Penn women get through warmup at Dartmouth, 54-37  

It was a game of limited importance. The Penn women, in third place and assured of a spot in the Ivy tournament, made the long road trip to Hanover, N.H., for what was supposed to be a tune-up at Dartmouth, which had yet to win an Ivy game.
But Penn wasn’t playing like a team contending for a title Saturday — shooting poorly and turning the ball over repeatedly coming off a disappointing loss at upstart Brown a week earlier.
Penn held just a one-point lead when Dartmouth junior guard Mia Curtis grabbed the rebound after a Penn miss with three seconds on the clock and hustled the ball downcourt to senior forward Emma Koch for the layup at the buzzer — putting the Big Green ahead, 12-11, after one quarter.

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Penn women trounce Brown in Ivy opener

The opening 10 minutes Sunday afternoon at Brown may have had Penn fans worried and Brown fans jubilant: Not only were the Quakers again missing top-scoring guard Kayla Padilla, but the game was moving at the Bears’ frenetic pace, and Penn’s shots just weren’t falling.

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Kayla Padilla shines in homecoming as shorthanded Penn women fall to Memphis in overtime

Kayla Padilla’s spectacular 36-point performance was almost enough to complete a Penn sweep of her Los Angeles homecoming, as the Quakers fell to Memphis, 73-68, in overtime Saturday.

Padilla had a cold hand and scored a mere nine points the day before against San Diego in the teams’ opener at the Loyola Marymount Thanksgiving Classic. But Penn won that one, 60-55, on the strength of a resounding 20 points and 10 rebounds by sophomore forward Jordan Obi, Penn’s other Californian, and strong performances by seniors Mia Lakstigala and Kennedy Suttle. Lakstigala just missed a double-double herself, with nine rebounds and 13 points.

The Memphis loss was, among other things, a stark reminder of the price Penn (4-2) is paying for an unspecified infraction of university rules by the team’s upperclassmen. Each of them is serving a rolling four-game suspension over the first eight games of the season. On Friday, seniors Lakstigala, Suttle and Nikola Kovacikova grabbed 20 of Penn’s 33 rebounds; on Saturday, Penn had 38 rebounds — junior Silke Milliman, who sat out the San Diego game, grabbed 11 — but Memphis (6-1) had 53, and Memphis had 46 points in the paint to Penn’s 22.

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Penn women’s hoops suspends all juniors and seniors for four games

Another day, another piece of Ancient Eight breaking news. 

After Friday’s announcement of Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith’s retirement at season’s end, Monday afternoon brought surprise news of Penn’s suspension of all of the team’s juniors and seniors for violation of university policy.  The specific policy was not disclosed, but the infraction will cost each of the nine upper-class students four games.  Since suspending the entire group would leave the Quakers with only eight true first-years and sophomores, none with any collegiate experience, the Red & Blue have elected to spread the penalties over the team’s first eight regular-season contests. 

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Dartmouth women snowed under by Penn, 66-33

You’ve got to feel for Dartmouth: After suffering a 66-34 trouncing by Princeton on Friday night, the Big Green women were exactly one point worse off Saturday night in being clobbered by Penn, 66-33, in Hanover.
The indignities Saturday included a four-point second quarter, a five-point third quarter and a 29-0 Penn run in the first half that eliminated any sort of suspense about the game. And two of the biggest cheers came for a Penn player: First-year forward Silke Milliman grew up in Hanover, so her relatives and friends roared when she came into the game and when she scored her one point of the night.

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Ivy League player carousel

The biggest story of the off-season was Miye Oni being selected in June’s NBA Draft.  The Yale junior and reigning Ivy Player of the Year decided to leave school early and leave his name in the draft.  Despite falling to the late second round, a perilous spot to making an NBA roster, Oni impressed in the Summer League and earned a guaranteed contract with the Utah Jazz.  He is playing just as well in the pre-season and looks to be a real steal for the Jazz.

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2019 Ivy men’s and women’s recruiting update

Since Ivy recruits do not sign National Letters of Intent, the Athletic Departments of the Ancient Eight schools cannot comment on student-athletes’ commitments until after they are formally accepted and place their deposits.  As a result, the following list is a summary of committed recruits for the Class of 2023 that have been obtained from searching the internet.

If any reader has any athlete to add to the list, please send a note to [email protected].

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