Most athletes come into Penn with a plan: to play their respective sport for four years, and to ultimately live that dream of being an Ivy League athlete that they agreed to the day they committed. However, not all goes as planned.

“Preparing Boys for Life.” That is the motto of The Haverford School, an elite preparatory day school that has funneled top-end lacrosse players to Penn and across the country. 

They saved their best for last. After quite a lot of softball this weekend — back-to-back home doubleheaders to be exact — Penn softball finished in style.

On Sunday, Penn fencing closed out its season at the 2017 NCAA Fencing Championships at the Indiana Farmers’ Coliseum. The Quakers came home with an eighth-place finish, scoring 107 points in the co-ed team championship tournament.

The Quakers beat Lafayette in four straight games this weekend at home. Penn (8-9) swept the Leopards (2-22) in back to back doubleheaders at MeikleJohn Stadium, outscoring them 22-7 in the process.

Well that’s one way to start a season. Penn track and field kicked off the outdoor portion of the 2017 campaign with a bang, as both the men’s and women’s squads took first on their home turf at the Penn Challenge.

It was a tremendously busy weekend for Penn Athletics, and the successes on the field weren’t limited to the record-setting meet from track and field or the huge Ivy League wins to keep men’s lacrosse and women’s lacrosse in their respective title races.

With a performance that saw him tie a career-high in points in Penn's 10-9 victory over Cornell, this week's Penn Athletics Weekend MVP goes to men's lacrosse's sophomore Simon Mathias. The Quakers (4-3, 1-1 Ivy) needed a win this weekend after dropping their Ivy opener to Princeton last weekend, and this one was certainly well fought.

The first win is always the hardest. For Penn women’s lacrosse, securing its first victory in the Ancient Eight on Saturday over Brown means it is ready for the title chase.

It may not have been pretty, but Penn men’s lacrosse needed a win and somehow found one in Ithaca against Cornell.

For both students and athletes, the pressure to be on top can be more than daunting. And although recent years have seen prominent incidents of doping, Elizabeth Beisel argues those who win without cheating find success more meaningful.

It takes a talented program to make trouble for the country’s best team. For eleventh ranked Penn women’s lacrosse, that was the story on Wednesday when they traveled to Maryland and fell 11-7.

Pottruck said in an interview with the Daily Pennsylvanian that the goal is to ensure that student-athletes acquire the necessary leadership skills to help them not only in the playing field, but also in their academic and professional careers.

Cornell will welcome the Quakers to Ithaca for both teams’ second Ivy League matchup of the season. The Red and Blue (3-3, 0-1 Ivy) will look to regroup after two straight losses derailed what was a promising start to the 2017 campaign.

Penn men’s tennis has already played 18 matches this season, but the team has just one more opponent to face before it heads into Ivy League play. After a two-week break in competition, the Quakers (12-6) will travel to Penn State for their last non-conference match of the year.

Last weekend, Penn club men’s rugby made history by competing in the Ariel Re Bermuda 7s tournament, finishing 4-2 in the 12-team competition and taking home the “Bowl Trophy” by finishing first place in the consolation bracket.

On Thursday, March 23rd, senior sabre Dana Kong will begin her last fencing tournament as a Quaker. And, as she approaches her last time on the strip, she will get to make her debut on the collegiate fencing’s biggest stage. Kong is one of 11 fencers who will represent the Red and Blue at the 2017 NCAA Fencing Championships in Indianapolis.