In its quest to catch up to perennial Ivy League powerhouses, the women's swimming team had the best season in program history. Unfortunately for the Quakers, the teams they were chasing got better as well. The Penn swimmers came up just short in reaching their elusive third place goal at the Ivy League Championships, finishing only 49 points behind Yale.

The Big Red got a monster game from center Andrew Naeve, shot 52 percent from the floor and had two second-half threes each from Ryan Wittman and Geoff Reeves to not only stay close the entire time, but to take a lead at the Palestra with 12 minutes to go.

It was a wild weekend for the Penn women's basketball team, in which - for better and for worse - nothing really went as expected. After getting picked apart by then last-place Columbia 65-46 in New York City on Friday, the Quakers (9-13, 4-5 Ivy) made the long trip up to Ithaca, N.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Recovering from "the most disappointing day of squash I've ever had" wasn't easy for senior and co-captain Paula Pearson or her Penn teammates. And it was a bittersweet weekend for them at the Howe Cup in New Haven. A No. 2 seed in the championship tournament, the Quakers expected nothing less than at least a berth in the final - and a national title was well within their grasp.

Saturday started and ended well for the women's tennis team. But the time in between left much to be desired. After sweeping the doubles against No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth, the Quakers lost the singles 5-1 to fall in the overall match, 5-2. The team rebounded with an easy 5-0 win over Georgetown (1-2) only hours afterward.

It's not often that any Penn team gets a chance to face the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, let alone three top-20 teams in as many days. But that is exactly what the men's tennis team has on its plate this weekend as it heads into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships, to be held in Chicago.

The road to the Ivy League title was always destined to go through the Palestra. But for the first time this year, one of its main challengers actually will. Cornell, a half game out of the Ivy League lead, will make its annual trip to Philadelphia with its season in the balance.

If it was at all apprehensive about its upcoming weekend match against a nationally ranked team, the Penn women's tennis team failed to show it. "This is a team we always look forward to playing. They're tough," captain Julia Koulbitskaya said about No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth.

The women's squash team would like nothing more to than to get a second chance at Princeton. Just over two weeks ago, Penn saw its undefeated season end after a 7-2 romp by the Tigers. But in order to see an opportunity for revenge, the Quakers (8-1) will have to get through Williams (9-5), the first team they will face today during the Howe Cup in New Haven, Conn.

The disappointment of not making the bus for the championships did not get members of the men's and women's swimming teams down. Instead of traveling to Princeton for the Ivy League championships or EISL championships, those swimmers will compete in the ECAC Championships in Massachusetts this weekend.

Remember those "I Love This Game" NBA commercials? They were talking about people like Columbia freshman point guard Patrick Foley. Foley's love-affair with the game began as a little kid. "My father played in college at Seton Hall and . I've just been around him my whole life," Foley said.

With a thrilling win over Yale last weekend, Cornell actually bumped Penn into first place in the Ivy League, giving the Quakers control of their own destiny. On Saturday, the Big Red (13-9, 6-2 Ivy) will attempt to steal the conference's top spot and undo what it did for Penn (15-8, 6-1 Ivy) a week ago.

Coming into the weekend, Penn, Cornell and Yale were within a half a game of each other in the Ivy title race, but the Quakers made sure that didn't last. Against a Big Red squad that was a whole lot tougher than most Penn fans would have thought, the Quakers eked out an 83-71 win that was closer than the score might indicate.

To quote Frank Sinatra, the Quakers will "try to make a brand new start of it in old New York this weekend." One week after being shellacked by both Harvard and Dartmouth, the womnen's basketball team (8-12, 3-4 Ivy) will look to rebound and regain ground in the Ivy League.

If the Penn wrestling team is going to make a move, it will have to be soon. A week after being soundly defeated by Cornell and then losing a disappointing match to Columbia, the Quakers will try to turn it around this weekend with three scheduled matches.

When Columbia takes the floor tonight at the Palestra, it will be clear to even the casual basketball fan who its anchors are. This is a squad that runs through its big men.

PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 15 - It might only be Day One of the 2007 Ivy League Women's Swimming Championship, but Penn has already made history. "We had a finalist in every event, and that's the first time that's happened in school history," coach Mike Schnur said.