10/22/08 5:00am
After a lot of tinkering, field hockey coach Val Cloud may have finally found her secret ingredient for success.
Last Sunday against Columbia, Penn (3-10, 2-2 Ivy) moved a defender up to play midfielder. With the 3-4-2 scheme, the Red and Blue responded by playing with more cohesion and coming up with a rare victory.
10/10/08 5:00am
Sun Tzu once said: "Every battle is won before it is fought."
Or was it Penn field hockey midfielder Rachel Eng?
At least, those are the sentiments she echoed as the Quakers (2-8, 1-2 Ivy) get set to face No. 1 Maryland (11-1) on Sunday at College Park and then No.
09/23/08 5:00am
A freshman won his flight in the tournament. A transfer defeated a starter on a likely top-20 team. A doubles team sliced through the field.
09/18/08 5:00am
For Jonathan Boym, the USTA Intercollegiate Competition this weekend is the beginning of his swan song, a final chance to wash away the bitter taste of his junior year campaign.
Boym, along with the now-graduated Jason Pinsky, co-captained the Quakers to a 12-11 mark in their 2007-08 season.
09/15/08 5:00am
Lauren Sadaka understands that for the youngsters on the women's tennis team, it's all about confidence and experience.
From these points of view, the Quakers were able to kill two birds with one stone this weekend.
But they also showed that they are too green to seriously contend with the big boys of the Ivy League.
09/05/08 5:00am
What a difference an extra week of preseason makes.
With the Ivy League loosening its restrictions on preseason men's soccer practice from seven days to 14 this year, the Quakers appeared confident and ready to embark on their road trip against Marquette and DePaul.
06/19/08 5:00am
According to women's basketball coach Pat Knapp, the two key ingredients to having a successful season are pride in the program and a desire to win.
It should be no surprise, then, that when a position opened up on his staff, he chose former Penn player and two-year American University assistant coach Amanda Kammes to fill it.
03/28/08 5:00am
Women's tennis meets against the Tigers have always been a little special.
"There's a certain rivalry with Princeton," senior Julia Koulbitskaya said.
For the four seniors on the team, Saturday's trip up I-95 will be extra special: It will be a chance for them to go out as winners against the Tigers.
03/21/08 5:00am
Outdoor tennis is a whole different animal than its indoor counterpart. As women's tennis head coach Mike Dowd put it, "You have the elements of wind, sun, and the points are longer. It's a little bit more like a chess match outdoors."
After a week-long trip in California in which they lost four of five outdoor matches, Dowd's team is going to get another mouthful of the elements against Marshall (12-4) and No.
02/29/08 5:00am
It's been a season to forget for the Quakers, but at least some of their final memories at the Palestra will be positive.
The Quakers' defense, porous against Yale on Friday, clamped down against Brown on Saturday.
After losing 79-70 to the Bulldogs at the Palestra, the Quakers bounced back the next night and beat Brown 56-45.
02/22/08 5:00am
Coming off their first win in 16 games, the Quakers finally have some confidence heading into a weekend series.
"There are positive thoughts," coach Pat Knapp said. "That's where it all starts."
They hope to build on that and reverse their fortunes from earlier this season when they host Dartmouth (8-14, 5-3 Ivy) and Harvard (13-9, 6-2).
02/18/08 5:00am
The streak is finally over.
After a disheartening loss at Brown on Friday, 72-59, the women's basketball team stormed back for a surprise 75-67 victory over Yale Saturday in New Haven, Conn.
It was the Quakers first victory since Nov. 28, a 15-game stretch.
02/11/08 5:00am
Two more games, two more losses. The streak now stands at 14 for the women's basketball team.
Despite playing at home, Penn lost 70-61 to the Lions (7-13, 4-2 Ivy) on Friday and 80-56 to the Big Red (13-6, 5-1) on Saturday.
In both games, the Quakers (3-17, 0-5 Ivy) came out sluggish, down 25-12 at one point against Columbia and 27-14 against Cornell.
02/01/08 5:00am
Boy did the women's basketball team need that break.
After stumbling through a horrendous December and first half of January, during which Penn lost ten straight games, the Quakers (3-13, 0-1 Ivy) are wrapping up their two-week layoff. And the team had no shortage of things it needed to improve.
01/30/08 5:00am
The tension is evident on the men's tennis team.
Coming into its matchup tomorrow against Saint Joseph's (0-1), two lines of thought permeate the squad.
Coach Nik DeVore has been warning his players against underestimating opponents, a mental flaw that hurt the Quakers early on in their meet against Drexel, where they eventually earned their first and only win of the season.
01/23/08 5:00am
When Justin Fox was younger, his father - an excellent tennis player - took him onto the court and taught him how to play.
The Long Island, N.Y. native has not put down his racquet since, becoming the No. 2 singles player in the country at the ripe age of 16 and winning the National Open at Texas.
12/05/07 5:00am
There's no place to go but up.
After an embarrassing 66-26 loss to Villanova on Saturday, the women's basketball team is looking to rebound when it hosts the Lafayette Leopards (5-3) at the Palestra tonight.
"We're anxious to show that we're not the team that we were against Villanova," junior Anca Popovici said.
11/30/07 5:00am
Coach Pat Knapp and his team might want to look for a fallout shelter, because when they face Villanova (4-1) tomorrow, it'll be bombs away.
Tomorrow, Penn will have to deal with a squad that has already developed a reputation of being a huge three-point threat.
11/27/07 5:00am
After stressing about the way his team has played the past week, maybe coach Pat Knapp can finally relax.
"It's a big difference a week makes," Knapp said.
The women's basketball team beat what sophomore guard Sarah Bucar called "a quality team" in Loyola-Maryland, 70-57 Sunday at the Palestra.
11/19/07 5:00am
Pat Knapp was in a bind Saturday night.
His women's basketball team faced a Manhattan club that forced him to play a four-guard set - a configuration that ended in a 66-44 Quakers loss.
With junior guard Kelly Scott still injured, he "really [didn't] have the guards we want[ed] in the lineup.
