If at the beginning of 2015 season you told Penn wrestling that they would have an All-American wrestler no one would have blinked.

Been there, done that. As Penn wrestling readies for the 2015-16 season, the Quakers have the security of four returning NCAA qualifiers in Caleb Richardson, May Bethea, Brooks Martino and Casey Kent. “I’ve been there three times and I’ve come up short three times,” Richardson said.

A person like Van Dyke needs no artificial stimulant to prepare for an Ivy League matchup. She feeds off the pressure. But even for a tenured coach with her track record and experience, a little pre-match anxiety can show up every once in awhile.

It was a good weekend on the field for Penn Athletics, and that's translating to hardware off the field as the Quakers enter the week. On Monday, football's Justin Watson was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, while men's soccer's Dami Omitaomu won City Six Rookie of the Week honors.

All that matters is going one game at a time. Interview a coach or player from any sports team and you’ll hear words like these. Who’s going to admit that his team can completely overlook the team it’s about to face? That the next game isn’t as emotionally significant as matchups later on might be?

There’s something in the psyche of the athlete that’s unleashed when the rain starts falling, the sun disappears, the temperature plummets, and the field lights illuminate puffs of breath from red-faced players.

With the final exam looming, Penn men’s soccer gets one more practice test. On Tuesday, the Quakers will play host to West Virginia in their final non-conference tilt of the year.

After conceding four goals to both Villanova and Dartmouth during a three-game losing skid, Penn men’s soccer righted the ship on Saturday against Yale. The Quakers (4-4-5, 2-2 Ivy) blanked the Bulldogs (2-7-2, 1-2-1 Ivy) by a score of 3-0 on goals from Dami Omitaomu, Gideon Metrikin and Alec Neumann.

Looking to play spoiler to Penn’s championship pursuit, Chestnut Hill came ready to throw everything they had at the Quakers.

For the second straight game, the Quakers (9-5, 3-2 Ivy) overcame a 2-0 deficit to take the game past regulation only to fall to an overtime winner and be sent home with a loss.

Forget about home-field advantage. On the road is where Penn women’s soccer thrives, extending their unbeaten stretch to 4-1-0 while traveling.

Volleyball is all about working in system to get opponents out of system. For Penn volleyball, new changes to their system had mixed reviews against an unflappable Princeton squad. On Friday evening, Penn lost a tough straight-set match to Ivy League-leading Princeton.

On Saturday, both Penn basketball programs offered a glimpse into their state of affairs with the annual Red and Blue Scrimmages at the Palestra.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It was a beautiful night for football, but it was not a beautiful game of football.

They say the best team doesn’t always win. They were right. They also say that the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story.

Three road games, two home games and a potential Ivy title. That’s all that’s left for Penn football as it moves into the second half of the 2016 campaign. First up on that list is Yale.

For Penn sprint football, the hard part is over, but the job is far from done. And that job continues this Friday when the Quakers (4-0) face off against Chestnut Hill (2-2) at Franklin Field. Regardless of what happens Friday, it will be hard for Penn to top the drama the last time they played in Franklin Field.