Oh the weather outside is frightful ... and it is apparently a bit too frightful for the Philadelphia Invitational that Penn Fencing was scheduled to host throughout Saturday and Sunday.

Taking the court in a cross-town affair for the second time in four days on Thursday, Penn women's basketball couldn't have been more familiar with the opponent it was set to face.

On Friday afternoon, Penn men’s lacrosse practice concluded with some welcome news as senior attackman Nick Doktor learned he had been taken by the Charlotte Hounds with the 18th pick of the 2016 Major League Lacrosse draft.

“QUAKER. OATS.” That is the conclusion to the Penn men's fencing squad's team cheer. Perhaps an unusual way to bring the hype, but the Red and Blue (10-1) are shaping up to be anything but ordinary this season.

On Tuesday, Penn volleyball and coach Kerry Carr announced the five members of the 2016 recruiting class, including Ariana Wiltjer, a middle blocker from Portland, Ore.

The Quakers want to be the Ivy League's top team for the first time in nine years, but they'll have to do it without the top player in program history. Sol Eskenazi, who became the program's most decorated player ever with eight All-Ivy awards in her four years at Penn, graduated last spring.

Big expectations are nothing new for Penn’s tennis programs, and both the men’s and women’s team go into this year with high Ivy League finishes in their sights. Penn women’s tennis finished the 2014-2015 season with three victories in their last four Ivy League matches, including impressive wins against nationally ranked Columbia and Cornell.

To be the best, you have to beat the best. Penn women’s tennis will have a chance this weekend to start proving that they deserve the exciting expectations surrounding the program for the 2016 season as they travel to compete in the International Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend. The tournament is reserved only for teams ranked in the top 100 in the ITA preseason rankings.

It isn’t always pretty. Coming off of a big win over Princeton last weekend, the Quakers came out flat against La Salle before fighting off a late comeback en route to a 78-68 win on Martin Luther King Day.

For a meeting between two of the top five women’s sides in the country, the No. 2 Penn and No. 5 Stanford matchup seemed to carry little of the tension that one would expect of such high ranked goliaths.

It’s Harvard’s world, and unfortunately for Penn men’s and women’s swimming and diving, they are still living in it.

They’re off to the best start in school history. Let’s see if they can keep it going.

After weeks of practicing and an intrasquad meet back in December, the Penn gymnastics team kicks off their season in earnest this Sunday at the Lindsey Ferris Invitational, hosted by George Washington University, in Washington D.C.

Although Penn boasts countless spectacular student-athletes, the most impressive aspect of their success may not even be the athletic success itself.

As many people start their new years with resolutions and hope, the Penn fencing team is following suit in preparation for a trophy-laden 2016.

All great things must come to an end. Penn Squash knows that all too well after this weekend.

In a season defined by dominant veteran performances, Penn swimming’s youth movement made a mark of its own over the weekend.