Penn women's basketball sweeps Ivy postseason awards

The accolades keep coming in for Penn women's basketball.

For the first time in program history, the Quakers swept all of the Ivy League's postseason awards, with Alyssa Baron winning Ivy Player of the Year and Sydney Stipanovich taking both Ivy Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

Baron, who was also a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection, was key in the Red and Blue's run to their first Ivy title in a decade, placing in the top 10 of the Ancient Eight in points (14.6), rebounds (5.9), assists (3.4) and steals (1.7) while also sporting an 80.3 percent mark from the free-throw line.

Baron is Penn's first player of the year selection since Jewel Clark took home the award after the Quakers won the Ancient Eight crown in 2003-04.

Meanwhile, Stipanovich was a force on both ends of the court for Penn, receiving Penn's third ever Rookie of the Year (Diana Caramanico and Baron were the first two). Her 98 blocks have her sixth in the nation and those 98 rejections are more than six other Ivy teams have in total all season.

And while Stipanovich broke Penn's record for both blocks in a season (previous record was 72) and blocks in a game with nine, she also provided steady offense for Penn, including a 19-point, nine-rebound effort to help Penn beat Princeton on Tuesday.

Stipanovich was also named second-team All-Ivy along with her partner in the frontcourt, junior forward Kara Bonenberger. Bonenberger started every game this year, putting up 11.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

With the Ivy season now behind them, the Quakers will find out their NCAA Tournament opponent on Monday. In an email, ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme said that Penn's ceiling is likely a 12 seed but the team is unlikely to fall below a 13 seed.

Creme was confident that the Quakers end up on the 12-seed line, which would be a big step up from Penn's last appearance in the Big Dance as a 16 seed.