Penn freshman Barbara Wei picked up her first table tennis paddle when she was seven years old. She just wanted to try different things, and a table tennis club was conveniently located near her Maryland home. Three years later, she was a Junior Olympics champion.

Harvard coach Tommy Amaker has seen it all in his coaching career. He was a member of Duke's assistant coaching staff for two NCAA championships, made the Sweet Sixteen as Seton Hall's head coach and won the NIT title with Michigan. And now he knows how it feels to lose to Dartmouth.

Behold, the wonders of modern technology! I spent my winter break halfway around the world in China, and thanks to the live streaming video service provided by PennAthletics.com, the basketball teams' mid-vacation action made the trip with me. But as the feed stuttered and the audio came and went at its own whim, it became clear that a new limiting factor had replaced distance: technical kinks.

Tuesday night's Big 5 contest involved two young teams that produced one ugly game. Both teams did a nice job of finding ways to get open looks, but neither could finish around the basket. Penn was fairly successful in getting the ball into the post, but the forwards couldn't hit, and slashing layups seldom connected.

In the first 71 years of the Baseball Hall of Fame's existence, zero Penn alumni were inducted into it. But now the Quakers are finally represented in Cooperstown. Walter O'Malley (C '26) was voted in by the Veterans Committee in early December for his work as owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1944 to his death in 1979.

After the men's basketball team struggled to find a groove through the first half of the season, winter break brought much of the same. Penn split its four games, 2-2. Here, The Daily Pennsylvanian recaps all of the hoops action from the last three weeks.

Facing its biggest hurdle of the season so far, Penn fencing thrusted and parried its way to seven victories Sunday at the Philadelphia Invitational. The men thrashed both their competitors, Duke and North Carolina, en route to 20-7 and 17-10 victories, respectively.

The biggest concern was rust. Heading into their match on Saturday, the No. 9 Quakers had not played a match in over five weeks, thanks to inclement weather and a long winter break. Yet No. 10 Navy had not competed in even longer - dating back to November - and it was unable to right the ship against Penn.

Since John Giannini took over La Salle's struggling program in August 2004, he hasn't gone for the traditional players. Instead of seeking out those with the best skills, he's gone for the best athletes. Take a 6-foot-5 wing and teach him how to play the point.

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J., Jan. 15 - Just over a minute into the Quakers' contest at Seton Hall last night, Penn guard Sarah Bucar came up with a loose ball and flipped it to Anca Popovici, who looked up the court for an easy fast break. She saw Maggie Burgess and lobbed up a pass, hoping to hit her on the run.

Last night at the Palestra, Penn's offense generated open looks at the basket time and time again. But the Quakers' shots just wouldn't drop, especially when they needed them most.

Ten straight losses. Nine by double digits. And to cap it all off, a stumble out of the gate in the Ancient Eight. Any way you slice it, Penn women's basketball has seen brighter days. "It hurts, but we need to move on," said coach Pat Knapp after his team's 69-57 loss at Princeton on Saturday.

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J., Dec. 8 - The story for the Penn men's basketball team this season has been its youth. But for once, on Saturday night the Quakers actually looked like the more experienced team on the court. In a game that gave the feeling it would go down to the wire, Penn used a 10-0 run late in the second half to defeat Monmouth 69-61.

While classes ended last week, the men's basketball team still has plenty to learn over winter break. "I think teams . make the most strides when getting to a point where they only have to concentrate on basketball, not school," Penn coach Glen Miller said.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Had the outcome been different, Cameron Lewis's sudden transition from liability to asset would have been reason to celebrate. But the fact that he was perhaps the top option wearing red and blue last night just served to show how muddy and confused the picture has become for the Quakers.

It wasn't a 30-point loss to Florida Gulf Coast, but the Penn men's basketball team took another step backward with a discouraging 88-62 loss at Miami on Wednesday night. Miami took a 38-28 lead into the locker room at halftime but went on an 11-0 run to open the second half.

Heading into last night's game against the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Penn was getting desperate for a win or at least a good showing after losing its last two games by a combined 56 points. The Red and Blue couldn't have asked for a more favorable matchup.