Laine Higgins

I wish I could start this column out with a heartwarming anecdote, a poignant quote from a press conference from years past that still resonates with me or something of the sort.

With just four games left of the 2017 softball season, senior right fielder Leah Allen is doing all she can to cement her legacy as one of the greatest players to ever grace Penn Park.

Beyond calculus and chemistry, however, one skill stands out to me as something I didn’t learn when I was five — something I’m still trying to wrap my head around. It’s a nebulous concept, one that is hard to pinpoint in writing but easy to identify by experience. That concept is leadership.

Consider the stakes raised. After collecting a sweep of Yale and a split with Brown over the weekend, Penn softball has faced every opponent in the North Division and already has its eyes on the South Division title.

On Monday, Penn Athletics became the first Ivy League athletic program to take the “It’s On Us” pledge against sexual violence, an awareness campaign launched in September 2014 by President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to help end sexual assault on American college campuses.

The NCAA mandates that Division I athletes can only practice for 20 hours per week. Being a student-athlete at Penn, however, is so much more than just another large weekly time commitment: it’s an identity.

As a show of support, every member of the team wrote letters to Jen for Ms. Retzer to read to her daughter. The team also created a fundraising page for Retzer on Generosity.com that has raised $27,796 from 316 donors as of March 20.

In the infamous words of Ricky Bobby, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” The first time I saw Talladega Nights I interpreted the jokes literally was so offended that my family took me to the movie theater with them that I almost cried.

After a two-week hiatus from competition, Penn women’s tennis is itching to get back on the court. This weekend will take the Quakers (1-2) south to face Virginia on Saturday and Old Dominion on Sunday.

In a pair of weekend matches against non-conference foes Wisconsin and Rice, Penn men’s tennis rode the full emotional spectrum from elation to frustration. The weekend started out on a high note for the Quakers (4-3) with a thrilling 4-3 win over the previously unbeaten Badgers (3-1). After losing the doubles point, Penn battled back with singles victories from junior Josh Pompan, sophomore Kyle Mautner and junior Gabe Rapoport.