The Quakers are in unfamiliar territory, having lost their first game of the season at Princeton last week. But that hasn't put women's squash coach Jack Wyant in panic mode. "That night just wasn't our night," he said. "We have some great opportunities coming up, though.

If you're not one of the Killer P's, its time to get serious. The Ivy League basketball season will be more than half over for every team but Penn and Princeton after this weekend. And since the Quakers have their two toughest road trips behind them, the challengers will look to build up a cushion of wins this weekend and then hope for help.

If last weekend was a hurdle in their season, this weekend the Quakers tennis team will have a mountain to climb. After tough losses to Central Florida and Maryland, Penn will face an even tougher challenge in the coming days when it travels to North Carolina to face two top-40 teams in Duke (2-2) and North Carolina State (5-0).

There's a seven-foot hole in the Harvard frontcourt. Its name is Brian Cusworth, who used up his NCAA eligibility two games ago, after coming into the season with only one semester of play left. Cusworth was a two-time All-Ivy player who almost single-handedly took last season's game at the Palestra into overtime with 22 points and 16 rebounds.

The last time Penn visited Cambridge, Katarina Lackner didn't need to read the scouting reports to understand her defensive assignment. She was told to match up against Harvard senior Christiana Lackner, her older sister who is also a forward on the basketball team.

The last few years have been anything but consistent for Dartmouth basketball. The Big Green have finished everywhere in the standings from third down to last, with Ivy League records ranging from .500 to .071. And when the current seniors began their careers, Terry Dunn was not yet the team's coach.

Sometimes you just need a wake-up call. And that's exactly what the men's squash team got last week against No. 3 Princeton. Penn dropped all nine matches, but maybe that's just the motivation it needs to ensure success in this weekend's home matches against No.

Just as Bill Clinton was beginning to settle in to his second term as president, the Dartmouth men's basketball team knocked off Penn in a thrilling overtime contest in Philadelphia. Since then, the Big Green (7-12, 2-4 Ivy) have failed to hold up their end of the deal in the Ivy League series, losing in each of their last 19 games against the Quakers (12-8, 3-1 Ivy).

Taming a Thundering Herd from West Virginia. That is the task that Penn women's tennis team will face when Marshall rolls into West Philadelphia later today for a match that promises to excite and entertain. The Herd will arrive at Penn boasting a 4-2 overall record and a roster that includes one of the most talented singles players in the country, 18th-ranked Kellie Schmitt.

Yale's early-season reign on top of the Ivy League was a short one. The Penn men's basketball team completed its Ivy-home-opening weekend sweep with a 67-53 win over Harvard to take back its conference lead. The win moved the Quakers to 5-1 Ivy, while the Elis dropped their second game in the Ancient Eight (6-2) with a 1-point loss to Cornell.

Granted it was against a 7-12, 2-4 Ivy Dartmouth team without its best player at the Palestra, Penn looked great. The Quakers destroyed a sloppy Dartmouth team with pressure defense and a solid inside game for the 73-53 win. It was Penn's first home Ivy game this season, and they looked energized and much more comfortable than they were in John J.

When trying to come up with a way to describe this weekend's Ivy League meet, junior All-American Ron Berkowsky said it best. "This is the most important meet of the year." Both the men's and women's fencing teams will compete in the first of two Ivy League weekends, in which they will eventually play a total of six other Ivy League teams.

An Ivy League title is nice, but the National Championship remains the real prize. The Penn wrestling team will likely decide its Ancient Eight title fate when it wrestles Cornell and Columbia tonight and Saturday, respectively, in New York. But if the team is able to end Cornell's bid for a five-peat, it would only be a stepping stone.

VILLANOVA, Pa. After his team's clinic on how not to play basketball in Tuesday's loss to Villanova, Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli took the stand and entered his plea for the most severe charges. For the murder of the 116-year-old game of basketball: guilty as charged.

Last night, North Carolina and Duke started a new chapter in their age-old rivalry, with the visiting Tar Heels edging the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium 79-73.

As the replacement for Brian Cusworth, Harvard junior Brad Unger has a large role to fill. Literally. When the 7-foot Cusworth left the team a week and a half ago when his eligibility expired, he was leading the team in points and rebounds with 17.4 and 9.

What could make a man like Simon Kirke - the famous drummer for the bands Free and Bad Company - stop a tour of the Northeast to pay Penn basketball a visit? None other than one of the Palestra's institutions - the Penn Band. The drummer-turned-music-insructor will perform Free's 1970 hit "All Right Now" along with the Penn Band when the Quakers takee on Harvard this Saturday, the Athletic Department announced this week.