After spending the majority of high school playing on the same football team as his brother, Nick Anastasio wanted a change of pace. So when both Penn and Brown recruited him heavily in his senior year, Anastasio decided against joining his older brother Joe on the Quakers, and cleared a path for himself instead.

Penn's opponents this weekend are a combined 3-11 in the Ivy League. But that doesn't mean the team is complacent. In large part that is because they are heading to New York to face two-time defending champion Cornell. Although not on their way to a third-straight championship this year, the Big Red (6-12, 3-4 Ivy) are still a formidable opponent; they have already upset a strong Dartmouth team earlier this season.

This weekend will even out the middle of the pack in the league, with two pairs of 1-2 teams playing each other. And fans won't have to wait until Saturday for some Ivy League action - the first kickoff of the weekend will be tonight in Princeton. Cornell (4-2, 1-2 Ivy) at Princeton (2-4, 1-2) Three quarterbacks couldn't get it done for Princeton last weekend against Harvard.

The Penn women's soccer team has found itself in an unprecedented position. The Quakers, who have served as the hunters in seasons past, will now have to protect their record as the hunted. Penn is 4-0 in the Ivy League for the first time in school history and alone at the top of the Ivy League standings with only three games to go.

How's this for a must-win game? A contest at No. 6 Brown, against a team that has only lost once this year and has won four straight since then. The men's soccer team faces this situation as it fights to keep its hopes for a league title alive. Tomorrow, the Quakers (5-6-2, 2-1-0 Ivy) will make the trip out to Providence, R.

At this stage in the Penn football team's season, the potential turning point has come and gone. A victory against heavy favorite Yale last week could have been the last opportunity for an Ivy title run, but after the last drive in triple-overtime stalled, it's time for the Quakers (2-4, 1-2 Ivy) to shift gears.

Freshman Anguel Tolev, running in today's Heptagonal championships in New York, has come a long way since immigrating to the United States in 1998. Tolev's family immigrated to Denver from Bulgaria when he was nine. He didn't know a word of English. No biggie.

His nearly flawless brackets over the years have earned him the title Doctor of Bracketology, but at the end of the day ESPN bracketologist and Saint Joseph's communications guru Joe Lunardi is more or less an ordinary guy. Just ask his six-year-old daughter, whose selections beat her dad's last year when she picked bracket-busting Butler because she thought butlers look like penguins, and she likes penguins.

Anyone who's surprised that 2-4 Brown's passing attack leads the conference in touchdowns, has the third-fewest interceptions and leads the entire FCS in passing yards hasn't been around the Ivy League very long. Or at least not before 2003. Ever since Phil Estes took over in 1998, his Bears have run an offense that spreads out the defense and then picks it apart.

The Penn women's tennis team may have found a new out-of-conference rival. Four Penn players and five from William and Mary, a top-15 team last year, reached the round of sixteen at the ITA East Regional. Three of the Tribe eliminated Penn players in the singles bracket.

Forget for a second that Penn's chances at an Ivy football title took a serious hit with its second league loss Saturday. What is going on in that Quakers locker room is its own significant story, where a group of men is getting more than it ever bargained for.

A whistle blows, a foul is called, and senior field hockey midfielder Meghan Rose steps up to take a penalty stroke for the Quakers. She sets her feet, counts to three, and without looking at the goal rips a shot past the opposing keeper and calmly gets ready for the next play.

While the Penn women's soccer team had little trouble dismantling its opponent, the Quakers' players did have one major challenge to overcome: not retaliating against UMBC's physical play. In last night's 4-0 win in Baltimore, the Retrievers' players took three yellow cards on the game.

Neither a shoulder injury nor opponents' defenses can keep sprint football quarterback Mike D'Angelo out of the endzone. With a contusion or possible ligament damage in his shoulder, last week's Collegiate Sprint Football Offensive Player of the Week continued his onslaught in a victory over Cornell on Saturday.

If you have to lose a Joe, it's nice to have a DiMaggio waiting in the wings. With senior running back Joe Sandberg relegated to the sideline at times this season - with an injury, or simply for some in-game rest - Quakers fans have been given a glimpse of a Penn backfield without its established star.

The Penn baseball team may have the Phillies' infield of the future. No, Quakers coach John Cole is not grooming Steve Gable and William Gordon to replace Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins. But Meiklejohn Stadium received a grooming of its own this off-season, and the Phillies have shown particular interest in the new surface.

Yale coach Jack Siedlecki was worried already. Penn faced a big third-and-six from the Bulldogs' 42, and a conversion could help set up a go-ahead field goal in the closing minute of the first half. So Seidlecki wasn't thrilled when a few careless seconds came Penn's way on that third down - the result of a missing man in a hat and a refereeing crew that had both sides yelling at it all Saturday afternoon.