34th Street Magazine's "Toast" is a semi-weekly newsletter with the latest on Penn's campus culture and arts scene. Delivered Monday-Wednesday-Friday.
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In all likelihood, the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference Memphis Grizzlies will fall short of a ring this year, but the team’s 2020-21 campaign embodies the motto “Progress is perfection.”
If the one and only goal of the Ivy League presidents was to mitigate COVID spread, they would indeed cancel the season. But that clearly isn’t the case.
You may not know it, but we are here. We throw from the same mounds men do. We run the same bases men do. It's less common, but we still hit home runs out of the same parks men do. Women's baseball is the sport's best-kept secret, but not for a lack of trying on our part.
To effectively combat the spread of coronavirus, the other NCAA Division I conferences throughout the country should join the Ivy League in canceling fall college sports.
We need to think critically about the benefits and drawbacks of both options: allowing the game to continue as is, injuries and all, while examining the consequences of eliminating the program altogether.
I’m grateful for every moment that this program has given me. I’m grateful for the opportunity that my coaches gave me when they let me come to Penn and for everything that they’ve taught me here.
Not only were Penn’s classes pushed online, students required to leave campus, and in-person graduation canceled, but our frisbee season was cut short — an abrupt and far-too-early end to the seniors’ tenure as college ultimate players.
While the coronavirus is legitimately concerning, the logical jump from wanting to limit the size of large crowds to an outright cancellation of the tournament is not obvious when there were other options on the table.
The team's win over Brown officially clinched the Quakers’ trip to Ivy League Tournament, most likely as the second or third seed depending on the results of next week's games.
That’s my biggest takeaway: Penn rescued hope from the jaws of defeat with their normal basketball. But the fact that hope needed rescuing is more noteworthy than the successful rescue itself.
Some stats from that last minute and thirty-nine seconds: Zero points scored. Thirteen points allowed. Seven turnovers. Two reviews at the monitor. One astounding loss.
After Tuesday night's 80-44 drubbing of Penn, the No. 23 Tigers have won 18 straight games, are a perfect 10-0 in Ivy League play, and stand at 22-1 on the season.
Even after a close win over Big 5 rival Temple, the Quakers knew that they had to show up for conference play, and they did Friday night against Harvard.