The women’s basketball team ended its season in familiar fashion — on the road and with consecutive losses.

The Bulldogs (3-24, 2-12 Ivy) traveled to Philadelphia to take on University of Pennsylvania (5-22. 3-11) on March 3 and journeyed to New Jersey the following night to battle Princeton (21-7, 12-2). Despite two hard-fought efforts, the Elis fell 65-48 to the Quakers and 67-52 to the Tigers.

Yale started off the weekend strong, going back and forth with the Quakers for much of the first half. At one point, they trailed by as many as nine, but fought their way back to enter the locker room down by four after a Jamie Van Horne ’09 bucket.

Center Sara McCollum ’08 and captain Chinenye Okafor ’07 led the Bulldog attack. They ended the game with 12 points apiece, and Okafor recorded her third double-double of the season, collecting 10 rebounds.

But the Quakers came out strong in the second half and used a 9-2 run to put themselves comfortably ahead. With a little more than 10 minutes left, Penn led 46-36 and never looked back. Guard Joey Rhoads led the Quakers with 18 points and was a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line.

Saturday night proved to be similar. The Elis competed hard in the first half, which saw seven lead changes and six ties, only to be outplayed in the second. McCollum scored a game-high 16 points, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Bulldogs from losing their season finale. An 18-2 run by the Tigers at the start of the second half proved too much for the Elis to handle, and the Bulldogs posed no threat thereafter.

From a purely statistical standpoint, the Elis did not have a successful season. The team won only three games, none of which were on the road. But as a young team with many challenges to overcome, the Bulldogs made significant improvements and took important steps toward laying a foundation for next year.