The players on Penn's baseball team have an annual obligation to forego college students' favorite pastime, spring break, in favor of America's. Nevertheless they are feeling as fresh as any college student after their success on the spring trip, which they hope to continue today against Temple.

The tide has turned. So Penn softball hopes, at least. The Quakers went 3-7 on their spring break trip to Orlando, Fla., where they competed in the Rebel Spring Games. One of those wins, however, came in Penn's last game. After losing five games in four days, the Red and Blue pulled out a 3-2 nailbiter against Florida A&M; that sent them home with momentum on their side.

Ever seen that "game of inches" speech from Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday? Man, does that fire me up. It's pop culture Red Bull - like a '70s Springsteen track or watching the Celtics fail. "Look at the guy next to you," Pacino sermonizes to his fictitious Dallas Sharks football team before the big game.

With just one second left on the clock in the Penn women's lacrosse team's game against Yale Saturday, Samantha Bird netted one last goal to put the icing on the Quakers' spring break cake. Over the break, Penn swept its games against No. 9 North Carolina, Boston University and Yale.

The Penn men's tennis team didn't have time to surf or tan over spring break as they traveled to take on four talented California programs: Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara, Claremont and UC Irvine. The Quakers went 2-2 on their road trip, defeating UC Santa Barbara and Claremont but falling to Loyola Marymount and UC Irvine.

Sophomore guard Harrison Gaines has filed papers to transfer from the Penn men's basketball team, his father, Harry Gaines, wrote in a press release on March 11. According to the press release Penn "wasn't a good fit" for Gaines, whose statement went on to say "I believe my long-term satisfaction lies in joining another university team.

ITHACA, N.Y., March 6 - Penn might have gotten out to an early 20-12 lead against Cornell, but by the end of the night there was no doubt who was the class of the Ivy League. The Big Red took over the lead by halftime, then used a 29-10 run midway through the second half to finish off the Quakers, 83-59.

By DAVID BERNSTEIN Senior Staff Writer bernstein@dailypennsylvanian.com A year ago, on Penn's spring break trip to Florida, Jeremy Maas was learning the ropes as a rookie pitcher. He was getting on-the-job experience, adjusting to the speed of the college game and trying to win a spot in the Quakers' rotation.

For the past four years, spring break for the Penn women's tennis team has meant a one-week excursion to the West Coast to battle against some of the country's premier tennis competition. Historically the trip has been a tough one for the Quakers as they have compiled a 7-10 record in the past four seasons.

For the Penn women's basketball team, spring break started with a bang, but the careers of coach Pat Knapp and the team's four seniors ended with a whimper. The Red and Blue followed an uplifting weekend sweep of Cornell and Columbia with a disappointing 72-55 loss to Princeton in the season finale.

There is only one word to describe freshman breaststroker Brendan McHugh - fast. After the Ivy League Championship meet two weekends ago, McHugh broke four school records, made the NCAA B cuts, qualified for World Championship trials, was named first team All-Ivy and is now the fourth fastest 200-yard breastroke swimmer in the 17-18 age group in American history.

The wrestling season may almost be over, but Penn's ninth-ranked 125-pounder Rollie Peterkin still feels he has plenty of room to improve. And he plans to start by examining his most recent failure, a 5-2 loss to Cornell's Troy Nickerson, who is ranked second in the country, in the finals of the March 7-8 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament.

NEW YORK, Saturday, March 7- The Quakers had never even seen this play before, let alone practiced it. But trailing by two with 1.9 seconds remaining, Glen Miller and his coaching staff whipped out a dry-erase clipboard and crafted a setup to down Columbia.

Sometimes, all you need is a dazzling finale to forget the rest of the show. Despite returning with a surprising 3-7 record, the Penn softball team left the Rebel Spring Games in Kissimmee, Fla., with a bang, turning the final game against Florida A&M; over to the young players for the win, 3-2.

ATLANTIC CITY, Sat., Mar. 14 - It wasn't until the game clock signalled one minute to go Saturday night that Temple's arduous road to the postseason finally got easy. The Owls swept three games in three days last week to win a second straight Atlantic-10 tournament and the accompanying ticket to the Big Dance.

For the men's lacrosse team, spring break started out bad and ended up worse. After being pummelled by No. 18 Denver, 12-6, on March 6, the Quakers fell in their first Ivy contest Saturday, dropping an overtime game to Yale, 14-13. The loss to the Bulldogs (3-2, 1-0 Ivy) is the more demoralizing, as they did not win a game in the Ivy League last year.

After winning the Ivy League and IFA championships in dominating fashion, the Penn fencing team entered the NCAA Regionals in an already enviable position. And after maintaining its success at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Drew University on March 7, the squad's outlook was even better.