After sweeping Brown in its first two Ivy League games of the season, the women’s basketball team will look to build on its strong start to conference play this weekend.
The Bulldogs, who currently sit on top of the league standings, will host Penn on Friday night and Princeton on Saturday night in their first weekend of back-to-back league action.
Yale (6–10, 2–0 Ivy) enters this week’s contests coming off a 71–59 road win over Brown last Friday. With the win, the Bulldogs completed the season sweep of the Bears, which was the first time Yale had done so since winning both games against Brown in the 2007-08 season.
“You have got to start off 2–0 when you play your rival right at the beginning, but we just play it one game at a time,” head coach Chris Gobrecht said last Friday. “We’re just on a mission to get better.”
The Quakers (6–9, 0–1) are coming off a 62–55 defeat by Temple last Saturday. Penn has only had one Ancient Eight matchup so far this season, which was a 56–45 loss to Princeton on Jan. 8.
Penn is led by freshman guard Alyssa Baron, who is averaging 16.1 points a night, good for second in the Ivy League. The Quakers are also strong on the boards, with junior forward Jess Knapp averaging a league-best 7.5 rebounds per game. Penn also leads the league in scoring defense, holding opponents to just 54.1 points per game.
The Elis swept both meetings against Penn last season and have won four of the last five games against the Quakers. Both teams have 33 wins in 66 all-time meetings against each other.
Following Friday’s matchup with Penn, the Bulldogs will host defending Ivy League champion Princeton on Saturday night. The Tigers (12–3, 1–0) currently hold a 20 game conference win streak and were picked to repeat as Ancient Eight champions in an Ivy League preseason poll.
The Tigers’ Niveen Rasheed, who leads the league in scoring and steals and was second in rebounding, will be out for the remainder of the season due to a torn ACL, but Princeton is still favored to win the Ivy crown. Princeton has a league-best +15.2 scoring margin, averaging 70.7 points per game while limiting opponents to 55.5 points.
Guard Addie Micir leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.1 points a night. Princeton also boasts the league’s best shooter in center Devona Allgood, who has a .548 field goal percentage.
The Tigers have defeated the Bulldogs in three straight meetings, including a 65–44 win on the Elis’ court last season. Princeton holds a 43–30 advantage in the all-time series against Yale.
Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at John J. Lee Amphitheater.