Harvard’s tough weekend will continue when the team makes the hour-long drive to Philadelphia.

Although the Crimson had dominated the matchup with Penn in recent years, the tide began to turn last season.

After nine winless years against Harvard, Penn was able to pull off a 77-72 win at The Palestra en route to a third-place finish in the Ivy League last season.

“Penn is a blue collar, well-coached, hardworking team,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think Penn was instrumental in causing us to not win the title [last year].”

The Crimson will have to keep an eye on Quaker guard Keiera Ray in order to prevail. After stepping into the starting point guard role as a freshman, Ray dropped a career-high 31 points in the team’s matchup in Philadelphia last year.

Her success came largely at the free-throw line, hitting 14-of-20 attempts in addition to her seven field goals.

Ray had to miss a significant portion of this season due to an injury, but she is now healthy and poses a threat to Harvard.

The Quakers also boast a strong scorer in their backcourt. Senior guard Alyssa Baron averages 13.1 points per game, and is an integral component of the Penn offense.

With two wins, the Crimson would stay atop of the Ivy League standings in the early-season jostling for the Ancient Eight crown.

With Princeton looming as a perennial threat for the title, this weekend could prove crucial in determining who sits atop the Ivy League throne come the end of the season.

“We have to have, at the very worst, a split,” Delaney-Smith said. “We couldn’t walk away from this weekend losing both and feel good…. With a split we can survive, but I think we’re capable of winning both.”

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at thebert@college.harvard.edu.