Quakers, Tigers Easy Prey

You won't hear anyone on this year's Harvard women's basketball team even so much as hint that there will be a blowout against cellar-dweller Pennsylvania (0-21, 0-9) tonight at Lavietes Pavilion.

In 1993, when co-captains Elizabeth Gettelman and Elizabeth Proudfit were freshmen, a strong Harvard squad was upset by Penn and lost the Ivy League title. Tonight, Harvard faces Penn in a situation eerily similar to 1993. Sure, Penn probably has as much chance of upsetting Harvard as Bob Dornan has of being elected president; but folks, don't write this one off.

"In the Ivy League you can't really look at records ever because people play so much on emotion," Gettleman cautioned.

"You know that they're [0-21], but the seniors remind us all about what happened their freshman year when they took a team lightly and they lost the title because they lost to Penn," junior guard Jessica Gelman said.

This year, Penn's threat comes in the person of Natasha Rezek, a senior who had a fabulous game against the Crimson in Harvard's last matchup with the Quakers. Rezek scored 21 points and garnered 11 rebounds.

"[Rezek] is definitely going to be one of our focuses: holding her under her average and making sure she doesn't have a good game," Gelman said.

The Crimson is also going to focus on dominating the boards Dennis Rodman style. In Harvard's last matchup with Penn, the Quakers out-rebounded the Crimson.

Hold That Tiger

Tomorrow night, Harvard will shift gears slightly as it faces a much more competitive Princeton squad (15-8, 5-4), which is coming off a heartbreaking loss to Yale. Both wins this weekend are crucial for the Crimson if it wants to hold off Dartmouth (15-6, 7-2), which is still only one game behind in the standings.

"They have a real strong three-point shooter, Kim Allen, so we'll try to shut her down," Gettelman said.

As with Penn, Harvard will also try to disrupt Princeton's inside game: one of the Tigers' greatest strengths.

But the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" usually holds true, and the Crimson isn't going to change much.

"Our focus is really our defense, containing other teams and pushing the ball up the court," Gelman said. "[We're going to] focus on what we're capable of doing and not necessarily altering our offensive game a lot."

There's no good reason Gelman and Harvard should change anything, rather than keep right on rolling. The Crimson not only has incredible talent but also the chemistry that few teams in Harvard sports can match.

"I just think this is one of the best-put-together teams I've ever seen in Harvard history," said Megan DuBose, Harvard's number-one face-painting fan. "I just think they're all really good people and really want it [and also] have a good time."

In any case, the fact that Harvard leads the Ancient Eight means that other Ivy League teams want a piece of the Crimson badly; that can translate into inspired performances from underdog teams. But don't be fooled. The women's basketball team is not on cruise-control.

"It's not even about winning a game--it's about crushing a team," said Gelman.

The Harvard women's basketball team is on full battle station alert this weekend to preserve its throne atop the Ancient Eight, and you can expect some all-out basketball from this year's team of stars. IVY STANDINGS IVY  OVERALL Team  W  L  PCT  W  L  PCT Harvard  8  1  .889  15  6  .714 Dartmouth  7  2  .778  15  6  .714 Yale  6  4  .600  11  11  .500 Brown  6  4  .600  9  13  .409 Princeton  5  4  .556  15  8  .652 Cornell  5  5  .500  10  12  .455 Columbia  1  9  .100  2  20  .091 Penn  0  9  .000  0  21  .000