For South Africa, a net exporter of agricultural products, it may seem strange that the new year brought an import of squash. On Dec. 30, the Penn women's squash team boarded a plane and travelled 25 hours to Cape Town, South Africa. The NCAA allows squash teams to take one trip every four years, and coach Jack Wyant decided to take full advantage of the opportunity this year to give his team a cultural and athletic experience unlike any other.
Throughout its history, the Penn wrestling program has built a reputation for producing top heavyweight wrestlers. Most recently, heavyweight Matthew Feast made his run on the Quakers record books. The three-time All-American currently resides at third on Penn's all-time win list, with 118.
When Justin Fox was younger, his father - an excellent tennis player - took him onto the court and taught him how to play. The Long Island, N.Y. native has not put down his racquet since, becoming the No. 2 singles player in the country at the ripe age of 16 and winning the National Open at Texas.
Thousands of Saint Joseph's basketball fans previously unable to get tickets to home games might have their best shot during the 2008-2009 season. As the Hawks' Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse undergoes a $35 million renovation and expansion, St. Joe's will play next season's home games at the Palestra.
A determined second-half effort proved too little too late for the Quakers, who got off to a familiar nightmare start last night against Temple and fell, 80-64, at the Liacouras Center. Penn (5-12, 0-4 Big 5) lost its third contest in a row - all city-series matchups - to go winless in the Big 5 for the first time since the 2000-2001 season.
This year, the men's tennis team knows better than anyone that sharing is meant for the playground - not the Ivy title race. After two consecutive seasons of settling for joint Ivy League championships, the Quakers seek to shake off their defending co-champion Columbia and win the league outright for the first time in 37 years.
This year, the men's tennis team knows better than anyone that sharing is meant for the playground - not the Ivy title race. After two consecutive seasons of settling for joint Ivy League championships, the Quakers seek to shake off their defending co-champion Columbia and win the league outright for the first time in 37 years.
Throughout its history, the Penn wrestling program has built a reputation for producing top heavyweight wrestlers. Most recently, heavyweight Matthew Feast made his run on the Quakers record books. The three-time All-American currently resides at third on Penn's all-time win list, with 118.
When Justin Fox was younger, his father - an excellent tennis player - took him onto the court and taught him how to play. The Long Island, N.Y. native has not put down his racquet since, becoming the No. 2 singles player in the country at the ripe age of 16 and winning the National Open at Texas.
Teams scouting the Owls tend to focus their energies on stopping much-acclaimed junior Dionte Christmas. But while Christmas leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring, senior Mark Tyndale might be Temple's most important player. Second on the team to Christmas in points and rebounds per game with 15.
Last year, the Penn men's basketball team spoiled the homecoming of former coach Fran Dunphy by defeating his new team, Temple, 76-74, at the Palestra. But this season, it's the Owls who look to spoil any chance of the Red and Blue posting a "1" in their Big 5-standings win column.
The men's squash team couldn't have scripted a better way to kick off the new semester. The Quakers played some of their best squash of the season this weekend, knocking off Williams, Amherst and Bowdoin on a demanding road trip that required the team to play three matches in three cities within a 24-hour period.
For the women's swim team, the final score of this weekend's meet against Yale does not tell the whole story. Although the Quakers fell to the Bulldogs 186-114, coach Mike Schnur was more than pleased with the results, calling it the "best meet of the year by far.
The best the Quakers could hope for was probably a moral victory. Even that was well out of reach. Saint Joseph's dominating 82-42 victory over Penn on Saturday raises the prospect of a winless Big 5 season, which would be Penn's first since 2000-01. The Quakers visit Temple on Wednesday for their final non-conference game.
Like a fisherman dangling a juicy worm, the Saint Joseph's defense allowed Penn to get off anything it wanted from outside the arc. And the Quakers took the bait. On Saturday night, Penn scored 42 points against St. Joe's, and three-point shooting is a good candidate on which to place blame.
Through their first three matches, the women's squash team had lost just three of 27 individual matches. This weekend, they were even better. The No. 2 Quakers traveled up to Massachusetts and Connecticut, blowing out No. 7 Williams and No. 17 Amherst on Saturday and No.
It was a loss that, in the context of the grind-it-out Big 5, was almost unprecedented. Penn, just a year removed from a competitive 10-point loss against Saint Joseph's, found itself on the wrong end of an 82-42 drubbing, the second-largest margin of victory in Big 5 history.
Over the first nine games of the season, the Penn men's basketball team held its opponent under 70 points only once. In the six games since, the Quakers have accomplished that feat five times. Granted, those better defensive numbers have come against the likes of NJIT and Florida Gulf Coast - hardly top-flight or even mid-major-level competition - but there are signs of progress, especially in the interior.
Whether it was rocking the gym at local high school powerhouse Neumann-Goretti, or playing Division I at Saint Joseph's, Hawks sophomore D.J. Rivera has been playing basketball for quite some time. But for the first semester of this school year, he had to do something he'd never done before - he had to leave the court.
Against one swimmer, the Quakers just have no answer. Against another team, they may just have all the answers. The men will face off against a pair of Ivy foes tomorrow at noon in New Haven. They will take on Yale - and its star swimmer, U.S. National Team member Alex Righi - as well as Dartmouth, the team sitting at the bottom of the Ivy standings.
Saint Joseph's dominating 82-42 victory over Penn on Saturday raises the prospect of a winless Big 5 season, which would be Penn's first since 2000-01.
After spending ten days training in Cape Town, South Africa, the women's squash team continues on its travels this weekend. Next up on the itinerary? The slightly-less exotic locales of Williamstown, Mass., Amherst, Mass. and New Haven, Conn., as the team takes on Williams (4-5), Amherst (2-1) and Bowdoin (1-3).
As many Penn students journey across campus this weekend for Rush, the men's squash team will be on a trek of its own, rushing through New England for a series of crucial mid-season matches against non-conference foes. Riding a two-match winning streak after three early losses, Penn (2-3, 1-2 Ivy) looks to get to .
Solutions by The State News
