PHILADELPHIA - The regular season champion University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team was well represented in the yearly postseason All-Ivy award selections, highlighted by Ivy League Coach of the Year Mike McLaughlin and Defensive Player of the Year Eleah Parker. Parker also earned a unanimous nod as first-team All-Ivy, while seniors Ashley Russell and Princess Aghayere were each named to the second-team. 

In the midst of his 10th season at the helm of the Quakers, Coach McLaughlin took a team that had lost three starters and nearly half of its scoring production and minutes played from a year ago to the top of the Ivy League standings. The Ivy title is McLaughlin's fourth in the last six seasons and the sixth in program history. At 22-5, McLaughlin is the only coach in the conference to lead his team to the 20-win plateau in each of the last six years. In McLaughlin's 24 years as a head coach, he has now won 19 Coach of the Year honors, including three Ivy League honors, three from the Big 5 and 13 from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference from his time at Holy Family. 

With many unknowns going into the season beyond Parker and Russell, McLaughlin and his staff concocted a recipe for success behind the play of Kendall Grasela and Michae Jones at point guard, two players that had played a combined 286 minutes entering the year and finished the regular season combining for over 100 assists; the shooting ability of Phoebe Sterba, who leads the team with 67 made 3-pointers on the year, currently fourth-most in a single-season in Penn history; and key performances from reserves in clutch moments, including sophomores Katie Kinum and Tori Crawford, and freshman Mia Lakstigala. 

This marks the sixth-straight year Penn has featured three All-Ivy performers, led by Eleah Parker as both Defensive Player of the Year and unanimous first-team All-Ivy. Entering this season as the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Parker did not disappoint as a sophomore, leading Penn in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.6 points and 8.9 boards per game - marks that rank fifth and first in the Ivy League respectively. Defensively, Parker was a force in the post for the Quakers, leading not only the conference, but ranking second nationally in blocked shots per game, averaging 3.26 per contest. Her 88 blocks so far currently rank second-most in Penn single-season history, and fifth-most in Ivy League laurels. The Charlotte, N.C. native enters the postseason with 23-straight double-digit scoring performances, matching or resetting her career-high three times this season, including a 29-point performance to round out the regular season at Yale. Parker has tallied nine double-doubles on the year and set a new personal-best in rebounding, collecting 17 against Villanova in January. Her field goal percentage of .507 leads the Ivy League, while Parker also ranks fourth on the team with 27 steals this year. Parker becomes just the second player in program history to earn Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, and first since Sydney Stipanovich earned the honor for the third-straight season in 2016. Parker's unanimous selection to first-team All-Ivy marks the seventh-straight season Penn has had a first-team representative. 

Russell's placement on second-team All-Ivy is the first postseason accolade of her career. The Braintree, Mass. native has been the heartbeat of the team all year for the Quakers, with the most game experience entering the year of any of Penn's starting five. Russell ranks third on the team in both scoring (10.1 ppg) and rebounding (6.6 rpg), while leading the Quakers with 118 assists on the year, good for an average of 4.4 per game, ranking second in the Ivy League. Russell epitomized the role of an all-around player, chipping in defensively to lead the team with 54 steals. The senior captain was a reliable cog for Penn, leading the Ivy League and ranking 25th nationally with an assist/turnover ratio of 2.5. Russell tallied her first career double-double this year at Harvard, recording 10 points and 12 rebounds, matching her career-high in rebounds set in November. She set a new personal best in scoring with a 25-point output early in the season against NJIT, and consistently flirted with a triple-double, at one point posting 23 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in a win at Stetson. Russell has twice been named Big 5 Player of the Week, and has led the team in scoring seven times this season, in assists 17 times, in rebounds eight times and in steals 14 times. 

Making an appearance on the starting lineup for the first time in her career this season, Aghayere boasted a senior season one could only dream of, increasing her output in all facets of the game when asked to take on a larger role with the team. The Reston, Va. native currently ranks second on the team in both scoring (12.1 ppg) and rebounding (6.7 rpg), with a knack for hitting the offensive glass, averaging 2.7 o-boards a game, fifth-best in the league. Entering the year, Aghayere had only surpassed the 12-point mark twice in her career, as a sophomore. This season, she has done so 13 times, including twice going over the 20-point mark, featuring a career-best 23 points in a win over Cornell. Aghayere had two career double-doubles heading into her senior season and has tallied four this year alone, at one point setting a personal best with 12 rebounds to go with 12 points in Penn's Ivy-opening victory at Princeton. Aghayere's highest scoring output in a season prior to 2018-19 was 134 points as a sophomore - as a senior, Aghayere has scored 327 points, more than doubling her previous-best. 

The Quakers will open postseason play at the 2019 Ivy League Tournament. The No. 2 seed, Penn will matchup with the three-seed Harvard in a semifinal game on Saturday, March 16 at 8:30 p.m.