ITHACA — This was certainly a situation they aren’t used to. For the first time in Ivy play, Penn women’s basketball found itself trailing at the half, down, 29-25, at Cornell on Friday.

In the opening round of the Potter and Howe Cups, Penn’s men’s and women’s squads extended two very different streaks.

This weekend the Penn vs. Penn State rivalry will take place yet again on the courts of Hecht Tennis Center as the schools’ men’s tennis teams will engage in a battle of squads ranked in the top 60 of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The Quakers (4-6) look to continue rolling after an easy win over New Mexico last weekend. That win, along with beating No. 38 Dartmouth and losing close-fought matches to No. 52 Princeton and No. 32 Harvard, has propelled the Red and Blue into 59th in the rankings, their first national rank this season. The undefeated Nittany Lions will visit Philadelphia ranked 21st and ready for revenge.

When Eric Schultz was a senior at La Salle College High School and considering Penn as the place he would spend the next four years swimming, he never dreamed of becoming an Ivy League champion.

The Penn men’s lacrosse team is off and running in its season, grabbing a 12-10 home win against Michigan this past Saturday at Franklin Field to open play. This week, however, the Quakers will face their first road test of the season, traveling down to Charlottesville, Va., to take on a traditional powerhouse program in No. 11 Virginia.

For Penn women’s lacrosse, it is time to write a new story. Last year’s once in a lifetime senior class is gone and their departure came without renewing Penn’s claim on the Ivy League championship.

For members of Penn men’s swimming, this weekend’s Ivy Championships will take on a variety of meanings.

Penn football shared its 2015 Ivy title with Harvard and Dartmouth. Penn men’s fencing split a conference title with Columbia and Princeton earlier in February. Penn gymnastics wants the whole damn thing.

Come Friday morning, a bus full of track stars will roll out of Philadelphia and end in Ithaca. With it: a season‘s worth of work, dreams, and authentic promise.

The rest of the Ivy League is running out of chances to stop Penn women’s basketball. Nine games into 14-Game Tournament, the Quakers (20-3, 9-0 Ivy) remain perfect — and only Princeton has even kept the game to single digits with a 50-48 decision on Jan.

The real challenge was getting there. When both Penn teams travel to nationals this weekend, they do so knowing that the hardest parts of the season are all things of the past.

They say there’s no “I” in team; all players are created equal. But Penn men’s basketball will be soon be reminded that some players are more equal than others, as the Quakers will take on four of the conference’s top players when Cornell and Columbia visit the Palestra this weekend. The Red and Blue will first square off with the Cornell (9-15, 2-8) on Friday night.

Nelson-Henry has as dominating of a presence as life allows. 

As Drake so eloquently said, “Started from the bottom, now we here.” For Max Reed, that story is all too true. The freshman from Lebanon, N.H., has taken a unique and — at times — bumpy path in his short career, but certainly is back on top.

A coach, a lawyer and a swimmer walk into a bar. Sounds like the beginning of bad joke.

Looking at the ranking of the men’s and women’s college squash tells two very different stories.

It was a bittersweet weekend for the Red and Blue. This past weekend, Penn fencing dominated the arenas of Philadelphia during the Temple Invitational and the Quakers’ very own Philadelphia Invitational.