Koziara and Yaffe: Ivy League's Best

Women's basketball afficiandos who attend the Ivy tournament at the IAB this weekend will focus much of their attention on Dartmouth's Gail Koziara, the senior who has dominated the league from her center position for the last three seasons.

Koziara, who leads the Ivies in both scoring and rebounding this year, has won All-America and Academic All-America honors in a collegiate career unparalleled by any other Ivy player. With her in the pivot Dartmouth is favored to win its third straight league championship this weekend.

Koziara's successor as the leading player in the Ivies may well be Brown freshman Donna Yaffe, who is second to Koziara in this year's scoring race and will carry Brown's title hopes in this weekend's tournament.

Harvard captain Kate Martin speaks admiringly of Yaffe's promise, calling her "a combination I haven't seen yet in the Ivies: a big girl who moves well. She also has a nice shot."

Until this year Koziara and Yaffe could have turned professional after graduation in the now-defunct Women's Basketball League. But each says graduate schools or other careers would have taken priority: Koziara feels the league was poorly run and had little chance of success.

The 1984 Olympic Games stand out as a distant goal for each, although Koziara says "I'll probably be in school or a job in the next two years" and Yaffe feels she would have to improve her game to make the team. Koziara tried out for the 1980 Olympic squad but did not survive preliminary cuts.

Koziara says she may play in AAU leagues to stay in shape after graduation or possibly play semi-pro basketball in Europe, which would void her Olympic eligibility.

In her Dartmouth career, Koziara has taken a team that played below, 500 before her arrival to league titles the last two years.

Yaffe has not yet brought Brown the same consistent success. The Bruins have an 8-13 record for the year but have won their last three Ivy games coming into the tournament.

The tallest player in the league at 6'3". Koziara turns her height into an intimidating advantage under the boards. "She gets herself in good position and her height takes care of the rest," says Martin.

Marget Long, forced to guard Koziara during Dartmouth's 60-45 win over the Crimson earlier this year, says defending such a large player involves more cunning than direct force.

"The only thing you can do is box her out and hope she'll come down on your back and foul you." Long says, "You're obviously not going to get a rebound."

In fact, with an average of about 22 boards per game, Koziara has twice as many rebounds this season as any other Ivy player.

Her coach, Cristina Wielgus, believes Koziara's talent transcends height alone. "She's tall, but she's also strong," Wielgus says. "She knows her limitations, and she plays to her strengths."

Though not a pure shooter. Koziara gets ahold of the ball often enough to take between 15 and 20 shots in most games. She has averaged more than 20 points in each of her four seasons, a remarkable statistic at the college level.

Having played competitive basketball for the last ten years. Koziara plans next year to subordinate the game to graduate study or a full-time job. A finalist in Rhodes Scholar competition within her home state of Massachusetts this year, she has carried an A-average through Dartmouth and looks forward to a career in market research.

For Yaffe--or anyone else--to match Koziara's accomplishments in the Ivies would astound most fans. Koziara won the Ivy Player of the Year award the last two years and should be a shoe-in again this season.

"I guess it's not as difficult to have that pressure on me as it would have been a few years ago." Yaffe says. "I'm used to having a lot of competition."

Yaffe stands 5'10", taller than most of the opposition but not quite high enough to grab rebounds as regularly as Koziara. With three taller players on the Brown squad. Yaffe plays forward yet still ranks eighth in Ivy rebounding.

Opponents describe Yaffe as a more mobile, team-minded player than Koziara but say she has not developed enough to dominate the way the senior center can.

"Donna steals the ball, she'll drive the lane," says Martin. "She has more talent, but as far as coming up against someone. Gail is a more dominating factor. She's intimidating because of her size."

"Yaffe tends to get frustrated," adds Long, who believes Koziara's experience enables her to exploit her size more effectively.

Yaffe chose to bypass a number of scholarship colleges and take her basketball prowess to Brown, where her high school couch moved a year before she did.

Her coach, Maureen Enos, says, "I know I recruit, and aggressively. I think there's been a major turnaround in schools' willingness to commit funds to women's sports, "she adds.

Yaffe says deciding to pay four years' tuition at Brown centered on her commitment to a career in psychological research, perhaps involving sports psychology.

"There's not much of a future in women's basketball after college, and I think if you can get a good education you should go to that kind of college," she explains.