Eric Brauner

Starting off as a college athlete presents a unique set of challenges. While all new students deal with classic struggles such as meeting new friends and figuring out which classes can knock out the most requirements at once, varsity athletes have to balance their academics and social lives with early morning practices and long weekend road trips.

There’s a saying that good things come in threes. At least, that’s what Penn women’s lacrosse would like to believe, as it continues on the path towards its third consecutive Ivy League Tournament title. As the 18th-ranked Quakers (11-3, 5-1 Ivy) welcome No. 24 Cornell to Franklin Field for Sunday’s final regular season contest, they hope to prevail in what will be the first of two consecutive matches between the teams.

Hoping to snap a five match losing streak, Penn men’s tennis faced off against St. John’s at home on Wednesday in before wrapping its Ancient Eight slate this coming weekend. However, in a tough ending to the nonconference season, the Quakers were unable to notch a win against the Red Storm (10-8), falling by a score of 5-2 for the third consecutive match. While it hoped to develop momentum from the match’s outset, Penn (14-9) lost the doubles point early by dropping two of its three matches by identical 8-4 margings.

The first one is always the hardest. Following a rough beginning to the Ivy League season, Penn women’s tennis carved out its first win in Ancient Eight play over the weekend.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal... In the worst case, I thought that I’d be missing one match.” If only that were the case.

With its season nearly over, Penn men’s swimming sent two representatives to the NCAA Championships for one last hurrah, giving the Quakers an opportunity to showcase their top performers on a national stage.

Penn sent a total eight competitors to the championship, with six on the men’s side and two on the women’s. Overall, the team placed eighth out of 25 teams, with the men finishing fourth and the women finishing in 14th place.

As spring break quickly approaches, Penn men’s tennis is excited to depart frigid Philadelphia for New Mexico, a destination as physically hot as the Quakers’ recent play.

This weekend, the men’s and women’s squads hope that their weeks of practice and preparation pay off as they head to the 2015 Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championship, the de facto Ivy League winter championship meet.

Penn women's tennis entered the weekend unbeaten. By the end of Sunday's matchup against Old Dominion, that would no longer be the case. Hoping to sustain its strong start to the season over the weekend, Penn women’s tennis played Albany at home on Friday before traveling to Virginia to square off against the Lady Monarchs on Sunday. In the program’s first-ever matchup against the Great Danes on Friday, the Quakers edged out hard charging Albany, 4-3, before falling to the Old Dominion by an identical score to wrap up the weekend. After clinching the doubles point to start off Friday’s match, Penn (3-1) turned to Sonya Latycheva at the No.