Ask anybody, and they’ll tell you that college is the time to change who you are. But Penn swimming phenom Virginia Burns didn’t foresee the transformation she would undergo.

Performing under the weight of expectations is no easy task. Just ask Penn women’s lacrosse. Heading into the 2015 season, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Quakers would end the season with an Ivy League Championship.

But now, Ferguson’s 2015 graduation leaves a gaping hole in the net as Penn women’s lacrosse seeks to bounce back from a disappointing season in which saw the Quakers fail to win the Ivy League for the first time since 2006.

It’s bad enough losing one all-time talent. Penn women’s lacrosse coach Karin Corbett has to find a way to handle losing three.

With a highly touted recruiting class headlined by an astonishing five U.S. Lacrosse High School All-Americans, the building blocks are in place for the program to prove that last year was a fluke and return to national prominence once again.

Over a decade and a half later, Doktor is readying for his senior season wearing the Red and Blue and leading the offense for Penn men’s lacrosse. The memories of 15 years ago remain salient in the attacker’s mind as he readies to turn a new chapter in his career in the sport.

Penn men’s lacrosse had an up-and-down season in 2015, failing to defend the Ivy League Tournament Championship it had earned the year prior.

It’s a Tuesday night game at Villanova for Penn women’s basketball. At tipoff, in the first chair on the bench, senior captain Keiera Ray intently watches a contest that she won’t be able to enter. Donning her Penn sweats, she is still one of the players. And with clipboard in hand, she is now one of the coaches as well.

This summer, however, three members of the men’s lacrosse team will add white to their color scheme and play for a different and perhaps more meaningful purpose.

The mystique of Philadelphia college basketball has been well-documented – with the Palestra being named the nation’s most “Hallowed Hall” in a December 2014 NCAA.com feature – and that allure makes it quite difficult for local figures to stay away. For Penn men’s basketball, consider Joe Mihalich Jr. the latest victim.

Cliched or not, practice makes perfect. Just ask Marie Stephan. From the start of the 2014-2015 season, the sophomore has won 25 regular season matches without dropping a single one.

When Wesley Saunders’ final three-point attempt clanked out last March in the first round of the NCAA tournament the Crimson spotlight immediately shifted to Siyani Chambers.

It was early March when Jake Silpe, in the midst of his second semester as a senior in high school, received some very unexpected news. Jerome Allen, the University of Pennsylvania men’s basketball head coach, had just been fired, with several games still left to play on the Quakers’ schedule. Allen had recruited Silpe to Penn, and once he signed his letter of intent, Silpe was fully under the assumption Allen would be his coach for his college basketball career.

On an overcast afternoon in November, the lines between student and student-athlete blurred on the turf of Franklin Field.

It was time to bring in the big guns. In the face of lagging student interest and attendance, Penn Athletics began a process of reorganization last summer that ended with Roger Reina coming back into the fold as senior associate athletic director for external affairs after nine years away.

Better late than never. For Penn Athletics, the timeless idiom has never been more true, as several transfer students have found their respective ways to 33rd Street and quickly made an impact on the Quakers’ athletic program.

What is it like to dedicate your entire life to one institution? Perhaps no question is more pertinent to Penn swimming coach, Mike Schnur.