Penn women's volleyball junior Elizabeth Semmens has never tasted victory against Princeton. In fact, last season, she had to swallow two bitter losses to the Tigers that were ultimately the difference between first and second place in the Ivy League. "They are big rivals," Semmens said.

Penn men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller knows his team is going to see Cornell's best game when the Quakers (6-0-3) take on the Big Red tomorrow at Charles F. Berman Field in Ithaca, N.Y. "Here's an opportunity to turn their season around and there's no better way to do it than against Penn," Fuller said.

It wasn't always edge-of-your-seat exciting, but Penn got the job done at Franklin Field this afternoon, downing Dartmouth, 23-10, for its first win of the season. After a first half that saw just 189 yards of aggregate offense, 12 punts and a 7-7 stalemate, the Quakers got the ball rolling in the second half behind sophomore running back Michael DiMaggio.

The year was 1896. Gas cost four cents a gallon, Grover Cleveland ruled the Oval Office, "separate but equal" was all the rage and Dartmouth's football team visited Penn's newly erected home stadium for the first time - falling 16-0 to the two-time defending national-champion Quakers.

It's been 12 years since the Penn women's soccer team last lost to Cornell. And it's been 30 days since the Big Red (1-6-1) last walked away with a victory of any kind. Yet the Quakers (5-3-1) are still expecting a physical battle in Ithaca, N.Y., on Saturday - although, coach Darren Ambrose was quick to point out, not quite a war.

For most of this season, Penn field hockey coach Val Cloud spoke about the learning curve associated with her young team. Seven losses and an upset win over Harvard later, she's singing a different tune. "They're not young anymore," she said. "It's halfway through our season.

Sophomore midfielder Sarah Friedman - who hails from nearby Villanova, Pa. - knows all about Big 5 rivalries. After helping the Quakers grind out a 4-2 victory over Saint Joseph's last night with one goal and two assists, she said there was "definitely" a pride factor in defeating a local school.

The rain poured, the puddles formed and the mud splashed all over the place. In the end, the men's soccer team left Rhodes field with dirty jerseys but a clean record. The Quakers triumphed over Philadelphia Soccer Seven rival Villanova, 3-2, in a definitively messy affair.

Franklin Field, the oldest operating football stadium in the nation, will reach a tremendous milestone when Dartmouth visits this weekend. Saturday will be the 800th Penn football game played there since the facility opened in 1895. "I tell the kids all the time, we're just caretakers," said coach Al Bagnoli, who has led the Quakers to a 62-15 home record during his tenure.

As the starting quarterback for Dartmouth, junior Alex Jenny often surprises people when he reveals his field of study. "Sometimes I get funny looks when I tell people I'm a Math major," he said. "But I like it more than History or English." So when the Big Green visit Franklin Field on Saturday, Penn better watch out for this "cerebral quarterback who knows the offense cold and makes very good decisions with the football," as the Dartmouth Web site describes him.

In its second Philadelphia Soccer Seven match of the season, the men's soccer team hosted Villanova on a muddy field amidst a constant downpour. By the end, the Quakers' uniforms may have been dirtied, but their record remained clean, as they prevailed, 3-2, thanks to a late penalty shot goal by senior midfielder Kevin Unger.

Though TV scheduling issues led to a rare 6 p.m. start time for Penn's Saturday meeting at Lafayette, many Quakers were sure to make the most of their twilight kickoff. Their antidote to afternoon atrophy? A little scoreboard watching, 21st-century style. With preseason Ivy favorites Harvard and Yale both opening their Ancient Eight slates early in the day, many members of the Red and Blue employed a marvel of the new millennium to sneak a peak at the box scores.

So far this year the football team has been plagued by its inability to put together two solid halves on both sides of the ball. The Quakers have given up zero points in the third and fourth quarters, yet 38 in the opening two. And the offense has been equally inconsistent, going 70 minutes without scoring before putting up 17 points on 206 yards after the break against Lafayette This trend is nothing new.

The Penn women's soccer team improved to 1-1 in the Big 5 with a 4-2 victory over Saint Joseph's. In a physical match played on a muddy Rhodes Field, the Quakers managed an incredible 15 shots on goal, compared to only two for the Hawks. But thanks to St.

Despite his women's soccer team winning their last two games - against University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Harvard - by a combined score of 5-0, coach Darren Ambrose still feels that there's room for improvement. "I thought we were OK against Harvard [on Saturday]," Ambrose said.

After Sunday's draw with Temple, Penn men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller noted, "When two Philadelphia teams meet, everything goes out the window." Unfortunately for the Quakers, it was their seven-game shutout streak that went out the window against the Owls.

Listening to Lafayette coach Frank Tavani wax philosophical at Saturday's postgame press conference, you might have thought the ghosts of Lombardi and Rockne had lent a hand in his team's victory. "That ball is a funny shape, and it bounces funny ways," he said.