After a gutsy come-from-behind win against Princeton last Wednesday, the women's squash team showed no sign of a letdown in a doubleheader against a pair of upstart squash programs on Saturday. In its first year as a varsity program, George Washington was doomed from the start.

Injuries and illness could not stop the men's and women's tennis teams from earning victories this weekend. But they eventually took their toll on the men, who after winning against Georgetown on Saturday fell in a contested battle with Old Dominion, 4-3, one day later.

It ended up as a typical weekend of Ivy League basketball, with everything that entails. Sparse crowds, bad defense, bad offense, terrible officiating and Penn and Princeton winning. How refreshing. With all the forces rippling through the conference - the rise of peers like the Patriot League; coaching transitions at Harvard, Princeton, Brown and Penn; fear of a league stratified by financial aid - it was not unreasonable to think that this season might mark a turning point in a new era, or at least a new balance of power.

If Friday's Ivy League tipoff against Harvard was any indication, this season is going to be a fight. The Crimson scratched and clawed - and even wrestled - for 40 minutes, but it wasn't enough to give Penn its first home Ivy loss in four years. The Red and Blue used a 20-point effort from Tyler Bernardini and a 15-point, nine-rebound, four-assist performance from Brian Grandieri to hold off Harvard, 73-69.

Two rounds into its match against No. 21 Maryland on Saturday at the Palestra, the wrestling team found itself down 9-0. It looked like the rout was on. But the Quakers battled back, tying the game at 16 going into the final match. And in that match, it was all Quakers, as sophomore 125-pounder Rollie Peterkin dominated his opponent 6-0, leading the Quakers to a 19-16 upset win.

One week after suffering a two-point loss to Navy, the women's swim team had extra motivation in its final dual-meet before Ivy Championships. "The goal of the meet was to take the frustration of losing to Navy to fuel our race against West Chester," said co-captain Megan Carlin.

Boy did the women's basketball team need that break. After stumbling through a horrendous December and first half of January, during which Penn lost ten straight games, the Quakers (3-13, 0-1 Ivy) are wrapping up their two-week layoff. And the team had no shortage of things it needed to improve.

The spring season for tennis is starting with a bang. With two big wins against Drexel and Saint Joseph's under its belt, the men's tennis team has established a high benchmark for this afternoon's match against Georgetown. The Quakers will have a quick turn-around when they travel to face Old Dominion on Sunday, but they won't be overlooking the Hoyas.

Forget the Florida trip. Forget the Big 5. Forget Loyola. Forget North Carolina. The real season starts today. And it's a late start, to be sure. Harvard's trip to the Palestra tonight will mark the first time that the Quakers (5-12, 0-0) have ever opened their Ivy League season in February.

After all the glory of Wednesday - when Penn won five straight games to topple its arch-rival, No. 1 Princeton - it's back to business as usual for the women's squash team. On Saturday, the Quakers (8-0) will host their final two home matches of the seasons, taking on unranked George Washington and No.

In the past, Penn might have overlooked a Dartmouth squad coming off a nine-win season and picked to finish dead last in the Ivy League preseason poll. Not this year, though. For one, Quakers coach Glen Miller doesn't put any stock in Dartmouth's preseason ranking.

The wrestling team had better get some rest tonight. They're in for a long day tomorrow. With dual meets scheduled at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. against Gloucester County (N.J.), Maryland and North Carolina, respectively, the Quakers have a full slate of wrestling on tap tomorrow at the Palestra.

Cornell is not used to being in this position. In fact, no one is besides Penn and Princeton. The Big Red (10-5, 2-0 Ivy) were picked to win the Ivy League by media members before the season began, and so far, their play has pretty much lived up to the hype.

Saint Joseph's Nick Tuxen raised both his sweaty palms to the sky as if asking for help from the Hawk itself. But the only thing that came from the heavens was a blistering serve from Penn's Eric Riley. Tuxen was overwhelmed, and any hope that was still lingering was dashed.

When Penn women's tennis coach Mike Dowd arrived in Philadelphia in December 1996 at the ripe age of 24, he was starving. He was looking for tennis players who wanted to sit down at the table with him and dig in. "We wanted to find hungry tennis players, players that are still getting better and wanted to prove themselves when they got to college," Dowd said of his plan to reinvent the program.

Less than a month into his first season with Harvard, coach Tommy Amaker was feeling good. After a 62-51 win over Michigan on Dec. 1, Amaker had not only stuck it to his former team, he had also pulled the Crimson's record up to .500 in the tough early going of the non-conference season.

This may be the year for Yale to polish off those dancing shoes. While they may be horribly out-of-style by now (the last time the team went to the NCAA tournament was 1962), with four seniors returning and a seemingly wide-open Ivy League, the question is, why not Yale? Led by captain and first-team All-Ivy guard Eric Flato, the Bulldogs have one of the more experienced teams in the Ancient Eight.