Sports Briefs

M. Tennis opens season at Princeton Invitational Hoping to beat Hurricane Isabel up the East Coast, the Penn men's tennis team heads to Princeton, N.J., this morning to compete in the Princeton Invitational. This is the first tournament of the year for the Quakers. Citing the Red and Blue's strong practices so far this fall, Penn assistant coach Joel Berman thinks that the Quakers have a good chance this weekend. "They understand what it takes for us to be successful, and everybody's getting the job done in practice," Berman said. "Hopefully the hard work in practice will pay off in the tournament." "There's no fooling around; everybody's been really serious," junior Todd Lecher said. "Everybody's ready to go." Lecher is playing both singles and doubles, and, along with junior Craig Rubin, will be the No. 1 seed in "B" doubles. Berman also added that a strong performance at Princeton could serve as "a stepping stone" toward the East Coast Athletic Conference Championships held in New York in two weeks. Due to the inclement weather, tomorrow's matches will all be played indoors, starting at 10 a.m. The matches will move outdoors on Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting. -- Josh Hirsch M. X-Country heads into eye of storm in Delaware The Penn men's cross-country team will travel to Newark, Del., this afternoon to compete in the Delaware Invitational Saturday. The Quakers enter tomorrow's invite after a second-place finish last week at the Fordham Invitational at Van Cortland Park in New York. Junior Nolan Tully paced the Red and Blue last week, earning fifth place individually in 25:45. In addition to Tully, three other Penn runners finished in the top 10 last week. Saint Joseph's was the first-place finisher at the Fordham Invitational. -- Greg Muller