For the Penn women's basketball team, spring break started with a bang, but the careers of coach Pat Knapp and the team's four seniors ended with a whimper. The Red and Blue followed an uplifting weekend sweep of Cornell and Columbia with a disappointing 72-55 loss to Princeton in the season finale.

There is only one word to describe freshman breaststroker Brendan McHugh - fast. After the Ivy League Championship meet two weekends ago, McHugh broke four school records, made the NCAA B cuts, qualified for World Championship trials, was named first team All-Ivy and is now the fourth fastest 200-yard breastroke swimmer in the 17-18 age group in American history.

The wrestling season may almost be over, but Penn's ninth-ranked 125-pounder Rollie Peterkin still feels he has plenty of room to improve. And he plans to start by examining his most recent failure, a 5-2 loss to Cornell's Troy Nickerson, who is ranked second in the country, in the finals of the March 7-8 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament.

NEW YORK, Saturday, March 7- The Quakers had never even seen this play before, let alone practiced it. But trailing by two with 1.9 seconds remaining, Glen Miller and his coaching staff whipped out a dry-erase clipboard and crafted a setup to down Columbia.

Sometimes, all you need is a dazzling finale to forget the rest of the show. Despite returning with a surprising 3-7 record, the Penn softball team left the Rebel Spring Games in Kissimmee, Fla., with a bang, turning the final game against Florida A&M; over to the young players for the win, 3-2.

ATLANTIC CITY, Sat., Mar. 14 - It wasn't until the game clock signalled one minute to go Saturday night that Temple's arduous road to the postseason finally got easy. The Owls swept three games in three days last week to win a second straight Atlantic-10 tournament and the accompanying ticket to the Big Dance.

For the men's lacrosse team, spring break started out bad and ended up worse. After being pummelled by No. 18 Denver, 12-6, on March 6, the Quakers fell in their first Ivy contest Saturday, dropping an overtime game to Yale, 14-13. The loss to the Bulldogs (3-2, 1-0 Ivy) is the more demoralizing, as they did not win a game in the Ivy League last year.

After winning the Ivy League and IFA championships in dominating fashion, the Penn fencing team entered the NCAA Regionals in an already enviable position. And after maintaining its success at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Drew University on March 7, the squad's outlook was even better.

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After five seasons at the helm, women's basketball coach Pat Knapp will not return in 2010. His contract expired and will not be renewed, Penn Athletics announced last Thursday. "We are disappointed that we did not attain the levels of success we anticipated," Athletics director Steve Bilsky said in a press release.

In a season like this one, it was hardly surprising that the perfect ending was not to be. Penn closed out a forgettable rebuilding season with a 59-56 loss to Princeton at the Palestra Tuesday. There was little to do afterward but mull over the wreckage.

Although the men's tennis team is traveling to the West Coast next week, it will not be spending the time wandering on the beach, watching the sun set and relaxing before the upcoming Ivy League season. The Quakers (5-4) will have to leave the comforts of Levy Pavilion - where they remain undefeated so far this season - to take on four competitive California squads, two of which are nationally ranked.

Updated March 8, 5:20 p.m. NEW YORK -- The Quakers had never even seen this play before, let alone practiced it. But trailing by two with 1.9 seconds remaining, Glen Miller and his coaching staff whipped out a dry-erase clipboard and crafted a setup to down Columbia.

Far from any tropical beach, the men's lacrosse team still has the chance to make waves this spring break. With two home games on the docket in between classes, Penn has an opportunity this afternoon to knock off a top-20 team in No. 18 Denver (3-1) and win its first league contest next Saturday against Yale (1-2, 0-0 Ivy).

The Quakers fell to the Tigers, 59-56, at the Palestra in the last game of the season. Despite outrebounding Princeton 20-9 in the first half, the Quakers trailed, 27-25, at the break. The second frame was no better for the Quakers, who fell to 6-8 in Ivy League and 10-18 overall at season's end.

Updated March 9, 5 p.m. Only one Quakers wrestler, Rollie Peterkin at 125 pounds, was able to reach the finals of this weekend's Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Associatoin Tournament as the Penn wrestling team finished in a disappointing tie for third with Bucknell, despite the Palestra hosting the event.

College sports are all about recruiting. Coaches need to plan for the future and build their teams on a strong foundation of young talent. And that's exactly what Penn swimming coach Mike Schnur has done. The Quakers showcased their freshman talent yesterday during the first day of the Ivy League Championships in Princeton, N.