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.

The Penn women’s and men’s squash teams go into the winter break having two somewhat distinct experiences to start their seasons.

A lot can happen in three weeks. When Penn women’s basketball next takes to the court, three weeks will have gone by since the team’s last outing. Last Saturday, the Quakers won a nail-biter against Richmond 47-44, but now they’ll have a new challenge, not playing basketball. “It’s a chance for us to take a little bit of a pause and reflect on where we are at,” coach Mike McLaughlin said.

Sports Editor-elect Jonathan Pollack: For me, the best part of Penn Athletics this year was sprint football winning its first outright CSFL title since 2000, so the best moment should come from that season.

For the second time this week, Penn women's basketball went right down the stretch. This time, however, it was much happier with the result.

This was a game Penn should’ve won. With leads late in both the 4th quarter and overtime, it was the Quakers’ game for the taking.

First is the worst, second is the best, third is the one who’s best at chess. That may not be the way that nursery rhyme goes, but for one Penn squash player, the saying rings true. Junior Anders Larsson has been involved with squash for quite a long time, but for such a physically taxing sport, one of his greatest assets comes from his time playing a board game: chess.