Women's Basketball To Play Yale and Brown

After beginning its Ivy League schedule in style, the Harvard

women's basketball team will seek to notch two more crucial league victories under its belt this weekend.

Harvard (7-5, 1-0 Ivy) aims to maintain its perfect Ivy record when it hosts Yale Friday night and Brown Saturday night.

After demolishing Dartmouth 73-67 in front of a raucous, nationally televised home crowd last Friday night, the Crimson seems to have hit its stride at the right time.

"We're really trying to concentrate more on our game than on their game," sophomore guard Jenn Monti said. "As long as we take care of our game, things will go well for us."

In front of 2,000-plus enthusiastic fans, the Crimson dominated the Big Green last weekend with sharp shooting, crisp passing, and a suffocating half-court defense that stifled the Dartmouth offense. Even though the Crimson won by only six points, it had enjoyed a commanding lead of 22 points just minutes into the fourth quarter.

Leading the Crimson with 15 points, captain Laela Sturdy lit up

the court last Friday by sinking three-of-four shots from beyond the arc

and upping her three-point shooting for the season to 52.9 percent, placing her among the nation's top ten sharpshooters.

In addition to Sturdy's scoring prowess, sophomore guard Jenn

Monti dominated both ends of the court. She catalyzed the Crimson offense in the first half by shooting 4-of-6 and tacking on four assists. When Dartmouth cut off Harvard's passing lanes, Monti often took difficult long shots that amazingly found nothing but net.

"It was so great to have such a huge crowd there," Monti said. "We all made an effort to make sure that people would come to the game, and we could tell from the start that it was going to be our game. Dartmouth didn't really have a big crowd there, and we loved having all those people there."

Even though the Crimson has finally been able to find its rhythm on the court, the team has recently faced difficult psychological battles off the court.

Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer in mid-December and may have to miss a few team practices in the coming weeks to make time for doctors' appointments.

In the midst of grueling team practices and a challenging slate of games ahead, the team has wholeheartedly supported Delaney-Smith, who had surgery the week before Christmas and who will soon begin chemotherapy.

"Kathy has been amazing so far," Monti said. "She tries to keep us all informed and upbeat about it, and she wants us to come to her and ask her questions if we have them."

Both Yale and Brown will begin their Ivy League play this weekend. A young team who graduated four starters and two 1,000-point scorers last year, Yale (2-8) has struggled to build and maintain team chemistry this season.

With first-year Head Coach Amy Backus at the helm, the Bulldogs have attempted to find a strong leader on the court and in the locker room. Reflecting the team's offensive difficulties, junior forward Lily Glick leads the team in scoring with a paltry 9.0 points per game.

The lone bright spot in the Bulldogs' offensive scheme this year has been sophomore Meg Simpson, who leads the team in rebounds, averaging 12.3 boards per game.

Brown (5-8) is currently riding a two-game losing streak and will begin league play Friday night against Dartmouth. Like the Bulldogs, the Bears are going through the rebuilding process this season after losing its all-time leading scorer, Vita Redding, to graduation last year.

Leading the Bears this season is freshman sensation Barbara Maloni, who earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors during the last week of December. The 5'9 guard averages 13.9 points and 3.5 steals per game and led the team with 15 points in its last contest, a 62-51 loss to SUNY-Albany last Friday.

Maloni is only one component of a strong freshman class that has performed well on the court for the Bears this season. Freshmen Heidi Egelhoff, the younger sister of the Crimson's Courtney Egelhoff, and Brianna Brown have also made significant contributions to the Bears'offense.

In addition to a talented freshman class, sophomore Rachael MacDonald has been unstoppable on the boards this season, leading the Bears in rebounding for the past five games and recording her second double-double against SUNY-Albany with 13 points and 19 boards.

Even though the Bears pose a greater challenge than the Bulldogs, the Crimson outmatches both teams handily on paper. Much taller than most of the other teams in the nation, Harvard should be able to outrebound the much smaller Yale and Brown.

"We know that we have a size advantage over [both teams], and there should definitely be some good player match-ups," Monti said.

With Delaney-Smith earning her 150th career victory last Friday against Dartmouth, the Crimson seems to be on an upward swing, silencing preseason naysayers who had predicted a fourth-place finish in the league for Harvard.

If the same team who trounced Dartmouth last weekend shows up to play this weekend at Lavietes Pavillion, Harvard may end up silencing those preseason critics for the rest of the year.