An 8-8 start wasn't what the media had in mind when they selected Dartmouth to finish last among the Ivies. But after a poor winter break showing - dropping five of seven games - the Big Green have ridden their defense to three straight wins. With the bulk of conference play right around the corner, they seem poised to eclipse their win total from the 2006-2007 campaign, when they finished 9-18.

Neither rain, nor sleet nor snow could stop the Quakers from trouncing Franklin and Marshall yet again. Penn had won the previous four meetings by a combined score of 33-3, and last night - the makeup for a Dec. 4 match postponed due to inclement weather - was no different.

Columbia is the most veteran Ivy League team. It returned a roster that had 27 percent more Division-I minutes under its belt than the next-closest Ivy. But January is annual reality-check time for the Lions, who always seems to generate more buzz than they can back up.

To say Nik DeVore is driven is an understatement. The first-year men's tennis coach left his job at Loyola Marymount in the sunny confines of Southern California and drove 45 hours to blustery Philadelphia. He interviewed to be the Quakers coach seven years ago, and now he's back, despite the distance.

Now that second semester has rolled around, this senior is getting ready to bid farewell to a lot of things. Somewhere high up on that list, situated just under $3.75 food cart lunches and in a dead heat with the shortcut near the Rotunda, are Penn sports.

After what the men's squash team endured last Friday, tonight's match should be a breeze. The Quakers (5-4) saw their five-match winning streak snapped last Friday to No. 1 Trinity. Tonight at Ringe, in a match that was originally postponed due to inclement weather, the Red and Blue's opponent is the considerably less fearsome Franklin and Marshall.

After his team's Jan. 15 loss at Seton Hall, Penn women's basketball coach Pat Knapp boldly predicted when his team's double-digit losing streak would finally end. "Next game," said the fourth-year coach, whose squad has lost 10 straight games by an average of 20.

The Quakers were reeling from injuries by the time they played their first game this year, and the sprains, tweaks and bruises have not been spread out evenly on the team. The guard corps has been decimated, while coach Pat Knapp estimated that only one of seven post players has missed any time.

Penn grads to work on Franklin Field The Athletic Department has selected the Crawford architectural firm to design the Franklin Field Pavilion, with construction slated to begin this summer. The project will turn the northern concourse of the stadium into a state-of-the-art weight training center.

The more things change, the more things stay the same. As coach Steve Donahue has brought his Cornell squad from worst to first in the Ivy League over eight seasons, he has still not been able to escape his bad luck. Chris Vandenberg. A.J. Castro. Steve Cobb.

Marty, Doc Brown and the DeLorean may not be involved, but the history of the Penn wrestling team's season has been rewritten. Last week, the NCAA Wrestling Committee announced that results for the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational - in which the Quakers participated, and placed 14th, on Nov.

Penn captain Ilana Sinskin felt "fantastic." She and her fellow female fencers upset No. 4 Penn State, 15-12. The Quakers have lost to the Nittany Lions the last two years. "Penn State is the toughest team we've faced . I thought we were going to have a shot but I had no idea we were going to win," said Sinkin of the team's triumph over the perennial powerhouse and the defending national champions.

James "Booney" Salters still has the electric energy he had when he played on the Penn basketball team, the energy that recently earned him a spot in the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame. He said he is still riding high and basking in the "emotional" honor he received on January 19 at the Palestra, where he was inducted along with Donnie Carr of La Salle, Rap Curry of Saint Joseph's, and Claudrena Harold of Temple.

Most definitions of a strong home court advantage relate to crowd noise. However, for the Trinity squash team, it's the color scheme of the court that makes all the difference. "They've got two tri-glass-walled courts that are actually tinted blue and then the front wall is a solid painted blue, " Penn women's squash coach Jack Wyant said after the Quakers played at Trinity on Saturday.

Trinity's men's squash team came to Penn Friday night boasting the No. 1 national ranking and the nation's longest winning streak of any college sport. The Bantams last lost in February 1998, seven months before Google was incorporated and ten months before then-President Bill Clinton was impeached.

After beating Drexel's Omar Laalej last season, Penn's Jonathan Boym neglected to shake his opponent's hand. Drexel coach Tricia Udicious called the episode "embarrassing," and then-Quakers' coach Mark Riley ultimately forced Boym to return to the court and conform to tennis etiquette.

This year's women's swim meet against Navy was almost a carbon copy of last year's contest. The teams were evenly matched, the outcome was determined by the same race and the final score was relatively similar. But this time, a different team found itself on the winning end.