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.

Last Saturday night, in Columbia, S.C., presidential hopeful Barack Obama delivered a rousing victory speech following his triumph in the South Carolina Democratic primary. "This election is about the past versus the future," Obama told a throng of supporters.

Wednesday night at Ringe Courts played out more like a Disney movie than a squash match. And as they seem to do only in the movies, the underdog Quakers pulled out a seemingly miraculous 5-4 comeback win over undefeated No. 1 Princeton. It was a perfect setup: a heated rivalry pitting two undefeated squads against each other, a coach looking for his first win over his alma mater and an underdog looking to avenge last year's loss .

Winning an Ivy League championship two consecutive years is a lofty goal, but the Penn women's tennis team plans to do just that. Mike Dowd, head coach since 1996, believes he has the unique combination of players to do it. "This is a special team," Dowd said.

When the Penn women's squash team showed up at Princeton last season, it was full of optimism after just gaining the No. 1 spot in the country. Already, the Quakers had an eye on the possibility of winning their first national title since 2000. But the Tigers soundly dashed those dreams, as the Red and Blue finished fourth in the country, unable to recover from the 7-2 loss.

After compiling a 2-12 record and finishing dead last in the Ivy League last year, things are not looking too much better for the Tigers this season. Princeton finally snapped a 12 game losing streak with a 60-46 victory over Dominican on Sunday, improving its overall win-loss to an abysmal 3-12.

The tension is evident on the men's tennis team. Coming into its matchup tomorrow against Saint Joseph's (0-1), two lines of thought permeate the squad. Coach Nik DeVore has been warning his players against underestimating opponents, a mental flaw that hurt the Quakers early on in their meet against Drexel, where they eventually earned their first and only win of the season.

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.