When the Quakers open their season this weekend with two games, one away against Mount St. Mary and one home against Old Dominion, it will be the team’s first chance to prove itself on the pitch.

The follow-up to a thrilling campaign that fell just short of an Ivy League title begins Friday for Penn Field Hockey, who will face Lehigh (0-2) at Ellen Vagelos field.

It looks like there won't be a return trip to Iowa City after all.Ten months ago, I flew out to Iowa to cover a game that turned out to be one of the most embarrassing contests in a season full of them for Penn basketball.

Penn men’s soccer came into the 2013 season on the heels of a bad 2012 season. Coach Rudy Fuller put his team through a tough training schedule to get the team ready for what became a banner season.

Penn field hockey may have lost a lot of talent over the summer, but with senior attack Emily Corcoran returning, the Quakers still have hope to compete for an Ivy League championship.

No matter what school Penn men’s soccer is facing on any given week, you can bet there is one Quakers player that is at the top of everyone’s scouting report.Senior forward Duke Lacroix is an offensive force that can make even the soundest of defenses look woefully inadequate and he will once again lead the Red and Blue in a campaign for a second consecutive Ivy League title.Lacroix enters his senior season not only as the reigning Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, but also as the number one player in the conference according to TopDrawerSoccer.com.

Though the season didn’t end as many hoped, 2013 was a season of tremendous growth for Penn field hockey.

Penn basketball announced its 2014-15 schedule, highlighted by the Quakers' Big 5 rivals as well as a trip to Vanderbilt

The Quakers will also have to move forward in 2014 without one of their best players, sophomore Arielle Winfield, which makes the journey that much tougher.

For the second straight year, Penn volleyball finished over .500 in the Ancient Eight during the 2013 season, turning in a solid performance but unable to top Ivy-powerhouse Yale.

Over her three years with the Red and Blue, the veteran has established herself as a grounding presence for the team, both in the backfield and in day-to-day life.

Most long-standing sports institutions are resistant to change. Whether it is Major League Baseball refusing to address time of game issues or the NCAA resisting even the most painfully logical changes to its outdated system, change is continually feared by the sports establishment.

At the end of the day, the box score has no statistic to demonstrate the brilliance of an individual defender’s play, and what isn’t evident in a box score is rarely appreciated by fans. 

Penn women’s soccer came up just short of matching its male counterpart’s Ivy League championship in 2013. However, the Quakers provided plenty of great moments en route to a 12-1-4 overall record.

There are rites of passage that virtually every Penn student passes through during their four years on campus. One of them: being approached by a representative from the rowing team.

Special teams remains wide open, a group that is often the least heralded part of thechanged from “a” program yet still holds significance for the Red and Blue.

What do math and basketball have in common? Well, they’re both universal languages. At least, that’s what Penn women’s basketball learned on their summer trip to Italy.