It will be a long goodbye for the Penn women's basketball team's four seniors over the next five days. Jenn Jones, Sunny Pitrof, Tara Twomey and Ima Abia will play their last three games in Penn colors over spring break, beginning with Columbia tonight in New York, followed by Cornell tomorrow in Ithaca, N.Y. Their last game will be against Princeton on Wednesday at the Palestra. "It starts to be an emotional time, not only for the four seniors but for everyone else on the team," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "You just start realizing that you're down to your last few practices as a true team." Greenberg admitted that her squad is "somewhat sentimental," noting that halfway through today's practice, one of the seniors lamented it being their last such time together in Weightman Gym. "They came in the same time as I did to Penn," she said. "My first four years have been with them, and we really grew a lot together." Greenberg had kind words about all of her graduating players. She called Pitrof "the ultimate teammate. If I were in college today, she would be one of the first people I would pick as one of my teammates." Greenberg praised Abia for her leadership and for being "a strong individual." "I always talk to our team about being a team with a personality, and Ima has really helped us do that," Greenberg said. On Jones, Greenberg noted her personality and strong presence on the team. "She's contributed so much to this program that we will definitely miss her," she said. The Quakers will also lose the services of Twomey, the team's three-year starting point guard who also holds the distinction of being Greenberg's first recruit. Twomey leads the team with 4.9 assists per game. "I've been the toughest on her," Greenberg said, singling out her "quality of just hating to lose." Greenberg knows that the Lions, Big Red and Tigers will combine to form a daunting end to the the Quakers' season. "We stole one from [Columbia] at our place," Greenberg said of a 57-56 win on Feb. 8, "so we know that they are going to be extremely hungry and ready for our game." Greenberg noted that Columbia has three contributing players over six feet tall and a talented perimeter player in guard Sue Altman, who leads the Lions with 17 points per game this season. For the Big Red, Greenberg's focus will be on junior Karen Force, who leads Cornell with 19.3 points per game, the fourth-highest total in the Ivy League. "It's been a good couple of weeks since we won two in one weekend," Greenberg said of the task at hand for the team's Empire State trip. "We've got to win both, we can't just be content with getting a win [tonight]." Even if the game against Princeton were not on Senior Night, there would still be plenty of motivation for the Quakers to win Wednesday. The Red and Blue lost at Jadwin Gymnasium earlier this season in what Greenberg called "our worst game of the season." "All I am going to tell the seniors is that we are playing Princeton," she said. "Let's just get out on the floor and beat them."
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