Junior Alex Ott joins the DP Sports staff after two seasons of varsity baseball at Penn. Despite notching 17 appearances as a freshman (the fifth highest single-season total in school history), Ott chose to walk away from the sport with great reluctance and a greater story.

In his first year of college basketball, freshman center Darien Nelson-Henry has quietly transformed his game, embracing a foreign role under head coach Jerome Allen’s philosophy.

Just a season ago — though it may seem far longer to fans — Penn finished a respectable 20-13, including 11-3 in Ivy League play. In investigating the Quakers’ collapse this year, the first question should be, what’s changed for the worse since?

Back when college football players didn’t wear shoulder pads and the most popular national sports were boxing and horse racing, Notre Dame and Penn were both competitive gridiron programs.

The Quakers have an overall record of 3-4 so far this season, coming off of two decisive losses to No. 3 Harvard and No. 8 Dartmouth. What’s missing? One answer could be international players, who in recent years have been the key to winning titles for most successful squash programs.

The women’s basketball alum (C’12) has moved from on the court action to the sideline as she transitions into her new careers as a teacher, coach, and broadcaster.

Size matchups have been a problem for the Red and Blue all season, especially as junior forward and captain Fran Dougherty has been sidelined with mononucleosis for the past five games.

The women swam past the Big Green for their third win of the season, 167.5-131.5, but couldn’t get past Yale, falling 176-121. Meanwhile, the men couldn’t get past either opponent, losing to 124-176 to the Bulldogs and 139-161 to Dartmouth.

In the Ivy opener for both teams, Penn (7-6, 0-1 Ivy) fell to three-time defending Ivy champion Princeton (10-5, 1-0), 77-47, Saturday at Jadwin Gym.

Despite losing to the Nittany Lions, both the men and women were able to register victories over fellow guests Duke, Haverford and North Carolina in their first action of the semester.

After finishing third last year with an overall score of 189.025, Penn finished 4th this year at the Lindsey Ferries Invitational, despite a final score of 189.575, their highest to date at the annual competition.

The No. 5 Quakers fell to No. 1 Harvard, 6-3, on Saturday, but redeemed themselves the following day with a 9-0 win over No. 8 Dartmouth to split the weekend pair at Ringe Courts.

On Sunday at the Palestra, Iowa State handed Penn its second loss of the season, 25-9.

On Saturday, the No. 18 Quakers lost to No. 3 Harvard, 9-0, and on Sunday, Penn fell to No. 8 Dartmouth, 8-1.

Anchored for the second meet in a row by a number of outstanding individual performances, the Quakers turned in another excellent showing at the New York Road Runners’ College Night at the Armory in New York on Saturday.

All season, the Quakers have been turnover-prone, and Saturday was an example of how nothing has been done about that issue. After Princeton’s resounding defeat of the Quakers, it’s clear who needs to step up.

Princeton (7-7) dispatched Penn (2-13), 65-53, with a barrage of three-pointers from junior guard T.J. Bray and greater overall efficiency from the field.