An eight-game losing streak and a 2-12 non-conference record earlier this year didn't predicate a successful season for Big Green basketball. Toppling a huge Ivy contender on the road just two games into league play, however, is no fluke. "They certainly have some good pieces to the puzzle," Penn coach Glen Miller mused about the Dartmouth squad's victory over Harvard.

Graham Natatorium in West Chester, Pa., is unlike most swimming complexes. It houses just one six-lane pool, which limits the size of the teams competing and directly affects their lineup flexibility. Tonight, the Penn men's and women's swimming teams must overcome those challenges when they make the short trip west to face the Golden Rams at 6 p.

On the first Friday after spring classes began, the Quakers sat in a Palestra room and watched film of NJIT, which they would travel to face the next morning. When the session broke up, sophomore guard Remy Cofield pulled coach Glen Miller aside. Cofield told Miller that he felt stressed and anxious and that playing basketball was only worsening things.

Take a quick look at Hofstra's 5-foot-8, 174-pound monster Alton Lucas, and it's not very hard to see why he's the pride of the Pride wrestling squad. His chest resembles that of a mythical hero, his arms massive pillars of granite. OK, that may be a bit of a hyperbole, but suffice it to say, the guy is ripped.

Penn coach Glen Miller doesn't know exactly how Harvard's Tommy Amaker handled his squad after it upset then-No. 17 Boston College earlier this month, but he did have some ideas. "I only speak for ourselves, but the first thing I would do with my team, if we had a win like that over somebody, is I would have a difficult practice the next day," Miller said.

As a freshman on the Penn women's tennis team, Lauren Sadaka looked to senior captain Sara Schiffman as the leader of the squad. Now, a senior and captain herself, Sadaka once again finds herself looking up to Schiffman - this time, as her head coach. Schiffman, who graduated from Penn in 2006 after serving as a captain for two years, was named the interim head coach upon the resignation of former head coach Mike Dowd at the end of fall semseter.

Super Bowl Sunday can't come quickly enough for the Penn men's squash team. The Quakers fell, 9-0, to No. 2 Princeton in a match last night in New Jersey. The Red and Blue (6-4, 1-3 Ivy) were on their second road trip in four days, coming off another 9-0 defeat, this one at the hands of No.

Against Philadelphia teams, the Penn men's tennis squad knows how to win - and win big. In their first match of the season, the Quakers beat Drexel, 7-0. Yesterday, the Red and Blue won another 7-0 match, this time against Temple. The Quakers, now 2-0, were able to keep the Owls (1-3) off the scoreboard by winning all of their doubles matches.

Two years ago, the pair of then-freshmen Ekaterina Kosminskaya and Maria Anisimova were the first doubles team in Penn women's tennis history to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Last year, the two were not paired together, but this season, they will reunite and try to outdo their freshman selves.

PRINCETON, N.J., - Sydney Scott was growing irritated by Neha Kumar's uncanny shot-making ability. In the decisive fifth game, after yet another miraculous Kumar recovery, Scott thrust her racquet at the court in frustration at her 4-1 deficit. Although she did give up the next three points, instead of letting her anger get the best of her, the Penn junior rattled off eight straight points to cap off a captivating performance.

Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli had a lot to say after the Hawks' victory over Penn last Saturday. What was the first thing on his mind? "First, I want to acknowledge the crowd on both sides," he said. "It gives you chills, Saturday night at the Palestra.

I've been to enough Penn sporting events, you see, to develop a little theory about the attendance figures provided in the average box score. They're bogus, baseless, pulled from thin air. What seems to me a quarter-full turnout at the 8,700-seat Palestra looks more like 5,000 to them.

Although it's just 1-0, the men's tennis team will play its last match of the season today against Temple - at least in the mind of coach Nik DeVore. "We won't even answer questions if guys start talking about future matches," DeVore explained. "It's almost like [any future] match doesn't exist.

Fractured tibia or not, senior co-captain Alisha Turner would not miss playing Princeton. Last year Turner battled through her match in the national championship against the Tigers while nursing that injury which she had sustained a few days before. "I guess I have a high pain threshold," Turner said.

Life's not getting a whole lot easier for the men's squash team. Just four days after falling to the dynastic No. 1 Trinity squad, 9-0, the seventh-ranked Quakers travel to Princeton, N.J., tonight to face the Tigers. And though Penn (6-3, 1-2 Ivy) may not stand much of a chance of upsetting No.

Any team looking to get an Ivy League Championship this year has to go through one major obstacle to get there - a Big Red obstacle. After running the table in the Ivies last year, Cornell returns to defend its title with four starters and seven of its top eight scorers back.

Remember back to the days when you were a kid and your neighbor was always getting the latest and greatest toys. He got the Sega and then the PlayStation and then GameCube. And you still had that original SuperNintendo that's been around forever. Sure, it's a classic, but c'mon, who doesn't want a controller that vibrates in their hands? Well, the Ivy League has been like that deprived child for years.