First-year offensive coordinator Bill Schmitz probably had other thoughts about how the debut of his offense would unfold Saturday. Instead, the loss of its main playmaker proved the kiss of death for his unit, and the Quakers paid the price in the loss column.

Something about that cheesesteak seem off lately? Don't blame Geno's just yet. The city's celebrated trans-fat ban which prohibits eateries from frying foods in trans fat and from serving trans-fat-based spreads (like margarine) went into effect on September 1.

Harvard starts classes today. Correction, my friend tells, me; they start "shopping." I have always been jealous of other Ivies' shopping periods. The whole concept sounds so free and fun. Students can register for as many classes as they want and then pick the ones they like best.

Al Bagnoli and Frank Tavani apparently had different professors for Football 101. They've both certainly been around long enough to form their own viewpoints on the game, but the guys at the helms of the Penn and Lafayette squads certainly have curiously divergent opinions on what constitutes a "pretty" football game.

One university's tactics toward improving women's safety have shown the benefits of doing your own research. Worried about the violence against women on campus, the University of Kentucky engaged in a campus-specific "Women's Safety Study," beginning in 2004.

The Penn women's soccer team was going for a first this weekend by handing Northwestern its first loss at its brand new stadium, Lakeside Field. But the Quakers would have to settle for a draw. Penn and Northwestern played to a 1-1 tie on Friday night, but the Quakers made sure not to leave the Windy City without a victory as they blew away Loyola-Chicago yesterday, 5-1.

While Penn's $6 billion endowment may not be as huge as those of financial giants Harvard and Yale universities, it's safe to say that the University is doing its best to catch up. With the data on returns on Penn's endowment investments for the fiscal year to be released later this week, The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with the woman behind the numbers, Chief Investments Officer Kristin Gilbertson.

The Penn volleyball team went to Washington D.C. and got what it came for - its first win. The Quakers (3-4) beat Lafayette 3-0 on Friday at the American University Tournament but didn't stop there. They went on to sweep both Army and Navy before falling to American in five games in the finals to take second place in the tournament.

And after a disappointing 0-4 start to the season, a little bit of traction early in the Ivy slate was just what the Quakers were looking for.

A day punctuated by dismal offense on both sides ended with Lafayette hitting its stride at the worst possible time, handing the Quakers an 8-7 loss in their season opener.

A change in admissions deans notwithstanding, Penn continues to maintain that early decision is here to stay. After Harvard and Princeton universities announced last fall that they were both dropping their early-admissions programs, many expected Penn and the other Ivies to follow suit.

n "I just loved watching her life play out. It was beautiful. She was always doing something extraordinary. There was nothing ordinary she would do." "Her family came before anything else in the whole world. She would give anything up for her family." - Penn State University sophomore Missy Rupp, Ryan's high-school best friend n "I was obsessed since the moment I met her.

The Northwestern women's soccer team already had history made this season. In its game against Florida Atlantic on Sunday, senior forward Kelsey Hans scored her 30th career goal, putting her atop the school's all-time list. But Penn (3-1) will try to make some history of its own by handing the Wildcats (5-1) their first-ever loss at Lakeside Field tonight.

Scientists often joke that, instead of having a genie grant three wishes, they'd just prefer three grants. Well, scientists engaging in interdisciplinary research might not have to bother with the genie anymore. The National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research announced last week funding of $210 million over five years for nine interdisciplinary research consortia nationwide.

After last season's kicking woes, head coach Al Bagnoli came up with a simple plan. If the Quakers brought in enough kickers in the offseason, he figured, at least one was bound to succeed. So, instead of recruiting one standout talent, Bagnoli added three freshmen to a potential kicking corps that already included Derek Zoch, whose ineffectiveness last season cost him the starting role; A.

When the Covenant - the red, cylindrical statue on Locust Walk - was erected in 1975, students called it "obnoxiously spastic" and reminiscent of "cosmic soda straws." Now, students just call it the Dueling Tampons. And that's what 1996 College graduate Matt Rosler calls his Web site: Duelingtampons.

WILMINGTON, Del. - It was deja vu all over again as the third murder trial for Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya began yesterday at the New Castle Co. courthouse.