Good morning. Just got back from filling out my women's lacrosse bracket. In it for the big bucks.

Anyway, we'll get to the highly-anticipated women's lacrosse game tomorrow. But yesterday, it was the women's tennis team's turn.

Nice job to take the doubles point from Wake Forest, but four straight singles losses rendered the last two ongoing matches moot.

But the bigger news comes from the real world, or should I say the screwed-up world of Scott Ward.

The 64-year-old kiddie perv was sentenced to 15 years with no parole yesterday.

The ex-Wharton prof was in possession of materials showing children engaged in sex with each other and with Ward himself.

Here's hoping this sicko's next 15 years go by really slowly and that when he gets out, his "Little Scottie" doesn't work anymore.

Today would have been a horrible day for Fling, and an even worse day for the Penn Relays, which happen three weeks from now.

The men's and women's track teams hosted the Penn Invitational this afternoon, battling schools like Cornell, Army, Navy and the weather. The high today was in the low 40s, but by the day's end at around 4:30, it was around 30 degrees and violently blowing snow horizontally. Beautiful conditions for wearing running shorts and a 0.5-ounce tank-top-jersey (spandex if you're lucky).

Penn sprinter Grafton Ifill was probably thinking about the temperature in his native Bahamas, or finally remembering why he originally went to Clemson. One Cornell runner was overheard saying "I can't feel anything, it's so effing cold," and that was while it was still partly sunny.

However, if somehow it was this cold (or even close) at the Penn Relays, it could be an advantage for Penn. Not only is Penn a northern school, but unlike a Northwestern, we have no indoor track so all the training is outside.

“A lot of Southern schools can’t run in the cold," said Quakers junior mid-distance runner Tim Kaijala, who beasted the competition in the 800-meters at 1:50.3. "A lot of people are just used to running inside and running when it’s warm, but I’m used to running in the snow. We run outside all the time so we’re kind of used to it, so it’s kind of an advantage to us.”

Several of the DP's columnists have been critical of the University's marketing efforts, often bemoaning that non-revenue sports are marketed poorly or not at all.

This afternoon, I found an email in my inbox from "Quaker the mascot" inviting me to the W. Tennis match on Saturday. "Quaker" and the athletic department are bribing fans with free t-shirts and free Lorenzo's Pizza.

Now, we sit back and see whether that little extra effort that the columnists have called for is enough to bring fans to a game they wouldn't otherwise attend.

You know what they always say. Stuff happens. But some stuff happens all the time, and some stuff hasn't happened in a while.

Here's some stuff that just happened and when else that stuff happened.

The event: The Ivy League went nine straight years without winning an NCAA Tournament game.
The last time: 1985-1993
The details: Just those two. With one more loss, the Ivies will break the collective consecutive record for futility.

The event: A Penn player (Ibrahim Jaaber) has scored 15 or more points three times in his Tournament career.
The last time: Ugonna Onyekwe 2000, 2002, 2003
The details: The always-consistent Jaaber went 15, 15, 16 in 2005, 2006 and 2007, while U dropped 17 as a freshman followed by 16 and 30 in his final two seasons.

The event: No team in the lower half of the seeds made the Sweet 16
The last time: 1995
The details: In fact, '95 was the only year since the tournament seeding began that no 9-seed or below (or 7-seed or below back when there were only 48 teams) has made it to the round of 16.

The event: Two Penn starters went without a field goal in a Tournament game.
The last time: Paul Romanczuk and Geoff Owens in 1999.
The details: This year it was Steve Danley, who gets an asterisk for his injury and the 0-for-6 Darren Smith who did the trick. Back in '99, Romanczuk went 0-for-3 and Owens didn't attempt a field goal, although he went 3-for-6 from the line in the loss to Florida.

The event: The same pair of Quakers players (Jaaber and Mark Zoller) reached double figures in three straight Touranament games.
The last time: Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney (4 straight games from 1993-95)
The details: Maloney and Allen combined for 53 points in Penn's OT loss to Alabama in 1995.

The event: No Ivy hockey team made the NCAA hockey tournament.
The last time: 2001, back before the field expanded from 12 to 16.
The details: Down year for the usually powerful Ancient Six. Since '01, Cornell and Harvard have each made it, with both making the field the last two years.

The event: Two players have combined for more than two-thirds of Penn's points in a Tournament game (Jaaber and Zoller 35/52)
The last time: Onyekwe and Andy Toole in 2003
The details: Ugonna's 30 and Toole's 14 were just over two-thirds of the Quakers' 63 against Oklahoma State.

The event: Eight Penn players scored in an NCAA Tournament game.
The last time: 2002 against Cal
The details: For the last time more than eight got their names in the points column, go all the way back to the consolation game loss to DePaul at the 1979 Final Four in Salt Lake City when nine did it.

The event: No team from the Northeast (and I make the rules on this one) made the Sweet 16.
The last time: 1986
The details: I don't count Washington (Georgetown) or Pittsburgh as the Northeast. Actually 1986 is the only time other time in the 69 tournaments that this has happened. That is, unless you're counting 1986 sweetheart Navy as being in the Northeast. Then it's never happened.

I was all set to catch an afternoon flight out of Philly to Detroit for the semifinals of the NCAA wrestling championships, but unfortunately nature intervened.

So as I instead spent the day watching tourney games, defending national champion Matt Valenti advanced again to the finals at 133 pounds.

Valenti will face Coleman Scott of Oklahoma, who scored an upset in the semifinals over Michigan State's Nick Simmons, the No. 1 seed.

Matt Herrington, who was knocked out of title contention in the quarterfinal round, had to forfeit his wrestleback match against Steve Luke of Michigan after suffering an ankle injury. It was a disappointing finish for the All-American in his last collegiate match.

So contrary to the mention in today's DP that I would have a live report for Monday, I'll be watching from my living room - the match will be broadcast live on ESPN starting at 8 p.m.

Sportswriters love speculation, so naturally I pounced on this interesting article in today's Crimson. Apparently the Harvard lady squashers defeated Yale last night in a match that was pushed back eight days because of snow.

The kicker is that in those eight days happened to lie the Howe Cup, the women's national championship meet. And check out this quote from Crimson senior Kyla Grigg about the mother of all lame-duck matches.

I think it was actually to our advantage, because if we had played [last Wednesday] and lost, we would have had a worse seeding at the Howe Cup.

I'll say. As it stood, Harvard got the third seed while Yale took fifth, and the Crimson shocked No. 2 Penn in the semifinals.

If, say, Harvard had lost that match, Yale would have taken the No. 3 seed, with Harvard at No. 4 and Trinity at No. 5 (because of Harvard's 5-4 regular-season win in that series).

And not only did Penn beat Yale 6-3 early in the regular season, it topped the Elis by the same score a day after that crushing Howe Cup loss.

So I can't help but wonder what that Valentine's Day snowstorm did to the University's chances for a legit national champion. But I guess that's just speculation.

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Feb. 18 -- Even though the Quakers lost in the semi-final of the Howe Cup yesterday, there was still a lot of squash to be played today.

The team demonstrated a remarkable amount of mental toughness and killer instinct in bouncing back from an upset at the hands of Harvard. This afternoon, Penn beat Yale 6-3 to capture third-place, the best finish for the team in seven years.

Victory never seemed to be in jeopardy, as the Red and Blue jumped to a big lead on newfound energy, enthusiasm, and mental focus. By the time they started losing matches, the Quakers had already won the meet.

Other stuff:

No. 1 Princeton defeated Harvard 6-3 to win the National Championship. It was a tough but quick match. Despite the fact that the Crimson took three of the top four, the Tigers were too deep down the lineup and won spots five through nine.

For the National Championship, the atmosphere is pretty unimpressive. Some scoreboards were blank and awards are given out as matches are played (rather than in one big ceremony). It's odd to be watching the best young players in the country and have it feel like a lower-level high school sport. The whole thing needs some pizzaz.

There is a lot of gamesmanship in squash. If you think that basketball has a lot of flopping and acting, you should see how players in squash maneuver to get in each other's way and still get a let called.

To go with the above two points, it's also weird that there are no professional judges or referees. Instead, two people -- one player from each team -- work together on lets and other calls.

For all that weirdness, squash is very exciting to watch. And as others have pointed out , it's worth going to support one of Penn's teams that actually has a chance of winning something meaningful.

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Feb. 17 -- It's been quite a ride for the women's squash team this season, and that's why it's so unfortunate that all it has left to play for tomorrow at the Howe Cup at Yale is a third-place spot.

Today Harvard upset the second-seeded Quakers 6-3 in dual-match action. So while the Crimson will play Princeton for the National Championship, Penn will take on the Elis (who lost to Princeton) in the consolation match.

To be honest, the Quakers looked inconsistent. I didn't get a chance to watch every minute of every match (I only have one set of eyes), but I did see some spectacular shots followed by mental mistakes. It seemed like they were always playing catchup on the scoreboard, trading points from a deficit. For the third time in the last several dual-matches, No. 1 Kristen Lange and No. 3 Paula Pearson lost their matches for Penn.

But there is a lot of good to take away here.

Starting four freshmen (with Kristen Lange and Sydney Scott as the top two players) and having last year's No. 2 player (Alisha Turner) fall to the seventh spot, nobody quite knew what to expect from this team. Everyone knew how talented they were, but with such a lack of collegiate experience, the team's mental toughness and maturity was questioned. And while it may be easy to point at today's result as evidence of that, one can just as easily look at other things: the rise to a No. 1 ranking and regular-season wins over Yale, Harvard and Trinity. Either way you slice it, freshmen Lange, Scott, Britt Hebden, and Christina Matthias will surely be back and even better next year. Though seniors Paula Pearson, Radhika Ahluwalia, and Caitlin Russell will not win a National Championship in their careers, their guidance will certainly be key should this crop of freshmen produce one.