It's not the last weekend of the season for the women's basketball team. In fact, after this weekend the team will still have half of its Ivy schedule remaining. Nevertheless, the team is at a crossroads.
With a 2-3 Ivy record, the team is etched securely in sixth place, but with a game tonight against Princeton (2-2) and tomorrow night again Penn (2-2), they have an excellent opportunity to make a mark on their season and the league.
"We're not totally out of the running for the title, but it sure puts a lot of pressure on us. We basically have to win both games to keep our hopes alive," Jill Marple '97 said.
Although Head Coach Chris Wielgus takes a more moderate stance on the importance of these particular games, she's not about to sit back and relax. "We have to play like every weekend is a tournament weekend ... so this is the most important weekend we have."
The team comes home after playing five of its last six contests on the road.
"We've been on the road non-stop," Wielgus said. "We're all happy to be back at home."
Forward Bess Tortolani '98 leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.3 points per game and hitting a team- leading 34 percent of her shots from three-point land.
While Tortolani tends to throw up the jumper, Nicci Rinaldi '99 has used her patented driving lay-up to average 10.5 points per game, while dishing out a team-leading 66 assists.
Down low, center Erin Rewalt '99 is averaging a team high of eight rebounds per game while boasting the highest field goal percentage among the starters.
Freshman guard Courtney Banghart continues to lead the team in three-pointers and is second in steals.
Banghart received Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for her performance last week. The freshman guard averaged 14.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.7 steals per game.
Despite the plethora of individual honors, the team hasn't been able to get their game together consistently.
"We need to put together two good halves of hard-nosed play, on both the offensive and defensive ends," Marple said. "It'll be tough, but it is definitely possible, because we tend to get especially psyched up for our home games ... it's inspiring to play in a gym packed with family, friends and community members ... and the band too!"
"We basically have to stick together, play with intensity and excitement and have some fun. I think this is key . if we're having fun, we're almost impossible to beat!" Banghart added.
Princeton features a well-balanced attack from all its starters, but has struggled of late with turnovers, giving up the ball 27 times in a recent victory over Columbia.
Coach Wielgus isn't too worried about the Tigers' bite, however. "If there's anything that's worrying me it's midterms hopefully we'll be focused by Friday," Wielgus said.
Tip-off time is 6:30 in Leede Arena for both games.
