It may not be obvious - or it may even seem doubtful thanks to its 1-11 record in its last 12 games - but things may be looking up for Penn softball. Although their record doesn't indicate it, the Quakers have been showing steady improvement - and the time may be right for the slump to end.

Erin Brennan has the speed, the build and the skills of your average lacrosse player. So what separates the Penn freshman from the pack? She plays left-handed. As the only natural southpaw on the team, Brennan can confuse the opposition since teams most often see attackers shooting from the right side of their bodies.

Men's lacrosse coach Brian Voelker may have sealed his fate at birth. The choice is an easy one when you grow up as a gifted athlete in Baltimore, Md. - the lacrosse capital of the world. Voelker's pre-coaching years afforded him a playing career most athletes in the sport can only dream about.

After yesterday's game against Villanova, it seems as though depth will not be an issue for the baseball team as it heads into the Ivy League Tournament this weekend. Sophomore Mike Mariano more-than-literally stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning, still searching for his first hit of the season.

The Penn softball team cannot seem to catch a break. Coming off of four straight losses to Saint Joseph's and Monmouth and a 10-7 loss to Lehigh earlier in the day, the Quakers seemed poised to finally snap their skid in the second game of a doubleheader. However, a questionable call by the umpiring crew forced the squad to settle for a tie in its final tune-up before plunging into the Ivy league portion of its schedule.

So you had Wake Forest upsetting Louisville. Maybe you thought Temple could make a run. Well, you can redeem your busted bracket by entering the DPOSTM/SMOKE'S SWEET SIXTEEN CONTEST. Fill out the bracket below and return it to Sports Editor Zach Klitzman's mail box at The Daily Pennsylvanian office at 4015 Walnut St, or fax it to 215-898-2050 (attention Zach Klitzman) by 6 p.

As Penn searches to replace women's basketball coach Pat Knapp, I have some advice for potential applicants: Make sure you know what you're getting into. To be clear, I don't say that because of the makeup of the team, even though on paper the current roster does not have great prospects.

UC-Riverside broke its pre-match team huddle yesterday by erupting in a powerful chorus of "1, 2, 3. FIGHT!" If its match against Penn were indeed a brawl, the Highlanders left Levy Tennis Pavilion in the same condition as the rest of the Quakers' home opponents this season - black and blue.

When softball meets Lehigh tomorrow in a doubleheader at Warren Field, the Mountain Hawks will be the third set of predatory birds that the Quakers have met in seven days. Each time, Penn has come out looking more like the prey. After two humbling losses in the Quakers' home opener against the Saint Joseph's Hawks, 4-1 and 10-0, the young Penn team dropped two razor thin losses to the Monmouth Hawks, both by the score of 1-0.

Just one day after the men's basketball season ended, sophomore Harrison Gaines announced that he was transferring out of Penn at the end of the semester. The guard from Victorville, Calif., averaged 9.9 points per game this year, second on the team to Tyler Bernardini's 13.

In 2006, Robert Irvin had one of the best seasons for a Penn sophomore quarterback in the past half-century. Then he lost much of the next year to injury and would never again claim the top of the depth chart. But the coaching staff had never found a consistent replacement for him until late last season, when they were forced to turn to unknown sophomore Keiffer Garton, having literally run out of options.

California dreaming isn't over yet. Ten days after completing its West Coast spring trip, the Penn men's tennis team will take on California-Riverside at Lott courts today in the final match of the non-conference schedule. The Quakers are happy to return to Philadelphia and hope that home-court advantage will give them an edge over their West Coast foes.

Glen Miller will be returning next season as head coach of the Penn basketball team, the team's co-chair John Rockwell confirmed last night. A member of the board of athletic overseers, Rockwell also endows the head coaching position. Other sources close to the program have indicated that the beleaguered coach met one-on-one with Athletic Director Steve Bilsky last week to evaluate this past season, Miller's status and the current state of the program.

Doug Glanville put together one of the most successful baseball careers of any Ivy League athlete. After co-captaining Penn's 1991 league championship squad, he went on to hit .277 in nine seasons (1996-2004) patrolling centerfield for the Cubs, Phillies and Rangers.

Penn's Stephanie Wheeler trailed Columbia's Tess Finkel, 4-2, with thirty seconds left in a first-to-five epee bout at the NCAA Championships. In courageous fashion, the sophomore quickly recorded two touches, sending the bout to overtime, where she ended up winning 5-4.

Men's lacrosse can't be happy enough to get out of New England. A hopeful weekend turned sour after the Quakers were shut down Saturday at No. 16 Harvard, 11-4, then lost a 15-11 shootout at Bryant the next day. After dropping an overtime heartbreaker to Yale over spring break, the Red and Blue (1-5, 0-2 Ivy) hit the road for Ivy League redemption in Cambridge, Mass.