Anyone who has watched college football in the last decade show know that strength of schedule for teams on the national stage matters. A lot.

For Penn field hockey, the plan is pretty simple: find a way to win Ivy contests, even when those results don’t come easy. And sitting on a 7-1 record with two wins in conference, that is exactly what it has done.

It’s time to hit the refresh button for Penn Athletics. In the eyes of Athletic Director Grace Calhoun that means new uniforms, new initiatives, new programming and, most importantly, a new vision.

Follow along live as senior sports editor Riley Steele, senior sports reporter Steven Tydings and associate sports editor Jacob Adler cover Penn football's Ivy and home opener against Dartmouth.

Rewind to four weeks ago.  It was a clear late-August day and Sasha Stephens had just stepped onto Rhodes Field clad in Red and Blue for the first time.

Unlike last year, Penn volleyball coach Kerry Carr has the veteran firepower needed to keep the team from being reliant on freshmen.

Penn football’s recent upset victory over Villanova — the program’s first in more than 100 years — has sent tremors throughout the Penn Athletics community.

They say defense wins championships. But while its too early to talk about championships for Penn field hockey after only one Ivy League contest, it looks like the team’s offense is ready to prove this well-known maxim wrong. After losing to Liberty on the first day of the 2015 season, the Quakers’ attack has been nothing short of unstoppable in the three weeks since.

Tear, strain, break, and fracture. In the midst of a season packed with daily practices and arduous games, injuries are an unfortunate and inevitable part of all sports. For Penn women's soccer, injuries are the ill-fated reality with which they must deal.

Penn football's stunning win over Villanova last Thursday earned its players some hardware this week. On Monday, sophomore wide receiver Justin Watson was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week.

For all of Penn’s student-athletes, there exists a never-ending juggle between athletic and academic commitments.

Number 29 got the ball with just under seven minutes left in the first quarter of Penn sprint football’s home opener. With the Quakers already up 7-0, the freshman running back looked like he wasn’t going to gain any yardage as multiple Franklin Pierce players made contact with him.  But he shocked everyone by fending off the Quakers' opponents before reeling off another 20 yards into the endzone.

If Penn football is going to buck one of the longest active losing streaks in the sport, it might actually be the squad's lack of game experience in 2015 that helps it out.

This past weekend marked the first time in 2015 that each of the Red and Blue's fall sports teams were in action.

Nigel Blackwood and Gavin Barger were granted the special opportunity of training together at the highest level of junior soccer before ever donning the Red and Blue.

While Mike Beamish may have graced the gridiron at Franklin Field last Saturday, Penn sprint football will have to adjust to life without its former star and captain this season. Beamish participated for the fifth time in the program's annual Alumni Game last weekend, but not as a member of the Quakers' current team.

"For anything to be worth anything, it takes time."