Casual volleyball fans and players tend to focus on the high-flying jumpers and fast-paced kills, but on coach Kerry Carr’s team, the focus has always been singular: defense.

Even after Jerome Allen reeled in seven intriguing recruits, the glaring need for a legitimate big man remained. That changed Thursday.

With a month already gone, we break down the contenders and pretenders for the men’s soccer season.

Entering tonight’s Ivy League home opener, Penn has not dropped a game to Cornell since 1995. During their last seven meetings, the Quakers have outscored the Big Red 18-1.

The Student Activities Council, which funds over 200 student groups, attempted to start afresh by dropping previously accrued debt, lifting the freeze on funding for new student groups that had been in place since January and introducing a new penalty-based debt policy.

With a 15-game Ivy League win streak on the line, Penn heads to Dartmouth to play the first-ever night game in the 89-year history of Memorial Field — on national television.

Starting Oct. 7, the Rave will offer a student rate of $8 seven days a week.

Two College sophomores spent the summer constructing the Pre-Med Authority, a social-media network tailored to pre-med students.

The University announced Thursday that it received a $13.6-million donation from 1950 College graduate Roy Vagelos and his wife, Diana, to establish a new interdisciplinary program focusing on alternative energy.

DateMySchool, an online dating website that targets college students, launched at Penn in August.

A partnership between the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and the Undergraduate Assembly at Penn will pay for students who are interested in graduate school to grab coffee at Starbucks or Cosi with a graduate student mentor.

The Penn Women’s Center will unveil Penn’s first eco-kitchen on Friday afternoon.

The South Asia Studies Department is beginning to rebuild after experiencing troubles over the past few years.

Judith Rodin, Penn’s former president, was named the 71st most powerful woman in the world by a Forbes magazine ranking last month.

“Share the Road,” an annual campaign educating bicyclists, motorists and pedestrians, kicked off at Penn on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, SAC canceled student groups’ debt and lifted its moratorium — originally put in place when SAC’s reserve fund dropped to a low point last semester — on preventing new groups from receiving funding.

Eugene Tinsley, who posed as a Penn student, pled guilty this year to two counts each of theft, forgery, receiving stolen property and securing execution of documents by deception.