It wasn’t the ending anyone had hoped for. Three games into the Ivy League season last year, everything was looking up for Penn men’s soccer.

Penn men’s soccer is entering unique territory in the program’s history.  Two years removed from an Ivy League title, gone now are graduated mainstays like Duke Lacroix and Kamar Saint-Louis.

Hurricane Erika may have skirted Florida last week, but a new storm is heading south this weekend.

It is by no means uncommon for a weekend doubleheader to feature clear high- and low-water marks. Only this weekend for Penn men’s soccer, the high point found them threatening to summit the pinnacle of the collegiate landscape, and the low point featured a team that was almost unrecognizable from earlier.

Three games into Nicole Van Dyke’s tenure, Penn women’s soccer is firing on all cylinders. And to hear her players tell it, most of the credit should go to the first year coach.

Fresh off a successful season opener, Penn women’s soccer turns this weekend to games against Temple and Mount Saint Mary’s at Rhodes Field. The Quakers (1-0-0) will look to continue the strong offensive play that guided them to a 3-1 victory over Seton Hall last Sunday.

For just about everyone, college is about new experiences. A new city perhaps, new friends, new teachers. And for athletes, a whole new team filled with unfamiliar faces.

On any given weekend afternoon at Rhodes Field, you’ll see women charging up and down the turf, bold red block letters branding “PENN” across their chests.

After a tough 2014 campaign, one that featured the loss of All-American defender Caroline Dwyer to injury before Ivy League play and ended with the departure of longtime coach Darren Ambrose, Penn women’s soccer looks to rebound this season.

A DP Sports roundtable. Covering Penn Athletics ... with more personal pronouns.

The 2015-16 school year is about to get underway, and along with new students filling into Huntsman Hall and the Quad, a handful of rookies have a chance to make an immediate impact for Penn Athletics.

Last season was filled with unfulfilled expectations for both Penn men’s and women’s soccer. However, any disappointing season is partially redeemed by the fact that another lies right around the corner.

Recently hired Penn women’s soccer coach Nicole Van Dyke started from humble beginnings, but she comes to Penn with the ambitious goal of putting the Quakers on a national stage. Taking the program to new heights will be no small feat, as Van Dyke succeeds Darren Ambrose, one of the most successful and prolific coaches in Ivy League history.

On a cold night at Rhodes Field, Mariano Gonzalez-Guerineau took the field for one final game with Penn men’s soccer. It was the end of a successful career, but the beginning of a new opportunity for the senior.

Penn women’s soccer coach Darren Ambrose, one of Penn’s longest tenured head coaches and the winningest coach in program history, resigned to take the head coaching position at Vanderbilt.

As one of the Quakers’ top players, sophomore forward Alec Neumann has been able to focus on his game, but as he becomes an upperclassman, he will try to add ‘leader’ to his impressive list of accomplishments at Penn.

After a season of ups and down, the Quakers left their heart and soul on the field against their biggest rival, defeating the Tigers, 3-2, in one of the most thrilling and emotional matches of the season.