Punchless Harvard caused Penn no trouble last night as the Quakers remained on the championship track with an 83-67 win in Boston. A 21-point, 8-rebound, 6-assist night from Mark Zoller paced the Red and Blue, who started out on a 7-0 run and never trailed.

Let's talk about the mid-range jumper. The what? The mid-range jumper. Never heard of it. No? Well, do I have news for you. The so-called lost art has been found and will be on traveling exhibition for the rest of the season at gyms around the Ivy League.

If you think having a men's hockey team in addition to men's basketball would get you a full dose of both sports, you might be surprised. At Dartmouth, which has both, fans don't get to see the best of both worlds. The Quakers will head up to Hanover, N.

At a school like Penn, coming from Michigan isn't anything special. But for a women's lacrosse player, claiming the Great Lake State as home is a rarity. Junior midfielder Allison Ambrozy comes from Grosse Point, Mich. Ambrozy is one of only two players not from the Mid-Atlantic or New England, and the only member of this year's squad from west of the Appalachians.

Though the Penn women's lacrosse 2006 campaign yielded a 10-win season for the first time since 1982, their fourth-place finish in the league left them out of the NCAA Tournament and hungry for revenge.

Michael Jordan had to wear his North Carolina shorts underneath his uniform every time he played. Wade Boggs wouldn't be caught dead in the batter's box without eating chicken before the game. And playoff beard? Try an entire season without a haircut. That's what Mark Zoller did for his past two years playing for Penn.

2007 is a new year - and if Penn can overcome some key losses and Ivy League opposition that is among the best in the nation, this may be the Quakers' year to reach the top.

Last year, perhaps Penn's biggest weakness was zone defenses. This trend, which was largely started by then-Brown and current Quakers coach Glen Miller, continued early in this season. But lately, the Quakers have had some more success against the zone. In their 83-71 win Saturday night over Cornell, Penn had 40 offensive possessions against the Big Red's various zone defenses and scored 34 points.

Jerin Smith could be playing for the Vanderbilt Commodores, the 12th-ranked school in the nation. Or she could have joined Texas A&M;, Texas Tech or Texas, all in the top 50. Erin Power was heavily recruited by her mom's alma mater, Marquette, currently No.

Brian Voelker doesn't expect a lot of his senior captain, David Cornbrooks. Even though the team lost its top three scorers from last year (Cornbrooks was fourth), Voelker, in his fifth year coaching Penn lacrosse, doesn't want him to step up and shoulder the burden.

While the Penn fencing team was back home preparing for this week's Ivy League Round Robin No. 2, several younger members of the team had the opportunity to trek out west to Denver, Colo. and participate in the Junior Olympics. Sophomores Abby Emerson, Ben Wieder, Matthew Kolasa, and freshmen Andrew Bielen and Alexis Baran participated in the competition that ran from Friday to Monday.

After losing 45 percent of its offensive production, the Quakers' lineup will be completely rebuilt when the team takes the field at Villanova on Friday. Attack. Penn has the least experience and depth here and coach Brian Voelker will start a trio of sophomores in Alex Weber, Casey O'Rourke and Craig Andrzejewski.

Spring is in the air. Punxsutawney Phil may disagree and Locust Walk may be lined with snow, but professional baseball teams have made their annual pilgrimages to Florida and Arizona, and in my mind that alerts the beginning of spring. And for Penn athletics, spring is just around the corner too.

Normally, I'm one of the first people to criticize the Ivy League for something, be it the postseason football ban or the scheduling across some sports. I tend to think that the league presidents are not trying to compete as a conference, but rather are just trying to keep the Ivy League reputation in place.

Entering the weekend with Cornell, Yale and Penn within a half-game in the Ivy League standings, three was a crowd for the Quakers. But Penn dealt a major blow to Cornell's championship hopes, and the Ivy title hunt will likely be a two-horse race. The good news for the Big Red is that they still get to face Yale this Friday, and a win would pull them into a tie for second.

Just because Ibrahim Jaaber doesn't flirt with double-digit steals in a weekend, it doesn't mean that he's not making the opposing offense skittish. The Ivy League's all-time leader in thefts has made a name for himself by taking the rock away from his counterparts - particularly those within the conference.

The strategy for beating the Big Green seems simple: don't foul Ashley Taylor. Yet teams cannot keep but sending her to the line, and Taylor has made them pay. The 5-foot-11 forward tied a school record by making 16 free throws, including 12 in the final two minutes against Yale, to lead Dartmouth to an eight-point win last Friday.