PHILADELPHIA – Ready to start its journey to its first Big 5 title since 2018—and third all time—the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team begins pod play Wednesday evening against Drexel in the Battle of 33rd Street at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.
 
Both Penn and Drexel enter the matchup with perfect 2-0 records, as the Quakers are coming off victories over King's and Delaware State while the Dragons picked up a win at Pitt last Tuesday and at Marist on Friday.
 
GAME 3 – PENN (2-0, 0-0 Ivy League) at DREXEL (2-0, 0-0 CAA)
Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025 | 6 p.m.
Daskalakis Athletic Center (DAC) | Philadelphia, Pa.
Watch on FloSports, NBCSP ($) | Live Stats | Tickets | Penn Game Notes (PDF)
 
The Penn-Drexel Series
33rd Street foes Penn and Drexel are meeting for just the 29th time in both program's histories and for the first time since 2019 on Wednesday evening.
 
The all-time series is tied up at 14-all with the Quakers winning three straight dating back to Dec. 19, 2015 and four of the last five since Dec. 21, 2013.
 
This will be the first meeting between the Quakers and Dragons at the DAC since 2018, a 55-39 victory for the Red and Blue. Penn's last loss to Drexel also came away from home, a 67-58 defeat on Dec. 20, 2014.
 
Back to Big 5 Pod Play
Penn returns to Big 5 pod play Wednesday night after an eventful debut season under the new City Series format.
 
Last year, the Quakers went 0-2 in their pod schedule, falling in hotly contested games to both Saint Joseph's (68-57) and Villanova (80-64) before rebounding with a decisive 74-63 victory over La Salle in the inaugural Big 5 Classic at Villanova's Finneran Pavilion.
 
The win over the Explorers gave Penn fifth place overall and capped off the program's first experience in the revamped structure, which divides the six storied Philadelphia Division I schools into two pods before culminating in a championship tripleheader on the Main Line.
 
This year's pods feature Penn, Drexel, and Saint Joseph's in Pod 1 and La Salle, Villanova, and defending champion Temple in Pod 2.
 
Last Time Out
Penn improved to 2-0 with a 63-41 win at Delaware State on Monday night, pulling away in the final three quarters after a tight opening frame. The Quakers used a 20-6 run in the second quarter to build a double-digit lead and never looked back, earning their first road victory in the three all-time meetings against the Hornets.
 
Tina Njike led the way with her first career double-double, finishing with 15 points and 12 rebounds to pace Penn on both ends. Katie Collins added eight points and 12 boards, while Saniah Caldwell chipped in nine points off the bench. The Quakers shot 44 percent (23-for-52) from the field and 81 percent (13-for-16) from the foul line.
Defensively, Penn stifled Delaware State, holding the Hornets to just 25 percent shooting (15-for-59) overall and forcing 19 turnovers. The win marks the Quakers' second straight 2-0 start to a season and remain unbeaten (3-0) all-time against Delaware State.
 
Opening Week is Here!
Penn began its 2025-26 season with two victories, beating King's on Friday in its season opener before taking down Delaware State on the road Monday night.
 
Albeit right down the street, Penn continues its road trip Wednesday playing Drexel in the shortest trip in NCAA Division I, just 0.4 miles North on 33rd Street. The Red and Blue then head to Long Island to face Hofstra on Saturday.
 
Penn returns home Tuesday, Nov. 18 against Norfolk State for Community Night at 6 p.m.
 
The King's Win
In the season opener on Friday, Penn picked up a dominant 105–31 win over King's College at The Palestra, shooting 55.3 percent from the field and holding the Monarchs to just 20 percent overall and from 3-point range.
 
Thirteen Quakers scored in the victory, led by Collins with 18 points in 16 minutes. Sarah Miller added 13 points, Njike posted 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks, and freshman Ruke Ogbevire chipped in 11 points off the bench.
 
Penn's depth made the difference, outscoring King's 63–14 in bench points while also owning advantages in points off turnovers (38–4), points in the paint (56–4), second-chance points (21–1) and fast-break points (20–0).
 
A Bright Future
Just like how things finished up last season, the Quakers were picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League's preseason poll, earning 106 points by a panel of 16 media members.
 
Despite losing a pair of key starters—first-team All-Ivy selection Stina Almqvist and Lizzy Groetsch—to graduation, Penn returns three key members of the starting lineup in Mataya Gayle, Simone Sawyer, and Collins. Gayle (2023-24) and Collins (2024-25) have won each of the last two Ivy League Rookie of the Year awards.
 
Another familiar face is re-joining her teammates as Ese Ogbevire is set to make her 2025-26 debut after missing all of the 2024-25 campaign with a torn ACL. Ogbevire shined brightly during her freshman season, averaging 4.7 points per game, adding 23 assists and nine steals. She was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice.
 
Things looked promising for Brooke Suttle when the season finished up last season, as she made a tremendous impact late in the year. She played the most minutes (27) of her rookie season at Princeton on Feb. 8 before finding herself getting more playing time by year's end. In the Quakers' 60-54 loss to Columbia in the Ivy League Tournament semis, Suttle poured in six points with six rebounds in 17 minutes.
 
So Many Fresh Faces
Penn has a freshman class of four this season, bringing the team total to 17 student-athletes.
 
Ruke Ogbevire (Houston, Texas/Fulshear), Ari Paraskevopoulou (Athens, Greece/16th General HS of Athens), Kate Lipatova (Moscow, Russia/Putnam Science Academy (Conn.), and Sarah Gordon (Vestavia Hills, Ala./Vestavia Hills) are all eager to make their collegiate debuts this season, maybe as soon as Friday afternoon.
 
Of the four, two (Ogbevire, 1,895 points; Gordon, 2,168) graduated as their high school's all-time leading scorers, while the other two (Paraskevopoulou, Greece; Lipatova, Russia) played for their national teams.
 
In addition to the players, Mike McLaughlin has a new member on his coaching staff in Ryan Weise (pronounced 'wee-see'), who became an assistant coach following two seasons as Holy Cross' Director of Basketball Operations.
 
With the departure of longtime associate head coach Kelly Killion, who took the head coaching job at American University in the offseason, McLaughlin promoted another longtime assistant Ashley Robinson to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.
 
Captain, Captain, Captain, Captain, Captain
Penn has a program-record tying five captains leading the team in 2025-26.
 
The leadership group is made up of seniors Caldwell, Sawyer, and Georgia Heine, as well as junior Gayle and sophomore Collins.
 
There's only two other occasions in program history that the Quakers had five—2004-05 and 2020-21 (a season that was canceled due to COVID-19).
 
Magic Number: 60
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 163 of its last 178 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons under McLaughlin, the Quakers are 173-19 when reaching that number. In comparison overall, the Quakers are just 50-142 (.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 55-107 (.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.