For the third straight year, the Quakers will have a chance to dig their heels in as they go toe-to-toe with North Carolina, who reached the Final Four last season and feature the reigning National Player of the Year, Tyler Hansbrough. The Tar Heels announced on Tuesday that they will host Penn at 4 p.

For the second straight season, Robert Irvin is battling back from severe shoulder surgery. And once again, the quarterback - who started all 10 games as a sophomore in 2006 - must vie for his old job. Gone is Bryan Walker, who as a senior lost last fall's preseason competition only to step up when Irvin suffered a torn right labrum against Villanova in the second game of the year.

When the Ivy League provided an extra week of practice before the season, the Penn volleyball team didn't use the time to hit the gym for two-a-days and fitness training. Instead, the women scaled the rockclimbing wall at Pottruck and struggled to get through "the spider web" at a ropes course.

To most Penn students, a summer abroad in Spain means sprinkling a few classes in between siestas and fiestas. But senior Johnny Elicker - who spent a month in Alicante - also got a taste of the offseason workouts in La Liga, Spain's premier soccer league.

Susan Francia and her boat crossed the finish line where they were supposed to be - in first - but it didn't stop them from celebrating like their achievement was miraculous. In winning the gold medal with the U.S. boat in the women's eight event Sunday afternoon, Francia became the first Penn alum to win the top prize at the Olympics since 2000.

At least 41 athletes from all eight Ivy League schools will be competing in the coming days in the Beijing Olympics. They represent 14 delegations and will be competing in 13 sports. Some of them will win medals, and some will be make international headlines.

Yesterday, Penn announced the hiring of Scott Allen as Director of Golf. In that position, Allen will serve as head coach of the men's program and will oversee the direction of the women's program. He replaces Francis Vaughn- who was a part of Penn's golf program in various ways for the past 12 years - as Director of Golf.

Collegesoccernews.com released its annual rankings of the top 40 soccer recruting classes, and Penn's incoming freshmen came in at No. 36 on the list. Penn - the only Ivy League school on the list - will bring in five freshmen in the Class of 2012. Christian Barreiro was additionally honored in the website's list of the Top 100 Freshmen to Watch.

Competing for the gold is not enough for U.S. Olympic rower and Penn alumnus Tom Paradiso. Thanks to his partnership with an environmental organization, Paradiso will use his platform to promote environmental awareness through the most subtle of fashion accessories - his shoelaces.

Outgoing senior Dean Merrill may have seen his career with the Quakers come to an end at the Ivy League Championships, but that doesn't mean he's done. Merrill - last year's captain - qualified for the 108th U.S. Amateur Championship for the second year in a row.

Over the summer, the Palestra got a makeover. Students arriving for basketball season this fall may be surprised to see that the Palestra now sports a brand new floor. The new floor, in addition to its asthetic enhancements, will serve to improve the safety of the arena by adding cushioning that the old wood did not have.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham's loss could turn out to be Penn's gain. Tamir Jackson, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard from St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J., recently de-committed to UAB's Class of 2013, according to Zagsblog.net. He names Penn as one of his options.

Celebrate, Philadelphia! Hug your neighbors. Throw a parade. Riot in the streets. The drought is over; the curse has ended; Billy Penn has relented on the punishment he doled on the city two decades ago. The Philadelphia Soul have won the Arena Bowl, finally bringing a professional sports championship to the City of Brotherly Love.

The argument between Penn and Princeton fans about the caliber of their basketball teams may have just been settled objectively. ESPN released a quantitative ranking of the "prestige" levels of 300 NCAA Division I basketball programs since 1984-85. The Quakers came in at No.

After graduating, many Penn students take some time to see the world. Usually, that travel ends after the summer, when graduate schools or careers take over. For Gilly Lane, though, his career began but the traveling didn't stop. He opted to become a professional squash player.

In Meknes, Morroco, the tennis club is one of the nicest places to hang out with family, says Hicham Laalej. "It's a sport that my dad has been playing since his twenties," he says. "So my dad would take [my brother and I] to that place [often]." That's were they developed their love for the sport.

Just over a week before Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing Games, the Ivy League has launched a blog to help fans follow the action for Ancient Eight alumni competitors The web site, Iviesinchina.com, contains links to bios for all Ivy League alumni competing in Beijing, as well as articles and other information relating to the Ivy League and the Olympics.