Judging by the number of gray hairs Al Bagnoli must have sprouted after Saturday's painful-to-watch stalemate, you'd think the 2008 Ivy League football season was about to wrap up in advance of a long winter of R&R.; Nope. It's only halftime for the year - five games down, five to go, and time to hand out the annual mid-season awards for both Penn and the conference: Offensive player of the half-year Penn: Hard to say, considering the Quakers have produced the second fewest first downs in the league but lead it in red zone offense.

Columbia quarterback Shane Kelly sat in the post-game press conference after Penn's 15-10 win over the Lions with a blank stare on his face. His defense had just put up a huge performance, holding Penn to 204 yards and just 10 first downs. But Kelly thanked every big stop the defense made with an interception or some other miscue.

The men's soccer team logged 15 hours of driving time on its Saturday trip to Dartmouth. More importantly, it logged win No. 8 on the season, a 1-0 edging of the Big Green to remove the taste of two straight losses and put Penn back into Ivy title contention.

When Columbia's final gasp ended with a fifth and final turnover on Saturday, when the score had finally settled, 15-10 in Penn's favor, after a seemingly endless series of three-and-outs, both sides struggled to decide what the result meant for them.

Coming into Saturday's game with Dartmouth, the women's soccer team had gone undefeated in its past seven matches and, at 2-0-1, controlled its Ivy destiny. Dartmouth, meanwhile, was the league's doormat, searching for its first conference win in four tries.

In a break from its usual Sunday routine, the Penn field hockey team started the day with a team breakfast and film-watching session. The pregame warm-up at Franklin Field featured mini-games, allowing each player to work out individual skills. And coach Val Cloud decided to switch around her lineup to add a fourth player to the midfield line in order give her squad an offensive edge.

Freshmen usually don't get a chance to compete in rowing's varsity championship races. But at yesterday's Head of the Charles Race in Boston, the men's freshman four was given a chance to shine on the water and finished ninth out of 21 teams with a time of 17:11.

Even though track is an individual sport, the impact of a runner's teammates and competitors can make or break a race. While staying as a pack can help push a team to victory, focusing on opposing runners can disrupt a team's race plan. On Saturday, at the Pre-National meet in Terra Haute Ind.

Despite being sidelined in the hospital recovering from a mastectomy, Penn volleyball coach Kerry Carr wants her team to focus on winning, not her fight against cancer. "She didn't want us to be distracted," sophomore Julia Swanson said. And so, the Quakers headed into their first weekend without Carr as coach hoping to pick up their second conference win of the season.

If there is a line between success and gimmickry, Norries Wilson is trying to wash it away with a splash of Diet Coke. On Saturday's evidence, the Columbia coach is succeeding. Columbia deserved better from this game. Penn's offense did nothing. None of the Quakers' three scoring drives were longer than 10 yards: They simply took advantage of slapstick, Benny Hill-esque mistakes Columbia made deep in its own territory.

klitzman@dailypennsylvanian.com Brown and Princeton might have only been picked to finish third and fifth, respectively, in the Ivy League preseason media poll, but when the Bears (2-2, 1-0 Ivy) visit the Tigers (2-2, 1-0) tomorrow at 1 p.m., at least a share of first place will be on the line.

When the Penn field hockey team last faced Columbia, the Quakers were done in by a controversial call and an Ariel Leon goal eight minutes into overtime. At Franklin Field on Sunday, they'll be looking to avenge that 1-0 loss on Oct. 14 of last year and rebound from blowout losses to No.

By ELI COHEN Contributing Writer dpsports@dailypennsylvanian.com The athletes and coaches of the Penn volleyball team know exactly what head coach Kerry Carr, who had a mastectomy on Tuesday, needs right now. Wins. And lots of 'em. The Quakers (5-10, 1-2 Ivy) will be looking to add two more when they travel to New England to face off against Brown (9-7, 1-3) and Yale (10-3, 4-0) this weekend.

On a day dominated by defense on both sides, Penn capitalized on five turnovers by Columbia to take an early lead and ride out a 15-10 win at Franklin Field. Defensive back Britton Ertman intercepted Columbia's Shane Kelly twice, and a Kelly fumble gave Penn the ball at the 2-yard line, setting up its only touchdown.

There's bad luck - and then there's Columbia luck. The Lions' football program is certainly no stranger to losing streaks. Its 44-game skid in the 1980s is the second-longest in Division I history. But now, trying to ride out a 12-game tumble - the second-longest active rut in the Football Championship Subdivision - Columbia(0-4, 0-1 Ivy) seems to be getting the short end of every stick and the raw end of every deal.

By ANDY KUHN Contributing Writer dpsports@dailypennsylvanian.com The seven-hour ride to New Hampshire will be almost as challenging for the men's soccer team as the actual game with Dartmouth. That's because of what the ride home might mean. The fear of departing with an "L" to an Ivy League opponent is motivation enough for the Quakers to play at the top of their game.

The men's soccer team returned to early-season form Saturday night with a 1-0 victory over host Dartmouth. Goalkeeper Drew Healy notched nine saves en route to his eighth shutout of the season, bringing the Quakers' to 8-2-3 overall. The lone goal came off the foot of senior midfielder Alex Grendi in the 33rd minute.