Consecutive 9-0 losses to the nation's top two teams were major setbacks in the Quakers' quest to be considered among the nation's elite. But now, No. 4 men's squash can say it's in the ballpark. Penn split the weekend's matches at Ringe Courts, losing to No.

Charge and retreat. Advance and regress. These words were used more than just to describe the heated action on the fencing strip, but could also trace out Penn men's and women's fencing teams this season. Yesterday at the Ivy League Round Robin No. 1, both were charging.

The Tar Heel State was not friendly to the men's tennis team this weekend. On a Friday-to-Sunday road trip to North Carolina, the Red and Blue were shut out in both their matches this weekend by 7-0 scores. Both defeats came at the hands of ACC powerhouses.

Penn's flicker of hope for an improbable Ivy League women's basketball championship was short-lived. On Friday, Dartmouth (5-2 Ivy) continued its roll in a big way, as the Big Green won, 70-43. Harvard (6-1) held off the Quakers, 87-74, to maintain its spot atop the Ivy standings.

Seductresses and torrid love affairs - these were the topics of conversation last night at the Young Friend of Penn's second-annual Valentine's Day celebration at the Penn Museum. Almost 200 people attended "Ancient Girls Gone Wild," in which museum researches regaled the audience with the drama-filled lives and sinful details of some of ancient history's most impassioned women.

The last few years have been anything but consistent for Dartmouth basketball. The Big Green have finished everywhere in the standings from third down to last, with Ivy League records ranging from .500 to .071. And when the current seniors began their careers, Terry Dunn was not yet the team's coach.

Sometimes you just need a wake-up call. And that's exactly what the men's squash team got last week against No. 3 Princeton. Penn dropped all nine matches, but maybe that's just the motivation it needs to ensure success in this weekend's home matches against No.

Just as Bill Clinton was beginning to settle in to his second term as president, the Dartmouth men's basketball team knocked off Penn in a thrilling overtime contest in Philadelphia. Since then, the Big Green (7-12, 2-4 Ivy) have failed to hold up their end of the deal in the Ivy League series, losing in each of their last 19 games against the Quakers (12-8, 3-1 Ivy).

Taming a Thundering Herd from West Virginia. That is the task that Penn women's tennis team will face when Marshall rolls into West Philadelphia later today for a match that promises to excite and entertain. The Herd will arrive at Penn boasting a 4-2 overall record and a roster that includes one of the most talented singles players in the country, 18th-ranked Kellie Schmitt.

When Pia Ramchandani first signed up for "Introduction to Electrical and Systems Engineering" last semester, she expected a typical lecture course. But for this Engineering freshman, the class turned out to be a bit more exciting. Students in this course, which takes two semesters to complete, learn how to program robots.

After the first five years of Philadelphia's experiment with private management of district public schools, a study released last week indicates that it may be time to go back to the drawing board. But not so fast, education officials say. According to the study, released in part by Philadelphia-based Research for Action, students in the privately managed public schools - schools controlled by Educational Management Organizations - did not score higher than students in regular Philadelphia district schools on national and state tests, despite the extra money that is spent on these students Six private institutions, both for-profit and nonprofit - including Penn - manage the 41 EMO schools in the Philadelphia District.

Yale's early-season reign on top of the Ivy League was a short one. The Penn men's basketball team completed its Ivy-home-opening weekend sweep with a 67-53 win over Harvard to take back its conference lead. The win moved the Quakers to 5-1 Ivy, while the Elis dropped their second game in the Ancient Eight (6-2) with a 1-point loss to Cornell.

Instead of taking your valentine to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to impress her with your cultured intelligence, why not take her there to see the nudes? This Saturday afternoon, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be holding a scavenger hunt - with a special Valentine's Day twist.

Other voices To the Editor: The restructuring of graduate student government has been reported in the DP ("Merger in Grad Gov't Sparks Criticism," DP, 12/1/07; "Future of grad groups still hazy," DP, 12/12/06), but one aspect of this story hasn't been covered.

Granted it was against a 7-12, 2-4 Ivy Dartmouth team without its best player at the Palestra, Penn looked great. The Quakers destroyed a sloppy Dartmouth team with pressure defense and a solid inside game for the 73-53 win. It was Penn's first home Ivy game this season, and they looked energized and much more comfortable than they were in John J.

When trying to come up with a way to describe this weekend's Ivy League meet, junior All-American Ron Berkowsky said it best. "This is the most important meet of the year." Both the men's and women's fencing teams will compete in the first of two Ivy League weekends, in which they will eventually play a total of six other Ivy League teams.

The City Council took the next step in protecting the health of Philadelphians yesterday by approving a bill that bans trans fats from almost all foods in restaurants across the city. The first part of the bill will take effect Sept. 1, when restaurants will no longer be permitted to fry foods using trans fats-based oils or use trans fats-based spreads.