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SWIMMING AND DIVING IMPROVES Swimming and diving team received stellar individual efforts to take home a few victories among a tough outing, p. 13.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
VOLLEYBALL
LOOKING AHEAD
Team loses tough tournament games ■ The women played host
to the University Athletic Association championship but fell in all three matches for an eighth-place finish. By AVI GOLD JUSTICE editorIAL ASSISTANT
The women’s volleyball team had an opportunity to make one final statement in hosting the 2013 University Athletic Association tournament this weekend, squaring off in heated rivalries against its conference foes. Although the team played well for prolonged stretches during the tournament, they came away empty-handed, suffering defeats on Friday to No. 8 Washington University in St. Louis and Case Western Reserve University. The squad also could not pull off a final victory on Saturday, falling in a five set loss in the seventh-place match to the University of Rochester YellowJackets. In their final weekend of the season, outside hitter Si-Si Hensley ’14 stressed the importance of maintaining focus. “Even though they were my last [matches], I treated them like any other match,” Hensley said. “No matter what the circumstance I still expect myself and my teammates to come out with the same drive and mindset that we would for any other match.” Although the Judges dropped the opening two sets to the YellowJackets on Saturday, the team battled back with two sets of their own to force a fifth set tiebreaker. Rochester dominated the first two sets by 25-14 and 25-12 margins, and did not allow the Judges to come within four points after building successive 7-2 leads in the two sets. In the third set the two teams traded points and could not build a lead greater than four points. The Judges trailed 12-8 in what could have been the final set of their season. Yet, the hosts rattled off a 17-7 run to take the third set 25-19. The
Judges strung together three sets of three-point rallies, receiving five of the game-high 17 kills from outside hitter Liz Hood ’15 during that span of play. In the fourth set, neither team could break away as the Judges clung to a 15-14 lead. Over the final 10 points of the set, the two teams were tied seven times. The Judges used three straight kills by Hood to put away the set and evened the match at two sets apiece. The Judges stumbled out of the gate in the fifth set, as two unforced errors on Brandeis allowed Rochester to begin the tiebreaking set with a lead. Rochester never looked back and took the set 15-11, taking the seventh-place match 3-2 by scores of 25-14, 25-12, 19-25, 23-25 and 15-11. Although the match ended in defeat, the Judges received strong play from Hood, who registered a double-double with 17 kills and 11 digs. Hensley recorded 12 kills and 16 digs for a double-double while libero Elsie Bernaiche ’15 recorded a team-high 21 digs. Even though the match ended in defeat, Hensley was proud of the effort put forth by the Judges. “Our team worked really hard this weekend and we had some really good moments and games,” she explained. “We definitely put in a lot of fight even though our execution may not always have been there at times.” Before the seventh-place match on Sunday, the Judges had an opportunity to steal a big victory over WashU on Friday in the tournament’s opening match. The Judges controlled most of the opening set against the Bears and led 19-18 before WashU closed out the set on a 7-3 run. In a mirror image of the first set, the Judges fell behind 19-18 in the second set but this time featured a 7-3 run of their own. The Judges closed out the set with kills from Hensley and Hood as well as strong services from Bernaiche to tie the match at one set. WashU showed their strength down the stretch, though, domi-
Waltham, Mass.
MORGAN BRILL/theJustice
ALL SMILES: Celebration erupts around Tyler Savonen ’15 (right) after his goal in Saturday’s 2-0 win over New York University.
Women end in victory
Men gain NCAA bid in pivotal win over NYU
■ The squad downed a
■ The men handled visiting
See VBALL, 13 ☛
wOMEN’S SOCCER
formidable opponent in their season finale on the strength of two free kick goals by graduating seniors. By dAN ROZEL JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
Prior to its final home game on Saturday against New York University, the women’s soccer team honored its graduating seniors. All five seniors—forward Megan Kessler ’14, midfielders Mary Shimko ’14 and Maddy Stein ’14, defender Kelly Peterson ’14 and goalkeeper Leah Sax ’14—fittingly were featured in the starting 11 to round out memorable careers. It would also be the seniors who played major roles in the game’s results. Peterson and Stein scored second-half free kicks as Brandeis rallied from a half-time deficit to defeat visiting NYU 2-1. Shimko’s start was a symbolic
gesture. She is still nursing a foot injury and was substituted out right after the opening kickoff. Shimko took the opening kickoff and controlled it for a moment before it was kicked out of bounds by a teammate. Sax was substituted in the second half as well by cocaptain and usual starting keeper Michele Savuto ’15. NYU controlled the play throughout the first half while Brandeis struggled to string passes together or create any significant scoring opportunities. The Judges were made to pay for their profligacy as NYU junior forward Cami Crawford scored for the Violets just 13 minutes into the game, taking advantage of a defensive miscue that left her alone in front of the net and, in turn, very little chance for Sax to save the ball. From that point on, the half featured very few scoring chances, as the match was defensively tight and both sides struggled to create offensive opportunities. While the day featured signifi-
See WSOCCER, 13 ☛
New York University in a 2-0 win on Gordon Field and will host Johnson & Wales in a first-round tournament game. By HENRY LOUGHLIN JUSTICE editor
Three weeks ago, the rest of the season looked quite bleak as the No. 22 men’s soccer team found itself in an unenviable position. After losing two successive games to University Athletic Association opponents Carnegie Mellon University and Emory University on Oct. 18 and Oct. 20, head coach Michael Coven knew that his team couldn’t afford to lose any of its four remaining games if they wanted to have any chance of making the upcoming NCAA Division III Tournament. In a remarkable turn of events, the Judges found a way to qualify for the second year in a row. A 2-0 victory over New York Uni-
versity on Saturday capped off a 3-01 stretch in which the Judges also downed Mount Ida College and the University of Chicago and tied No. 19 Washington University in St. Louis. The Judges (14-4-1), ranked No. 22 nationally and second in New England behind No. 2 Amherst College— who qualified for the tournament by virtue of winning the New England Small College Athletic Conference— earned the first of five at-large bids awarded to the New England region. Gordon College, Williams College, Roger Williams University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology received the other at-large bids. “It feels good to make it, just as good as last year,” said Coven, who, last season, guided his team to its first tournament appearance in 27 years. “We got a taste of it last year and now I’m hoping we can try to do a little bit better. I think that [not losing during the rest of the regular season] says a lot about the guys that we have on this team; they knew that their backs were up against the wall, but they worked hard, they knew that they had to win those games and they did.”
The game against NYU started with a fairly even tempo. The Violets (6-8-3, 0-6-1 in the UAA) were looking to keep their defensive shape while Brandeis possessed the ball with relative ease. Forward Tyler Savonen ’15 had the first real effort of the game in the 11th minute. However, his effort was blocked and the game remained scoreless in the early going. However, it was he who delivered the opening goal in the 16th minute. For the second time in a week, Savonen made the Judges’ opponents pay for playing a high line. The striker took a through ball from left-back Ben Applefield ’14 and beat a Violets defender with pace down the left wing. He then curled a right-footed shot around NYU freshman goalkeeper Lucas Doucette and into the far right corner for a 1-0 advantage. Despite outshooting the visiting Violets 4-3 in the first half, the Judges were unable to extend their lead and went into the break clinging to a onegoal advantage. While Brandeis was in relative comfort for a majority of the second
See MSOCCER, 13 ☛