Holden McGinnis

I was standing in the bathroom of my house on campus, brushing my teeth after a late night of working on the sports section of the Daily Pennsylvanian.

DURHAM, N.C. — Throwing them right into the fire. It’s an interesting strategy. It’s also been a hallmark of Penn women’s basketball coach Mike McLaughlin’s tenure.

Coming off of a late-inning loss to Villanova on Wednesday, Penn baseball will look to rebound in their first Ivy action of the year. Penn (7-11) will open up Ivy play by hosting Brown and Yale for a pair of weekend doubleheaders at Meiklejohn Stadium.

It was a strange moment. As I walked into the press room at the University of Maryland, I came across a fellow reporter quickly putting on his tie and grabbing his belongings to head down to press row. “The tip was moved up to 3:43.” Now, a full day removed from the game and that moment it’s strange to look back.

Penn is having deja vu all over again. Two years ago, the Quakers beat Princeton on the road to clinch the Ivy League title and then traveled to College Park, Md., to face Texas.

With 21:16 to play in the second half, senior attacker Iris Williamson fired in a free position shot — her fourth goal of the game — to bring Penn’s deficit down to just one, 7-6. However, that would be the closest No. 13 Penn women’s lacrosse would get down the stretch against No. 10 Duke as the Blue Devils closed the game on a 5-0 run to cap off a 12-6 win.

Penn isn’t going to win the Ivy title. It was fairly apparent from before the season even started, and halfway through the Ivy slate it’s even more apparent.

In the first-year Penn coach’s return to Cornell, where he coached for a decade, Penn defeated Cornell, 92-84, to give Donahue his first win against his former program.

Dominant. There aren’t too many better words to describe Penn women’s basketball’s weekend.

For me, it’s a no-brainer. The Ivy League needs a conference tournament for basketball. When you look at Ivy Athletics as a whole, there’s something left to be desired for those students who are fans of NCAA athletics as a whole.