The Penn volleyball team's home match against Temple -- the only scheduled University intercollegiate sporting event yesterday -- was canceled as a result of the tragedies in New York and Washington.
Because the University decided to call off classes and close its offices, all sport practices were canceled as well.
Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said that Penn officials would decide this morning whether to resume the regular sports schedule.
"It's not just whether you can have the games," Bilsky said. "It's also a matter of appropriateness, whether you should have the games."
The only regularly scheduled Penn contest is a field hockey game between Villanova and Penn on Franklin Field at 7 p.m.
If that game takes place, there will likely be another game played as well. Penn volleyball coach Kerry Major, in conjunction with Temple, tentatively rescheduled yesterday's match for today at 7 p.m in the Palestra. But as Major said, that's only, "if there's business as usual."
The Temple match, however, is not Major's biggest concern. The Penn volleyball team is scheduled to fly to California tomorrow afternoon for matches against Cal State-Fullerton, Oakland University and UC Riverside.
"Putting 20 people on a plane, it's really hard right now to think about it," Major said.
Penn has not yet decided if the risk is too high for the volleyball team to board a plane tomorrow, but it may not even have to make such a decision. The nation's airports will remain closed until at least noon today, and that restriction could be extended further.
Although the volleyball team was the only Penn sport to have a game scheduled yesterday, all sports were affected -- if not by the cancellation of practice, by the repercussions of the events in New York and Washington.
Stunned athletes and coaches gathered around the television in the Dunning Center yesterday afternoon, watching news accounts of the events in silence.
"Everyone's pretty speechless," Bilsky said.
Those coaches and players not sitting around televisions, however, still had their minds on the terrorist attacks.
Penn men's cross country coach Charlie Powell spent much of the afternoon helping to track down ex-Penn athletes or family members of his athletes that might have been affected. Powell's current team also plans to donate blood.
"I think it just wakes up the whole country," said Powell, whose team went for a run in the morning but had its afternoon workout canceled.
The Penn women's soccer team, meanwhile, was just finishing practice yesterday morning when players heard the news. Quakers coach Darren Ambrose subsequently contacted his team by phone or e-mail to offer support.
"At this point it kind of minimizes the importance of the season," said Ambrose, whose team is 2-0 this year. "It makes you realize there are bigger things out there."
Major found out about yesterday's events while working out in the morning.
"When I saw the first plane hit, I though, `Wow, this is big,'" Major said. "I didn't know how big it was."
Major had her athletes meet in her office around 1:15 p.m. to discuss the game's cancellation and to offer support, after which most of the team headed to a house on Chestnut Street where several Penn volleyball players live.
"I think everyone's mind was on the catastrophe and all the casualties, not something trivial like a practice," Bilsky said.
"It's only a game. You get reminded of that sometimes."
