ST. LOUIS - Coming into the NCAA Championships, Penn wrestling coach Zeke Jones knew that for his team to earn high All-American honors, each wrestler would have to start fast out of the gate. But with one day down at the tournament, Penn has had trouble doing so.

In high school, all it takes is seven innings. The eight freshmen on the Penn softball team are learning that to be successful in college, it takes 14. At 1 p.m. tomorrow, the Quakers will take the field for the first of two contests. Like all game days this season, Penn will have to play a doubleheader.

Just when it was beginning to settle in, the women's lacrosse team is on the road again. The Quakers travel to Ithaca, N.Y. tomorrow to play Cornell for their second Ivy road game of the season. No. 6 Penn has already played five of its six games away from home.

Coming off a close loss over spring break, the Penn men's golf team is looking for a second chance to prove itself worthy of another Ivy League title. Tomorrow the Quakers play their second match of the spring season. Five players will travel to Bethany Beach, Del.

In the 129-year history of Harvard men's lacrosse, the Crimson hold a record of 524-524-11. This Saturday, Penn will try to make the squad from Cambridge an all-time losing program. More recent history is not on the Quakers' side: Harvard has beaten Penn three seasons in a row, including a 7-6 overtime victory last year in Boston.

Outdoor tennis is a whole different animal than its indoor counterpart. As women's tennis head coach Mike Dowd put it, "You have the elements of wind, sun, and the points are longer. It's a little bit more like a chess match outdoors." After a week-long trip in California in which they lost four of five outdoor matches, Dowd's team is going to get another mouthful of the elements against Marshall (12-4) and No.

When it rains, it pours. Penn baseball coach John Cole is getting used to that. His team has already had two rainouts, and inclement weather is again throwing the schedule a curve. A pair of doubleheaders against Mount St. Mary's (0-12) was originally slated for today and tomorrow at Emmitsburg, Md.

The women's golf team is traveling to Williamsburg, Va. this weekend in hopes of better golfing weather, but history shows that a difficult trip could be in the forecast for this young Quakers squad. For the fifth-straight year, the Quakers will compete in the First Market Bank Intercollegiate tournament, hosted by William & Mary.

There are no stars on the Penn women's rowing team - and that suits head coach Mike Lane just fine. "The New England Patriots have a 'one-team' motto and so do we," he said. Lane added that this year's team has more depth and more intensity than previous years'.

A program still in its infancy, the Penn women's golf team has yet to win an Ivy League title. But coach Francis Vaughn says his players have their eyes set on doing exactly that this season. If the Quakers are going to show such a dramatic improvement from last fall - when they never finished higher than sixth - they will have to do it with a young and shorthanded roster.

This game was all Penn, with only a small side of State. The No. 6 women's lacrosse team turned in its most dominant performance of the season, using a 12-0 run to handily defeat No. 19 Penn State 14-7. Although the Nittany Lions were able to answer the Quakers' first two goals, the third launched an offensive explosion that would not cool down until midway through the second half.

After months of hard work and preparation, the bracket has been announced, teams are traveling cross-country and a national championship is on the line. It's time for a collegiate tournament in March. Yes, the NCAA Wrestling Championships are here. Today through Saturday, the Scottrade Center will host the Division I Wrestling Championship in St.

Since January, Penn gymnastics has battled its way through four dual-meets, two tri-meets, two tournaments and one quad-meet without ever coming out on top. And now, in the last regular-season meet of the year, the Quakers finally picked up that elusive win.

The Penn men's tennis team dispatched Navy 7-0 last year, but with injuries and losses piling up over the past two weeks, this year's matchup figured to be a struggle. The Midshipmen swept the doubles point to take an early lead, and five of six singles matches went to three sets, but the Quakers managed to grind out a 4-3 overall victory to snap a six-match losing skid.

The Ann Arbor News, a paper with a modest circulation of 50,000, published an ambitious, four-part series this week detailing the dirty administrative tricks that the University of Michigan used to keep its athletes eligible and functioning. A refreshing piece of reporting, the series has since endured the wrath of dozens of angry Wolverine lifers, excusing the inexcusable.

There are some 700 golf courses on the continent of Australia, all of which golftoday.com deems "prestigious" and "picturesque." Meg Bender didn't want to see even one of them. "I've been playing golf since I was five or six," the women's golf team senior said.

This year's men's golf team has an opportunity to do something that it has only had a chance to do once before: defend the Ivy League title. But the 2008 Quakers squad will have to find its own way to win because only two of the five starters from last year's championship lineup return.