Sarah Miller

Ivy women’s semifinal: No. 1 Columbia gets by No. 4 Penn, 60-54

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Columbia junior forward Susie Rafiu paced the victorious Lions with a 16-point, 10-rebound performance on Friday evening. (Rob Browne | Ivy Hoops Online)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Despite having multiple double-digit leads, the No. 1-seeded Columbia women couldn’t find a way to dominate No. 4 Penn and had to fight for a full 40 minutes to secure a 60-54 victory in Friday’s opening semifinal of the 2025 Ivy Tournament.

“Credit to them (Penn) for getting to this point and giving us their best,” coach Megan Griffith told the media in the postgame press conference. “Conversely, in our locker room, I don’t think we played our best, but that’s honestly what you’re going to get again in these games.”

With the win, the Lions (23-6) head to the program’s third-ever conference final. A victory in Saturday night’s contest against No. 3 Harvard. which won an instant classic against No. 2 Princeton in the nightcap, would give Columbia its first-ever Ivy Madness title, as well as the Ancient Eight’s automatic bid.

For Penn (15-13), the season is over and the drought for an Ivy League Tournament title now extends to eight years.

“I thought we really played well enough to put them (Columbia) in jeopardy,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said. “I’m just so proud that they hung in there … and gave ourselves an opportunity to beat a really good team tonight.”

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Stina Almqvist blows past 1,000-point mark in leading Penn women’s basketball past Brown

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Stina Almqvist had a triple big day Saturday: game highs of 26 points and 12 rebounds against Brown, a victory to keep Penn’s postseason hopes alive, and elevation to the elite club of Quakers with 1,000-point careers.
The 6-foot-1 senior became the 26th Penn woman to reach the milestone; her father and sister were at the Palestra for the event, visiting from Sweden. “My sister said, ‘You better get 1,000 while I’m here,’ and I did it for her,” Almqvist told ESPN+ afterward.

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Dartmouth women’s basketball tops Penn, 61-49

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There was a time when Dartmouth dominated Ivy League basketball—when the Big Green would win 12 or 13 of their 14 conference games before dancing off to the NCAA Tournament (and, yes, losing to the likes of Purdue, Connecticut and Maryland—this isn’t a fairy tale).
More recently, Dartmouth would lose 12 or 13 or all 14 of those Ivy games. The postseason consisted of waiting (and waiting) for spring to come to New Hampshire.
On Saturday, the Big Green arrived in West Philly to explain to Penn that times have once again changed.

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Solid effort falls short for Penn women’s basketball at Arizona State

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The Penn women’s basketball team went a long way for is loss Monday to Arizona State – not just in flying to the Southwest, not just in challenging a Big 12 team on its home court, but in playing the Sun Devils even or better for seven-eighths of the game before falling, 73-67.

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Penn women’s basketball squashes Delaware State, 72-45

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The Penn women’s basketball team got an early holiday present Friday: a young Delaware State team it could beat soundly while giving some first-year Quakers time in the spotlight.

With a game-high 14 points off the bench for center Tina Njike (a sophomore sidelined by injuries last season), Penn beat Delaware State, 72-45, at the Palestra for its fifth win in a row, and Del State’s fifth straight loss. At a muscular 6-foot-2, Njike showed strong moves to the rim for Penn (8-3) as well as a good touch from midrange with 6-for-8 shooting and four rebounds, plus 2-for-2 from the free-throw line, in 16 minutes on the court.

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Freshmen shoot Penn women’s basketball past La Salle, 74-63

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Penn and La Salle were playing a perfectly good women’s basketball Friday afternoon when the Quakers’ Sarah Miller turned it into a sharpshooting match, leading to a Penn win, 74-63. 

The 5-foot-10 guard from Phoenix scored a bucket in the first quarter, but she really took off in the second with four straight threes, then added a fifth in the third quarter before her first miss of the day. All in all, she went 6-for-7 plus 4-for-4 on foul shots for a game-high 21 points. Fellow freshman Katie Collins also had a 6-for-7 day, though closer to the basket and in less spectacular fashion, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds. 

The win was coach Mike McLaughlin’s 250th at Penn.  

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Penn women’s basketball loses in overtime to UC Irvine, 72-68

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The Penn women’s basketball team took another few steps forward Thursday night at the Palestra but came up short in overtime, 72-68, against the University of California at Irvine.
Both sides were tantalizingly close to taking the win in regulation. With a bit more than five minutes left, a three-pointer on a fast break put Irvine up, 60-57. And as the next three minutes ticked away, neither team could score until Penn freshman forward Katie Collins took a pass from Saniah Caldwell and hit a three to tie the game again. A layup for Irvine was quickly followed by another Penn three, this one from freshman Ashna Tambe on a feed from Mataya Gayle. And that one-point Penn lead lasted through an excruciating 90 seconds of missed shots and turnovers for both sides until Irvine’s Hunter Hernandez missed one foul shot but sank the second with five seconds left to send the game into overtime.

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Penn women’s basketball tops Maine, 56-52

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Beautiful though Maine may be, any visitor from warmer places can be forgiven for feeling a chill there. (Palestra Pete himself froze his butt off one Memorial Day weekend long ago.) And the Penn women’s basketball team stepped onto the University of Maine’s court Sunday with cold shooting hands. But after that frigid start, the Quakers overtook the Maine Black Bears for a 56-52 win.
Maine had a 7-0 lead before Swedish-born Penn senior Stina Almqvist (no doubt advantaged in cold climates) put in a left-handed scoop. Another Maine basket reclaimed the seven-point advantage, but soon it was the home team that had the cold hands as Penn started a 10-point run.

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