Ese Ogbevire

Simone Sawyer propels Penn women’s basketball to bounceback win at Hofstra

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Tina Njike readies for the opening tip against Hofstra at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Nov. 15, 2025. (Rob Browne/Ivy Hoops Online)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Simone Sawyer dominated both sides of the ball on Saturday afternoon, leading the Penn women’s team to a methodical 67-55 defeat of Hofstra at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.

The senior guard from Lincolnshire, Ill. led the offense with a 21-point, nine rebound performance and spearheaded a tenacious Quakers defense that shut down the Pride’s top three scorers in the second half.

“This was the best basketball game we’ve seen a guard at Penn play in a long time. Simone Sawyer was that good,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin told Ivy Hoops Online immediately after the game. “She defended 94 feet almost the entire time, she guarded their point of attack. A great effort.” 

The victory was a solid return to form, following a tough loss at Drexel earlier in the week, and puts Penn at 3-1 on the young season. Hofstra, meanwhile, moves to 1-2.

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Can it be love? Penn women’s basketball dominates Delaware State

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Think what a first date is like: at least a four on the awkward scale, no matter what your mutual friend or dating app said about how you would mesh and have a good time.
You suggest coffee at your favorite neighborhood shop at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon — low-key, low-pressure, perfect for a getting-to-know-you chat that can end in 30 minutes or stretch to 90 if things go well. Then maybe it’s dinner Friday night (Peruvian? Thai? One of their favorites, but no place fancy) — more talk, some flirting, some awkwardness but not too bad. You come home (alone, let’s assume) and think things could have gone much worse — that there’s enough promise to try again, that next time you won’t run right past the conversational passes.

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Penn women’s basketball notches season-opening win over King’s

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The outcome of the Penn women’s first basketball game of the season was decided the moment it was scheduled: The Red and Blue would overwhelm King’s College, a Division III team from Wilkes-Barre, and showcase their new and returning players in a low-pressure tip-off. King’s, meanwhile, would face big-school challenges that could boost its play for the coming season — and get a kick out of playing in front of family at the Palestra. (Every woman on the King’s roster is from Pennsylvania or New Jersey, many from the Philly area.)

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2025-26 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll

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The 2025-26 Ivy women’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:

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Penn women’s basketball picks itself up after falling to Saint Joseph’s

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No matter what sport you’ve been around, you’ve probably heard it said: A W is a W. An ugly win counts just as much in the record books.
But the opposite isn’t necessarily true, and the Penn women’s basketball team recorded a pretty good loss Friday night to an excellent Saint Joseph’s squad, 68-57, at the Palestra.
For context, look back a year and a day to the last time the two teams met: a 77-49 blowout for the Hawks on their way to a 28-win season (and a Big 5 championship). If anything, the Hawks are stronger this year, while the Quakers are trying to compensate for the loss of All-Ivy forward Jordan Obi to graduation and spark plug guard Ese Ogbevire to injury.

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Ivy women’s basketball Media Day highlights

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As the 2024-25 season quickly approaches, the Ivy League hosted its annual women’s basketball Media Day on Thursday. The three-hour event, hosted by Lance Medow, can be viewed on the conference’s YouTube channel.

Prior to the event, the league announced the results of its preseason poll.

Princeton, which has claimed the Ancient Eight title for the last six years, was picked first with 122 out of a possible 128 points and 10 first-place votes.  Columbia, which has tied for the top spot in each of the last two seasons, came in second with 110 points and five first-place votes.

Harvard, which has finished the last two years in third placed, was tabbed for third in 2025, earning 101 points and one first-place spot. 

Penn, the final participant in last year’s Ivy tournament, was picked fourth with 75 votes, while Brown, which finished last year tied with Penn for fourth, was four points back in fifth place.

Sixth place went to Yale, which was as high as third place in 2022, with 48 votes. 

While Cornell and Dartmouth ended last season tied for seventh place, the Big Red got the nod for seventh in this year’s poll with 30 points and the Big Green were eighth with 19 points.  

Below are highlights from this year’s virtual Media Day:

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Penn women’s basketball edges Harvard, 69-67, clinches Ivy League Tournament slot

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Penn women’s basketball has punched a ticket to Ivy Madness.
The Quakers clinched a slot in the Ivy League Tournament Saturday with a wild and crazy 69-67 win over Harvard at the Palestra. They’ll join the third-place Crimson, Princeton and Columbia in the tourney at Columbia’s Levien Gym March 15-16 to compete for a berth (or maybe two) in the NCAA Tournament.

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Four Quakeaways from Penn women’s basketball’s loss to No. 25 Princeton

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My friends Steve Silverman and George “Toothless Tiger” Clark did a fine job covering No. 25 Princeton women’s basketball’s win at Penn, so (with apologies to Ian Wenik, the Quakeaways man), here are four Quakeaways from Saturday’s game:

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Columbia women’s basketball bests Penn in Ivy League opener

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Columbia women’s basketball opened its defense of its Ivy hoops title Saturday at home with a solid 79-66 win over Penn.
As if to underline that this isn’t the same Lions team as last year’s, the game’s standout player wasn’t even playing in Manhattan until the fall. Bucknell junior transfer Cecelia Collins had 19 points, five rebounds and seven seriously nifty assists. On a subpar day for senior guard and leading scorer Abbey Hsu (a mere 14 points on 5-for-14 shooting), Collins frustrated the visitors on both ends of the court.

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Penn women’s basketball waltzes past Gwynedd Mercy

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When a good Ivy team plays a Division III team, the question isn’t “Who’s going to win?” It’s “Why bother?”
We’ll answer the first question first, though, in case you were anxious: Penn, 89-34.

Penn and Gwynedd Mercy both entered Sunday’s game with 7-5 records, but the similarities pretty much end there. Gwynedd has a successful D-III program, but it’s a small school, and every one of its players is from the Philly area — Pennsylvania and New Jersey, not even Delaware.

What the two schools have, though, are successful longtime Philly coaches (and former Philly Catholic high school players) who have known each other forever. Mike McLaughlin is in his 15th year at Penn, and before then he had 14 wildly successful years at his D-II alma mater, Holy Family. Keith Mondillo has been Gwynedd’s coach since 1995.

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