With their first Ivy League weekend under their belt, the Quakers will pack their bags and hit the road once more.
This time, Penn — the top-ranked defense in the League — will have its hands full with the Ivies’ number-one offense, Harvard (11-6, 3-0 Ivy).
After splitting games on their first trip with Yale and Brown, the Red and Blue (7-10, 1-2) will make the long trek to Hanover, N.H., and Cambridge, Mass., to take on the Big Green (4-13, 0-3) and Crimson, respectively.
“[The players] are familiar with this type of trip, back to back,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “I think that will help us.”
With the first Ivy roadtrip out of the way, McLaughlin and his team are ready for a weekend in which they will travel more than 800 miles over the course of roughly 14 hours.
“I thought they handled it well last week, but I think they’ll handle it better this week,” McLaughlin said.
On Friday, the Quakers will head to Hanover, the site of their lone Ivy win last season.
The team this year is a markedly different one — eager to “leave everything in the past,” according to senior guard Erin Power.
In Cambridge on Sunday, Penn will battle defensively as it attempts to hold the Crimson under their season average of 73.5 points per game.
But McLaughlin was quick to point out Harvard’s offensive options.
“Even if we guard them effectively, they are still going to score,” he said. “They are offense first, defense second.”
After experiencing one weekend away from home, Power also believes that the team will be able to continue building and be prepared to stop the League’s top offense.
“I think we handled our first [Ivy weekend] well,” Power said.
While the team is young and some are inexperienced with back-to-back play, Power added that the team will be better equipped to handle a second conference weekend on the road.
“We’ve definitely become a stronger team both offensively and defensively,” Power said. “We’re trying to move forward with every game so we’re excited to get another Ivy weekend in and come away with a sweep.”
This weekend’s trip will be a long one, but those bus rides will seem a lot shorter if the Quakers can indeed best both Dartmouth and Harvard.
