With just four games remaining in the regular season, all are extremely important in the race for an Ivy Madness berth as the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team wraps up a three-game homestand Saturday vs. Cornell at The Palestra.

  Now tied with Brown for fourth place at 4-6, the Quakers enter the weekend a game up on the Big Red, who are looking to stay alive in the hunt.

  Penn comes into the weekend hot, having won three of its last four games while Cornell have won two of three including a 56-43 victory over Dartmouth on Saturday.

 
It's the 91st all-time meeting between Penn and Cornell on Saturday. The Quakers have a dominant lead in the series with a record of 69-21.

  Penn's 15-game win streak against the Big Red is the program's current longest against any Ivy League program. The victory earlier this season in Ithaca tied the Quakers' record win streak of 15 games set from 1974-1986.

  Penn is going for its 40th all-time win against the Big Red at The Palestra with an all-time mark of 39-9. Head coach Mike McLaughlin is 22-7 against the Big Red all-time, his third-best record against an Ivy program behind Brown (25-6) and Dartmouth (25-4).

 
Penn began its first Ivy weekend of the year with a 57-51 victory at Cornell on Jan. 18.

  The Quakers never trailed in the contest with the Big Red, despite a late run by the hosts that made it a two-point game with five minutes left.

  Late free throws gave Penn the six-point victory. Two players recorded double-doubles, Stina Almqvist (17 points/10 rebounds) and Katie Collins (10 points/10 rebounds), while Mataya Gayle notched 17 points.

 
Well, the landscape of the Ivy League is changing with just four games remaining on the regular-season schedule. Two teams—Columbia and Princeton—have already clinched spots in Ivy Madness with Harvard on the doorstep of being the third team this weekend.

  Following back-to-back victories over Yale and Brown last weekend, Penn battled back from two games behind to being tied with the Bears for fourth place.

  Both teams are a game ahead of Cornell (3-7) in sixth and two games in front of Dartmouth (2-8).

  Despite playing top three teams Harvard and Princeton in two of their last four games, the Quakers enter the weekend with a 15-game win streak over Cornell and Dartmouth has lost eight consecutive games after starting the year 2-0.

 
It was a special weekend for Almqvist, garnering Big 5 Player of the Week honors for the second time this year after putting together two stellar performances in wins over Yale and Brown at The Palestra.

  She started the weekend off right with a 16-point effort vs. the Bulldogs, scoring half of her points (8) on free throws with seven rebounds.

  On Saturday with her family in attendance from Sweden, Almqvist registered 15 first-half points including the 1,000th of her career to become the 26th player in program history to reach the milestone. Ironically, she finished the game with 26 points on 11 field goals, adding 12 boards for her fifth double-double of the season.

 
For the seventh time this season and third straight week, Collins picked up Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors after another great weekend of performances in leading the Quakers to a 2-0 record.

  The award gives Penn 15 over the last two seasons after Gayle also earned the honor seven times in 2023-24 and Sarah Miller brought home the award earlier this year. Eleah Parker earned the honor eight times in 2017-18. Both Gayle and Parker went on to be named Ivy Rookie of the Year.

  Collins poured in a career-high 21 points against Yale last Friday, adding 10 boards for her fifth double-double of the season. She shot 71.4 percent (10-for-14) from the floor, adding five blocks, four assists, and two steals.

  Despite having just six points and four rebounds on her stat sheet vs. Brown on Saturday, Collins played 38 minutes in a must-win game, adding a block and a steal.

 
Penn picked up a pair of crucial victories over the weekend, topping Yale 71-59 on Friday before knocking off Brown 73-61 to draw even with the Bears in fourth place in the Ivy standings.

  It was a team effort versus the Bulldogs, led by Gayle's season-high 26 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals. Collins had the best performance of her young career with a career-high 21 points, shooting 10 of 14 from the field with 10 boards, four assists, five blocked shots, and two steals. Almqvist also reached double figures with 16 points.

  Saturday was a must win in the hunt for an Ivy Madness berth and the Quakers came away with a double-digit win over the Bears. Almqvist became the 26th player in program history to join the 1,000-point club with a game-high 26 points and added 12 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Miller exploded for 14 points in the third quarter alone, drilling five three-pointers to total 17 points off the bench. Abby Sharpe also provided a spark, with 10 points in 14 minutes.

 
The Quakers wouldn't be as successful as they have been this year without the production of freshmen Collins and Miller.

  Collins ranks third in the Ivy in rebounding, averaging 7.3 boards per game and is also tops in blocks with 42, averaging 1.8 per game.

  Miller has emerged as the team's go-to sharpshooter thus far, leading the Quakers with 35 three-pointers. She's averaging 1.5 triples per game, good for a tie for sixth in the Ivy League.

  Both Collins and Miller have combined for eight Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors so far this season while Miller was named USBWA National Freshman of the Week back on Dec. 10 for her standout effort against La Salle in the Women's Big 5 Classic.

 
Penn is ranked highly—both as a team and individually—among both Ivy and NCAA DI statistical categories.

  As a team, the Quakers rank second in the Ivy, 45th in NCAA in assist/turnover ratio
(1.11) and are also highly ranked in blocks per game (4.0; 1st, 54th), fewest turnovers per game (13.0; 2nd, 28th), and fewest fouls per game (14.5; 3rd, 45th).

  Individually, Almqvist is putting together quite the senior season, ranked 40th in the nation in minutes per game at 35.6, 72nd in points per game (17.3) and 71st in total free throws (99). With 42 blocks and averaging 1.8 per game this year, Collins is tops in the Ancient Eight in both categories, ranked 57th nationally in blocks, 42nd in average.

 
Head Coach Mike McLaughlin became just the fifth coach in Ivy League history to record 250 career wins with a school after the Quakers took down the Explorers in the Big 5 Classic, 74-63.

  McLaughlin continues to stretch out his lead as Penn's all-time wins leader, surpassing Lois Ashley's mark of 128 wins in 12 seasons with his 129th win at Dartmouth on March 3, 2017. The head man currently sits with a record of 255-172 at Penn.

  In addition, McLaughlin earned the 650th win of his career last season against Harvard; that ranks him eighth among active Division I coaches.

 
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 160 of its last 175 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons under McLaughlin, the Quakers are 170-19 when reaching that number. In comparison overall, the Quakers are just 50-140 (.288) when they've scored less than 60 points under McLaughlin. The trend continues defensively. Over the last 11 seasons, the Red and Blue are 54-105 (.347) when allowing 60 points or more. But when holding opponents under that number, the Quakers hold a healthy winning record of 190-36 (.836).

  For the latest on Penn women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com. 

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