A year removed from a fifth-place, 5-9 conference finish, Penn basketball has been tapped to finish fourth in the 2016-17 preseason Ivy League media poll.

The farewell tour. The victory lap. The last hurrah. Whatever you call it, there’s no avoiding the inevitability of retirement in athletics.

Senior Sports Editor Nick Buchta: There’s almost an embarrassment of riches to pick from on Penn women’s soccer — almost all of them freshmen!

Championship game. It might not be the most widely publicized title in collegiate sports, but under the radar, Penn men’s soccer is one win away from capturing its first City 6 championship since _____. The City 6, which consists of Penn, Drexel, La Salle, Saint Joseph’s, Temple, and Villanova, has been crowning a yearly champion in several sports since _____.

In what would have been a poetic travesty, Hunter the Punter didn’t always want to be a punter. “I was asked about doing it the summer before my sophomore year of high school... I tried it out and didn’t really like it,” Hunter Kelley, Penn football’s standout fourth-down man, said.

The most accomplished coach in program history, Penn volleyball's Kerry Carr is nearing 500 games on the sidelines for the Red and Blue. Her greatest battle, however, took place away from the gym. 

In their first Ivy League game of the year, Penn football took on Dartmouth, a team that shared the conference title with the Quakers in 2015.

Another week, another standout performance by a Penn offensive player. Junior running back Tre Solomon had the best performance of his career Saturday vs.

The word “warrior”, if books and movies are to be believed, conjures the image of a battle-ready, iron-clad behemoth armed to the teeth. If you ask members of Penn men’s soccer, their more realistic version comes in the form of a 6’0 forward and Pennsylvania native named Alec Neumann. This reputation has been well-earned over the past four seasons of Quaker soccer, and Neumann has emerged as the team’s undisputed leader and central offensive cog in his final season.

Before US Open champions Mohammed El Shorbaghy for the men and Camille Serme for the women are presented with their trophies, they will wait for head coach of the Penn women’s squash team to call their name. For the past four years, Gilly Lane has made the trek next door to Drexel University to serve as an emcee for the yearly US Open of Squash tournament. Before every match, the emcee is responsible for introducing each of the players and giving a quick bio before getting the crowd pumped up for the game.

In a sport like volleyball, so much depends on being able to move on from tough points. But often times, it can be just as important to move on from tough matches.

On Saturday, the Penn Women’s soccer team travelled to Dartmouth College for a must win matchup after falling in overtime 1-0 to current Ivy League Front Runner Columbia just one week prior.

This past Friday, Penn cross country took on some of the nation’s best — and the men and women proved that they were up for the challenge. Out of 31 teams, which included seven of the nation's top twelve women’s teams and six of the top twelve-ranked men’s teams, the Quakers finished 14th and 20th, respectively.

Down an early goal, it seemed as though Penn would suffer another heart-wrenching loss to Columbia.

Dr. Seuss, a Dartmouth alum, often extolled the virtues of leaving one’s comfort zone, of engaging wholeheartedly in the journey that is life.

“It’s game on at this point.” An enthusiastic Colin Farrell, head coach of the men’s lightweight crew program, was optimistic about the coming season after Penn rowing made a statement this morning at its first regatta of the year. Ideal conditions on the mighty Schuylkill found both the women’s and lightweight men’s 1V (or “A-team”) hulls finishing first at the annual Navy Day Regatta in a field that included Delaware, Temple, Drexel and the Naval Academy. The women’s team’s fastest eight-sweep (one coxswain and eight rowers, one oar apiece) crossed the finish line in 14:21.77, an impressive time for the lengthy 5000-meter race.

Much like Al Bagnoli's last time coaching at Franklin Field, things went poorly for Al Bagnoli on Saturday.