To say that the Penn men's swimming team took the cake at the Jan. 3 Florida Atlantic Invitational would be an understatement. The men placed first with a score of 830.5, defeating Ivy League rival Brown by a margin of 264.5 points in a league-sanctioned dual meet.

After getting knocked down by a better team, it's good to have an inferior one to bounce back against. That was how the men's squash team felt, as it rebounded from an 8-1 thrashing at the hands of No. 3 Yale to dominate No. 14 Brown by the same score. "It's refreshing to be able to go from a bad performance to a pretty good performance," junior Mark Froot said.

Women's tennis coach Mike Dowd will resign effective December 31. Assistant coach Sara Schiffman, a 2006 Penn graduate who was a captain for the Quakers both her junior and senior years, will be interim head coach through the spring semester. "I have made the difficult decision that I need to step down at the end of the month as head coach of women's tennis," Dowd told Penn Athletics.

Yale's home fans were making a lot of noise at the women's squash match against Penn on Saturday, but the Quakers stole their thunder. Tuning out the spectators, the No. 2 Quakers prevailed, 5-4, giving No. 5 Yale a loss in the Bulldogs' first match of 2008-09.

Desperate for a win, the Penn basketball team soothed its wounds with a 78-67 victory over Campbell on Tuesday night. It was just the second of the season for the Quakers; their other came against Monmouth back on Nov. 22nd. "When you go out and work hard everyday in practice and you're trying to compete, it's a relief and you feel good about that," Miller said.

Penn men's and women's fencing coach Dave Micahnik describes himself as a perfectionist. As a recent inductee into the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame, Micahnik is always looking to improve his teams' performance. On Saturday and Sunday, both teams began their seasons at the Philadelphia Multi-Meet in Hutchinson Gymnasium.

Las Vegas is very familiar with the concept of redemption in the face of long, daunting odds. So it should come as no surprise that redemption was on the minds of Penn wrestlers Rollie Peterkin, Cesar Grajales and Matthew Dragon as the No. 23 Quakers competed in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational this past weekend.

The Penn women's basketball team may have thought it was experiencing déj… vu. For the second consecutive game, Penn held a small lead in the closing seconds, this time at home against Navy. Once again, the Quakers forced a missed shot, scrambled for the rebound and dove on the loose ball.

When women's basketball senior captain Carrie Biemer sees her team show flashes of exceptional play to stake an early lead, she senses that her team is on the verge of turning the corner. But suddenly - and without explanation - the Quakers revert to their wildly inconsistent ways.

It's a good thing that coaches can't play for their teams. If they could, the Penn women's squash team would be facing a tough task in tonight's match at Franklin and Marshall. The Diplomats' men's and women's head coach, John White was ranked No. 1 in the world in March 2004, and retired from professional squash in October as No.

The season may be young, but the men's squash team is already facing the sport's heavy-hitters. The Quakers travel to Brown (0-1, 0-1 Ivy) on Sunday, but are more concerned with Saturday's match against Yale. The Bulldogs are the first member of squash's elite quadrumvirate --- Trinity, Harvard and Princeton will come later - that Penn will play this season.

Emily Goodwin extends her arm straight back at a high angle, the ball bounces in front of her, she bends her knees and accelerates her racquet head through the rising ball. While this stroke is routine on a squash court, it's especially sweet for the Penn senior and co-captain.

It's been a tough grind to start the season for the Penn men's basketball team. First, there was the trip down to Dean Smith Center to open up against the No.1 North Carolina Tar Heels. Then, the Quakers got taken down a few blocks away from the Palestra at Drexel in a game that finished right as many Penn students were just waking up.

It was deja vu all over again for the Penn women's basketball team, as yet again the difference between a win and a loss was a single timeout. In a season filled with close, heartbreaking losses, the Quakers finally prevailed, 61-58, to push their record to 1-6.

For all but one member of the men's squash team, Thursday night's win over No. 12 Navy was your typical 9-0 rout. But for freshman Thomas Mattsson, this victory meant a lot more. That's because sitting at the No. 1 spot for the Midshipmen (16-2) is his brother, Nils.

With six losses in its first six games- and with only six more to go before the Ivy League opener against Princeton - the women's basketball team has been to hell and back. But despite their demoralizing start, the Quakers are confident that they will make the necessary improvements before heading into league play.

There's that old sinking feeling again. Desperate to notch its second win of the season against a perennially mediocre Navy squad, Penn was dominated on both ends of the floor en route to a 76-65 loss at the Palestra on Friday.