There are a lot of things you can do in 2:39 — listen to Joe Cocker’s version of “You Are So Beautiful To Me,” run a really quick half mile, watch a Saturday Night Live skit — but making a 17-point fourth-quarter comeback is not one of them.

On a snowy Saturday afternoon in the final game of the 2008 season, it was strength versus strength as Cornell hosted Penn in the annual Trustees Cup. The Red boasted the Ivy League’s top-ranked offense while the Quakers entered with the Ancient Eight’s stingiest defense. The old mantra that a good defense trumps a good offense held true, as Penn’s 23-6 victory sent Cornell on the way to its first losing season since 2004.

After such a strong start to the football team’s season — winning its first three games and upsetting preseason Ivy-favorite Yale — it is easy to be disappointed with the squad’s 4-5 (2-4 Ivy) record going into its final contest. Tomorrow, the Red will have the opportunity to send its large class of 33 seniors off with a win at Schoellkopf Field — a place where this graduating class has posted a 15-5 record over its four years on the Hill.

To have something so close and then have to watch it slip away is often harder than if you had never hoped to be able to achieve it in the first place. The volleyball team came very close to defeating a strong Penn team this weekend, but despite stellar play that was at times spectacular, the Red couldn’t come up with the big plays when it needed them most, falling in the fifth set, 3-2. Cornell also competed against Princeton, but was outplayed by a balanced Tiger defense and attack that refused to let Cornell steal a set, supported by a boisterously supportive home crowd.

Last year, Cornell opened its season with an exciting 23-18 win over Penn, only to lose by one score in the teams’ second meeting later in the season — the game that counts toward the CSFL record. After dropping this season’s opener to the Quakers, the Red will be looking to return the favor tonight at Schoellkopf.