At yesterday's NWCA All-Star Classic, fans witnessed a tale of two Matts. The invitational, which hosts nationally top-ranked wrestlers in each weight class annually, featured two Quakers for the first time. Matt Valenti, last year's NCAA national champion and top-ranked wrestler in the country at 133 pounds, faced Oklahoma State's No.

When the Penn swimming teams take on La Salle tonight, the women's team (3-2, 1-2 Ivy) will expect a win while the men's team (2-3, 0-3) will look forward to a close meet.

It was one of the first things I learned in my time at the DP: Be careful of criticizing athletes in the newspaper. They're amateur athletes, and, in the Ivy League, they're non-scholarship athletes, doing what they do for the love of the game. But this past weekend, an athlete at Penn made a pair of mental mistakes so bad in such a clutch situation that the guideline has to go out the window.

The Ivy League player of the week and the Atlantic 10 and Big 5 player of the week will face off against each other when Penn (2-0) takes on La Salle (2-0) in its third game and first Big Five contest of the season.

A huge part of the allure of college basketball is the opportunity for players to display their talent on a national stage and go up against the best in the country. That's what guard Dominick Mejia intended to do when he went to NC State in 2002, and he finally did last year when he lit up Duke for 25 points in a near-upset.

The Quakers men's basketball team posted a solid 68-49 win over Drexel tonight at the Palestra. Strong defense on both sides led to a multutude of turnovers for each team, but the Quakers were able to pull away early in the second half, and never trailed in the game.

When you enter the Palestra and look above the east basket, you see flags representing the Big 5 schools. While Penn has created great rivalries with Villanova, Saint Joseph's, Temple and La Salle, it is the Philadelphia school without a flag that Penn should have its greatest rivalry with.

In a tight contest between two of the Ivy League's best teams, it was the freshmen for both Penn and Princeton who had the greatest impact. The Penn women lost in a surprisingly close meet to the 25th-ranked Tigers, 157-138, but easily defeated Cornell, 234-66, Saturday in Ithaca, N.

It was a miracle on 33rd Street yesterday for the Weenies of The Daily Pennsylvanian. The non-sports staff defeated a clearly superior DPOSTM squad 14-7 in a highly controversial game at Franklin Field in the 122nd Annual Kamin Cup. The estimated crowd of three people and two bicycles witnessed the spectacle, as the Weenies' travesty of a team featured only Photo and Street ringers and failed to have a girl on the field at all times, a flagrant violation of Cup rules.

Ibrahim Jaaber has made a living out of patience. But he doesn't have to wait anymore. In high school, Jaaber was snubbed by the programs he had been eyeing. But he had the good sense to take a prep year and end up at a college that needed his talents. At Penn, he waited patiently to step into the offense behind Tim Begley - picking his spots, knowing his role and learning what he could along the way.

Missing the core of its starting roster, the Penn wrestling team still managed to secure a hard-fought second place yesterday at the Palestra in the Keystone Classic. Led by 125-pound champion senior Matt Eveleth and 157-pound winner sophomore Matt Dragon, the Quakers finished 13 points behind tournament champion Columbia.

Sophomore Maggie Burgess took only one shot during last night's 54-53 victory over Lehigh, but that one basket was the most critical of the game. With 15 seconds remaining and the Quakers trailing 53-52, senior Lauren Pears hit Burgess from the baseline. And Burgess sunk her jumper from off the left block, putting Penn (1-0, 0-0 Ivy) up by one.

There was no need for dramatics this time around. Monica Naltner posted a double-double, Joey Rhoads led the way with 25 points, and the Penn women's basketball team rolled to a 77-65 triumph over Rider yesterday.

ITHACA, N.Y. - Different opponent, same story. For four of its last five games, the Quakers have suffered a close loss resulting from special teams mistakes. So it was an appropriate finale at Cornell when the Red and Blue lost 28-27 after failing a trick play for a two-point conversion with under two minutes to go.

It wasn't always pretty, and it wasn't over after 15 minutes like Drexel's blowout. But it was a win in the home opener with coach Glen Miller making his debut on the Palestra's home bench.

The cream of the crop will grapple tonight to determine the strongest wrestlers in the country. The NWCA All-Star Classic takes place in Dallas, and No. 14 Penn has two representatives poised to battle against their top-ranked counterparts. Defending national champion and current national No.

Saturday against Cornell, the men's and women's squash teams were just going through the motions. And going through the motions was all they needed to do as each team decisively defeated the Big Red, 9-0, at Ringe Courts to start a promising season on the right track.