S ports W ednesday Page 16
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
What World Series? Last Saturday, in anticipation of the upcoming Phillies-Rays World Series game, a few friends and I decided to go have a Patrick Davis few beers and Sports Columnist watch the game at Spats. Eager and excited, we arrived, sat down and ordered the first round. Much to our dismay, we soon discovered that the Penn State-Ohio State college football game was on the big screen and our Phils had been demoted to the corner screen. Yes, of the 8-plus screens at Spats, all but one were playing a midseason college football game over a crucial World Series game. Now, I’m not faulting Spats for this — they only act in response to demand. But it is the demand that is incredibly concerning to me. This year’s World Series was one of the worst rated of all time. This is partially due to baseball’s declining popularity in general, but I have a sneaking suspicion there’s more to this story. So for all you readers out there who are confused as to why there is a baseball article not about the Yanks or Red Sox, this is for you. It’s a real shame that you “fans” can’t appreciate real baseball, but I’ll fill you in on the details. Here’s what you missed: Drama. From the first pitch to Brad Lidge’s devastating last slider, this series was full of drama. Four of the games were decided by a total of five runs, each providing nailbiting ninth inning finishes. Game 3 was won in the bottom of the ninth, on a chopped grounder down the third baseline by one of the most unlikely heroes of the season, Carlos “Rally-Killer” Ruiz. And on top of all that, the fifth and final game was suspended mid-sixth inning in a tied game, providing almost unbearable buildup and an instant dose of drama when the game resumed two nights later. Storylines. This series was ripe with fascinating storylines. First, there was the comeback story of Brad Lidge, who, after giving up a massive playoff shot to Albert Pujols in the 2005 NLCS, seemed as if he would never regain his oncedominant self. But Lidge showed continued on page 13
Equestrian wins show, takes lead in standings The equestrian team rode to an impressive 12-point victory over the field at Connecticut College on Saturday. With the win, the Bears took a 14-point lead over second-place URI to take the top spot in the regional standings. Allegra Aron ’11 led the Bears with a first- and a second-place finish that gave her high point rider status on the day. Elise Fishelson ’11, Rachel Griffith ’10, Leona Rosenblum ’09 and Rebecca McGoldrick ’12 all took first place finishes in their respective classes. Also contributing for the Bears were Liz Giliberti ’10 and Emily Bourdeau ’10, who both took second place on their rides, respectively. The Bears next head to compete in Connecticut on Saturday in their second-to-last show of the fall season. —Megan McCahill
W. hockey splits ECAC opening weekend, falling to RPI By Megan McCahill Sports Editor
The women’s ice hockey team (1-2-1) opened up Eastern College Athletic Conference play by splitting its two road games over the weekend, falling 5-1 to RPI on Friday before bouncing back for a solid 4-1 win over Union on Saturday. Coming off of an impressive 2-2 tie with national power St. Cloud State, the Bears were feeling confident heading into conference play, but the team struggled in all aspects against RPI. Brown was outshot 54-8 by the Engineers, and the Bears committed six penalties in the game, allowing RPI to score two goals on power play opportunities. “We’re a physical team, we play physical in practice and we bring that to games,” said captain and Herald Sports Staff Writer Nicole Stock ’09. “They were a quick team, so our physical style combined with the fact that we came out sluggish ended up in us getting called for a lot of penalties.” Despite their struggles, the Bears were in the game early thanks to some impressive saves by Stock, who made a season-high 49 stops on the night. Midway through the first period, the Bears won a faceoff in their own zone, and Maggie Suprey ’11 was able to carry the puck up the ice on a breakaway and beat the Engineers’ goalkeeper for her second career goal to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. Just a few minutes later, RPI scored two goals just minutes apart to retake the lead, and Brown was unable to generate enough offense to return the favor. The Bears were unable to register another shot on goal in the first period, and headed into the first intermission down 2-1. “We couldn’t really get anything going,” said Sasha Van Muyen ’10. “We had trouble getting the puck out
Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo
Sashsa Van Muyen ‘10 scored her first goal of the season in the Bears 4-1 win over Union.
of the zone.” The Bears continued to struggle offensively for the rest of the game, getting outshot 18-5 in the second period and 17-2 in the third. RPI scored two more goals in the second period, including its second power-play goal of the game, and added another score with only 45 seconds left in the game to hand the Bears a 5-1 loss. “We came out sluggish,” Stock said. “We didn’t have nearly as much intensity and enthusiasm as we did against St. Cloud State.”
The Bears used the loss as motivation for improvement in Saturday’s game against Union, and Bruno came out looking like a different team, going on the offensive attack early and often. “(Head Coach Digit Murphy) really got us fired up before the game,” Stock said. “She made sure we brought intensity right from the start and that we kept it up throughout the game.” Brown drew a penalty on the home team just 18 seconds into the
game, and the Bears executed their power play to perfection, passing the puck around the perimeter to assistant captain Andrea Hunter ’10, who slid the puck over to Paige Pyett ’12 at the point. Pyett blasted a shot from the right circle past the Dutchwomen goalie to give the Bears a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the game. “On offense we did a good job of taking more shots and looking to the net more; we didn’t get caught up in trying to make a fancy play,” Van Muyen said. “We played a lot more like a team. We were really working together instead of trying too hard to do things on our own, which happened a bit in the RPI game. Overall, we were more focused and more relaxed, and we all came ready to play.” Later in the period, Brown showed off its penalty-killing ability by keeping Union off of the board after being called for holding, and with 6:37 remaining, Pyett scored her second goal of the game off of another blast from up top, this time from the top of the left circle, to take a 2-0 lead. Amanda Asay ’10 and Jacquie Pierri ’12 assisted on the goal for their first points of the season. Brown struck again early in the second period, as Van Muyen knocked in a rebound off of a blast by Savannah Smith ’09 to give the Bears a commanding 3-0 lead just 1:39 into the period. “Sav took the shot and we both drove the net and I was able to get a stick on it and put it in,” Van Muyen said. “That was something we did well as a team all game, we drove the net hard and got rebounds.” With 11:52 left in the period, the Bears converted on another hard shot to the net, as Skyelar Siwak ’12 deflected a shot from Jaclyn Small continued on page 13
Field hockey can’t complete comeback, loses to Penn By Andrew Braca Assistant Sports Editor
The field hockey team suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to Penn on Sunday in the penultimate game of the season. After a sluggish first half, the Bears (4-12, 0-6 Ivy) rallied to tie the Quakers (6-10, 4-2) in the second half and secure the momentum going into overtime, but Rachel Eng scored on a 2-on-1 breakaway 10 minutes into the extra frame to deny Brown a win in its final road game of the year. “It’s never easy to lose in overtime, but I think we fought really hard in the second half to come back and definitely fought throughout the overtime,” said Leslie Springmeyer ’12. “The Penn player was just able to beat our defenders and got a really good shot on goal.” The Quakers struck quickly, taking the lead just 3:46 into the game, and raced to a 16-5 advantage in shots, but the Bears limited them to just a 7-5 advantage in shots on goal. Brown goalkeeper Caroline Washburn ’12 made six saves to keep Penn off the board for the rest of the first half, but the Bruno offense could not convert on its chances, as Penn goalie Alanna Butera stopped all five shots to send her team into halftime with a 1-0 lead. “I think a few individuals played amazingly in the first half, but the team didn’t fight as much as we did in the second half, which we kind of
Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo
Leslie Springmeyer ’12 scored her fifth goal of the season against Penn, but it wasn’t enough as the Bears fell to the Quakers 2-1 in OT. regretted,” Springmeyer said. Though Brown could have been down even more than 1-0 at the half, Sara Eaton ’09 said she was not happy to go into halftime trailing after missing out on so many opportunities. The Bears regrouped in the
locker room, and emerged with a renewed focus on defense. “We definitely talked about a few points we needed to work on, and I think it showed through our play how we changed those points,” Springmeyer said. “We communi-
cated a lot better to each other, and we had a lot better recovery on individual defense, which we were lacking in the first half. We kind of let Penn play around with us (before).” Bruno started the second half strong, but trailed for 19:30 before Springmeyer found the back of the cage after a penalty corner to tie the game. “The goalie came out to Victoria (Sacco ’09), and she was able to lift it over the goalie’s stick, and I was open on the post and finished it into the goal,” Springmeyer said. “It felt amazing, and it definitely pumped us all up, which is why we could hold them, at least until the overtime.” The Bears controlled the second half, building advantages of 6-5 in shots and 5-2 in corners and taking the only two shots on goal of the period. Eaton attributed the improvement to teamwork. “We were supporting the forwards a lot more,” she said. “(For) a lot of the first half, we were drilling the ball to Tacy (Zysk ’11) and Leslie Springmeyer and letting them run with it without supporting them and giving them passing options. In the second half, it was a real team effort, and we were able to sustain (our) attack.” Buoyed by their momentum, the Bears believed strongly in their chances to pull out the win. continued on page 13