ORLANDO, Fla. Dec. 29-30, 2008 - At the UCF Holiday Classic, Penn was on a mission to notch its first win since a Nov. 22 drubbing of Monmouth. The Quakers didn't succeed on their first try, falling, 81-64, to the tournament's host but were able to bounce back, beating Campbell, 78-67, to take third place i

Classes may just be resuming today, but the No. 23 Penn wrestling team certainly did not have a break over the last three weeks. The only breather was the Penn Duals, in which the Red and Blue beat Franklin & Marshall, 49-0, Delaware State, 42-9, and East Stroudsburg, 38-7, and competed in an exhibition dual against Gloucester.

Don't underestimate the underclassmen. At the Nike Invitational hosted by Kenyon College this weekend, Penn freshman Brendan McHugh received Co-swimmer of the Meet honors as he broke a pool record in the 1650-yard freestyle on Thursday, came in second in the 100-yard breaststroke on Friday, and finished off the weekend with first-place finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley on Saturday.

The women's swimming team ringed in the New Year the best way possible: with a win. After spending the closing days of 2008 on a training trip in Boca Raton, Fla., the Quakers greeted 2009 with a first-place finish at the Florida Atlantic University Invitational on Jan.

After a devastating start to the season with five straight losses in November, the women's basketball team was looking for a reversal of fortune heading into December. Now on a two-game winning streak heading into winter break, the Quakers (2-6) may have gotten just what they were hoping for.

Ib-by Jaa-ber! I can still hear it. The chant, followed by five quick claps, would echo off the Palestra walls after Ibrahim Jaaber delivered one of his devastating fast-break dunks, sending a buzz through the crowd. And before that, "UUUU," for Ugonna Onyekwe.

The Quakers have 24 long days - a program record for time off - to stew over what went wrong against Navy on Friday night. At least when Dec. 29 finally rolls around and Penn tips off again, the Palestra will be a good 900 miles away. They'll be in Orlando, Fla.

With 310 victories as Penn men's basketball coach, Fran Dunphy knew the taste of victory in the Palestra. But two years ago, in his first opportunity to savor success as a visiting head coach, Dunphy and his current team - Big 5 rival Temple -- blew an early 19-point lead and lost to Penn, 76-74, on a trio of Mark Zoller free throws with 1.

There's that old sinking feeling again. Though desperate to notch its second win of the season against a perennially mediocre Navy squad, Penn was still dominated on both ends of the floor en route to a 76-65 loss at the Palestra on Friday. After losses to Albany and Villanova in their last two contests, the Quakers put forth another underwhelming effort.

Up 14 at halftime against Lafayette, Penn could have turned in a poor second half like it did against Campbell last week. Instead, the Quakers got a trio of threes to start the half, as Tyler Bernardini, Zack Rosen and Rob Belacore drained deep balls on three successive possessions to key Penn's 9-2 to start the second frame.

ORLANDO, Fla. - When the Quakers finally took the stage again tonight against Central Florida after a record 24-day layoff it was just for more of the same as before the break. Penn fell 81-64 to UCF in the second game of the UCF Holiday Classic and dropped into the third place contest tomorrow against 3-7 Campbell slated for 4:30 p.

To say that the Penn men's swimming team took the cake at the Jan. 3 Florida Atlantic Invitational would be an understatement. The men placed first with a score of 830.5, defeating Ivy League rival Brown by a margin of 264.5 points in a league-sanctioned dual meet.

After getting knocked down by a better team, it's good to have an inferior one to bounce back against. That was how the men's squash team felt, as it rebounded from an 8-1 thrashing at the hands of No. 3 Yale to dominate No. 14 Brown by the same score. "It's refreshing to be able to go from a bad performance to a pretty good performance," junior Mark Froot said.

Women's tennis coach Mike Dowd will resign effective December 31. Assistant coach Sara Schiffman, a 2006 Penn graduate who was a captain for the Quakers both her junior and senior years, will be interim head coach through the spring semester. "I have made the difficult decision that I need to step down at the end of the month as head coach of women's tennis," Dowd told Penn Athletics.

Yale's home fans were making a lot of noise at the women's squash match against Penn on Saturday, but the Quakers stole their thunder. Tuning out the spectators, the No. 2 Quakers prevailed, 5-4, giving No. 5 Yale a loss in the Bulldogs' first match of 2008-09.

Desperate for a win, the Penn basketball team soothed its wounds with a 78-67 victory over Campbell on Tuesday night. It was just the second of the season for the Quakers; their other came against Monmouth back on Nov. 22nd. "When you go out and work hard everyday in practice and you're trying to compete, it's a relief and you feel good about that," Miller said.

Penn men's and women's fencing coach Dave Micahnik describes himself as a perfectionist. As a recent inductee into the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame, Micahnik is always looking to improve his teams' performance. On Saturday and Sunday, both teams began their seasons at the Philadelphia Multi-Meet in Hutchinson Gymnasium.