Flegenheimer | Hurrah, hurrah, Philadelphia!

It’s an old adage: Big 5 basketball and Nordic tennis have a lot in common.

Never heard it?

Behold the parable of Robin Söderling, Sweden’s top tennis export. He lost decisively in the 2009 French Open final to a guy named Roger Federer, dropping his head-to-head record against the perpetual champ to 0-10.

When the match ended, he stepped to the microphone to accept his runner-up trophy, wiped some sweat from his forehead and made the crowd a solemn pledge.

“Nobody,” he said, “beats Robin Söderling 11 times in a row.”

Which brings us to the Quakers, whose 16-game Big 5 losing streak came to a merciful end Saturday night at the Palestra.

Sure, a middling-to-putrid Hawks team bears little resemblance to a 16-time Grand Slam-winner — though Saturday’s Palestra hardwood did import some Swiss neutrality from Federer’s homeland, with the Penn “P” at mid-court and a St. Joe’s insignia near each sideline.

But losing streaks are a load — particularly, as in Penn’s case, when a winning precedent gawks mockingly from the record books. The finite realities of a collegiate career — four healthy years and you’re gone — don’t ease the burden.

It is thus no small feat, this Saturday night triumph, which secured seniors Jack Eggleston, Conor Turley and Dan Monckton their first Big 5 win at the eleventh hour.

Pushing back against such history is a process, as Söderling’s example confirms.

He was wrong, in fact, that his tenth straight loss to Federer would be his last. The eleventh came a month later; the twelfth some two months after that. In each match, though, Söderling pushed his opponent as never before, forcing tiebreakers and extra sets. Then, a full year removed from his proclamation to the baguette-wielding masses, Söderling’s quest ended where it first began.

It should be clear, then, that Penn’s own quest did not begin Saturday at 7 p.m. It couldn’t have — you can’t get the monkey off your back by shrugging. No, it started some time this summer — maybe earlier for a few Quakers elders — when the team made its collective stand: We’re not going out with another Big 5 donut. Gutsy showings against superior Villanova and Temple teams and an overtime heartbreaker at La Salle prove as much.

And when the final opportunity came Saturday night, the seniors welcomed the gravity. Jack Eggleston didn’t just eat the donut — to sustain the carb-rich metaphor — he devoured it like he’d been fasting since New Year’s.

Coach Jerome Allen called it “a little edge.” Others could be forgiven for dubbing it manic desperation. In the best possible sense.

Eggleston’s eight points, 15 boards and four assists provide some context, but far less than the visuals do: the loose ball scrambles with a bloodied forehead and fat upper lip as merit badges; enough fist-pumping to make “Jersey Shore” cast members more jealous than usual; and a lengthy post-game embrace with senior Tyler Bernardini — an actor, like Eggleston, in all but one of the 16 straight losses.

“To go out with at least one win on my record, I think it’s something I needed,” Eggleston said, one of many players to hit the deck hard. “This is Big 5 basketball. If you’re not leaving with bruises and blood and scratches, you weren’t playing.”

This is what Penn basketball was supposed to look like — a Saturday night sanctuary from the cold with a full house to prove it, even if two-thirds donned St. Joe’s crimson.

“How much better could it be?” Hawks coach Phil Martelli asked, though his blue forehead vein bulged in dissent for most of the evening.

Of course, the coach had to know how badly his opponent would want this one — hell, even Vegas had the “visiting” Quakers as small favorites, recent history be damned.

It took Söderling six years, in total, to outrun his skid. Eggleston didn’t have that kind of time.

“I’m just disappointed it took three and a half years,” he said, as security staff cleared that rarest sight — victory streamers — from the hardwood. “But I’m glad I’m finally here.”

MATT FLEGENHEIMER is a senior economics major from New York, NY. He can be contacted at dpsports@theDP.com.

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