Penn women's basketball cleans up Ivy League postseason awards

When Penn women’s basketball last won the Ivy League title in 2014, they swept the conference’s postseason awards. This time around, they almost did it again.

For the second time, Coach Mike McLaughlin has been named the conference’s Coach of the Year, having led the team to its fourth-ever title and a program-record 24 wins. But he isn’t the only one taking home hardware for the Quakers.

For the third straight year, junior forward Sydney Stipanovich has been named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. And that isn’t all, as she has also been named Ivy League Player of the Year for the 2015-16 season.

Adding this to Rookie of the Year honors her freshman year, Stipanovich has now won all three individual Ivy awards — and still has a year to go with the Red and Blue. She is the first player in conference history to win all three awards in her career.

Stipanovich, who was also named first team All-Ivy, was the driving force behind the Quakers’ second title run in three years. Second on the team in scoring (12.7 points per game), she also led the league with 10 rebounds per contest and 2.7 blocks — which tied her with teammate Michelle Nwokedi as the Ancient Eight’s best.

For the Quakers, Stipanovich is the second player in the last three years to win Player of the Year, following Alyssa Baron two years prior. She also recorded her 1,000th point and 700th rebound during the season, in addition to becoming the program’s all-time leading blocker.

Nwokedi, the 2014-15 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, joins Stipanovich as Penn’s other representative as first team All-Ivy. The sophomore forwards added a team-high 14.2 points per game to her 2.7 blocks and her 9.6 rebounds were second in the Ancient Eight only to Stipanovich.

The accolades did not stop there for the Red and Blue, however, as sophomore guard Anna Ross was named honorable mention All-Ivy after leading the team with 3.4 assists and finishing behind only Stipanovich and Nwokedi in points (9.3) and rebounds (3.5) on the season.

Following Tuesday’s 62-60 win over Princeton, the Quakers secured an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. On Monday, the team will find out their seed and opponent. According to ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme, the Red and Blue are a projected 12 seed, potentially slated to play Florida in the tournament’s opening round.

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