Quarterback Brendan McNally didn't know when he would get to make his Quakers debut. Now he's only one injury away from becoming the starter. The 6-foot-2 sophomore spent his freshman year and the first three games of this season behind the two-headed logjam of Robert Irvin and Bryan Walker, who were vying for the No.

Tom Haxton wakes up everyday before dawn and heads to the Schuylkill River trails for a run. After that, it's off to Franklin Field for a workout with the Philadelphia Runner Track Club. And sometimes, when the fourth-year physics Ph. D. student has finished his research for the day, Haxton will head out for a short evening run as well.

Columbia will add M. and W. Squash Finally, every university in the Ivy League will have squash. Columbia, fresh off jumpstarting a $100 million athletic-fundraising campaign, announced yesterday that it make its club squash teams varsity ones. The promotion process will end in fall 2011, when the team will officially begin full varsity competition.

The Penn volleyball team won two out of three matches this weekend, but nobody is happy about it. The Quakers did start off the weekend with a convincing 3-0 victory over Brown, though the Bears (2-15, 0-5 Ivy) sit at the bottom of the Ivy League standings.

It must feel nice to play close to home. After a slate of tournaments that took the men's golf team up to New York and down to Delaware this fall, the Quakers will get their only chance to play in the Philadelphia area. Penn will tee up at the Philadelphia Cricket Club for the annual Big Five Classic on Saturday and Sunday.

Two of the league's most powerful offenses clash tomorrow as Princeton visits Providence to face Brown. Through four contests, the teams have combined to put up over 230 points this year and each collected over 500 yards of offense in its last game. Bears' quarterback Mike Dougherty averages 331.

Val Cloud should be happy. Her field hockey team just completed a thrilling 3-2 comeback win at Delaware on Wednesday, which she called one of the best wins in program history. But with a game against perennial Ivy doormat Columbia looming, there's one thing she just can't get out of her mind.

NEW YORK--When Joe Sandberg received his 22nd and final handoff, he finished off one of the best performances of his career. It was fourth down and he needed only one yard, but he got 13, enough for his fourth score of the game. Sandberg finished with 197 yards, an average of just under nine per carry.

The Dartmouth women soccer team doesn't seem to believe that the closer you get to the goal, the better your chance of scoring. The Big Green have been far more effective from outside of the box than in. Struggling on offense, they have only scored eight goals in 11 games.

After a blowout win over Georgetown last week, Penn is ready to put the past behind it and restart its hunt for an Ivy crown when it takes on Columbia in New York tomorrow.

After last weekend's emphatic wins over Cornell and Columbia, the Penn volleyball team will attempt to duplicate that feat when it faces Brown tonight at 7 p.m. and Yale on Saturday at 4 p.m. Both games will be played at the Palestra. Tonight's contest pits the Quakers (8-6, 2-1 Ivy) against a Brown team (2-11, 0-3 Ivy) that was swept last weekend by league-leader Dartmouth.

Now is when the dividends for Penn's difficult early schedule are supposed to pay off. And the men's soccer team (4-4-2, 1-0-0 Ivy) will look to cash in when it faces Ivy League powerhouse Dartmouth (6-2-2, 0-0-1) Saturday at Rhodes Field.

The MRI results from quarterback Robert Irvin's ailing shoulder aren't expected until today, but the Quakers won't be calling his number for the rest of the 2007 season. And although Irvin is a junior, they might be calling it in 2009. Irvin said yesterday that his shoulder, which he had surgery on over the summer, has not improved in the last several weeks.

Quakers football coach Al Bagnoli knew he had a problem to solve when he pieced together this year's recruiting class. In this case, he didn't mind a bit of overkill to get the job done. The result was three freshman kickers on the 2007 Quakers, including starting placekicker Andrew Samson.

One has to wonder why a Serbian rower who barely knew the rules of football would want to join the Columbia squad, or why the Lions would want him on their team. Well, it helps when he's 6-foot-7 and over 300 pounds. A disgruntled member of the Columbia crew team, Stefan Savic wanted out, but he also wanted to remain a Lion.

Outside hitter Laura Black spikes a ball wide. But she has no time to hang her head - it's time for one of the Penn volleyball team's many cheers. After every point, win or lose, the six players meet in the middle of the court and do some sort of jig and chant.

NEWARK, Del., Oct. 10 - The Penn field hockey team hadn't earned a signature victory. Keyed by two goals from senior Meghan Rose, the Quakers came back from a 2-0 second-half deficit to beat the Blue Hens 3-2.