In a 2006 season filled with disappointments, outfielder Joey Boaen was one of Penn's few consistent bright spots. Boaen, now a senior, led last year's squad in batting average (.349), home runs (4), and slugging percentage (.596). While last year proved to be his breakout season, 2006 was not kind to his team.

It should be a mighty fine Memorial Day or July 4 in the Jones house this year. All big brother James needed to have a shot at an Ivy League playoff for the second time in his eight seasons as Yale coach was a win over younger brother Joe's Columbia team. James was 6-1 all time against Joe, had never lost to him at home and had won five straight overall.

The Ivy League has always has somewhat of a masochistic side. Between disallowing athletic scholarships and prohibiting teams from participating in the football playoffs, the Ancient Eight has spent the better part of a century doing what it can to sabotage its athletic prowess.

The Penn track team spent the past weekend rekindling some old magic. "This weekend was a throwback to some of our championship teams," men's head coach Charlie Powell said. "Our athletes went out there and gave everything they possibly could.

Not for the first time, Temple coach Fran Dunphy took a seat a few places down from Drexel's Bruiser Flint for a night of Palestra basketball. This time, though, Dunphy cradled a half-eaten bag of popcorn.

HANOVER, N.H. Feb. 24 - A funny thing happened with 8:34 left in the Penn-Dartmouth game Saturday night: the Big Green took the lead. Mark Zoller's absence in the post set off a chain reaction of defensive lapses after he picked up a pair of early fouls that forced him to sit out all but three minutes of the first half.

When the women's basketball team was badly blown out by Harvard and Dartmouth two weeks ago, Penn coach Pat Knapp knew that changes would be necessary. In New England, the Quakers were helpless defending the perimeter, as their opponents shot 55.6 percent overall and an unearthly 16-for-27 (59.

VILLANOVA, Pa., Feb. 23 - Penn's 10-6 win over Villanova Friday looked more like a pick-up lacrosse game than a collegiate one. For the preseason-No. 12 Quakers, that was just fine. In a game decided more by battles for ground balls than by offense, Penn was happy to grind out the physical war and return from snow-covered Villanova Stadium with a well-earned win in its season opener.

The women's basketball seniors could not have scripted a better home finale. Two weeks after losing to Dartmouth by 27, the Quakers got their revenge, hanging on to upset the second-place Big Green, 56-53. "It's great for the seniors," coach Pat Knapp said.

Both the men and women's track teams placed third in their respective meets at the Ivy Heptagonals in New York City this weekend. The men rode a strong performance in the heptathalon, as Kyle Calvo won the event with 5,427 points and Max Westman came in third with 5,239 points.

BOSTON, Feb. 23 - Coming into its game against Penn, Harvard was on a four-game losing streak, including losses to Princeton and Brown. So for Penn coach Glen Miller, a comfortable 83-67 win on the road wasn't enough.

In his final collegiate match, Gilly Lane walked away from the College Squash Association National Team Championships with three wins and the Skillman Sportsmanship Award. But he didn't walk away on a good note. He may have succeeded Princeton star Yasser El-Halaby as the Skillman Award winner, but despite Lane's best efforts, the Quakers finished fifth in the three-day tournament after losing their first round match against Yale.

Who knew that the Penn men's and women's fencing teams would throw in a late entry to this year's Oscars? The Cambridge, Mass. blockbuster that was the Ivy League Round Robin No. 2 had it all: tension, drama and a nailbiting finish. The setup to this weekend's match could not have been more exciting.

Better late than never. The Penn gymnastics team brought down the house yesterday, seizing the Ivy Classic Championships with a score of 191.550, the first time this season the team has broken the 190 mark. Cornell took second (190.600), followed by Yale (190.

If you left early, you may have thought the women's lacrosse team's season was in trouble. If you arrived late, you would have seen just how dominant the Quakers can be. After a slow start, No. 20 Penn (1-0) exploded in the second half, ending the game on a 7-0 run to dominate Drexel (0-1), 12-4.

Breaking six school records would seem to be a good way for the Penn men's swimming team to shake up the standings. Yet for it and the rest of the Ivy League, things remained very much the same. Despite the new records, the Quakers could not improve on last year's mark as they finished eighth out of nine teams at this weekend's EISL championships.

HANOVER, N.H., Feb. 24 - Introducing: "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," written by Glen Miller and his Penn squad. The first team to show up was the dominant Quakers who have ran through the Ivy League this year, blowing out opponents by nearly 15 points a game.