy League season into high gear as it embarks on its first Ivy weekend trip to Yale and Brown.
Just a week prior to Baron’s awards, Yale freshman Janna Graf also became one of the six women in the last nine years to be named both Rookie and Player of the Week.
The Rookie of the Week honor has gone to either Baron or Graf for the past five weeks. Baron has tallied four Rookie awards so far this season.
“[Graf’s] a real good player,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “I’m anxious to see her play live.”
Graf got off to a slow start after missing the first three games of the season due to mononucleosis. Once healthy, she led Yale to its first-ever victory over a nationally ranked opponent in a 91-85 win over then No. 15 Florida State. She scored a career-high 22 points.
Graf outdid herself in Yale’s first Ivy matchup of the season against Brown on Jan. 14, when she set a new career high of 26 points.
While Baron leads the Quakers with an average of 16.1 points per game — more than double that of Penn’s second leading scorer — Graf has offensive help from sophomore Megan Vasquez and senior Mady Gobrecht, the team’s top two scorers.
When the Quakers went up to New Haven last year, they suffered a crushing 70-38 loss.
“We struggled against Yale last year,” McLaughlin said. “They put a lot of pressure on the ball.”
The Quakers’ performance against Yale tonight could be an indicator of how tomorrow’s Brown matchup will go.
Yale swept both games against Brown, with the Bears not breaking 60 points either time.
Brown also boasts a young team, with seven freshmen of its own. Guard Lauren Clarke has been a strong asset to the Bears this season, earning her own Rookie of the Week award after nearly breaking a Brown record with a 75 percent performance from beyond the arc in Brown’s game against Rhode Island.
After going up against a number of tough nonconference opponents, the Quakers should be better accustomed to the high-pressure situations they will be facing during Ivy play. In the game against Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse Virginia, the Quakers played before a crowd of over 3,500.
“We were in some tight games. [We] gave ourselves chances to win against teams that maybe people didn’t think we could,” McLaughlin said. “Our confidence level is pretty high, but it’s a whole new season for us.”
This article has been changed from the print version to reflect that Alyssa Baron has won four Rookie of the Week awards.
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