When the Penn women's tennis team hits the court at noon Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Williamsburg, Va., onlookers have every reason to doubt the Quakers. This is a team, the skeptics might say, that is bereft of senior leadership in the lineup and outmatched in the singles lineup.

Thursdays at the Penn Relays include many high-school and long-distance events, and this year's wasn't without notable finishes and records. The high-school field events were particularly impressive, with Kimberly Williams of Vere Tech in Jamaica setting a Relays record in the triple jump.

Tim Kaijala won two Heptagonal championships last season, in the 1,000-meter and as part of Penn's winning 4x800m relay team. This year, he finally took home the title in his bread-and-butter event, the 800m, besting the field with a 1:49.76 and leading the Quakers to a fourth-place finish at the Ivy Heps in Princeton, N.

Not 13 minutes into the biggest game of their lives, against No. 5 seed Maryland on Sunday, rock-solid Penn goalkeeper Sarah Waxman and the rest of the No. 4 Quakers were shell-shocked. "It hit me pretty hard," Waxman, a junior, said of the Terps' four quick goals.

The Quakers defeated the Terriers 11-5 behind a hat trick by junior attacker Rachel Manson and solid all-around defensive play in front of a near-capacity crowd at Rhodes Field.

With an 11-game winning streak, a No. 2 national ranking, and only one loss this year - to No. 1 Northwestern - women's lacrosse coach Karin Brower hoped for a top-three seed in the NCAA Tournament. She didn't get it.

When I was looking at colleges, a big factor in my 17-year-old head was sports. I saw one school's chancellor talk about how excited he is that his school no longer focuses on athletics. On a tour at another, I scoffed when the guide explained how while the school's teams are horrible, some students still cheer for them.

Coach John Cole is proud of how far he has brought his young Penn team. "[The media] didn't give us a chance, . counted us out early," Cole said. "And we won our first [division] title in 12 years." But with the Ivy League crown and a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line, the Quakers' magic ran out against Brown.

Playing under a new league format, the Penn softball team had a chance to take the first-ever Ivy League championship series. But Harvard's Shelly Madick wouldn't have it, as she limited the Penn bats to one hit in over nine innings. The Quakers fell 4-0 in game one, and the Crimson completed the sweep with a 4-2 victory in the second contest to earn the Ivy League title.

Here is an anecdote I am not proud to tell. As a freshman I vigorously debated with my roommate, Ben Kowitt, the value of admitting athletes to Penn, and I was the one who stubbornly believed that athletes did not have special or worthwhile role at Penn. However, something changed that year.

As a freshman living in Hill, I remember waking up at about 8 a.m. one Friday morning in April to a sound that I cannot really describe. It was noise, and a lot of it. I looked out my window onto Walnut Street, and it was like I was in another country (probably Jamaica), with food carts, souvenir stands, people dressed up in all sorts of outfits and track uniforms and a general atmosphere that was a bit alien to Penn.

The ice water felt good. Coaches Mike Dowd and Sara Schiffman and senior co-captain Ashley Lostritto got the celebratory bath on Saturday as the women's tennis team beat Columbia 7-0 to cap a perfect Ivy League season. As the music blared and his players celebrated, a wet coach Dowd described the mood: "It's a tremendous feeling," he said.

Having clinched the Ivy title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament last Wednesday against Princeton, the women lacrosse team's 12-4 win over Brown on Sunday may have seemed like icing on the cake. But the No. 3 Quakers (13-1, 7-0 Ivy) knew they still had a lot to play for.

Not again. For the second straight year, the Penn men's tennis team went into its final weekend needing two victories to secure an outright Ivy League title. And for the second straight year, the Quakers came up short. After defeating Cornell 6-1 at home Friday to put the team one win away from grabbing its first outright title in 36 years, Penn lost at Columbia 4-2, meaning the Quakers will have to share the crown for the second straight year, this time with the Lions.

A lot is made of the NFL Draft - TV coverage started the day after the Super Bowl, and Mel Kiper has had his four-round mock drafts up for some time. But for hundreds of players like undrafted free agent and former Yale quarterback Jeff Mroz, the year after the draft determines their future.

The stereotypical Ivy League athlete is smart, calculated and plays with his head - a student on the football field, but is also weak, slow and undersized. If that's true, former Brown linebacker Zak DeOssie should have played in the Big Ten. "He's one of those rare players you get in the Ivy League that can dominate" in the NFL, Brown coach Phil Estes said.

Princeton athletic director Gary Walters addressed an easy question at Monday's press conference, but didn't tackle a much harder one. The simple question - who will be the Tigers' next men's basketball coach? - had already been answered last Thursday, when Princeton put out an early announcement.