For the Penn women's lacrosse team, it has been a season of reversing trends and tearing apart opponents that seemed unbeatable in the past.
With one impressive win after another, Penn has put itself in prime position to take the Ivy League title and sprint towards the NCAA tournament.
But this Saturday, the No. 6 Quakers (10-1, 4-0 Ivy) will have to leap over a high hurdle yet again when Dartmouth - a team they have not beaten in 15 years - comes to town.
With one loss in the league, the No. 14 Big Green (7-3, 3-1 Ivy) must win to keep their title hopes alive.
Nonetheless, Dartmouth has been on a hot streak of its own lately, having knocked off Cornell, Columbia, Brown and Vermont in its last four outings.
And only one year removed from the national title game, coach Amy Patton and the Big Green have proven they can win the big game.
"Our team is completely excited about the game," she said. "I've seen great progress the last couple of weeks, so I think it's going to be a battle for 60 minutes."
Dartmouth's attack is led by senior Whitney Douthett, who has 40 points on the season, including at least one point in each of her last 49 games. The streak is the third-best in the nation.
Junior Kristen Barry has been the most prolific goal scorer for the defensive-minded Big Green and is coming off a career high six-goal outburst against Cornell.
While Dartmouth's scoring defense ranks 12th nationally, it is still not quite up to Penn's third-ranked unit, which surrendered fewer than seven goals per game over its recent road tilt.
And after cruising past their opponents away from home, Penn now returns to Franklin Field for the first time in several weeks.
"It's a big challenge for us to play Penn at their place," Patton said.
To that end, Penn coach Karin Brower noted that the Quakers - who are undefeated at home - are thrilled to be playing in Philadelphia.
"We love playing here," she said. "The Final Four is here, so we want to play as much as we can at home."
Even though most of the Quakers were still in preschool when the Red and Blue last topped Dartmouth, this season's success so far has given them more confidence heading into the matchup against the Big Green than Penn has had in years past.
As a result, senior attacker Chrissy Muller believes that Penn will be ready to play.
"When our seasons weren't going as well before, it would take us a good 10 minutes and a timeout to see that we could play [with Dartmouth]," she said. "This whole season we've been coming out strong, so I think [tomorrow] won't be any different."
If Penn can get past Dartmouth, its final true test will come Wednesday against No. 13 Princeton, which is tied for second place with the Big Green.
