The women’s basketball team suffered its first weekend sweep with losses to Penn and Princeton on the road.

“We had a brutal stretch of games there; we nearly beat Harvard [last Saturday], we could have beaten Penn, and we ran out of gas against Princeton,” said head coach Chris Gobrecht. “We are not discouraged — there is lots of basketball still to play and we get to be home for a while.”

The Bulldogs (10–12, 4–4 Ivy) struggled to drain their baskets against Penn (16–5, 6–1) on Friday night, shooting only 28.2 percent from the field en route to a 62–50 loss.

The first half featured four ties and six lead changes between the two teams and heading into the locker room at the half, the Elis trailed the Quakers 32–29. Yale was able to score first in the second half, but Penn, sparked by a 13–0 run over a six-minute period early in the half, left the Bulldogs in a 45–33 hole.

The Elis were able to close the deficit to four points with 7 minutes, 57 seconds left in the second period, but that would be the closest the Bulldogs would get the rest of the game. A little over two minutes later, the Quakers would extend the lead to double digits again. With 4:07 remaining in the game, Penn would record its largest lead of the game at 15 points.

Yale struggled to score against Penn, tallying only 50 points compared to its season average of 66.8 points per game. The second half was especially difficult, as the Bulldogs shot 20.0 percent from the field compared to Penn’s 43.5 percent.

The Elis’ inability to overcome a poor shooting night overshadowed their otherwise solid play. The Bulldogs held the advantage in rebounds, 43–41, and forced Penn into 17 turnovers while committing just 12. The Eli bench also outscored the Quaker reserves, 19–15.

Yale fell into an early deficit against Princeton (15–6, 5–1) on Saturday night and was never able to fully recover, leading to a 96–75 defeat. The Tigers scored a season-high 96 points on 59.7 percent shooting while the Elis shot 41.5 percent from the field, above their season average of 38.2 percent.

The Bulldogs trailed 49–33 at the end of the first period. Blake Dietrich led the tigers,  scoring 25 of her game-high 28 points in the first half. Yale would rally to cut into the lead, trailing by nine, 58–49, with 15:36 remaining in the game.

The Elis lost steam as the Tigers went on a 13–0 run to increase their lead to 77–51. Princeton continued to extend its advantage, and its largest lead of the night came with 7:29 left in the game, when the Bulldogs trailed by 34 points, 87–53. Only a strong push by Yale could ameliorate the final score, 96–75.

The biggest discrepancy between the two teams came in the rebounds category. Normally a Yale strong suit, the Elis were able to grab only 27 boards compared to the Tigers’ 46 rebounds.

“This week in practice we are all going to work on bringing intensity defensively,” forward Meredith Boardman ’16 said. “This next week we’re focusing on getting better everyday and ultimately coming away from next weekend with two wins.”

Yale returns home to face Cornell, who handed the Bulldogs’ their first conference loss of the year, and Columbia next weekend.

ASHLEY WU