The Penn women's basketball team boarded the bus in New Haven, Conn. having hit a new low. The game was theirs. They had a 20-point lead. Then the Elis bullied their way back, clinching the game with 6.9 seconds left. Final score: Yale 53, Penn 52. The Quakers' conference record: 1-4.

It seemed to me Saturday night that Penn thought it was better than Yale and did not have to exert the maximum effort to beat the Elis on the road. That turned out to be false, as Yale gave the Quakers a wake-up call with a 77-68 win. But it was not so far from absurd.

It seemed to me Saturday night that Penn thought it was better than Yale and did not have to exert the maximum effort to beat the Elis on the road. That turned out to be false, as Yale gave the Quakers a wake-up call with a 77-68 win. But it was not so far from absurd.

The date was February 20, 1965. The Philadelphia Big 5 was celebrating its 10th anniversary, and the young association's two NCAA Tournament contenders, Villanova and Saint Joseph's, were set to clash at the Palestra. The rivalry's intensity had already earned the title of the "Holy War" - so named for the universities' Roman-Catholic affiliations.

After a sweeping performance this past weekend at the Palestra, the No. 14 Penn wrestling team finds itself in a comfortable position. The Quakers have remained incredibly consistent this season, beating every team they were supposed to beat. However, they have also lost to every team that they were supposed to lose to.

While the men's tennis team was able to split the singles matches with its opponents, it was doubles that did Penn in this weekend. The Quakers (1-2) fell to both Central Florida on Friday and Maryland yesterday by a margin of 4-3 - with the deciding points coming after the Quakers fell in two of their three doubles matches.

Even Big 5 games not involving Penn are lighting up the scoreboard. At least for the home team. After a torrid start by both sides, Temple torched La Salle for 56 first-half points en route to an easy 89-64 win at the Liacouras Center yesterday afternoon. The majority of the game was played at an 80-mile-per-hour pace that would have made Penn coach Glen Miller smile.

Penn men's and women's fencers both showed different aspects of the word "team" this weekend at the MIT Multi Meet. The men's squad showed what teamwork meant, while the women provided an example of resilience. The men's team went 3-1, defeating NYU, MIT and Boston College, while losing a heartbreaker to Brandeis, 14-13.

Three straight wins in one weekend - the best medicine for a losing streak. After a tough loss to Hofstra last week, Penn wrestling responded in dominating fashion, winning its three varsity matches this past weekend at the Palestra. The Quakers started out strong Friday morning with a 33-4 decision over Brown.

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Feb. 3 - The John J. Lee Amphitheater has been a bad place for the Penn seniors to play. Up to last weekend, Mark Zoller, Ibrahim Jaaber and Stephen Danley had lost two games here, and won last year by only two points.

Ekaterina Kosminskaya's first home match was a brief one. In less than an hour the freshman won twelve straight games and put away Richmond's number one player, Pamela Duran, 6-0, 6-0. The rest of the afternoon didn't go much better for the visiting Spiders, as the Quakers won 6-1 in a convincing fashion.

When Joey Rhoads was honored before Saturday's game for reaching the 1,000-point plateau, she walked into the stands, hugged her parents, and handed them the commemorative ball she received. That was the only time all night she left the court, and the only time she gave up the ball.

"The key is to get the ball rollin' and keep it rollin', and we've got that ball rollin'." Coach Charlie Powell and the men's track team certainly lived up to his credo at the Giegengack Invitational hosted by Yale University this weekend. The Penn men's team set nine IC4A qualifying marks, led by junior Tim Kaijala, who not only set an IC4A mark but also set an NCAA provisional mark in the 800-meter run.

Pitted against a surging Temple squad, the Penn gymnastics team took a step backwards Saturday. At the Liberty Classic Invite hosted by the Owls, the Quakers came in second with a point total of 187.175, three points shy of the Owls (190.15) who are 1-5 including a loss to Penn last weekend.

After the Quakers' loss to Yale on Saturday, coach Glen Miller wasn't happy. And with good reason - his team had just dropped a game in New Haven for the third time in four years, missed well over half of its free throws, and fallen in the standings behind a team that entered Ivy play with a 4-9 record.

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Feb. 2 - Unlike Fran Dunphy's return to the Palestra, there would be no need for last-second heroics in Glen Miller's return to Brown Friday night. Miller's Quakers made sure of that early, building a 15-point halftime lead before cruising to a 77-61 victory at the Pizzitola Center.