This is the last chance for the women's tennis team. As the Quakers close their 2009 season with matches against Columbia and Cornell this weekend, the Quakers will try to avoid a winless Ivy League season, in sole senior and team captain Lauren Sadaka's last weekend wearing the red and blue.

Have no more than one loss in a strong non-conference schedule. Cruise to 5-0 in the Ivy League. Enter a huge match with rival Princeton. Beat the Tigers soundly. Rinse. Repeat. For the last three seasons, that's been the recipe for success (in the regular season at least) for the women's lacrosse team.

Two seasons ago, Todd Roth burst onto the Ivy League baseball scene and instantly became a standout pitcher. He was a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, the Ivy League and Big Five Rookie of the Year and a member of the All-Ivy and All-Big Five teams.

Pat Knapp officially has a successor. Former Holy Family women's basketball coach Mike McLaughlin will take over the program at Penn, a source close to the situation confirmed. With a a record of 381-55 at the Division II school located in Northeast Philadelphia, McLaughlin's .

There's a familiar site at the top of the men's Ivy League lacrosse standings: Cornell and Princeton sit in a tie for first place, both undefeated and both nationally ranked in the top 10. At least a share of the Ivy title has gone to the Tigers or the Big Red every year since 1995.

Erin Brennan could get used to beating Princeton. Playing her first game against Penn's archrival, the freshman midfield had a hat trick and an assist, as the women's lacrosse team cruised to a 10-5 victory over the No. 7 Tigers that was not as close as the score indicated.

Many Penn-Princeton matchups of late have been mere grudge matches with empty words about intensity and ancient rivalries. But tonight on Franklin Field at 7 p.m., the women's lacrosse team will restore some meaning to the inter-state rivalry and finally give fans what they've been waiting for: a bout against Princeton with legitimate title implications for both sides.

Over the past couple weeks, the Penn baseball team has had, to borrow from the immortal axiom of last year's Spring Fling headliner, woes in different area codes. Since last playing at Meiklejohn Stadium over two weeks back, the Quakers have dropped a doubleheader to Brown in the "401" of Providence, R.

The men's lacrosse team's most potent weapon for the past few weeks may have a cannon for a stick, but he's also got a bum knee. Senior midfield Drew Collins has been on fire in the past month, netting 10 goals over the past five games. Even more impressive, he's doing it after playing in only one game last season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and while playing all of this year with a partial tear in the same knee.

Boy, is this familiar. Just like last year - and the year before - the Ivy League women's lacrosse title comes down to Penn and Princeton. The two rivals are set to face off tonight at Franklin Field, and the winner will win the Ancient Eight championship.

For Penn softball, it feels good to be home. After yet another disappointing weekend, having dropped a pair of doubleheaders in Ithaca, N.Y., to Ivy League South Division-leading Cornell, the Quakers (9-24-1, 4-8 Ivy) will return to Warren Field this afternoon for their final nonconference matchup against Villanova (17-15).

After watching junior Emma Spiro play, it's no surprise that she's tied for second on the Penn women's lacrosse team with 22 goals scored in 2009. What comes as a surprise is where Spiro plays - the midfield. How is it that a midfielder is outscoring most of the attackers on the team? According to her teammates, Spiro has versatile talents.

I had never been in a Penn sports team's locker room until last week. That's when I stepped inside the red, University-owned van that pulled up at 39th and Spruce streets. Welcome to the men's golf team's "locker room." Littered with a few plastic sports-drink bottles and lacking leg room for the lanky athletes whose inopportune arrival time forces them into the back corner seats, the van is a lifeline for first-year coach Scott Allen and his squad.

The Penn softball team had yet another forgettable weekend in what has been an increasingly forgettable season. On a road trip to Ithaca, N.Y., this weekend the Quakers were overpowered by Ivy League South Division-leading Cornell, whose explosive offense proved too much for Penn to handle.

Yes, they still are undefeated. Forty two seconds into overtime Penn women's lacrosse senior attack Becca Edwards received a pass from freshman Erin Brennan and scored the winning goal against Dartmouth to give the Quakers' their 11th - and most exciting - win of the season.

Senior midfield Drew Collins and the Penn men's lacrosse team dare to dream about the success they could and should have had this season. Results like Saturday's 7-6 win over No. 11 Brown in Providence, R.I., just add fuel to that imaginary fire. "It kind of showed today and a little bit on Tuesday [in a 10-9 loss to No.

Freshman pitcher Chris McNulty has come a long way since his first start against Delaware March 31. In that game, he surrendered eight earned runs in six innings of work. Saturday, however, McNulty led the Quakers to their first conference victory by pitching a complete game and allowing just three earned runs in the process.