A tale of two teams will be on display tonight at UMBC Stadium. Storming through an impressive three-game win streak, the Penn field hockey team rolls into a non-conference bout with the slumping University of Maryland-Baltimore County. The formerly goal-starved Quakers (6-7, 2-2 Ivy) have been lighting up the scoreboard recently, scoring eight times in their past three contests.

Columbia boasts one of the better kickers of the Ivy League in Jon Rocholl. The sophomore, who doubles as the team's punter, had hit seven of eight attempts going into Saturday's game. This time, though, the Penn special teams unit was instrumental in preventing him from improving on that tally.

For the second time this year, the rain has forced the cancellation of a soccer game at Rhodes Field. A week ago, the men's soccer team saw its game against Rutgers washed out. Last night, it was the women's turn to take shelter as their match against Robert Morris was called due to rain.

Although the field may belong to the Eagles, the Quakers today will find themselves descending into a lion's den.

As the cliche goes, football games are won and lost in the trenches. Just ask Columbia coach Norries Wilson, who attributed his team's loss in part to "not [being] strong enough physically." Wilson specifically credited junior nose tackle Naheem Harris for thwarting the Lions' running game during Penn's 16-0 win on Saturday.

At Saint Joseph's University, diehard basketball fans like to say that "the Hawk will never die." For one year though, the Hawk will be forced to flap its wings outside of Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse - and quite possibly in the Palestra. The 3,200-seat arena is slated to be part of a $25 million athletic facilities project that St.

Senior running back Joe Sandberg continued his solid season Saturday with 101 yards on 21 carries. The 4.8 yards per carry that Sandberg gained in Penn's 16-0 win over Columbia actually lowered his league-leading average from 6.0 to 5.7 yards per carry. Sandberg also ranks third in rushing yards in the Ivy League, behind Yale's Mike McLeod and Harvard's Clifton Dawson, and he has five touchdowns, also good for third, behind the same duo.

Aside from debate tournaments and quiz bowl competitions, it isn't often that the Ivy League thoroughly and consistently dominates its opponents. But this year members of the Patriot League found out the hard way that the Ancient Eight can excel in athletics also, as they lost the season football series 14-4.

Columbia football coach Norries Wilson apologized yesterday for comments he made Saturday after his team lost 16-0 to Penn at Franklin Field. In a statement released by the Columbia athletic department, Wilson said, "I apologize for comments I made in the post-game press conference.

On Friday, former Penn basketball coach and current Temple head man Fran Dunphy celebrated the official kickoff of the season with a "Midnight Madness" celebration. His replacement, new Penn coach Glen Miller, began the new era of Quakers' basketball in a more subdued way - with a practice that was closed to the public and the media.

The scene was familiar. Fran Dunphy's basketball team had just finished a short scrimmage, and Dunphy, along with his players, was pounding out a set of push-ups like a second-stringer trying to win a starting job rather than the 57-year old head coach that he is.

These are not your older brother's Quakers. If your older brother was around in 2002 and 2003, he saw the Penn football team play 20 games and score more than 30 points in 16 of them. He also saw Penn outscore opponents 709-286 for an average margin of 21 points per game.

For the second time in two weeks, Penn will be looking to rebound from a disappointing loss to an Ivy foe, this time against a weak non-conference Rider team tonight at Rhodes Field. The Quakers (7-4-1, 1-3 Ivy) are coming off a 1-0 defeat to league leader Dartmouth.

Before last weekend's sprint football game, senior quarterback Mike Loguidice told his team in the tunnel, "We're not letting them think they can run all over us." But the Quakers might not have been able to do too much about it. Army wore down Penn's defense, and the Quakers were unable to build up any offensive strength, as the Black Knights won 16-7.

Over the weekend at the Palestra, the Penn volleyball team faced two Ivy rivals in Columbia and Cornell, but it seemed like two separate Quakers teams that came away with a dominating win and a disappointing loss. On Friday night, a bigger, stronger and more athletic Quakers team controlled the tempo against Columbia from start to finish en route to a 3-0 victory.

It wasn't the offensive futility that defined the Penn women's soccer team's loss to Dartmouth yesterday. And it wasn't the injuries to the Quakers' frontline or their severely altered rotation. According to coach Darren Ambrose, Penn's 1-0 loss could be described in four simple words: "One mistake, one goal.

It was a good weekend for Penn field hockey players Nicole Black and Tracy Statter. The duo combined for all six of the goals the Quakers put on the board during their 3-2 victory over Columbia and 3-0 shutout of Drexel, with each contributing three. But those goals took some setting up.