It’s safe to say that Michelle Nwokedi had an enjoyable first week of January. The 6-foot-3 junior forward led the Penn women’s basketball team to two wins, one in California against UC Riverside and the other to open Ivy play at Princeton. As a reward for her efforts in those victories, Nwokedi was named co-Ivy League Player of the Week.

For one Penn women’s squash player, the rise to the top just keeps on going. While the rest of campus was taking time off in December, sophomore Reeham Salah had a busy winter break, traveling to France to compete for Team USA in the World Women’s Team Squash Championships.

No. 1 vs. No. 2. It doesn’t get any more important than this. Penn squash has a high-stakes weekend coming up, including a top-two clash for the women against top-ranked Harvard.

How do you follow up a fourth quarter, come from behind victory against your biggest rival on their home court in the conference play opener? For Penn women's basketball, the answer is hopefully with two more wins. The Quakers (7-4, 1-0 Ivy), fresh off their 62-57 defeat of Princeton last Saturday, cannot afford to sit back and relax, as they begin to move into the heart of Ivy play this weekend.

New year, same great Penn fencing. This past weekend, the Quakers' fencing teams recorded strong efforts at the North American Cup (NAC) in Columbus, Ohio to bring in the new year.

While most of us were off relaxing over winter break, Penn sports teams were busy at work. Our editors debate: Which team had the best winter break?

The first Weekend MVP Award of the year goes to Penn women's basketball junior guard Beth Brzozowski.

LOS ANGELES — There comes a point in between semesters where you need a break from winter break. That’s just what Penn women’s basketball got with a five-day working vacation in California this past week.

While everyone was relaxing during winter break, there was no time off for Penn swimming and diving, as both the men's and women's teams took on Dartmouth and Yale in their second Ivy League Tri-Meet of the season.

After a long break from match play, Penn men's squash wouldn't be eased back into action by any means, returning to action with a home showdown against perennial powerhouse Trinity. Struggling to keep up with the depth and experience of the nation's top ranked team, the Red and Blue were defeated, 8-1.

Penn women’s basketball went to Princeton on Saturday to open up their Ivy League season with an absolute thriller.  As for the players, there was a mixed bag of performances. Below here are our first ever player ratings:

After an extremely back-and-forth game, the Quakers pulled ahead in the fourth quarter and held off a last minute onslaught by the Tigers to win by the score of 62-57.

Penn women's basketball knows the road to an Ivy League championship goes through Princeton’s Jadwin Gym. After all, it was in that very building that the Quakers won the Ivy title last year and officially punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament.

LOS ANGELES — The team that came to California was not going to defend its Ivy title. It isn’t just that Penn women’s basketball hadn’t been playing well — though that was certainly the case.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In the City of Angels, a star was born. Thanks to a team-high 15 points from freshman Phoebe Sterba, Penn women’s basketball completed a sweep of its California adventure with a 71-55 win over UC Riverside on Monday.

Behind a career-high 13 points from sophomore forward Princess Aghayere, Penn took unquestionably its top win of the season, topping Cal State Northridge, 47-36, in a gritty defensive battle.

With only preseason tournaments under their belt thus far, Penn’s men and women fencing teams will look to use winter break as one of the final tune-ups before the rigors of the conference season begin.