Two times the Orange on Sunday

The women's basketball team begins its winter break schedule Sunday against Syracuse in Jadwin Gym. Princeton (3-8), which has struggled at times this season, also plays Sacred Heart, Rider, Monmouth and No. 23 Vanderbilt between Dec. 16 and Jan. 5, with all but the Vanderbilt game on the road.

The Tigers are coming off a hard-fought 53-48 loss to No. 6 Rutgers in which they were tied with the Scarlet Knights with as little as five minutes, 18 seconds left in the game. Senior forward Meagan Cowher scored 20 points.

Cowher is averaging 17.3 points per game — 31 percent of the team's total scoring — as she pursues Princeton's all-time scoring record, while also grabbing 8.5 boards a game. Senior forward Ali Prichard is adding 7.2 points and 4.6 rebounds each game.

Syracuse, despite being unranked, is 7-1 with several convincing wins. The Orange's lone loss came to perennial power North Carolina, but it has recorded several blowout wins, including a 75-26 drubbing of Colgate and a 79-46 rout of Northeastern. The Orange is much improved from 2006-07, when it finished 9-20 overall and 3-13 in the Big East.

The one common foe on the two teams' schedules is Lehigh, whom Princeton defeated by 12 and Syracuse by seven.

Syracuse has four players who average double figures in points, led by guard Chandrea Jones' 14.6 points per game. The five-foot, nine-inch junior also leads the team with 9.3 rebounds per game.

No. 23 Vanderbilt (8-3) presents another tough home test for the Tigers. A No. 2 seed in last season's NCAA tournament, the Commodores were bounced from the second round by upset-minded Bowling Green. This season, Vanderbilt has again started strongly, defeating No. 15 Duke while blowing out several other opponents. The Nashville team's three losses have come against No. 11 California, Colorado and Indiana State in overtime.

Liz Sherwood and Christina Wirth lead Vanderbilt with 14.5 and 13.5 points per game, respectively. Wirth, a 6'1" wing player, played 40 minutes and scored 15 against Duke, while the 6'4" Sherwood has scored 20 points four times this season, with a season-high 24 in a 104-43 demolition of Belmont.

Princeton's Dec. 22 opponent, Sacred Heart (5-4), had a tough start to the season, losing its first three games, but since has won five of its last six. The Pioneers' lone loss during that stretch came against Dartmouth. Six-foot, four-inch center Kaitlin Sowinski is the undisputed star of the team, averaging 16.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, while also shooting 56 percent from the field. Guard Stephanie Ryan adds 9.1 points and 7.9 boards per game.

The Tigers' will then make the short trip down Route 206 to face Rider (4-6), a more formidable opponent than one might expect. The Broncs have beaten Monmouth, Hofstra, Central Florida and Army, and only lost to Penn — at the Palestra — by eight points.

Guard Janele Henderson leads three players in double figures, scoring 15.4 points per game while being helped by guard Tammy Meyers, guard Amanda Sepulveda and forward Shaunice Parker's 10.2, 10.1 and 9.9 points per game. Parker's 9.3 rebounds per game is the biggest rebounding average Princeton faces in its next five games.

Princeton's first game of 2008 is against Monmouth, who has recorded only one win to seven losses so far this season, two of which came from Rider and Sacred Heart.