Bower Field - home to club sports such as rugby, lacrosse, ultimate Frisbee and soccer - will be closing at the beginning of May to make way for the construction of Penn Park, an expansion of the current recreational and athletic facilities east of campus.

Senior leadership. Or the lack thereof. That's what all of the Penn men's basketball team's problems have boiled down to. At least that's the line coach Glen Miller continues to offer as an excuse after the Quakers dropped two games to Dartmouth and Harvard at the Palestra this weekend.

Pete Carril knows what he wants to do with the notorious basketball schema he devised. "I'm going to get a bunch of gravediggers and bring them up to Princeton and dig a big hole in the ground," the Hall of Fame coach told The New York Times in 2007. "And then bury the Princeton offense once and for all.

Freshman Matthew Sommer is the biggest Penn sports fan on campus, and he has the points to prove it. An enthusiastic participant in the Red and Blue Rewards program, Sommer has acquired 59 points - ten points more than the second-place contender. Having already amassed enough points to acquire a free Qdoba burrito, Famiglia pizza, Penn T-shirt and Penn hamper, Sommer is on the verge of redeeming the 60-point Penn pint-glass set.

Jacqueline Wong was staring defeat in the face Sunday. Down one set and trailing 4-1 in the second against Maryland's Maggie Mackeever, the junior gazed at her opponent and only one thought crossed her mind: "Finish and never give up." That take-no-prisoners attitude paid off as Wong prevailed in dramatic fashion, winning the next five games to claim that set 6-4 and then winning 10-6 in the tiebreaker.

It may have been 20 degrees outside Sunday afternoon, but Levy Tennis Pavilion was burning. Spectators witnessed shouting matches on multiple courts, racquets being tossed and even a post-match verbal altercation between an opposing player and an official.

Last year, after holding a three-goal lead late in the fourth quarter of its season opener against Drexel, the men's lacrosse team allowed the Dragons four unanswered goals in a fatal collapse. On Saturday, the Quakers held another three-goal lead, 9-6 - but this time made sure to avoid any deja vu.

The year was 1959. Dwight Eisenhower was president, Hawaii and Alaska were new states in the union and CBS' The Twilight Zone had just become a primetime staple in suburban living rooms everywhere. That year was also the last time that the Dartmouth men's basketball team swept Penn.

Penn junior 125-pound wrestler Rollie Peterkin likes trying new positions. Indeed, it was the reigning EIWA wrestler of the week's versatility on the mat that coach Rob Eiter credits in No. 11 Peterkin's 12-4 thrashing of Penn State's No. 13 Brad Pataky Friday.

By JOE SANFILIPPO Staff Writer sanfilippo@dailypennsylvanian.com Although the drive back from Princeton, N.J., only took 40 minutes, the men's squash team's performance at the Collegiate Squash Association Team Championships this weekend undoubtedly made for a long ride home.

In the first Ivy Round Robin two weeks ago, freshman foil Zane Grodman defeated Columbia's Kurt Getz by a score of 3-0 in 30 seconds. In yesterday's second round robin, hosted by Brown, Grodman recorded yet another 3-0 victory against another previous All-Ivy first teamer.

Junior Ali DeLuca knows that scoring early can give her team the confidence to overcome any first-game jitters. Thirty six seconds after the Penn women's lacrosse team started its 2009 season, DeLuca received a pass at the top of the crease from Courtney Lubbe to score the game's - and the season's - first goal.

Another weekend sweep at the Palestra is likely to leave Penn fans in consternation about the state of the program. Such has been the case after every bad outing at home, regardless of the context. But if anything, the way in which the Quakers lost demonstrated exactly what is wrong with the program right now.

The Penn basketball team sure kept the statisticians busy this weekend. After confirming that Dartmouth swept Penn for the first time since 1959 Friday, they revealed that Harvard's 66-60 win over the Quakers Saturday was its first at the Palestra since 1991.

Another heartbreaker for the Quakers, who lost their second game to the Big Green this season, 69-59, at the Palestra. With a Cornell loss to Yale this evening, a win could have been momentous for their standing in the Ivy League. Dartmouth forward Alex Barnett was solid if not dominating for the Big Green, with his backcourt posting strong supporting numbers.

When Dartmouth takes the floor at the Palestra tonight, try to pay close attention. Look nice and hard at the Quakers when they're on defense, and you'll notice something. They might be looking out for their man, but keep your eyes locked on theirs, and you'll see that their peripheral vision is entirely focused on one guy.

Nothing jump-starts a season quite like a shot at revenge. The men's lacrosse team gets the opportunity to open its season on a high note tomorrow against Drexel, where local pride, retribution for last year's loss and season-opening momentum are all on the line.