Penn basketball juniors Matt MacDonald and Caleb Wood are wearing the Red and Blue for the first time this year — but that’s about all they have in common. Despite their age, the two juniors are in their first year on Penn's men's basketball team after they both arrived via transferring from other schools.

Undoubtedly, there are many people across Penn’s campus and the greater basketball landscape who are surprised by the immediate impact made by freshman AJ Brodeur. Just don’t count the 6-foot-8 power forward or his coach among them.

Managing the academic workload at Penn isn’t easy. Balancing that rigor with the demands of being a varsity athlete is only a further challenge. So handling the student-athlete grind while formally helping others do the same should be downright inconceivable.

Championships are won in the offseason; so goes the age-old cliché. This saying holds true for the members of the Penn Squash team as well, but there’s another, more accurate saying for what they do in the offseason: championships are won all over the world. Just as it does with other sports, the offseason presents an extended opportunity for squash players to hone their craft and improve specific aspects of their game, be it fitness, technique, or movement.

Freshman Kristen Sun is swimming her heart out on both ends of the Pacific. Sun represented Hong Kong, her home country, in the 2016 Asian Championships, in Tokyo Japan, from November 17 to 20.

Not only did Nexxt Level train Penn sophomore point guard Jake Silpe, but they also worked with Villanova’s sophomore point guard Jalen Brunson. In fact, the two New Jersey natives met regularly for workout sessions over the summer at Nexxt Level’s training facility in South Jersey.

When Nicole Vaiani first started learning how to fence, she would beat her older brother all the time.

It sounds paradoxical: Matt MacDonald is, at the same time, a veteran, a captain, and a first-year player. That is, of course, due to the fact that the junior guard is a transfer.

Training alongside Penn’s thirty-one grapplers are four wrestlers working full-time to win gold at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Counting the three games this year, Penn basketball has played 62 games in the past three seasons.

Not all games are won on the court. Sometimes, the real differences are made on the sidelines, at the gym, or in the locker room.

Penn loves beating Princeton. That sentiment is as old as the Penn-Princeton rivalry itself. Ask any Penn athletics fan and they will likely tell you that a win against Princeton is a slight notch below an Ivy League championship.

Success breeds success. After dominating seasons last year, Penn squash will look to build upon its excellent foundations with stellar new recruits for this go around.

You can’t say it was an ordinary offseason for Penn squash. In a move that showed great faith in the Quakers' coaching staff, it was announced that both Jack Wyant and Gilly Lane would be getting promotions in the Penn squash program.

As Penn squash counts down the days until they set off on this newest adventure, the teams will be looking to their captains to see which direction they’re headed. Last season was undoubtedly a triumphant one for both sides of the Red and Blue.

January 14, 2017. Head coach of Penn women’s squash Jack Wyant may not personally have the date circled on his calendar, but the eyes of the college squash community will undoubtedly be on Philadelphia as Harvard heads to Ringe for a rematch of last year’s Howe Cup finals. But before either team makes it to that January matchup, they’ll have to battle through the brunt of their non-conference slate if they want to retain their spots at the top of the CSA rankings.

Take an easy-going, gun-slinging quarterback from California.