There was a strong overcast over Ellen Vagelos Field as Penn field hockey squared off with Harvard, an apt metaphor for the stubborn opposition that the Quakers faced on the field. In what ended up as an unfortunate 3-2 loss in double-overtime for the Red and Blue (6-3, 1-1 Ivy), there were many points where the home side showed little sign of being able to surmount the 2-0 lead from its Boston rivals. The Crimson (6-4, 2-0) went up by one 25 minutes into the first half after a shot off a corner found its way past junior goalie Liz Mata.

Well, that was an emphatic start. Using a physical, ground-heavy attack centered around junior running back Tre Solomon, Penn football scored early and often in a 37-24 shellacking of fellow Ivy co-champion Dartmouth Friday night.

After a demoralizing loss to Harvard last week, it was hard not to wonder if last year’s scoring draught had returned to haunt the Penn women’s soccer team.

Big wins are great, but the encore is just as important. Penn sprint football will travel to New Hampshire for a Saturday afternoon clash with Franklin Pierce.

“Ivies are another level” Coach Fuller said during his preparation for his team’s next big game. This Sunday at 4 pm, Penn’s men’s soccer team will be heading up to Ithaca to face Cornell.

Penn volleyball optimistic for Dartmouth and Harvard Penn volleyball season is heating up, as the Quakers look to defeat Dartmouth and Harvard at the Palestra.

Heading into the thick of Ivy season, Penn field hockey is ready to roll. After winning their first Ivy contest on Saturday, the Quakers (6-2, 1-0 Ivy) look to repeat their success on Sunday when they host Harvard. The Crimson (4-4, 1-0 Ivy) have had their high and low moments this season.

Statistically, on paper, it seems as though events are repeating themselves. Penn coach Nicole Van Dyke, understandably, feels differently.

Yes, Dartmouth went on to take the title, sharing it with Penn and Harvard after going 6-1 in conference play. But fast forward to this year.

On October 2, Penn cross country will travel to Lehigh to compete in the Paul Short Invitational, where both the men and women will kick off their seasons in earnest.  The Quakers are coming off of first-place performances in two early-year tuneups, the Big 5 Invitational and the Main Line Invitational.

A noticeable increase in popularity is propelling Venus, Penn’s 35-year-old all-women ultimate Frisbee team, into a new competitive season.

The thought of having to perform this balancing act is enough to make any confident time-manager quake in his or her boots; however, there is one subset of student-athletes that have a particularly difficult run of things. They are the minority — or maybe you just never see them because they are tucked away on the east end of campus coding into the waning hours of the morning. They are the engineer-athletes.

In more ways than one, it’s a new era for Penn volleyball. Sure, it’s easy to point out the absences of five senior captains from 2015 – players that accounted for four of the team’s top five in kills, not including Ivy League assists leader Ronnie Bither.

Once again, Penn field hockey won in a one-goal game that fails to represent the team’s dominance during the course of play.

Will Snow, Sports Editor: The best team headed into Ivy play has to be women's soccer.

Beware the comments section. It’s a nasty, nasty place where productive discussions turn vile, where attacks are not based on arguments but the people who produce them. Four years of publishing articles and I’ve only had one foray into the pseudo-cyber bullying the comments section breeds.

Ever since I started playing sports, almost every coach I’ve had has talked about resilience as if it was their big secret.