Search Results
Below are your search results. You can also try a Basic Search.
(04/23/01 9:00am)
As the Penn softball team approaches its final week of what has been a difficult season, it can hang its hat on one thing.
With a win at Columbia yesterday, the Quakers earned their third league victory of the spring, one more than they did a year ago.
Yet the Red and Blue (13-26, 3-9 Ivy League) still dropped 9-1 and 7-0 decisions at Cornell (29-14, 11-3) in Ithaca on Saturday before splitting with Columbia (18-22, 4-10) in Manhattan yesterday. Penn took the opener, 2-0, and dropped the second game in eight innings, 2-1.
Cornell, which yesterday clinched a share of the Ivy championship, completely overpowered the Quakers on Saturday.
"I think all weekend we didn't hit the ball the way we're capable of," Penn co-captain Clarisa Apostol said. "[Cornell was] a good team, but the margin between our scores shouldn't have been that large."
In the first game, Penn fell victim to the eight-run mercy rule.
Penn freshman pitcher Nicki Borgstadt limited her opposition to four runs through the first 4 2/3 innings, but the Big Red proceeded to explode for five runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to seal the game.
Cornell used three home runs to defeat Penn in the opener, including a walk-off three-run blast by catcher Annette Sheppard in the fifth.
The second game followed a similar pattern, with Cornell again jumping out to an early lead. Penn sophomore pitcher Becky Ranta surrendered four first-inning runs, capped by a three-run homer off the bat of third baseman Allison Batten.
Penn's bats, meanwhile, just could not get started in either of Saturday's contests. The Quakers collected only four hits in the second game after tallying five in the first.
"I think Cornell had girls that could hit for power all the way down the lineup," Quakers first baseman Erica Miller said. "[Penn] Coach [Carol Kashow] said that Cornell was looking for a reason to hit. They were going after a lot of first strikes and connecting."
Miller served as the Red and Blue's starting first baseman in all four games last weekend, a variation necessitated by an ankle injury to shortstop Crista Farrell.
Usual first baseman Veronica Richardson shifted to shortstop for the New York trip, while Miller stepped in at first.
Despite the different look, the Quakers played four solid defensive games.
"I think our defense adjusted nicely," Apostol said. "We had practiced Thursday and Friday with the changes."
Still, Penn missed Farrell as a leader out on the field, as well as her presence in the lineup.
"It was tough not having Crista out there," Miller said. "She's one of the anchors of this team."
The Quakers were nonetheless able to secure a win at Baker Field yesterday behind some spectacular pitching from Borgstadt. The right hander went the distance, tossing a five-hit shutout.
Penn designated hitter Lisa McNeeley drove in her squad's first run with an RBI single in the first inning, and Ranta -- who was pinch running at the time -- scored Penn's other run on a passed ball.
Ranta, who then pitched the second game for Penn, also hurled a stellar game, but a lack of run support led to the Sunday split.
"It would have been nice to have swept Columbia," Miller said. "And I think that if we had hit the way we're capable of hitting, we would have."
(04/18/01 9:00am)
The Penn softball team will get a break from Ivy League play this weekend.
But this isn't your typical break.
In fact, it will be one the Quakers' toughest games all season.
This afternoon, Penn (12-22, 2-6 Ivy League) will welcome Villanova (27-3, 8-0 Big East) -- one of the region's mightiest juggernauts -- to Warren Field.
The doubleheader is slated for 3 p.m.
Villanova comes in riding a scorching 15-game winning streak -- a streak which has been intact ever since a March 27 loss to St. Joseph's.
Penn, too, will look to build on some previous success as it enters this matchup. The Red and Blue split their four games at Brown and Yale last weekend and are beginning to see noticeable improvements in their overall performance.
"One of the positives is that we won a first game [of a doubleheader] -- and in extra innings," said Penn co-captain Clarisa Apostol, referring to a nine-inning 3-0 victory at Yale.
"Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to carry that momentum from that weekend."
The greatest test that Penn is likely to face this afternoon will come when they stride to the plate. Villanova's pitchers are among the best the Quakers will see this spring.
Of the three 'Nova pitchers that have seen action in 2001, none owns an ERA higher than 2.08.
The West Coast trio of Theresa Hornick (Edmonds, Wash.), Keri Stoller (West Linn, Ore.), and Kari Singley (Irvine, Calif.) comprise the nucleus of what is a dominant staff.
Hornick, a sophomore righthander, is 13-0 with a microscopic 0.56 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 87 innings. On a team with a wealth of sensational pitching, she is the ace.
The Quakers are familiar with Villanova, however, most recently squaring off with their Mainline foe in a game last fall.
And because Penn has had exposure to all of the weapons that the Wildcats will be armed with today, the Quakers think that they have found a way to be successful.
"I remember both of their [starting] pitchers are very good," Penn sophomore shortstop Crista Farrell said. "But if we lay off the high pitches, we should be OK."
Farrell explained that although Villanova's staff is tremendously talented, it often relies on getting hitters to chase pitches out of the strike zone.
Apostol added that the team's practices in the past couple of days have emphasized the approach that Penn will look to adopt in the batter's box today.
"[Penn coach] Carol [Kashow] just wants us to have a good at bat," Apostol said. "We want to have a good pitch selection."
This non-conference midweek tilt, which is common in Penn's schedule, will serve as a bridge to next week's Ivy League road games at Cornell on Friday and Columbia on Saturday.
The Quakers, while always looking forward to league play, still appreciate the opportunity to take on some other local rivals.
"The competition is usually pretty balanced in the City Six," said Apostol, referring to the six Philadelphia-area teams. "That gives you more motivation because you're on a more even playing field."
Farrell noted that the doubleheader with the Wildcats could be more competitive than one might think, since the Quakers are steadily gaining confidence in themselves as the season progresses.
"Last weekend was the first one that we really got it together," Farrell said. "I think we're headed in a better direction than we were."
(04/16/01 9:00am)
The Penn softball team had to work overtime last weekend to pick up its first two Ivy League victories.
The Quakers (12-22, 2-6 Ivy League) split a pair of doubleheaders in New England, winning their second game at Brown (5-25, 3-5) on Friday and the opener at Yale (18-17, 4-4) on Saturday.
In both of those contests, Penn needed extra innings to get the job done.
"Both of our wins were really good games," Penn junior third baseman Jen Moore said. "It helped us character-wise."
After dropping their first game in Providence, 5-0, the Quakers rebounded to win an 11-inning marathon by a score of 3-2.
Penn sophomore Becky Ranta pitched all 11 innings for her club to earn her sixth victory of the season and the Quakers' first in league play to that point.
Though Penn's bats remained fairly quiet after getting blanked by Brown's Erin Durlesser in a three-hitter in the opening game, Ranta allowed the Red and Blue to hang around before eventually securing the win.
"It says a lot about her ability and her stamina, to go through the lineup five or six times," Moore said.
Moore helped her pitcher out, coming up with one of the afternoon's more important hits. The junior belted a home run over the center field fence to give the Quakers a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning.
"I didn't expect it to be a home run," said Moore of her reaction once the ball left her bat. "I got under it and I was expecting [the center fielder] to catch it."
The Bears responded to the blast with a run in the bottom of the fifth, but that would be the last time they would score.
In the top of the 11th, Penn finally got something going again. With Brown just an out away from retiring the side in order, the Quakers staged a dramatic game-winning rally.
Penn first baseman Veronica Richardson hit a two-out double, and catcher Dani Landolt then drove in the go-ahead run with a base hit to center field.
The momentum from Friday's second game seemed to stay with the Quakers on their bus ride to New Haven.
The Red and Blue again prevailed in extra innings, and their success was again the direct result of a masterful pitching performance.
Penn freshman Nicki Borgstadt tossed a shutout in a 3-0, nine-inning win over the Elis.
"I really tried to mentally prepare for the Yale game and take it one inning at a time," Borgstadt said. "And our defense was incredible."
Yet for all of the success that the Lenexa, Kan., native was enjoying on Saturday, Yale's Cara Denver matched her pitch for pitch until the ninth.
In what was to be the game's final inning of play, the Red and Blue again established a two-out rally, this time loading the bases with the bottom of the batting order. Shortstop Crista Farrell then cleared the bags with a three-run, line-drive double into the left-center field gap.
"I think it's huge for [Farrell]. She's done a lot for this team," said Borgstadt, who mentioned that her teammate had been pressing at the plate recently. "I think it's really important that Crista was able to get that big hit."
The Quakers also praised the players who set up the double by making something happen with two outs.
"It was a clutch performance by the bottom of our order," Moore said.
The Elis would get their revenge in the afternoon's second game. Pitcher Jillian Miles surrendered just one unearned run in a 3-1 decision for Yale.
Still, Penn was reasonably satisfied with the four-game split at the two schools, and Moore hopes that the contributions from a variety of Red and Blue players serves as a springboard for the club.
"It proves that the talent is spread all throughout," Moore said. "And I think this team is starting to realize it."
(04/13/01 9:00am)
This might be the Ivy League, but it's doubtful that many students are as well-versed as Becky Ranta.
Ranta, a College sophomore, is currently in her fourth semester of learning Swahili, a language primarily spoken in Sub-Saharan Africa. She insists that her original interest in simply meeting a collegiate requirement has evolved into a passion of hers.
"My sister went to Africa for her junior year abroad and she came back and got me very interested in Africa and African culture," Ranta said. "I just thought this kind of made sense."
But when she's not in the classroom studying this foreign dialect, Ranta concentrates on her other passion.
You see, the Greenwich, Conn., native also happens to be the ace of the Penn softball team's pitching staff.
Balancing the two acts has actually resulted in conflicts at times. Since demand for Swahili courses is relatively low, the class Ranta takes in her proficiency level only meets on Monday and Wednesday nights. But the Penn softball team often plays doubleheaders on Wednesdays.
The Quakers' hurler, therefore, is forced to sometimes leave after pitching the first game of a twinbill in order to make her class.
But despite the conflict of scheduling, Ranta has performed well this season and seems to have embraced her leadership position on the team.
Though only a sophomore, Ranta was placed in this role because the Quakers do not have a single senior on their roster and feature only a two-player rotation on the mound.
Following some early-season struggles in Florida over spring break, Ranta has pitched very strongly lately.
"After Florida, I've definitely gotten my head back into it," she said. "I'm much more focused and driven."
Ranta currently boasts a record of 5-9, but the numbers can be misleading. Many of those losses were accumulated during Penn's 4-10 Florida trip.
Her earned run average of 5.23 was also inflated somewhat by the team's play in its Orlando and Tampa tournaments and has decreased over recent weeks.
"I think that Becky has found the difficulty of going the second time around this year," Penn coach Carol Kashow said. "But she has come up with some nice wins and some very well-thrown games."
Ranta's most praiseworthy accomplishment thus far in the 2001 season came when she completely shut down Lafayette in a road game on March 23.
Ranta tossed a one-hit shutout against the Leopards en route to a 4-0 victory. In that game, even the one hit she surrendered was controversial, and some left the field that day thinking that they had just witnessed a no-hitter.
Ranta's ability is not in question, and her laid-back style on the field has made for a successful Penn career.
"I would describe Becky as relaxed. That's one of her strengths on the mound," Penn co-captain Clarisa Apostol said. "I think she can beat anyone in the Ivies. She's definitely talented enough."
One aspect of this year's Penn squad that Ranta greets with a mixed reaction is the fact that the Quakers really only have two pitchers on the team -- freshman Nicki Borgstadt makes up the other half of the duo.
Ranta indicated that fatigue might eventually be a factor as the season pushes on, but there are benefits to Penn's situation as well.
"Nicki and I have a hard job to do. It's hard not to have a reliever," the sophomore said. "But the fear of being taken out is not there."
And Ranta does usually go the distance, as she has pitched 11 complete games so far this year.
The Quakers hurler, however, has had a bit of trouble in the early part of games this season -- but her teammates have worked with her recently to help their star pitcher overcome this problem.
Ranta and Kashow devised a system in which she pitches to teammates Deb Kowalchuk, Lindsay Wagner and Apostol before the contest begins. This additional practice in game-like conditions has greatly helped Ranta.
"We've done it for about two weeks now," she said. "It just helps me get more warmed up."
Ranta has steadily improved her pitching and is looking toward even brighter things ahead -- beginning with this weekend at Brown and Yale.
"Tutachucheza wachezo wa softball wikiendi hii," she said.
That's Swahili for, "We will win the softball games this weekend."
(04/11/01 9:00am)
The Penn softball team will look to rebound from a rough introduction to the Ivy League season with a midweek doubleheader against Drexel this afternoon.
The Quakers (10-19, 0-4 Ivy League) dropped twinbills last weekend to Dartmouth and Harvard, last year's top two clubs in the Ancient Eight.
But at 3:30 p.m. today, Penn hopes to put forth a strong performance against the Dragons (20-14-1) at Warren Field to prepare the Red and Blue for the resumption of conference play on Saturday.
The Quakers view this as an ideal situation to compete against a very talented team in an effort to build confidence for upcoming contests with Yale and Brown.
"I think that we definitely have the potential to bounce back against Drexel," Penn freshman pitcher Nicki Borgstadt said. "I think it's a great opportunity to gain some momentum for the weekend."
Borgstadt and Penn third baseman Jen Moore added that playing non-league games in the middle of the week is a welcome feature of the Quakers' schedule, since it allows the team to fine-tune its play for more crucial Ivy matchups.
"It gives us a chance to regroup and to address what happened over the weekend," said Moore, who celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday.
Today, the Penn batters will face an especially difficult test that will give them practice for when they battle tough conference opponents.
Drexel's Lori Swanson, who will likely start one of the two doubleheader games, is one of the best pitchers the Quakers will see all year.
The senior from Clay, N.Y., has amassed an 11-5 record thus far, to go along with a 2.22 ERA and 159 strikeouts in 116.2 innings.
"She has good speed and has an excellent riseball, which fools everybody," Moore said.
The Red and Blue can probably anticipate fairly low scoring games today. Despite the Dragons' sensational pitching -- not one member of their five-player staff has an ERA over four -- Drexel has only broken double digits on the scoreboard once this season.
Penn, therefore, may not need an offensive explosion, but will have to sustain a couple of rallies if it expects to be successful.
"It will be a good offensive test for us," Borgstadt said. "I definitely think that our offense did really well versus Dartmouth [on Saturday]. We came out and scored early."
In light of the quality competition on the mound, the Quakers' starting pitchers this afternoon -- sophomore Becky Ranta in the opener and Borgstadt in the nightcap -- must be in control.
But they will not alter their styles at all simply because Drexel will be throwing a couple of aces at Penn.
"I don't feel any additional pressure based on the caliber of the pitcher going against me," Borgstadt said. "I just want to do my part to contribute to a win."
Though Drexel represents a tough challenge, the Red and Blue are familiar with the Dragons. The two squads met last fall, as well as in prior spring seasons.
Penn split with the Dragons in the autumn of 2000, defeating them in the City Six tournament and dropping a home game at Warren Field.
"It is an advantage, of course, to have played them before and to know we can beat them," Moore said.
Penn hopes to atone for a disappointing weekend with a win today. And Moore indicated that a way to do that might be for the Quakers to have a little bit more of a swagger.
"I always have confidence in the team," she said. "It's just a matter of the team having confidence in itself."
(04/04/01 9:00am)
When the Penn softball team (9-14) hosts Lehigh (11-9) in a doubleheader at Warren Field later today, Becky Ranta will deliver the afternoon's first pitch.
The Quakers' right-hander has come on strong of late, as she earned both Penn victories last weekend.
Ranta now has a respectable 5-6 record to go along with her steadily decreasing 4.95 ERA.
"I think at the beginning of the season, I was walking a lot of people and getting behind in the count," said the sophomore of her early struggles. "I think the whole team and myself have really picked it up."
Penn coach Carol Kashow agreed with her pitcher's assessment, stating that throwing first-pitch strikes was essential in Ranta's turnaround.
"She's starting to get ahead of batters," Kashow said. "She's really been efficient."
On Saturday at Rider, Ranta went the distance in a 2-1 Red and Blue victory in which she scattered eight hits and struck out four.
Her line on Sunday against Army was nearly identical. Ranta again pitched a complete game, surrendering only two earned runs and eight hits in 6-3 decision for Penn.
Ranta has teamed with impressive frosh Nicki Borgstadt to create a solid 1-2 punch at the top of the Quakers' rotation. The two will both take the mound in today's doubleheader.
Yet, Kashow stresses that all three phases of the game -- offense, defense, and pitching -- must click in order to be a successful ballclub.
Fortunately for the Quakers, the glovework has dramatically improved since it exhibited some early-season rust on the team's Florida trip last month.
And Penn's bats seem to have woken up as well.
Junior co-captain Clarisa Apostol said that the ability to sustain rallies with key base hits was the most important difference she's noticed offensively.
"I think the area we've most improved in is getting clutch hits," said the left fielder, who boasts a .309 batting average and eight RBIs to go along with a team-leading 11 runs scored.
Helping out Apostol in the lineup is an unexpected source -- freshman Erin O'Brien.
O'Brien has shown some power in the heart of Penn's batting order. The St. James, N.Y., native leads the club with two homers and 11 RBIs.
"I've always had confidence in myself," said O'Brien, who said that she was not overwhelmed by being inserted into the starting lineup as a first-year player. "In the very beginning, I was a little nervous, but I just used that to my advantage."
O'Brien has also earned high praise from her coach.
"She's a very strong, focused young woman and she has a great deal of talent," Kashow said. "She's just a nice kid, so we're happy for her success."
Penn will likely need contributions from players up and down the lineup for today's twinbill, which gets under way at 3 p.m.
Last year's matchup with the Engineers resulted in a Red and Blue sweep in two high-scoring and highly competitive affairs.
The Quakers downed Lehigh, 6-5, in the opener, and proceeded to win by a count of 11-8 in the second game on a cold afternoon in Bethlehem, P.A.
"It was really kind of a barnburner, with lots of runs on both sides," Kashow said of last year's doubleheader. "They push a lot of runs across."
The offense must be functioning at a high level, but the Quakers hope that Ranta can immediately set the tone on the mound in the opener.
"She's pitched extremely well lately," Apostol said. "I think Becky is one of the anchors on this team."
(03/30/01 10:00am)
Less than 24 hours after a disappointing doubleheader loss to Temple in its home opener, the Penn softball team found itself exactly where it wanted to be -- back on the field.
The Quakers (7-12) rebounded from Wednesday's twinbill, in which they were shut out twice, to defeat La Salle, 7-5, in an exciting nine-inning game yesterday afternoon.
"I think, given our record, that the win was very important," Penn co-captain Lindsay Wagner said.
A doubleheader had been scheduled at La Salle (3-16), but the length of the first game, coupled with the persistent rain, forced the cancellation of the nightcap.
The Red and Blue were pleased to have successfully battled the elements, escaping with a victory after falling behind the Explorers in the early going.
"We started off by digging ourselves a hole," Penn designated hitter Lisa McNeeley said.
Quakers starting pitcher Nicki Borgstadt, who hurled all nine innings for the win, was victimized yesterday by some early-inning troubles.
La Salle put two hits together to score two runs in the first and padded its lead to 3-0 in the third.
The Red and Blue, who at that point were going on 18 consecutive scoreless innings, finally crossed home plate in the top of the fourth. With two outs and no one on, freshman Erin O'Brien slammed a solo homer to left field.
"It was a sweet home run -- a line drive over the fence," Wagner said. "She's just got so much power that she can put it over like that."
La Salle would get that run right back, however, as Explorers third baseman Alexis Schneider returned the favor by hitting a solo blast to center field.
Perhaps sparked by O'Brien's home run, the Quakers bats came alive in the sixth inning. For the first time in a while, the Red and Blue were able to rally and push runners along in key at bats.
"We managed to put [our hits] all together in a row," McNeeley said. "That's what helped us, and we didn't look back after the sixth."
Penn sophomore shortstop Crista Farrell, who went 3-for-5 yesterday, beat out an infield single to get things rolling in the sixth.
Junior co-captain Clarisa Apostol singled to right, moving Farrell to second, before outfielder Deb Kowalchuk sent both runners home when she reached on an error by La Salle left fielder Amanda Clark.
McNeeley further exploited Clark's miscue -- one of five La Salle errors on the game -- when she drilled a double to left to drive in Kowalchuk, tying the game at four.
The two teams would each exchange lone runs before extra innings were required.
But all along, one of the Penn keys was Borgstadt's resilience, as she surrendered only one run and two hits after the fourth inning.
"She's very composed on the mound," McNeeley said. "She does a great job of not getting upset after a walk or a home run. For another pitcher, that can be a big problem."
And Borgstadt's ability to keep her team in the ball game certainly paid off yesterday. After a scoreless eighth, Penn struck again in the ninth to score what would become the winning run, while adding one for insurance as well.
In accordance with international softball rules for extra innings, a runner is placed on second base to begin each frame. First baseman Veronica Richardson was that person for Penn in the ninth, but she would later be thrown out at home by La Salle pitcher Missy Rorke on a controversial call.
Unfazed, the Quakers were still able to rally. Junior second baseman Jamie Pallas drove in catcher Dani Landolt to put Penn up, 6-5. And two batters later, after another base hit by Farrell, Apostol lofted a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 7-5.
Borgstadt worked an efficient bottom half of the ninth, and the Quakers walked away with an emotional and hard-fought win.
"I think it was very important that we played [La Salle] in our annex before the Florida trip, and we played them very well," McNeeley remembered. "So we knew coming in that this team was very beatable."
(03/29/01 10:00am)
Heading into yesterday's home opener at Warren Field, the Penn softball team knew that it had to improve its offense.
Although the Quakers had swept a pair at Lafayette five days earlier, they did so solely through brilliant pitching performances and solid defense.
Yesterday, their mediocre batting came back to haunt them, as the Red and Blue (6-12) just couldn't mount any kind of offensive threat against Temple (13-17). Penn was shut out in both games of its doubleheader -- 3-0 in the first game and 5-0 in the second.
"We need to bring all three parts of our game -- offense, defense and pitching -- and that's where we've been inconsistent," Penn head coach Carol Kashow said.
The blustery afternoon began on an ominous note for Penn when starting pitcher Becky Ranta walked Owls' lead-off batter Katie Spencer.
Yet, after a couple of ground-ball outs gave the Red and Blue some hope of emerging unscathed, Temple pitcher Bari Lynn Pflueger drew a walk to extend the inning.
The Owls capitalized. Catcher Ashley Caudill drove in Spencer with a single to left, and third baseman Martha Serrato tripled home both Pflueger and Caudill.
From that point on, no runners would cross the plate for either side, as pitching ruled the day.
The lone bright spot for the Quakers' offense was shortstop Crista Farrell, who collected two of the Quakers three hits in the opening game by going 2-for-2.
On the mound, though, Ranta was quite impressive after the rocky first inning, as she dueled Pflueger pitch for pitch for the remainder of the contest.
"The Becky Ranta that threw six shutout innings was the Becky Ranta that won nine games for us last year," said Kashow, who added that the right hander will address her early-game difficulties by changing her warmup routine for future starts.
In the second game, freshman Nicki Borgstadt also pitched well for the Quakers, but she too suffered from a lack of run support.
Borgstadt held Temple in check most of the way, until the Owls were able to pad their three-run lead to five runs in the sixth inning en route to the 5-0 shutout.
Penn's defense also hurt Borgstadt at times yesterday. Four of the five runs that she surrendered were unearned.
The first costly mishap occurred when Quaker left fielder Clarisa Apostol misplayed a single into a three-base error in the third, which allowed two Temple players to score.
"If I had gotten that ball, we would have given up two fewer runs," the junior co-captain said. "I just picked my head up and took my eye off of it."
Penn had trouble making up for its fielding mistakes while at bat. Temple's Liz Naughton was in the process of throwing a perfect game against the Red and Blue before Farrell led off the bottom of the fourth by reaching first on a mishandled bunt by the Owls' third baseman.
"Clarisa told me that [Naughton] had a perfect game going," Farrell said of her teammate. "And I wanted to ruin it."
That mission was accomplished courtesy of the E-5, while Penn secured its first base hit of the afternoon an inning later when first baseman Veronica Richardson hit a hard ground ball out of the backhand reach of Temple's lunging second baseman.
Sophomore outfielder Erin O'Brien, who entered the second game in the fourth in favor of co-captain Lindsay Wagner, was responsible for the only other Penn hit -- a solid line-drive single to left-center field in the seventh.
The Quakers' bats were clearly not in top form in the March cold yesterday, but a couple of Penn players suggested that there is more to it than just picking up base hits -- they need to be timely.
"Clutch hits have really been hurting us," Farrell said.
Kashow agreed that her squad needs to do a better job in creating rallies and driving runners in.
"In the first game, we left a lot of runners on," she said. "We shot ourselves in the foot."
Sometimes the best thing a disappointed coach or team can ask for is to get right back into action before the losses fester.
And the Quakers, who will visit La Salle for a 3 p.m. doubleheader today, will have that luxury.
The 3-15 Explorers enter tomorrow's game on a seven-game losing streak after dropping two games to Drexel yesterday, 6-2 and 11-3.
(03/28/01 10:00am)
Diana Caramanico could think of no better way to cap off the most memorable season of her basketball career.
With the delivery of a single FedEx package courtesy of the WNBA last week, the senior co-captain of the Ivy League champion Penn women's basketball team may now have the opportunity to continue her basketball career professionally in the United States.
A letter addressed to Caramanico formally invited Penn's all-time leading scorer to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where the WNBA will hold its annual pre-draft camp from April 5 through April 7.
"I really do want to get drafted," Caramanico said. "It's a big goal of mine right now."
The Blue Bell, Pa., native has not missed a beat since the Quakers' season came to an end against Texas Tech on March 16.
Excluding Saturday's travel day in which the Red and Blue flew back from Lubbock, Texas, Caramanico took just two days off before resuming a rigorous workout regimen last Tuesday.
Since that point, she has made her way to either the Palestra or some other Penn athletic facility to ensure that she keeps in mid-season form.
"Right now, I'm just basically trying to stay in shape, so I have the best chance at the camp as possible," Caramanico said.
The three-time Ivy League Player of the Year doesn't know precisely what to expect at the camp, and, at this point, has little idea of what the odds are of her being drafted.
However, Caramanico maintains that she could be a valuable asset to any WNBA team.
"I figure I'm a forward, and I'm mobile," she said. "So that will hopefully be useful to someone."
Even if Caramanico were to be passed over in the draft, which will be held in Secaucus, N.J., on April 20, the Ivy League superstar is confident that she'll be playing ball somewhere later this year.
Caramanico expects to be able to play overseas in the fall, if a call from the WNBA doesn't come.
Additionally, the 6'2" forward does not believe that being drafted this year is her only chance to play in the WNBA.
On a team that established all sorts of new standards for success in 2000-2001, Caramanico herself has carved out the largest individual chunk of the Penn record books.
Caramanico concluded her spectacular career with 2,415 points -- not just the most in the history of the Red and Blue, but also more than anyone else ever to play in either the Ivy League or the Big Five. Her 1,207 rebounds and 210 steals are also Penn records.
In this past season, the forward averaged 21.7 points per game and was the team's leading scorer in 22 of its 28 games. The prolific Caramanico served as both Penn's dynamic offensive threat and constant stabilizing presence on the court.
Now she will look to treat a WNBA market to the kind of performance and determination that made her so beloved among the Palestra faithful.
And although Caramanico might have contingency plans if she is not selected by any of the league's 16 teams in the four-round draft next month, she is still committed to being recognized as one of the nation's best in Secaucus.
"That is one of my goals, to play in the WNBA," Caramanico said. "Now that I have that opportunity, my goal is to get drafted."
(03/27/01 10:00am)
Diana Caramanico could think of no better way to cap off the most memorable season of her basketball career.
With the delivery of a single FedEx package courtesy of the WNBA last week, the senior co-captain of the Ivy League champion Penn women's basketball team may now have the opportunity to continue her basketball career professionally in the United States.
A letter addressed to Caramanico formally invited Penn's all-time leading scorer to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where the WNBA will hold its annual pre-draft camp from April 5 through April 7.
"I really do want to get drafted," Caramanico said. "It's a big goal of mine right now."
The Blue Bell, Pa., native has not missed a beat since the Quakers' season came to an end against Texas Tech on March 16.
Excluding Saturday's travel day in which the Red and Blue flew back from Lubbock, Texas, Caramanico took just two days off before resuming a rigorous workout regimen last Tuesday.
Since that point, she has made her way to either the Palestra or some other Penn athletic facility to ensure that she keeps in mid-season form.
"Right now, I'm just basically trying to stay in shape, so I have the best chance at the camp as possible," Caramanico said.
The three-time Ivy League Player of the Year doesn't know precisely what to expect at the camp, and, at this point, has little idea of what the odds are of her being drafted.
However, Caramanico maintains that she could be a valuable asset to any WNBA team.
"I figure I'm a forward, and I'm mobile," she said. "So that will hopefully be useful to someone."
Even if Caramanico were to be passed over in the draft, which will be held in Secaucus, N.J., on April 20, the Ivy League superstar is confident that she'll be playing ball somewhere later this year.
Caramanico expects to be able to play overseas in the fall, if a call from the WNBA doesn't come.
Additionally, the 6'2" forward does not believe that being drafted this year is her only chance to play in the WNBA.
On a team that established all sorts of new standards for success in 2000-2001, Caramanico herself has carved out the largest individual chunk of the Penn record books.
Caramanico concluded her spectacular career with 2,415 points -- not just the most in the history of the Red and Blue, but also more than anyone else ever to play in either the Ivy League or the Big Five. Her 1,207 rebounds and 210 steals are also Penn records.
In this past season, the forward averaged 21.7 points per game and was the team's leading scorer in 22 of its 28 games. The prolific Caramanico served as both Penn's dynamic offensive threat and constant stabilizing presence on the court.
Now she will look to treat a WNBA market to the kind of performance and determination that made her so beloved among the Palestra faithful.
And although Caramanico might have contingency plans if she is not selected by any of the league's 16 teams in the four-round draft next month, she is still committed to being recognized as one of the nation's best in Secaucus.
"That is one of my goals, to play in the WNBA," Caramanico said. "Now that I have that opportunity, my goal is to get drafted."
(03/26/01 10:00am)
After a week in Florida over Spring Break, biting cold and swirling winds welcomed the Penn softball team back to the Northeast this week. The Quakers overcame Lafayette and the bitter conditions with a clean sweep over the Engineers in Easton, Pa., on Friday afternoon.
Penn (6-10) shut out the Leopards (1-11), 4-0, in the opening game before pulling out a 3-2 victory in the finale.
After losing nine of their first 11 games in Florida, the Red and Blue have rebounded to win four of their last five.
"We knew going in that we should win these two games," said Penn freshman pitcher Nicki Borgstadt, who picked up the complete-game victory in the second game. "It's definitely good that we didn't look past them."
In the first game, Penn sophomore pitcher Becky Ranta was the story.
The Greenwich, Conn., native tossed a complete game one-hitter, striking out two along the way.
The lone Lafayette hit was a Kelly Wise single to left field in the fourth inning, which pushed a Leopard runner into scoring position for one of only three times in the game.
"Overall, I think that [Ranta] did a great job," said Penn sophomore designated player Lisa McNeeley, who played third base on Friday in the absence of the injured Jen Moore. "She did a great job hitting her spots. I think it was her best performance all year."
The Penn offense wasn't exactly stellar in the first game, however, as the Quakers managed to collect only five hits, with no player picking up more than one.
Yet Penn, more than the Leopards, seemed to use the adverse weather conditions more to its benefit.
"I think we actually had the advantage because we put more balls in the air," said McNeeley, who added that Lafayette had difficulty in combatting the wind, and thus committed three errors in each game. Conversely, the Red and Blue made a total of just three for the day.
In the second game, Penn sophomore outfielder Deb Kowalchuk went 4-for-4, saving her most crucial hit for the game's final inning when the Quakers broke a 2-2 tie to secure a doubleheader sweep.
Both teams were notified prior to the sixth inning that it would be the last on account of darkness.
Penn then assumed the lead in dramatic fashion. With two outs and no one on in the top of the sixth, sophomore shortstop Crista Farrell doubled to left and scored when Kowalchuk slammed a triple to right.
"She's a very, very hard worker," McNeeley said of Kowalchuk and her recent hot streak. "She doesn't get breaks often enough, but when she does, she puts them all together."
In the bottom of the sixth, Borgstadt held off the Leopards, despite surrendering a leadoff walk to Danielle Fesco. After a sacrifice bunt and then a groundout, Fesco was left stranded at third base when Erin Allison bounced out to Farrell at short.
"A lot of times in the second game, when I was pitching, we were in tough situations," Borgstadt said. "[But] our team played great defense and we were able to leave a lot of baserunners out there."
Penn will look to continue its solid play when it hosts a doubleheader against Temple on Wednesday.
(03/23/01 10:00am)
The Penn softball team has returned from Florida, but the Quakers will take to the road for their first game in the northeast of the 2001 season.
The Quakers (4-10) will travel to Easton, Pa., today, where they will square off against Lafayette (1-9) in a doubleheader at 3 p.m.
The Quakers were scheduled to play St. Joseph's on Sunday, as well, but that game was canceled.
After having a difficult time in Orlando, where the Red and Blue went just 2-6, Penn went 2-4 in competition at Tampa.
And although Penn would have hoped for a better record, the team can take solace in the fact that its performance improved significantly late in the trip.
"We had a rough start in Orlando," Penn junior co-captain Lindsay Wagner said. "[But] as a team, we pulled together in Tampa and really got the job done."
The greatest turnaround may very well have been in the club's defense.
The Quakers committed 19 errors in eight games in Orlando, including one ill-fated day when they were guilty of 10 in a single doubleheader.
But Penn tightened things up in Tampa, where they made 12 miscues in the field and played their first two errorless games of the young season.
The Quakers feel that solid team defense is a necessary ingredient in putting together a victory over the Leopards.
"In Orlando, our defense kind of fell apart," Wagner said, again highlighting the turnaround the team made between its two tournaments. "But in Tampa, we looked sharp in all aspects."
The Quakers will look to carry that momentum up north with them, where they will face a team they have historically played well against.
Penn swept last year's doubleheader against Lafayette at Warren Field, by scores of 8-0 and 4-1.
The 2001 Leopards have only fashioned one win thus far and have been on the receiving end of several poundings, including a 19-0 loss to Campbell on March 14 at Buies Creek, N.C.
Nonetheless, the Quakers are wary of Lafayette, which will play its first home games of the year today.
"They are a quality team," Penn junior co-captain Clarisa Apostol said. "They're 1-9, but I wouldn't take that lightly because our record is 4-10."
Wagner agreed that Penn is in no position to overlook any opponent.
"I know they're not our strongest competition," she said. "But on any given day, who knows what's going to happen?"
Sophomore Becky Ranta and freshman Nicole Borgstadt, who both pitched impressively in Florida last week, will work the doubleheader.
Borgstadt, a native of Lenexa, Kansas, was particularly strong down south, where she finished with an ERA of 3.92.
But whether the hard-throwing Borgstadt or the more experienced, control-oriented Ranta is out there, the Quakers feel equally confident playing behind both.
"They both have their strengths," Wagner said. "And we feel comfortable with either of them on the mound."
(03/09/01 10:00am)
The players of the Penn women's basketball team can't impress their friends this year by saying that they'll be spending their spring break in Cancun or the Bahamas.
They won't even have the opportunity to travel to Florida -- probably.
But the Ivy League champion and NCAA tournament-bound Quakers (22-5, 14-0 Ivy League) will still enjoy their vacation, wherever the gods of college basketball -- or at least the seeding committee -- order them to go.
The Red and Blue became the first team in the nation to clinch an NCAA berth by defeating Harvard in Boston on February 24.
Now, nearly two weeks later, Penn has joined the 1997 Crimson squad in completing just the second perfect season in women's Ivy League history, and will carry a current 21-game winning streak into the postseason.
Only one question remains -- who will the Quakers face in the first round?
The ESPN selection show airing at 5 p.m. on Sunday will reveal the answer, but Penn, which expects to receive a 13 or 14 seed in a bracket of 16, knows that any opponent will be tough.
"Obviously all the teams in the top 16 are going to be good," said Penn senior co-captain Diana Caramanico, referring to the teams that will make up the top four seeds of each region in the tournament. "So I don't really have a preference [to who we play]."
And, unlike the men's version of March Madness, opening round contests are held at the sites of the teams with the top four seeds -- so the Red and Blue could be headed to any of a variety of schools in the U.S., from Louisiana Tech to Utah to Duke.
For now, the Quakers will benefit from some time off until a Sunday afternoon practice at the Palestra. Immediately thereafter, the team will head next door to the Dunning Center to turn on ESPN and see where they're headed for Spring Break.
As of yet, with a week before their first round game -- which will be held either Friday or Saturday -- the Penn players have not dedicated much time to preparing for what might very well be the highlight of their basketball careers.
Yet, the coaching staff has been diligent in recent weeks in compiling and analyzing tapes of potential opponents.
Penn assistant coach Joe McGeever has been particularly busy in this respect.
"He's been taping everyone in the top 15 for the past two weeks," Caramanico said.
Regardless of who Penn draws, though, the players are certain that they will be able to compete and, at best, pull off an upset to extend the nation's longest active winning streak, which began on December 28.
"I really think we can win," Penn senior co-captain Erin Ladley said. "We've pulled out a lot of games in tough situations."
And it could be one of Ladley's traditionally explosive late-game performances to pull the team out of a difficult spot that the Quakers will need to manufacture a victory and surprise the women's basketball world.
Penn, at this point, appears to be in a relaxed frame of mind following Wednesday night's emotional win over Princeton in the regular season finale at the Palestra.
But while the Red and Blue were grateful to have won the game against the Tigers, in which they cemented their undefeated Ivy season, Penn understands that it must improve its level of play in an NCAA tournament matchup against one of the country's premier teams.
Caramanico, for one, has little doubt that her club can do just that.
"I'm confident that our team is going to come close to playing one of the best games we can play," she said. "I just have a feeling that's going to happen. Good things [will] happen if we play our best game."
(03/05/01 10:00am)
The Penn men's swimming team's performance this weekend at West Point, N.Y., was disappointing in comparison to an otherwise impressive season.
The Quakers placed ninth out of 10 teams at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships with 488 points.
Only a few stellar performances by the Red and Blue stood out over the course of the three-day meet that began last Thursday.
Freshman Andrew Trout placed sixth, the highest finish by any Penn swimmer at the meet, in the 50-yard freestyle.
"When I get a chance to taper, I take advantage of it," Trout said, accounting for his success. "But I was expecting to swim a lot faster at champs."
The Quakers also finished high in Friday's 400-yard medley relay, coming in fourth place out of 10.
Trout, along with sophomores Kevin Pope, Chris Miller and Spencer Driscoll surpassed all but powerhouses Harvard, Princeton and Brown in what was Penn's highest relay finish at Easterns since 1997.
Pope, Trout and Driscoll were the only Quakers to make finals rounds, the cut off for which is eighth place. Trout was seventh in the 200 butterfly and Pope finished eighth in the 100 backstroke.
Penn's seniors accumulated 180 points at last year's Easterns -- a total that the Quakers had difficulty making up for this year.
Penn coach Mike Schnur had hoped for the freshmen to pick up the slack, but their efforts fell a little short.
"It's difficult to step up as a freshman and compete with guys two and three years older," Schnur said.
As for his squad's failure to beat teams such as Army, Navy, Columbia and Cornell, which the Red and Blue outscored in the regular dual-meet season, Schnur noted the unique pressures that champs presents.
"The championship meet is not about how good the team is," Schnur said. "We have a lot of good swimmers, but at champs, we need to have five great swimmers."
According to Schnur, Penn will have an advantage next year, when its squad is more experienced and the incoming freshmen have filled out the team's range of ability.
"The freshmen have shown that they will be a force to be reckoned with next year," Schnur said.
And in response to his team's failure to live up to their own expectations for this meet, Schnur voiced a respect for the bigger picture.
"I'm not a guy who believes you judge your season by the last meet," he said.
Penn junior captain Ian Bowman, though disappointed with his team's performance, saw the ninth-place finish as an impetus for the Quakers to work harder in the future and learn from the challenge.
"The finish leaves a sour taste in our mouths," Bowman said. "But it makes us hungry for next year."
(02/27/01 10:00am)
A program's first-ever league championship calls for a bit more of a celebration than just dancing and screaming on the basketball court after the final buzzer sounds.
And so the Penn women's basketball team decided to extend its stay in Boston for an extra night, making what would have been the season's most joyous bus ride on Saturday night the year's most jubilant train ride on Sunday morning.
The Quakers spent more than an hour rejoicing with family and friends on the floor of Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion following the game, and the whole crew of about 60 people then headed to the Sports Depot, a well-known bar and restaurant in Boston.
Even during this late dinner, though, the Penn players could not contain their unbridled enthusiasm, as they continued the cheers and chants that they had begun hours earlier at Harvard.
"I'm sure we were the loudest bunch there," junior forward Julie Epton said.
From the Sports Depot, the Red and Blue, now without the company of family and friends, traveled to the sleepy southwestern suburb of Dedham. Without the players' prior knowledge, the coaches had made arrangements for the team to stay there.
Penn reserved the penthouse of the hotel, a giant suite that the whole team stayed in for a short time before waking up at 5:45 a.m. to board a train for Philadelphia.
However, catching such an early train did not pose a problem to many of the Quakers.
"I didn't sleep on Saturday night," Epton said. "I was just laying there for four hours, replaying the game in my mind."
When Penn returned to campus on Sunday, a heroes' welcome of sorts greeted the team.
The players learned of the standing ovation they had received at the Palestra on Saturday night when public address announcer John McAdams informed the men's basketball crowd of the women's success at Harvard.
But even more, some Penn players have acquired a new celebrity status in their travels around campus.
"There were definitely people on the Walk who I don't really know that were saying congratulations," senior co-captain Diana Caramanico said.
The Quakers are hopeful that the positive reaction will result in high attendance at their final three home games at the Palestra. But even if that does not happen, the Red and Blue are nonetheless thankful that the students have been so receptive.
"Everyone's been really great," Caramanico said. "I really appreciate all the fan support."
Even with all the affection displayed for the Red and Blue on the Penn campus, or perhaps because of it, the players still have not completely registered the fact that they are indeed Ivy League champions.
And, although a couple of days have since passed, some of the Quakers feel it might take much longer to fully understand the magnitude of what they have accomplished.
"I think it's going to take a long time for it to sink in," sophomore point guard Tara Twomey said. "Later in life, we're going to look back on this and realize how lucky we are."
An 18-game winning streak and an Ivy League championship earned a day off for the Red and Blue yesterday. But, just because they have already clinched their conference doesn't mean the Quakers will rest, as they look to complete a perfect Ivy season.
Penn has been remarkably consistent this year, and doesn't expect any letdowns in the season's final stretch.
(02/26/01 10:00am)
BOSTON -- The rafters in the southwest corner of the Palestra will no longer be barren, as the Penn women's basketball team clinched its first-ever Ivy League championship with a 62-57 victory at Harvard on Saturday night.
A weekend sweep that also included a 59-55 win at Dartmouth on Friday night assured the Quakers of their first title in 27 years of Ivy League play, and the team's first berth in the NCAA tournament.
With the two victories, the Red and Blue have now won 18 consecutive games, marking not only a program record, but also the nation's longest active winning streak.
The unprecedented success and overall turnaround of Penn women's basketball can be largely credited to head coach Kelly Greenberg and senior forward Diana Caramanico, a two-time Player of the Year and perhaps the best women's basketball player in Ivy League history.
In just her second year at the helm, Greenberg has taken a club that had gone 12-14 in the 1998-1999 season and molded it into one that has now reached the pinnacle of its conference.
"I really didn't think it would happen so quickly," said an emotional Greenberg after the Harvard game.
The championship, though, may be even more special to Penn's two co-captains, Caramanico and senior Erin Ladley, who carried the team down the stretch of Saturday's game by scoring 24 of their team's 28 second-half points.
To top things off, each also reached a personal milestone against the Crimson.
Ladley, in the first half, became the 13th woman in Penn history to score 1,000 career points. Caramanico, meanwhile, became the Ivy League's all-time leading scorer on an eight-foot jump shot in the second half. Caramanico now has 2,321 points in her illustrious Penn career, with three games remaining in the regular season.
Yet, in the end, there was no question that the title mattered most.
"We've gotten closer every year," said the characteristically modest Caramanico, one of five seniors on this year's team. "This is all we've ever wanted for the team and for the program."
Many Penn fans packed into Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday, and they made their presence felt with their boisterous support. With just a couple minutes remaining in the game, the Red and Blue faithful could taste victory, and broke into a chant of "Ivy champs," anticipating the glory that no Penn women's basketball team had ever experienced before.
Following the game, Penn players and coaches embraced on the court, and then met up with the friends and family that had made the trip to Boston.
And when the commotion had subsided, the 2000-2001 Ivy League champions posed underneath the basket for a celebratory team photo.
This moment didn't always seem destined to happen, but the Quakers have enjoyed a magical run over the last two months after opening the season with a 1-5 record.
In the 74 days since a December 12 loss to Villanova at the Palestra, Penn has not again suffered a defeat.
Modestly beginning with a 68-56 victory over Stony Brook on December 28, and continuing on a snow-filled night two days later with a 60-42 win against Air Force before an announced Palestra crowd of just 43, the fledgling Penn win streak was born.
The momentum and the fan support would soon build, as Penn then swept a long and difficult six-game road-trip to open the new year.
The rest has been history, literally.
Penn has prided itself on being able to beat an opponent with any player and in any fashion. The results bear it out, as the Quakers have proven themselves to be just as capable of winning low-scoring, defensive battles, as shootouts over this present stretch.
It's been a long road for Penn, a team that was just 6-20 four years ago.
(02/26/01 10:00am)
BOSTON -- The Penn fans in attendance for Saturday's game decorated Section 2 of Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion with red and blue balloons, anticipating a celebration by the night's end.
And the Quakers (19-5, 11-0 Ivy League) delivered, just as they have in each of their last 18 games, by beating the Crimson (10-14, 7-4), 62-57, to clinch the 2000-2001 Ivy League championship.
Penn captured its first-ever conference title in grand style over the weekend, knocking off Dartmouth, 59-55, to eliminate the third place Big Green (10-14, 6-5) from contention on Friday night before ousting second-place Harvard on Saturday.
"They're so happy, and they deserve every little bit so much," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said of her team.
The road trip began on a rather ominous note for Penn, when their team bus was slowed by a snowstorm and the team was then forced to stay overnight in Springfield, Mass., before reaching Dartmouth.
But in the game against the Big Green, the Red and Blue showed little travel-related fatigue. Penn forward Diana Caramanico scored 17, while two-guard Erin Ladley notched 11 of her 18 points in the last 1:09 of the contest, to ensure a victory.
Everything then fell into place the following night for the Quakers against Harvard in what was a sharply and emotionally played game by both teams. In addition to locking up the club's initial berth in the NCAA Tournament, Penn's two senior co-captains achieved individual milestones.
With 7:48 remaining in the first half, Ladley banked in a jumper from the left side to give her 1,001 career points. With the bucket, she became the 13th player in Penn history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
And Caramanico enjoyed a 30-second stint in the second half in which she tied and then surpassed Harvard's Allison Feaster as the Ivy League's all-time leading scorer.
The two-time player of the year equaled Feaster's 2,312 points by converting a lay-up on a fast-break with 13:13 left to play. She broke the record at the 12:43 mark by sinking a short jump shot.
The two baskets were part of a 6-0 personal run by Caramanico, which brought Penn back from a 45-43 deficit to give the Quakers a 49-45 lead. Penn would never trail again after that point.
"No matter what, Di finds a way to lead this team," Greenberg said of her star's ability to succeed despite being triple-teamed for most of the night against Harvard. "She'll go down as the leading Ivy League scorer in history, and I hope it stays that way for a long time."
The game on Saturday night began as a seesaw affair for the first 10 minutes of the opening half.
Penn took advantage of some hot shooting early on from Ladley and junior forward Julie Epton, while Harvard hung tight thanks to effective play from its three-point specialists.
Freshman forward Tricia Tubridy closed the half 3-for-3 from three-point range, while the Crimson as a team connected on seven of their 16 attempts from beyond the arc.
Tubridy's third three-pointer came with just two seconds to go in the first half and cut Penn's lead at the break to 34-33.
Penn would expand its margin to as many as eight early in the second half before the Crimson made their move, reeling off 10 consecutive points to claim a 45-43 advantage.
That's when Caramanico went to work.
While the Quakers have typically used a balanced offensive attack in their program-record 18-game winning streak, Penn showed on Saturday that you can be just as successful by relying on your stars to carry the team in important stretches.
After Penn sophomore forward Jennifer Jones opened second-half scoring with a three from straight away to put Penn up, 37-33, Caramanico and Ladley combined to score the Quakers' next 24 points.
For a period of 19:34, no other Red and Blue player would score. Freshman guard Jewel Clark tallied Penn's last point by hitting a free throw with 16 seconds remaining to give the Quakers a comfortable 62-57 lead.
Whenever Harvard closed the gap and looked poised to regain the lead, it was either Caramanico or Ladley who made the big play.
"I can't say enough about the two of them," Greenberg said. "They're unbelievable."
In one of the most important sequences, the Crimson had possession, down 57-55, but Caramanico came up with a steal and then hit a critical basket at the other end.
In the last two minutes, when Penn seemed to have a firm handle on both the game and the championship, Quakers fans who had made the trip to Boston jubilantly erupted in a chant of "Ivy champs."
At the final buzzer, Penn players leaped in the air and piled onto each other at center court, and when they got back, they formed a circle in front of the Quakers bench, echoing the fans' cheers from a few minutes prior.
"It's just an awesome feat for our program," Ladley said following the celebration.
(02/21/01 10:00am)
For the Penn women's basketball team, this weekend has the potential to be momentous for a number of reasons.
For one, senior co-captain Diana Caramanico is just 29 points shy of becoming the Ivy League's all-time leading women scorer.
Harvard's Allison Feaster, who starred for the Crimson from 1994-1998, holds the current record with 2,312 points.
Feaster took home Ivy League Player of the Year honors three consecutive years. When she graduated in 1998, torch was passed to Caramanico. Penn's forward has been named league Player of the Year each of the last two seasons.
Appropriately enough, Caramanico, who seems likely to win her third Ivy League Player of the Year award this year, is on pace to break Feaster's mark in Cambridge on Saturday.
"I think it makes it a monumental weekend," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "But only after we win two games."
Against Harvard and Dartmouth the first time around this season at the Palestra, Caramanico recorded 21 points in a win over the Crimson before throwing down 26 against the Big Green in an 81-75 Penn victory in overtime.
The senior forward and freshly crowned Ivy League Player of the Week, though, downplayed the significance of the achievement. She said that the primary objective for her is winning.
"[The record] will happen at some point," Caramanico said.
Caramanico's fellow captain, senior Erin Ladley, is also on the verge of making history. Heading into Friday's matchup with Dartmouth, Ladley is just 24 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point plateau in her Penn career.
"I try not to think about it, but it's in the back of my mind," Ladley said.
*
The magic number right now is three. Any combination of Penn victories and Harvard losses adding up to three will give the Quakers their first-ever conference championship.
And this means that two Penn wins this weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth would clinch the league title and an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
The Red and Blue (17-5, 9-0 Ivy League) are off to their best Ivy League start in team history, and presently sit three games up on second-place Harvard (9-12, 6-3) with just five games remaining for each club.
"It's getting to the point where I can't even concentrate on schoolwork," Caramanico said. "It would just be a relief and a really thrilling thing [to clinch this weekend]."
Still, though, the Quakers do not want to get ahead of themselves. Last season, defending Ivy League champion Dartmouth played a spirited contest against Penn up in Hanover, N.H.
"Last year when we went up there, they beat us soundly," said Greenberg, who added that winning both games this weekend in two difficult places to play is not absolutely imperative. "I think it's more important to go into Dartmouth and Harvard with poise and confidence and to play well."
* When Penn got together with the pair of New England Ivies two weekends ago, not only were the games close and hotly contested, but they became a little chippy at times, particularly against Dartmouth.
The Big Green's rugged style may have raised a couple of Quakers player's eyebrows, and Penn will be prepared for another tough fight on Friday.
"I think it's going to be the same kind of game," Ladley said. "It's going to be physical."
Greenberg, though, is not adverse to playing under these type of conditions.
"I think the Dartmouth game is going to be a tough one," she said. "But we want that. I'm hoping the girls really rise to the occasion."
(02/19/01 10:00am)
In order for some teams to win, offense is the key. For others, defense is the key.
But, for the Penn women's basketball team, no magic formula applies, as the Quakers have time and again proven themselves to be the most talented and versatile club in the Ivy League. They can win any game of any nature.
Penn's games this weekend were no exception.
The Red and Blue built an 18-point first half lead against Cornell on Friday in the Palestra, and then fought to preserve a 59-54 victory. The next night, Penn ended the first half with its first halftime tie of the year before pulling away for a relatively easy, 11-point win over Columbia.
"I think we're trying to find the most ways to win a game in the country," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said following her team's victory over the Big Red.
It hasn't always been pretty, as portions of each game over the weekend demonstrated. There were offensive lulls, defensive breakdowns and periods of sloppiness on both sides.
But don't think that the Quakers have won a program-record 16 consecutive games and begun their conference season 9-0, by sheer coincidence alone.
Penn has been able to prevail in shootouts, in tough, physical matchups and in closely contested defensive struggles.
Throughout this eight-week run of perfection that has placed Penn in position to clinch their first-ever conference title as early as this weekend, the Quakers have been able to mold their game each day to play just the way they need to.
To begin the 2001 calendar year, Penn lit up the scoreboard in games at Lehigh and Siena, scoring 88 points in each.
In the Quakers' final four games of that road trip, they won by playing a more defense-oriented style, as they scored between 61 and 69 points in each contest, while surrendering an average of just 55.
When the Red and Blue then returned home to face Drexel on January 23, they resumed their run-and-gun style to defeat the Dragons, 91-80, and then topped Yale, 92-80, in a crucial overtime game in New Haven.
In addition, Penn has elevated its play when the situation has most called for it, as if cued by a rampaging opponent to begin performing on a higher level that so far only Penn has shown to be capable of reaching in the Ancient Eight this year.
"I think it's our senior leadership," said Greenberg of co-captains Diana Caramanico and Erin Ladley, referring specifically to the duo's performance in the second half in Saturday's contest against Columbia. "The two seniors out there just kind of said, 'All right, now that's enough.'"
With the help of these two seniors, Penn has authored its share of comebacks and countless success stories in assembling a winning streak that will now span at least 57 days heading into Friday's battle at Dartmouth.
But the Quakers know that they will still have more challenges to overcome, as each opponent recognizes the Red and Blue as the predominant squad in the conference.
"We're the team to beat," Penn point guard Tara Twomey said. "Everyone's going to come out to beat us."
(02/16/01 10:00am)
In the process of shattering all kinds of school records in the past couple months, one might think that the Ivy League-leading Penn women's basketball team might be at least somewhat complacent, if not downright overconfident, heading into the final stretch of the season.
But the Quakers (15-5, 7-0 Ivy League) are humbled by their past and keep a constant eye on the future.
Last year, the Red and Blue opened Ancient Eight play with six straight wins before losing critical games at Yale and Brown late in the season -- losses that eliminated any hopes of their first-ever Ivy League championship.
So, the Quakers insist that this year's 7-0 mark, while quite impressive, will not make them cocky heading into the second half of their Ivy season.
"We don't get part of a banner for going 7-0 in the first half [of the season]," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said.
This weekend, Penn welcomes Cornell (11-10, 4-4) and Columbia (6-14, 4-4) to the Palestra.
Penn is especially aware of a dangerous Big Red team, which took Penn to the wire before falling short, 69-66, in their first meeting on January 13 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Penn built a 27-12 lead in the first half of that contest, but Cornell came firing back, and even held the lead with 14:29 remaining in the game, before clutch shots by Penn's Diana Caramanico and Tara Twomey iced it for the Quakers.
The last-minute scare, though, was enough to remind Penn of how dangerous tonight's opponent can be.
"To be honest with you, they're the most talented team in the league, and I know our team knows it," Greenberg said. "They can flat out score when they want to."
The Quakers, meanwhile, will look to apply some valuable lessons they learned in that first matchup.
"Cornell drove the baseline a lot on us last time," said Caramanico, who added that Penn hopes to keep the Big Red on the perimeter. "Basically, we just have to play good defense, and our offense will come from our defense."
Of particular concern to Penn will be Cornell's two top scorers, junior guard Do Stevens and sophomore forward Katie Romey. Stevens leads Cornell with an 11.2 point per game average, while Romey enters play this evening averaging 11.0.
But Cornell, which boasts a balanced approach similar to Penn's, just doesn't have that go-to person in a pinch like Caramanico, who scored 17 and collected 15 rebounds in last month's battle.
On the other hand, Columbia does have a big scorer in senior forward Shawnee Pickney, who leads her team in four statistical categories but lacks the supporting cast.
The Los Angeles native is averaging 15.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
Pickney has also recorded 48 steals this year, more than double the total of any of her teammates.
Since no other Lions are even in the same league as Pickney in most departments, paying special attention to her and sending double and triple teams to defend her might pose far greater problems for Columbia than the same tactics employed against Caramanico do for Penn.
The Red and Blue downed the Lions in their first meeting on January 12 in New York, 61-50, and Caramanico did indeed put forth a solid performance, scoring 19 and grabbing 15 boards.
Penn sophomore point guard Tara Twomey also made some important baskets in that matchup, scoring seven points down the stretch to inflate the Quakers' lead to 13 with under one minute remaining.
As the games this weekend approach, however, and as a league championship looms ever-closer, Twomey says she and the team will not play with any distractions in the Quakers' final seven contests.
"I think it's definitely a motivating factor," Twomey said of the opportunity to capture a title. "We understand how important each and every game is."
