W. Hoops Gears Up For Crucial Ivy Road Trip to Penn, Princeton

Although the Penn women's basketball team--winners of 11 straight--stands alone and unbeaten atop the Ivy Standings, the Quakers looked vulnerable in razor-thin wins last weekend. Tonight at 7 p.m. in Philadelphia, the Crimson (7-11, 4-1 Ivy) aims to be the first to spoil their precarious perfect record.

It is Harvard's biggest game to date. A victory would force a three-way tie in the loss column atop the Ivy standings along with Brown (10-9, 5-1), but a loss would give the Quakers (12-5, 4-0) a comfortable two-game cushion over the Crimson. The Harvard players are well aware of what is at stake.

"We're very excited about that game," said Harvard co-captain Melissa Johnson. "We've definitely been gearing up for it. I think we're going to be just fine."

On Saturday, the Crimson will head to Princeton (1-16, 1-3). The Tigers, No. 314 out of 316 in the RPI, should be a much easier foe than the Quakers.

Penn is led by two-time Ivy Player of the Year, senior center Diana Caramanico, whose name has become synonymous with the Quakers rise to contention after years of mediocrity. This rise has included three consecutive victories over Harvard. Caramanico is 12th in the nation in scoring, eighth in rebounding, and well on pace to break the Ivy career records of Allison Feaster '98.

"Our job is just to control Caramanico and play everyone else honest," said Harvard Coach Kathy-Delaney Smith. "She does a lot for them. That matchup is incredibly difficult because of the way she runs the floor and the way she rebounds."

Both Brown and Yale had success keying on Caramanico last weekend. The Bears limited her to just 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the floor, while the Elis held her back enough to force overtime.

But Penn forward Erin Ladley, who is reaping the benefits of the focus on Caramanico, put together a career weekend with 20 points and nine assists in the 92-80 overtime win over Yale and a team-best 22 points in the 77-72 win over Brown.

The Crimson may opt to go zone to avoid the matchup difficulties and force the Quakers to take three-pointers. Penn has taken by far the fewest shots from behind the arc in the Ivy League this season. Against Brown, Penn did not make a single shot more than a foot outside of the paint in the first half.

"We may play a zone against them because they're not a great three-point shooting team," Delaney-Smith said. "So we might change up on them and not worry about matchups. They're a very good team. They're connecting well, but they're struggling. They haven't had an easy win in the league."

If the Crimson does succeed in forcing the Quakers to make from outside, guard Tara Twomey will become their most dangerous player. Twomey is third in the Ivies in three-point shooting percentage. Against Yale she made 4-of-5 including the three-pointer that helped Penn come back from a late five-point deficit and force overtime.

Penn was the only Ivy team that Harvard failed to beat in the 1999-2000 season. The Crimson came up just short in a 78-76 defeat at Lavietes last year, while turnovers towards the end of the first half killed the team in a 79-66 thrashing at the Palestra.

Harvard expects this year to be different. Johnson, for one, is finally showing signs of returning to the level of dominance she displayed in the first Penn defeat last year, immediately before injuring her knee. Against Columbia, Johnson proved herself capable of hitting some difficult inside shots early on, and the Lions chose to foul her the rest of the way.

"Every game I'm getting more and more confident, more and more mobility," Johnson said. "I still pay a lot of attention to [my knee injury] in the training room, but that's fine. That's the way it's going to be."

Freshmen forward Hana Peljto continues to lead the team in both scoring and rebounding, while fellow freshman Trisha Tubridy, who scored a career-high 21 points against Cornell last week, is right behind her statistically.

Live, real-time updates of tonight's game at Penn will be available over the Internet via www.totalcast.com.