Brown and Harvard were left quaking in their singlets this weekend, as the Quakers opened inter-Ivy competition by defeating them both. Despite a tiring week of training, Penn was able to make quick work of the Crimson and Bears, beating them 30-7 and 25-9 on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

For the two Penn squash programs, it was a weekend of exhilarating highs and humbling lows. While the men's squad suffered a tough 6-3 loss to Harvard in a match senior Spencer Kurn hoped would be "the pinnacle" of the Red and Blue's season, the women wrapped up the Ivy League crown and an undefeated regular season with victories over Harvard and Dartmouth.

Perfection yesterday was not good enough. In the second round of the Ivy League Round Robin Fencing Tournament at Princeton, both the Penn men's and women's fencing teams went undefeated. Last week they had each lost to Columbia, and that one defeat was enough to push them each down to second place in the Ivies, despite the strong second-round performance.

NEW YORK - Though Penn entered this weekend atop the Ivy League, two close victories at the Palestra against the teams who currently share last place in the standings had proved little. The first tough tests of the conference season came this weekend as the Quakers hit the road to battle New York's two Ancient Eight squads.

After a tough loss last week against Old Dominion, the Penn men's tennis team could've dwelled on the past. But instead the Quakers rebounded back in style on yesterday, finishing with big wins against Temple and Bucknell. The Quakers went undefeated in both singles and doubles against Temple, winning the match 7-0.

As the Ursinus gymnasts exhibited quality performance after quality performance during Saturday's quad meet, the Penn cheers could not be heard over those of the Bears and their supporters. While the Quakers hosted the meet in Hutchinson Gymnasium, the home team advantage seemed negated by an audience divided equally among Penn, Ursinus, West Chester and Wilson fans.

Historically, Columbia has not posed much of a threat for Penn. This is the school that had a symposium on the culture of losing two years ago. The Lions haven't had a winning Ivy season in 15 years. And they've lost 10 of their last 11 games against the Quakers.

Home-court advantage? The law of averages? The mercy of the basketball gods? The Quakers (3-15, 0-3 Ivy) are hopeful that one of these forces can bring them relief from a 12-game skid as they host Columbia (5-13, 2-2) and Cornell (11-6, 3-1) at the Palestra this weekend.

Former Penn tennis star Joe Mirabile will get a chance to revisit his old stomping grounds at Levy Pavillion this Sunday. This time, however, Mirabile will not be rooting for the home team. Mirabile is the assistant coach at Temple. Penn will take on the Owls (2-4) in the first game of its doubleheader, and will then face Bucknell (0-1) in the afternoon.

Three days ago, the women's squash team officially reclaimed the top spot in the College Squash Association rankings. Now, the Quakers (10-0, 5-0 Ivy) look to close out the perfect regular season that eluded them last year, as they travel north to take on Harvard and Dartmouth.

Senior Lee Rosen has seen a fair amount of changes in the squash team in his four years at Penn. He's gone from No. 5 to No. 1 within the team rankings. He's seen elite players come and go. But he's never seen his Quakers lose to Dartmouth. This weekend, however, Rosen is in danger of seeing his team fall to the Big Green (11-3), whom the Quakers (6-5) will travel to play on Sunday after a Saturday match at Harvard (4-1).

Khaliq Gant goes to basketball practice, works out and travels to away games with the Cornell basketball team, but you won't see him suiting up this year. And he's not upset about that. Two years ago, Gant was an up-and-coming sophomore guard, playing 14 minutes per game for the Big Red.

For the last few months, Cornell has looked a lot less like the Big Red-faced embarrassment of the early 2000s and more like the Cincinnati Reds' "Big Red Machine" of the 1970s. Pundits picked the team to finish first in the Ivy League preseason poll, and so far, the play has matched the hype.

For most Penn sports teams, winning the Ivy League regular season is the key to the postseason. But for the wrestling squad, an Ivy title does not directly impact the team's NCAA tournament chances. So when the No. 25 Quakers (8-4) start their Ancient Eight season this weekend with matches at Harvard tonight and at Brown tomorrow, pride, not playoff potential, will be on the line.

The last time Columbia's All-Ivy forward John Baumann suited up against the Quakers, he let up six runs on five hits in 6.1 innings. That's not your typical basketball stat line. Baumann was on the mound for the Lions, not the hardwood. By excelling at both sports, he joined an elite group of athletes when he was named All-Ivy first-team in basketball and second-team in baseball for the 2007-08 season.

A captain in his senior season, Penn's Brian Grandieri has hit his share of big shots in his career. But even he'll tell you that the most meaningful points he ever scored weren't for Quakers coaches Fran Dunphy or Glen Miller. They were for Evan Brady. A neighbor, schoolmate and childhood friend of Grandieri, Brady was a standout lacrosse player for Rose Tree Media Optimist Youth Club, and seemed set to continue playing at Malvern Prep, a Catholic school outside of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia may not be buying Beckham, but $47 million in state funding might be the golden goal in the contest to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to the City of Brotherly Love. Last Thursday, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell formally committed money from state grants and loans to aid a Chester project which would include a $115 million stadium, a 200,000-square-foot convention center, retail space and apartments along the Delaware River.