It’s 80 degrees out. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and Frisbees have become a constant disturbance in the Yard. It must be…early April?

Spring has sprung in more ways than one, as league play began this weekend for the Ivy diamond sports. We’ve got upsets, no-hitters, and a couple of new powers making a splash. Let’s take a spin around the Ancient Eight.

BASEBALL

As Ivy play began this weekend with inter-divisional play, there were many winners, and then there was Yale. The only baseball squad to enter the conference season with a winning record faltered in the first days of Ancient Eight baseball, dropping four games to Penn and Columbia.

The Quakers and Lions made out best in the opening weekend, coming away with 3-1 records. The other five Ivy schools, including Harvard, split the first four games down the middle.

SOFTBALL

Proving that preseason play is not at all indicative of conference performance, Penn—who came into the week with the worst record of any Ivy team—is now the only unbeaten squad. The Quakers, riding junior Taylor Tieman’s four wins, went 6-0 last week, including sweeps of Yale and Brown.

Harvard’s the early leader in the North Division after sweeping Princeton—highlighted by a no-hitter from sophomore Rachel Brown—and splitting with defending champ Cornell.

MEN’S LACROSSE

And then there was one. Princeton now sits alone atop the conference standings as the only undefeated team left after it eked out a 9-7 win over Yale in New Haven on Saturday. The Tigers earned the top spot after Cornell—last year’s national runner-up—faltered against Dartmouth at the New England Lacrosse Classic at Gillette Stadium. The Big Green got its first Ivy win in a big way, topping the Big Red by an 8-6 count.

Harvard took a break from the conference schedule, but it wasn’t a pleasant one. The Crimson was routed by Duke, 14-5, in front of a record crowd at home on Friday night, and it will try to get back on track Saturday at Cornell.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Dartmouth continued to cement its status as a new Ivy power, besting Boston University and Brown last week to move to 7-1 overall and 3-0 in conference. But despite falling to No. 2 Maryland on Friday, Penn’s not going anywhere—sitting pretty atop the standings at 4-0.

Like its male counterpart, the Harvard squad had a disappointing weekend, falling to Yale, 17-13, on Saturday before dropping a contest at No. 5 Virginia last night. The Crimson women have this weekend off and have just three games to try to move up from sixth into one of the four postseason tournament spots.