It all starts with Jerel Blades. The winger is on the small side — only 5-foot-7 — but he doesn’t let that affect him. After all, the defense has to catch him first.

Emily Sands and Emma Loving stayed focused during the offseason after bursting onto the scene for the Red and Blue in their rookie seasons in 2016.

DP Sports released its Soccer Issue on Thursday, previewing the season ahead and the matchups on tap this weekend. But what about the rest of Penn Athletics? Here's what the other squads who don the Red and Blue will be up to over the next few days:

One player who looked particularly fit and sharp at the start of the season was sophomore winger Dami Omitaomu. While many of the team plied their trade at local soccer clubs across the country, from New Hampshire to California, Omitaomu’s summer situation stood out for several reasons.

After losing their first two matches of the season 0-2 to Monmouth and Bowling Green last weekend, Penn men’s soccer will look to rebound this Sunday at home against Seton Hall.

The Quakers (0-2-2) will look to break out of their scoring rut as they return home this Saturday to take on Bucknell (1-4-0). Through four games this season, the Red and Blue have only squeaked across one goal: a 12-yard strike off the foot of senior midfielder Erica Higa in the team's most recent game against UC Riverside.

Penn field hockey struggled out of the gate in its opening weekend, falling to Rutgers by a score of 1-0, and to top-ranked UNC, 3-1.  

With it being their first weekend on the road, the team performed well while working out some of their early season kinks. Friday night's contest with UC Irvine ended in a scoreless, double-overtime draw, while Sunday's contest against UC Riverside resulted in a 1-1 tie.

After lighting up the box score in her first three matches as a member of Penn volleyball, freshman outside hitter Parker Jones is our first Player of the Week for the new school year. 

Two narrow losses provided a somber start to Penn men’s soccer’s season, with a pair of 2-0 defeats at the hands of Monmouth and Bowling Green frustrating the Quakers over the weekend.

The Red and Blue kicked off their season under new coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley at the George Mason Invitational this weekend, winning two out of their three matches in Virginia.  

The men, on their way to a dominant first-place finish, packed a remarkable nine runners into the the top ten spots. Leading the charge was senior captain Christopher Luciano, whose 15:24.79 was just milliseconds behind the event’s top finisher, Zachary Michon from St. Joseph’s.  

The Penn Cross Country program has never been more successful than it was in 2016. So much so that Coach Steve Dolan said that their accomplishments “raised the bar in terms of what’s possible.” While the team has entirely new leaders this season, the mindset remains the same: the Quakers are the team to beat in the Ivy League.

The Red and Blue (0-2) will head to Southern California for a pair of non-conference games this weekend, as the Quakers will take on UC Irvine (1-1-1) on Friday before facing UC Riverside (1-2-1) Sunday night.

On Sunday, the Quakers (0-0) will host top-ranked North Carolina, but just two days before that they will play at home against Rutgers. While the Tar Heels (1-1) clearly present a more challenging matchup, the Red and Blue are resolved to approach both games with the same preparation and mentality.

With fall athletics underway, many Penn teams will be vying for Ivy League and even national glory. Which team has the best chances of claiming or defending a trophy? Three of the Daily Pennsylvanian sports editors talked it out.

Taking place in a southeast Mexican region called the Riviera Maya, Morales showed off her aquatic abilities in the area’s cenotes — underground sinkholes that some Mayan natives consider a gateway to the Underworld — giving the wakeboarding phenom a new opportunity to showcase her sport and her country.