After surgery and a long recovery, Lauren Pears is back for her senior season and ready to help lead Penn women's basketball back to respectability after a dismal 5-22, 3-11 Ivy record last year.
Pears, leading the Quakers in nearly every statistical category through the first eight games of last season, tore her ACL against American in December.
"Lauren is one of the keys to our team, particularly on defense," a smiling coach Pat Knapp said. "We're glad to have her back. Right now, Lauren is in a position to start. How many minutes she plays depends on her strength and stamina."
The 5-foot-8 guard is confident about her return to the court, but knows that full recovery is a long process.
"It's been pretty good," Pears said. "It hurts sometimes, but you have to play through. I'm feeling about close to 100 percent. Hopefully, [the injury] won't affect me too much. Hopefully, as the season goes on, my body will get used to working out so much.
"Right now, I'm getting back my quickness on defense so I can come back strong this year," Pears said about her progress this preseason.
Talkin' 'bout practice
The Quakers have just 16 more days to prepare for their first game in four years without Jennifer Fleischer. A force in the paint, the 6-foot-3 center, who graduated last year, finished fourth in rebounds (849) and second in blocks (128) in school history.
Since Fleischer's departure, "we've been focusing a lot on defense and rebounding because we definitely need to improve on that from last year," senior forward Monica Naltner said. "We have already made strides."
"I'm encouraged more days than I am disappointed," Knapp said. "But if you practice good one day, and then average the next, that's how you will play. They have to make the decision to run through a string of successful practices."
The task now falls to Knapp and his players to translate the preparation into success on the court.
"We can't be the same players we were a year ago," Knapp said. "We have to all do something different to improve. I see [everyone] working at it. . Internally, we have a team creed: play hard, play smart, play together. If we do that we will improve."
Rhoads to victory
Offensively, Penn is thankful to return its leading point-scorer from last season, 5-4 Joey Rhoads.
"When you have a player who is an All-Ivy returning player . and she makes second team All-Big 5, you are talking about someone who has tremendous respect among her peers," Knapp says of the player accountable for almost a quarter of the team's points last season.
"Joey is a very good player. She is one of our leaders. Overall, we want to develop other scorers on the team, but she's our leading scorer."
Aside from shooting, Rhoads knows there are other areas to improve.
"I'm trying to become a better point guard, making better decisions, passing and being more vocal on the court," she said.
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