BEARS ARE ON A ROLL
No. 1 women’s soccer alone atop UAA table
Despite being the No. 1 team in Division III, the WashU women’s soccer team has shared the top spot in the University Athletic Association (UAA) with one team — No. 3 Carnegie Mellon University. On Oct. 25, that changed as WashU held Carnegie Mellon scoreless, defeating the Tartans 3-0. Two days later, in their last home game of the regular season, the Bears defeated Case Western Reserve University 3-1. With the wins, WashU is now alone at the top of the UAA table as the only undefeated team. No. 25 University of Rochester, who WashU will face next weekend on Nov. 3, sits at second place in the conference standings with a 4-1 record. A win over Rochester next weekend would clinch a secondstraight UAA title for WashU and the conference’s automatic qualifier to the tournament.
Early on, the game against Carnegie Mellon looked like it would be a defensive matchup. However, in the 14th minute, sophomore Sophie Viscovich found the back of the net off a volley from junior Ella Koleno for her first goal
of the season. Viscovich has been a consistent starter for the Bears in the midfield in 2024, starting 15 out of 16 games and tallying 51 shots, the second-highest on the team behind first-year Olivia Clemons.
“My coach kind of gave me a more specific role of trying to facilitate this year, which I … understood didn’t mean always being the one to score, but obviously, it’s a great feel ing when you’re able to get one in,” Viscovich said. “But along with that, every player on our team is given the job to just do their job right and fin ish it when the moment comes.”
Seventeen minutes later, Clemons broke past a Tartans defender, putting herself in a familiar situation — the only thing standing between her and the goal was the keeper. The Bears’ leading scorer netted her 15th goal to put WashU up 2-0. Ten minutes later, off a pass from sophomore Madi Foley, Clemons scored her 16th goal of the season to put the Bears up 3-0, where they would end the half.
With the University Athletic Association (UAA) championships two weeks away, the No. 8 WashU women’s volleyball team approached their final of three UAA Round Robins with a chance to solidify their playoff seeding. Up to this point, the Bears were fourth in the conference with a 3-2 record, winning their previous three matches after starting conference play with two losses. On Oct. 27, WashU hoped to continue its momentum, coming off eight consecutive victories over a flawless month of
The Bears faced stiff competition, however. In Pittsburgh, they clashed with two teams of equal or better conference records: the No. 15 University of Chicago, also at 3-2, and Carnegie Mellon University, at 4-1, the second-best conference
The Bears swept both
opponents in competitive fixtures, with each match lasting five sets. The match against UChicago featured a comeback after being down two sets to one, and against Carnegie Mellon, they held on after taking an early lead. With the wins, the Bears finish UAA play 5-2 and will enter the conference tournament as the third seed.
Against UChicago in the morning, the Bears’s first set began close at 8-8. However, they then stormed ahead with five-point and six-point runs, profiting from five errors from the Maroons as well as three service aces in that stretch. The first set fell in favor of the Bears 25-20.
However, a razor-close second set went to their opponents at 23-25. The third set was less than ideal for the Bears, as ten attacking errors contributed to a 17-25 scoreline in favor of UChicago. The Bears would now have to recuperate and win the two remaining sets.
Affinity groups release opinion submission calling on admissions to increase diversity
Three of WashU’s major affinity groups published an opinion piece announcing, among other things, the creation of multiple student intern positions after a year of negotiating with administration. These interns will work with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to help increase diversity in enrollment.
The statement was authored by the Association of Black Students (ABS), the Asian Multicultural Council (AMC), and the Association for Latin American Students (ALAS).
The groups drafted the statement to express their disappointment with the University regarding the lack of diversity in the Class of 2028.
After the Supreme Court overturned Affirmative Action, WashU saw a 4 percentage point drop in the number of incoming Black students, from 12% in the Class of 2027 to 8% in the Class of 2028. The percentage of Asian, white, and Hispanic students remained relatively stable, while the percentage of students who declined to share their race increased from 1% to 5%.
Last year, in response to the ruling, Chancellor Andrew Martin released a statement affirming the University’s commitment to diversity.
“We will make necessary adjustments to ensure that we are following the law while maintaining student-body diversity as a foundational priority,” Martin wrote.
Prior to the announcement of the new initiative, senior Paul Scott, Political Chair for ABS, expressed the need for the
University to do more to admit more diverse classes.
“[While] the University, in some ways, has done much more than it has done in the past to make Black students feel welcome, we can always do more,” Scott said.
In response to the ruling, WashU hired additional admissions officers to do recruitment and outreach at underserved rural high schools, and a staff member focused on admissions/ financial aid in the St. Louis region. Admissions also added an optional essay question allowing applicants to talk about their identity.
Dacoda Scarlett, Associate Director for Rural Recruitment, explained the increased importance of rural recruitment after the abolishment of Affirmative Action, and how rural communities should not be stereotyped.
“Rural recruitment is a very new method that a lot of universities are using to continue to recruit and enroll diverse students [after the ruling],” Scarlett said. “Rural communities are not monoliths. Throughout the country, there are dynamic and thriving communities of color that are in rural communities.”
Junior Subratha Araselvan, Co-President of AMC, felt that these measures were not enough.
“WashU, first and foremost, should focus on making their campus a safer place, a more hospitable place for students of color,” Araselvan said. “And then focusing on recruiting students of color, or Pell-eligible students of color. So I don’t think just adding a question on the application is enough.” AMC, ALAS, and ABS have negotiated extensively with the Office of Undergraduate
Admissions about student input and the subsequent creation of intern positions, which they recently came to an agreement with the Office about.
“The Office of Undergraduate Admissions will hire several student interns to propose and support improved strategies to grow a historically marginalized student population,” the groups wrote. “We are eager for this intern model to implement meaningful initiatives such as launching and expanding recruitment and yield initiatives.”
According to Ronné Turner, Vice Provost of Admissions & Financial Aid, working with students has been a helpful way to better understand how to improve diversity on campus.
“Working with the [Center for Diversity & Inclusion] Student Advisory Group enables us to meet with representatives from these groups and to engage in conversation where we can hear about the total student experience,” Turner wrote.
This is not the first time ABS and Admissions have collaborated. Turner explained some past initiatives aimed at increasing diversity.
“Last year, we hosted a collaborative event with ABS for selected high schools,” Turner wrote, noting that WashU plans to repeat the event this year.
Though the lawsuit that ended Affirmative Action was brought on the behalf of Asian students, junior Sonal Churiwal — Co-President of AMC — expressed strong support for affirmative action, and felt Asian students were being misrepresented.
“This is very emblematic of a long racial history in the United States, where white communities
seek to pit Asian Americans against Black Americans, and [at] AMC, we flat-out reject the use of our identity as a wedge,” Churiwal said.
The opinion submission also called for WashU to collect more specific data on the identities of students after their enrollment that goes beyond the current racial categories. It outlined one reason why the student groups believe this is a necessary measure.
“Vietnamese, Hmong, and Bhutanese Americans are less likely to attain a college degree, whereas Chinese and Indian Americans are more likely,” the groups wrote. “We suspect the decrease in students of backgrounds with lower attainment rates was offset by an increase in students with higher attainment rates.”
The opinion submission expressed hope that when WashU transitions from WebSTAC to Workday in February of 2025, it will allow for more detailed data collection.
“We’re in conversation with people launching the Student Sunrise project, and we were told that it would allow for more data collection,” junior Natalia León-Díaz, Social Justice Lead of ALAS, said.
With regards to data disaggregation, Turner acknowledged that more students are reporting multiple identities to the University than in past years.
“We’re going to take this year to further examine our data to find the best way to report, to ensure we’re being inclusive,” Turner wrote.
Multiple representatives from AMC, ABS, and ALAS — including Araselvan — felt that race played a factor in their own
college application process.
“I talked about my identities as a South Asian woman in my application. That was basically the entirety of my Common App essay,” Araselvan said.
Araselvan was admitted when Affirmative Action was still in place. Today, though race itself is prohibited from playing a direct role in admissions, colleges can still take how race may have affected an applicant’s life into consideration, as long as the applicant writes about it in their essay.
Scott felt that it would have been impossible for race not to play a major role in his application, given his family ties to East St. Louis.
“When I got into WashU, I remember talking to my uncle, and he was worried because he didn’t think WashU would be a place that fostered growth, a place that was accepting of people who looked like us, because it wasn’t, when he was my age,” Scott said.
At the end of the opinion submission, the groups reaffirmed their mission to support students of color at WashU.
“Racial and ethnic equity cannot stop at admissions. We believe it is imperative to focus on every dimension of student experience, from admissions to graduation,” they wrote.
Scott said that more work needs to be done, especially after the end of race-conscious admissions.
“When my kids are my age, I want them to see a completely different WashU. I want it to be better. And I want it to start with us. I mean, we can’t just talk about it. We have to be a part of that advocacy.”
CONTRIBUTING
Student well-being data shows declining substance use, persistent mental health challenges
WashU shared its 2024 student health and wellbeing data with Student Life, providing key statistics on mental health and substance use on campus. The data showed significant decreases in the number of students drinking alcohol and using cannabis in recent years, mirroring trends in substance use among university students nationwide.
The data also showed that emotional well-being among undergraduate students on campus has remained relatively stable, though there has been a slight increase in mental health issues among graduate students.
Statistics on student health and well-being were gathered from multiple surveys emailed to large, random samples of WashU students last spring. One of the surveys, called the Missouri Assessment of College Health Behaviors, was filled out by 842 WashU students and compared data on well-being across 21 colleges in Missouri. Another survey, called the National College Health Assessment, examined well-being among college students nationwide and was completed by 962 WashU students.
Kirk Dougher — Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Support and Well-being — voiced concerns about certain trends in the data, such as the ongoing prevalence of binge-drinking, which is defined as consuming five or more drinks in one sitting. 28% of WashU undergraduates who responded to the surveys in 2024 said they engaged in binge-drinking, down from 45% of students in 2022.
Dougher said he would like to see those numbers go down further.
Members of WashU’s Greek Life organizations have the highest rates of binge-drinking out of 20 other Missouri colleges surveyed, according to the 2024 data. 56% of the WashU Greek Life respondents said that they had engaged in binge-drinking.
Dougher also noted that the data showed significant differences between WashU students’ perceptions of their peers’ alcohol use and the actual rates of use. “Taken together, students drink just over two drinks [in one sitting], but think that other [students] drink almost double that,” he said. The data also reflects students’ misconceptions about cannabis use on campus.
Only 3.3% of WashU survey respondents said they believe the typical student at their school “never” uses cannabis. However, 61% of WashU students surveyed said they have not used cannabis in the past year.
Arie Baker — Director of Health Promotion and Wellness at the Student Health Center - Danforth Campus — expressed concerns over the gap between perception and reality in substance use on campus. Baker said these discrepancies are a part of human behavior.
“We get so much messaging around extreme substance use,” Baker said. “We also hear so much about [how] college-age students are using substances. But the reality is actually that many students don’t use [substances], or [they] use [them] in a safer way. We rarely hear about these students.”
Baker said there were several trends that she was happy to see in the 2024 data results, including lower rates of substance use, fewer students riding in cars with drivers under the influence, and an increase in students seeking help for mentalhealth issues.
The statistics also showed that WashU now ranks second in rates of fake ID
ownership among 20 other Missouri colleges surveyed by a University partner.
Both Dougher and Baker said that they hope to support students’ well-being throughout their entire time at WashU.
“Our job is to try and help [students] thrive,” Dougher said. “We want [students] to graduate with better well-being than when they [were] admitted to the institution.”
In order to better support student well-being and address concerning trends in the data, Dougher said that it’s important for his team to tackle University issues that may negatively impact the mental health of individual students.
“We target the University as a whole [and] think of systems,” Dougher said. “I’ll give an analogy: If you discovered that quite a number of frogs in a pond were sick, I don’t think you’d only try and figure out how to educate or treat the frogs. You [also] try and figure out what the hell is wrong with the pond.”
For resources related to student health at WashU — including emergency services, medical and mental health support, and more — visit the Student Health Center’s website.
28%
56% 61% of WashU undergraduates who responded to the surveys in 2024 said they engaged in binge-drinking. of the WashU Greek Life respondents said that they had engaged in bingedrinking. of WashU students surveyed said they have not used cannabis in the past year.
Up for vote: Will students see the return of abortion rights?
On June 24, 2022, Missouri became the first state to return to having a near-total abortion ban, which was triggered by the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade. The law bans abortion with highly limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies, and no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, making it widely considered one of the most restrictive in the United States.
For the last two years, any physician practicing in Missouri who knowingly performs or induces an abortion can be found guilty of a class B felony and subject to suspension or revocation of their medical license, but following next week’s elections, this could all change.
A proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot known as Amendment 3, or the “Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative” seeks to legalize abortion up to fetal viability, around 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Amendment 3 also protects other reproductive rights, including birth control with any governmental interference presumed invalid.
If Amendment 3 passes, Missouri’s Constitution would be amended to restore a women’s fundamental right to make and carry out decisions about reproductive health care, and would remove the total ban on abortion before fetal viability. It would also require the government not to discriminate funding in federal programs or against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care.
“This could be a major difference in the necessary health for a lot of members of our community,”
Planned Parenthood Generation Action president Maddy Molyneux said.
“It’s important to get access to abortion and reproductive care restored to as many people as possible, as soon as possible.”
According to official ballot language, a ‘yes’ vote does all of this, while a ‘no’ vote will continue the statutory prohibition of Abortion in Missouri.
“[If Amendment 3 passed], it would mean that WashU students no longer have to live in fear that if they needed reproductive care in the form of an abortion, that they would have to leave the state to access that,” Molyneux said.
Compared to many Missouri residents, on average, WashU students are much more financially equipped to handle this situation given the high number of students who come from well-off families.
“I think we often take for granted that many of our WashU student population come from blue states, and we are, in general, a pretty wealthy student body. So it’s easy to think on an individual level, if I needed this type of care, I could just hop on a plane, fly home and get the care that I need safely and legally,” Molyneux said.
“But that’s not the case for every student or every professor or every employee of the university. There are many, many members of the WashU community for whom that would be a pretty severe undertaking.”
Based on a recent poll taken by St. Louis University and YouGov in August, 52% of people surveyed supported Amendment 3, 34% opposed it, and 14% were unsure on how they planned to vote. By September, a poll taken by The Emerson
College Polling Center showed that 58% of those surveyed were in favor of the Amendment, 30% opposed it, and 12% were unsure.
WashU professor emeritus of political science Randall Calvert said that the polls should be accurate.
“The polls shouldn’t change drastically by election time, so it looks pretty optimistic for Amendment 3.”
While these polls reflect the projected voting trends of St. Louis’ general population, many student groups feel it is vital that students are staying educated on Missouri’s political landscape.
PPGA has been working to disseminate as much information as possible through educational meetings, Instagram posts, infographics, and phone banking at Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. On election day, members will be distributing sample ballots outside of the Athletic Complex delineating how PPGA suggests students should vote according to their endorsements.
“It sort of simplifies things for you: it makes it easy for you to just check those boxes, which would of course, include Amendment 3,” Molyneux described.
First year and member of The Washington University College Democrats – Caden Stockwill – emphasized that “for a lot of people, this is the first time that they’re out of their households, and they’re researching for themselves, forming their own opinions and things of that nature.”
WashU Democrats hosts campaign activities, events, and meetings on campus in order to promote the importance of voting and create a space where people can ask
questions or get information about political involvement.
“You should be able to choose if you want to have a child or not at the end of the day, and College Democrats recognize that as a fundamental liberty… That’s why it’s so important to advocate for it,” Stockwill said.
However, not all WashU students share these political views.
Specifically, WashU’s College Republicans oppose Amendment 3, serving as a conservative voice on campus.
“Life begins at conception,” said College Republican president Mason Letteau Stallings. “Ergo, I would say that abortion is taking a human life.”
Amendment 3 would legalize abortion up to fetal viability, meaning that the
ELMA
fetus could survive outside of the womb; for members of College Republicans, even that is too far. Letteau Stallings said that he believes fetal viability is an arbitrary distinction because newborns would also be unable to survive without outside care.
“For us to allow the state sanctioned killing of a human life, I just think that’s horrible, and something that I don’t think should stand,” Letteau Stallings said. “People would become numb to the taking of unborn life.”
As political parties have become increasingly polarized, Calvert argues that abortion is predominantly driving this separation.
“It’s not unreasonable to think that abortion is really the strongest lever that separates Americans ideologically and politically
since the late 1970s – that sort of division didn’t exist before Roe v. Wade,” Calvert said. Letteau Stallings feels that, although abortion has become divisive, it should not be a partisan issue.
“I think it’s rather tragic,” he lamented. “In terms of working on common principles, there’s a lot that can be done.”
Calvert added that, in the future, people may look back on abortion as a defining topic of this generation.
“With the perspective of another 100 years, one might look back on this age of American politics as the age of the abortion issue, every bit as much as we look at the first half of the 19th century as the age of the slavery issue. It’s been that influential and that dominant in the shape of American politics overall.”
ALIZA LUBITZ NEWS EDITOR
SARA STRASSBERG CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ADEMOVIC | STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
SCENE
Dear Scene,
I’m a leader for a student group on campus, and I’m super frustrated with my Campus Life advisor and feel like they aren’t really hearing students out this year. I’m wondering if you have any advice on how to go about approaching a conversation with an adult who has power over you, but who isn’t necessarily doing their job effectively.
Dear Crying,
Whether they’re an advisor, boss, or teacher, working with any unsupportive supervisor can be frustrating. At best, they’re simply not very helpful in answering your questions, leading to more work and confusion on your end. At worst, they actively impede your progress, bogging you down in micromanagement or denying you opportunities to grow and learn. When leadership for an organization you love turns into a chore, it’s not only disheartening, but sometimes feels antithetical to why you chose to get involved in the first place.
There isn’t always one easy answer for how to deal with an unhelpful advisor, and you’re right in pointing out that there’s a difficult nuance in navigating a tumultuous relationship with an adult who has power over your activities. And since you can’t change their behavior outright, what you can focus on is how you respond.
In high school, I was president of my school’s moot court team, which had grown from a little rag-tag team of eight to sending over two dozen students to state competition each year. When I took over the reins my senior year, we’d been essentially running the club entirely independent of school administration. That August, though, we received news that student affairs was undergoing some restructuring, and that we’d be working with a new administrator.
The relationship quickly soured: Administrators from student affairs started sitting in on our practices, interjecting after any behavior they found to be objectionable, and they implemented strict guidelines into our tryout and teamselection process. Students in leadership, they said, could not be involved with the tryout process in any way. Instead, we’d have to locate three independent adults to judge tryouts,
- Crying in the Club
which were two days away. We did our best to acquiesce to their demands and, by running around during our lunch periods, assembled a panel of an AP Bio teacher, a statistics teacher, and an English teacher to judge a mock legal brief. This was only one of dozens of other demands that we found incomprehensible and erratic.
Despite our efforts, over spring break, I received a long email detailing our club’s infractions, concluding with the line, “Due to the executive leadership’s repeated inability to manage their club responsibilities, we have decided that Moot Court will not be able to move forward with their activities this year.” I cried, as did our faculty advisor, who then quit.
Throughout the following weeks, we had to plead our case to administration before they eventually reinstated our club. The entire process was not only exhausting but, more significantly, humiliating. We did place second in the state that year, so I suppose this story has a happy ending. However, despite our achievements, what really overshadowed the whole season was the drama surrounding the club, and how difficult it had been to navigate through all of it. Even thinking about it now gets me fired up.
Although the situation was a little ridiculous (there is something to be said about beefing with 17-year-olds over a club based on writing fake legal briefs), when I reflect on the experience, there are a few key takeaways for how I could have altered my behavior to mitigate some of the conflict.
Campus Life itself advertises that WashU boasts over 450 clubs. Altogether, organizations hold hundreds of thousands of dollars in their coffers, schedule far-reaching group travel plans, and have grand ambitions for their hundreds of members. And with great power comes great
responsibility, or so they say. You can do such cool and wonderful things as part of a college club, but part of that is also following rules and boundaries to keep everyone safe and in line with the same standards.
When I first heard about my own club’s tryout guidelines, I was annoyed at having to introduce outside bureaucracy into what seemed like a simple process. But afterwards, I learned that the policy change had been the result of an overzealous parent’s complaint about another club’s tryouts and that the policy had been implemented to protect individual students from liability. I didn’t have to like the policy, but gaining an understanding for why it existed made the rule less of an imposition.
The scale of WashU’s clubs also makes it inevitable that some communication between students and administrators will get lost or muddled along the way. Imagine going about your day as an advisor for dozens of clubs, only to suddenly receive an email from a student you’ve never had contact with, announcing grand plans to host a massive event in a week. They’re obviously excited and have seemingly already planned the whole thing out, but this is the first you’re hearing of it, and you spot some glaring issues. A little disorienting, right?
That’s not to say that you, dear Club Crier, are exhibiting any of this last-minute behavior. But it’s the kind of scenario that you might imagine occurs at least occasionally between the dozens of clubs vying for attention in your advisor’s inbox. Since advisors take on a role of adult supervision distinct from your club, it’s easy to treat communicating with them as an afterthought, rather than as a priority.
To improve any relationship, you need to establish a common ground first. Set up a time to speak with your campus
advisor. Let them get to know you and the other club leadership, and tell them about your ideas for the year. In turn, ask them about their expectations for communication and planning for different events. Get specific timelines and contacts for who should be involved, and be proactive about meeting those expectations.
Part of not feeling heard stems from communication that doesn’t effectively address what has been said. Know that sometimes a “no” to your first draft is not always an outright condemnation of your ideas. Ask for specific feedback: what part of your plan is objectionable, and why? Is that something that you can change or iterate on? Provide suggestions for alternatives, and do your best to continue to move forward.
Of course, if your advisor is seriously abusing their power — belittling your ideas, making
unreasonable demands, or otherwise just being unhelpful by being unresponsive to your emails or providing you with incorrect information — don’t be afraid to speak up. Going behind someone’s back isn’t advised, but you could request a switch to another advisor, if one is available, or otherwise raise the issue.
Campus advisors often manage a large swath of clubs — if you’re dealing with issues, it’s more than likely that others may be as well. It’s intimidating to stand up to an adult in power, but by doing so, you’re actively working to solve a problem you deal with — one that may arise in the future for the next few generations of your club. Addressing issues with your advisor now is an important legacy to leave.
Above all, keep in mind the reason that you decided to take on a leadership role for this organization in the first place.
Underneath all the power and prestige of being an executive for a WashU club, of course, is the desire to give others the same community of support, connection, and fun that you first received. Campus Life advisors should want the same, and it’s in
EILEEN KIM | CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR
“Up and Atom!”: Tackling the leading cause of global maternal mortality
ELIZA STULMAN STAFF WRITER
Fourteen million women around the world, annually, experience postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). 70,000 of those women die as a result of it.
Primary PPH occurs within the first 24 hours of giving birth and is characterized by excessive bleeding — the loss of over 500 milliliters of blood. It transpires in 3-5% of deliveries. Christine O’Brien, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, is working to prevent PPHrelated deaths — the leading cause of global maternal mortality — by developing wearable technology that detects and monitors the blood flow changes of postpartum mothers, in real time. Despite it being the leading cause of maternal death, PPH is also the most preventable cause of maternal death. If it can be caught before too much blood is lost, it is not fatal.
In addition to teaching “Introduction to Biomedical Circuit,” O’Brien runs the O’Brien Lab, which is focused on helping both low- and highresource institutions reduce PPH-related mortality by studying light interactions with bodily tissue.
In the United States, PPH tends to be caught early and treated properly, so it was not until O’Brien took a global health certification course in graduate school that she learned about maternal health issues, such as the severity of PPH, on a
global scale.
“Right now, the main way people detect hemorrhage across the globe is by eyeballing a pool of blood and trying to put a number on how much is lost,” O’Brien said.
As hemorrhaging can also happen internally (the uterus can hold a lot of blood), it is common for unskilled postdoctoral residents to not know that a mother is hemorrhaging.
The majority of deaths due to PPH happen in low-resource communities, because if hemorrhaging is not detected early enough, these communities often don’t have access to the necessary treatments — like blood transfusion and specialized surgeries — to save a patient’s life.
The O’Brien Lab is currently working on two low-cost, non-invasive wearable devices that will be able to detect early signs of hemorrhaging and inform physicians about it. The optical-wearable is a large device worn on the wrist that monitors changes in blood flow. The short-wave infrared (SWIR) photoplethysmography sensor identifies blood concentration changes and can be worn anywhere on the body. Dr. O’Brien is working on decreasing the size of the wearables to the size of an Apple Watch.
“Right now, [patients] can definitely tell when [they’re] wearing [the devices], and it’s a little bit cumbersome,” O’Brien said. “We want to get to the point where people forget that they are wearing them
… and [it] doesn’t interfere with their ability to nurse their baby right after delivery.”
The highest risk of PPH occurs during primary postpartum hemorrhaging, which is often caused by irregular uterine contractions that can lead to sudden high concentrations of blood loss. Secondary postpartum hemorrhaging is characterized by bleeding that is commonly caused by uterine infections between 24 hours and 12 weeks after delivery.
Right now, the wearables are worn during labor or right before a cesarean section until about four afters after delivery.
“Our battery doesn’t last 24 hours, so we are currently engineering a project to increase the lifespan of our device … so we can catch as many hemorrhages as possible,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien hopes to expand the capabilities of PPHdetecting technology to commercialize products tied to her lab’s research, in order to reduce PPH mortality rates.
“The goal is to identify hemorrhage in that window where those low-cost accessible treatments can be successfully administered,” O’Brien said.
By creating products that support her lab’s research, O’Brien hopes that hemorrhaging mothers will be able to obtain low-cost, accessible treatments — like uterine massages and medications that enable uterine contraction and prevent bleeding — sooner.
O’Brien’s start-up
company, Armor Medical Inc., will eventually manufacture her lab’s technology. In 2023, Armor Medical Inc. received $320,000 from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) “Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Technology (RADx Tech) for Maternal Health Challenge.” This grant will help the company nationally commercialize an Apple Watch-like device that will monitor blood flow during delivery as well as four hours after. The goal is to release marketable products in the next two-to-three years. The O’Brien Lab is also beginning to explore the
implementation of their research on a global scale by collaborating with Nigeria’s University of Abuja Teaching Hospital to learn how their research can be adjusted to better help the University’s healthcare team.
For those inquiring about any type of career in science, O’Brien advocates for students to gain a plethora of different experiences that will help narrow down their interests. If O’Brien had not steered off course to take a global health certificate course, her career and research would have looked very different.
“Let’s say you have an
experience that was maybe not the best — you’re still going to learn something from it and pivot your trajectory,” O’Brien said. “Remember that almost nobody’s career is a straight line.”
WashU undergraduates studying biomedical engineering have the opportunity to study historically under-researched women’s health problems through WashU’s Center for Women’s Health Engineering.
“If [a problem] is important to you, use your skills as an engineer to go and … figure something out or solve it,” O’Brien said.
High Holidays at WashU
WILL ROSENBLUM SENIOR SCENE EDITOR
If you walked past WashU’s Chabad house the night of Oct. 4, you may have smelled the sweet scent of honey or seen students shuffling in and out of a small opening to a fenced-in yard. You certainly heard the excited chatter of over 400 Jewish students.
They flocked to the Chabad house to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the first in a string of important Jewish holidays lasting roughly a month, known as the High Holidays. Four hundred students returned the following week to break the fast of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement and repentance. Similar festivities took place in the WashU Hillel house, in dorm rooms across the South 40, and in apartments lining Washington Avenue and Kingsbury Boulevard.
Such outward displays of Judaism have become increasingly less common on college campuses across the U.S. In the past year alone, the percentage of Jewish students nationwide who said they feel comfortable with others on campus knowing they are Jewish dropped by almost half. A plurality of Jewish students no longer feel physically safe on their college campuses.
Talk to Jewish students at WashU, however, and you will find a community strengthened, not weakened, engaged, not discouraged. Brazenly proud. As this year’s High Holidays have come and gone, WashU students reflect on celebrating the year’s holiest days in a troubling national environment.
Junior Lauren Eckstein, Chabad Student Board Co-President, transferred to WashU from Pomona College last year to avoid antisemitism.
“It was incredibly hostile …
Here, administration has gone to our events, reaching out to different student groups to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable, which is very different than what I’m used to,” she said.
Junior Noam Karger, president of the Jewish Student Association (JSA), looked towards the future, as well as to the past, during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“It changed the perspective from only focusing on ourselves and our own actions — whether socially, how we interact with people, or also religiously — to more of a communal mindset. We’re really thinking about what the Jewish community looks like, how the Jewish community may have fallen short in previous years, and how we can try to play into that larger story of a more positive year for the Jewish people,” he said.
Karger believes the High Holidays provide a unique opportunity to strengthen WashU’s Jewish community.
“The reflection of the High Holidays spurs on more ways to support the WashU community. It’s hard to imagine, on such a large scale, how we can contribute to the entire global Jewish community, but on a smaller scale, it’s pretty easy,” he said.
Sophomore Jonah Porth, JSA’s Outreach Chair, appreciates the fostering of togetherness. “What’s really amazing about the High Holidays is that it brings together Jews of all different religious backgrounds … It’s very enjoyable,” he said.
Sophomore Matthew Isaac, Chabad Student Board Co-President, celebrated the High Holidays on a college campus for the first time this year after transferring from the University of Richmond. He said, “There were some incidents on social media [that] I don’t think the school [University of Richmond] handled well, and [I] heard nothing but good things about WashU.” He continued to describe how it differs from his past experiences on college campuses. “You can lean into it … It is very wholesome and nice to be able to celebrate with the Jewish community and not be on the receiving end of hate,” he said. As shame and fear have dominated campus Judaism nationally, WashU’s Jewish community runs in the opposite direction. Jewish students at WashU overwhelmingly feel that they have a privilege that is increasingly rare: the right to be unabashedly Jewish in college.
Chabad Rabbi Moshe Kamman, joined by students outside the DUC, blows shofar for the Jewish New Year.
SAM POWERS | JUNIOR PHOTO EDITOR
ANNIE TIAN | CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR
Statement on admissions equity from affinity groups
In the first admissions cycle without affirmative action, the University witnessed a 33% decline in enrollment of Black students, an 8% decrease in enrollment of Latine students, and a 4% decrease in enrollment of Asian students.
In a single year, enrollment of students of color from the incoming class went from 53% to 47%. In the coming months, we look forward to deepening our collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and are eager that our joint efforts will retain a student body that is majority students of color.
The decline in students of color is a direct result of last year’s Supreme Court decision, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard,
which prohibits affirmative action on the basis of race in higher education. In the dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” As student leaders of color, we understand this assertion deeply. Affirmative action is necessary to account for systemic racism that all students of color have faced and will continue to face at institutions like WashU.
In the coming months, the Association of Black Students (ABS), Association of Latin American Students (ALAS), and Asian Multicultural Council (AMC) are looking forward to having members of our executive boards work directly with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to reverse the decline in students of color.
Starting next semester, the Office of Undergraduate
Admissions will hire several student interns to propose and support improved strategies to grow the historically marginalized student population. We are eager for this intern model to propose and implement meaningful initiatives such as launching and expanding recruitment and yield initiatives.
As we improve recruitment and yield efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity, there is a need for data disaggregation to determine what communities these efforts should target. Though enrollment decreases may seem small, broad categories like “Asian” and “Hispanic” hide the full picture. There is no data on the enrollment by race, ethnicity, and nationality for minority Latine students, particularly Afro-Latines, Indigenous Latines, and those with Central American heritage.
Aggregated data conceals the impact of admissions policies. Consider the 4% decline in Asian students. Across the diaspora, there is significant variation in educational attainment. Vietnamese, Hmong, and Bhutanese Americans are less likely to attain a college degree, whereas Chinese and Indian Americans are more likely to do so. We suspect the decrease in students of backgrounds with lower educational attainment rates was offset by an increase in students of backgrounds with higher educational attainment rates. Only with disaggregated data can WashU identify what populations face the greatest barriers to educational attainment.
WashU students have been calling for data disaggregation as early as 2018, with a dedicated campaign from a coalition of affinity groups in
2020. In the coming months, we will be renewing these efforts for data disaggregation, particularly as the Office of the University Registrar’s Student Sunrise project, leading the shift from WebSTAC to Workday, opens a unique avenue to revisit WashU’s data collection practices.
Admissions equity is predicated on transparency and open communication. To fulfill its principles, WashU ought to disaggregate data for Black, Latine, and Asian students, properly identify students from Southwest Asia and North Africa, and appropriately represent the backgrounds of international students.
Moving forward, our coalition of organizations will work towards education and advocacy to address the admissions inequity at WashU and strengthen collaborations with the Office of
Undergraduate Admissions to retain a majority student of color student body. Still, racial and ethnic equity cannot stop at admissions. We believe it is imperative to focus on every dimension of student experience, from admissions to graduation. Our coalition remains committed to fostering communities where students of color can celebrate their differences and similarities. In the coming months, we will expand our coalition efforts to advocate for continuous support for the people who constitute our campus communities.
Signed,
A letter to sexual assault survivors
BRI NITSBERG MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR
Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of sexual violence and contains sensitive language regarding unwanted sexual contact. Resources and helplines can be found at the bottom of the piece.
Dear Survivor, I don’t know if you want that title or identify with it in any way. I don’t know what happened to you. You might not either, but that doesn’t matter. If you feel like you might be a survivor, something happened to you. Someone, somewhere, at some point — maybe multiple people multiple times — crossed your path and ignored your boundaries.
They might not have acknowledged that they did it. They might not have cared about what they did. They might not realize you are still suffering the consequences. But regardless, it happened. If I am the first to tell you that you deserve to validate your own feelings, I am sorry, and I will continue to tell you over and
over again for all the people who won’t. If you think someone sexually assaulted you, you are allowed to believe yourself. If you didn’t want what happened, know that perpetrators can be anyone, from strangers and hookups to friends and partners. If what happened didn’t feel violent or forceful, remember that sexual assault can be loud, but it can also be so incredibly silent.
That label might feel
the only one who gets to determine how you react. You are in command now. Someone else might have controlled what happened, but you control what you do next.
You can try to tell yourself all the “right” things you need to do to heal, but no “right” way exists. That’s not to say that you will never be healed, but the healing might not look like what you expected. It likely won’t happen over-
steps backward for every one step forward, but it is part of the process. It might not make sense to others or even to yourself, but you are doing what you need to do to survive. You might continue to replay moments in your head, or you’ll need to shower away the feeling of their hands on you, or you’ll want to hook up with a new person so you can forget, or maybe you won’t be able to sleep through the
survived. And you are still surviving.
Even if it just feels like you are going through the motions sometimes, I’m proud of you, and I’m sorry. I am sorry someone did this to you. I am sorry if you tried to speak up about it and people didn’t listen. I am sorry if it feels like you don’t know how to go back to the person you used to be. I am sorry for anything you may have lost.
You are in command now. Someone else might have controlled what happened, but you control what you do next.
scary, and you don’t need to take it if you don’t want to. However, if you need the label to validate and express the pain in your mind, you are allowed to say it without feeling like you are being dramatic, an attention-seeker, or a burden. Your feelings and your needs are not a burden. The person who caused you all this pain is the burden. You are the only one who knows what you are going through, so you are
night, and you deserve to take as long or as short as you need. You are on no one’s timeline but your own, regardless of whatever pressure might be coming from yourself or others. The healing may not be a straight line, and may have high highs and low lows. It may be heartbreakingly lonely to face things that others won’t fully understand. These things might feel like you are taking three
night, or you might need to talk about it over and over and over again, or maybe you’ll just want to smile over being able to get out of bed another day. Whatever you need to do and however you need to heal, you deserve to do i t If you were forced to suffer in silence, you are allowed to heal as loudly as you need, regardless of other people’s opinions.
You are the one who went through it. You
STAFF EDITORIAL
Nothing that happened to you was your fault; you didn’t want it, and you didn’t deserve it. If no one has told you or no one has told you recently — you can get through this, even on the days you don’t believe that to be true. You are so much more than whatever happened to you.
Sincerely, A friend… because you are never alone
The Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline (S.A.R.A.H) provides confidential and anonymous support regarding sexual assault, sexual harassment, intimatepartner and sexual violence, relationships, and mental and sexual health. It can be reached at (314) 935-8080 24/7 during the fall and spring academic semesters. There are counselors at the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center, located in Seigle Hall, Suite 435, available confidentially to any University student. The office can be reached at (314) 935-3445 or by email at rsvpcenter@ wustl.edu.
The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at 1-800-6564673 or via online chat here 24/7
Sexual misconduct is everyone’s issue — but WashU doesn’t seem to get it
Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of sexual violence. Resources and helplines can be found at the bottom of the piece.
WashU released the results of their 2024 Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness survey on Oct. 21, revealing a 4.4 percentage point decrease in student response rate compared to the last time it was administered, in 2019. This low completion rate reflects a lack of effort by WashU’s administration to collect this information, as well as a campus culture that doesn’t see sexual misconduct as a problem involving everyone.
Of the 10 schools that participated in the study, WashU had the lowest response rate: 12.5%, which was 30.5 percentage points less than Stanford, the school with the highest response rate.
The survey found that, since entering WashU, 26.9% of surveyed undergraduate women reported experiencing sexual assault, compared to 35.1% in 2019. Of WashU respondents, roughly two times more undergraduate women filled out the survey than undergraduate men.
In a statement to Student Life, the Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline (SARAH), a student-run counseling hotline, called the 12.5% response rate “dismal.” They drew two conclusions from this minimal number of responses: first, students may not have felt comfortable responding to the survey or did not know about it in the first place; second, the survey does not accurately represent relationship and sexual violence on campus.
“From our own experiences as both WashU students and peer counselors, we have been given no reason to believe that such a decrease [in sexual assaults against undergraduate women] reflects students’ experiences,” SARAH wrote.
Kim Wells, director of the Relationship and Sexual
Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center, noted that the stigma that surrounds sexual misconduct is reflective of broader national culture, which minimizes instances of sexual misconduct. This invalidates people’s experiences of sexual violence, creating a campus culture that makes survivors less likely to report or share their experiences.
The University needs accurate and thorough information about students’ experiences
higher student response rates, suggesting that WashU should consider implementing their own in the future.
While neither the RSVP Center nor SARAH were involved in the distribution or advertisement of the survey, SARAH expressed interest in helping promote it in the future to improve the response rate.
In a statement to Student Life, Beverly Wendland, Provost and Executive Vice
understandable for survivors to opt out of filling out surveys regarding sexual misconduct if it is triggering or uncomfortable, students who do not face these barriers have a responsibility to do so. Sexual violence impacts our entire community, and participating in surveys like this one is essential to understanding the steps we need to take to combat sexual violence.
The gender gap in response rate displays another fault in
the RSVP Center to reconsider how they allocate their resources.
In the future, both SARAH and Wells hope to see more campus awareness of the survey and higher response rates.
“I do think we can do a better job advertising … We can do a better job of providing safe spaces for people to participate in the survey if they choose. And so I think that’s work that we need to look at moving forward,” Wells said.
“From our own experiences as both WashU students and peer counselors we have been given no reason to believe that such a decrease [in sexual assaults against undergraduate women] reflects students’ experiences.”
to combat sexual misconduct and change the campus culture. Surveys such as this one are essential to understanding the safety and culture of our campus, and with such a low response rate, the results do not paint an accurate picture of sexual violence at WashU. WashU therefore needs to reflect on the lack of awareness around the survey that contributed to low response rates.
Some other universities included in the study—like Stanford and Harvard—offered incentives. These ranged from entering participants into a raffle where they could win a prize, offering a gift card as an incentive, or creating competitions between residential halls to promote student participation.
The aggregate data of all 10 colleges showed that schools that offered incentives had
Chancellor of Academic Affairs, wrote that she hoped for higher response rates in the future and that the University is actively seeking ways to improve them.
Wendland mentioned that WashU is hoping to establish focus groups in November to learn how students could best be approached for outreach to be most effective. These groups will discuss “survey engagement, response motivations, and how we can improve future effort.”
The low response rate does not only reflect a flawed methodology on the side of the University, but rather, also points to a lack of motivation on the side of students. Ultimately, although incentives and advertisement will increase students’ motivation, WashU students should participate in the survey in its own right. While it is
our campus culture where men do not participate in discussions about sexual violence prevention to the same extent as women. The school and student-led groups can improve this by creating more programming aimed at men.
All students must participate in these conversations and campus-wide efforts about sexual violence prevention because it impacts all of us.
Student clubs and organizations can help increase student involvement by promoting surveys as well as facilitating conversations around sexual violence prevention.
Both Wells, on behalf of the RSVP Center, and SARAH noted that the survey results should not be wholly disregarded, highlighting the 7 percentage point increase in undergraduate men who have experienced sexual assault, which Wells said has caused
Low response rates to sexual misconduct surveys are in large part due to the societal stigmatization, invalidation, and normalization of sexual violence, especially on college campuses. The fact that WashU had the lowest response rate of all schools, however, points to additional issues specific to the University. WashU’s administration must do more to collect information about students’ experiences of sexual violence. It’s everyone’s issue. Let’s act like it.
Staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of our editorial board members. The editorial board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the senior staff.
Mia Burkholder, Chief of Copy
Avi Holzman, Editor-InChief
Elizabeth Grieve, Junior Scene Editor
Lore Wang, Junior Scene Editor
Alice Gottesman, Managing Scene Editor
Lewis Rand, Junior Sports Editor
Nina Giraldo, Editor-InChief
Olivia Lee, Junior Scene Editor
Sophia Hellman, Junior Scene Editor
Bri Nitsberg, Managing Photo Editor
Alan Knight, Multimedia Editor
Tim Mellman, Managing Newsletter Editor
Quinn Moore, Newsletter Editor
Sylvie Richards, Managing Forum Editor
Jasmine Stone, Senior Forum Editors
Amelia Raden, Senior Forum Editor
Riley Herron, Managing Sports Editor
The Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline (S.A.R.A.H) provides confidential and anonymous support and can be reached at 314-935-8080 24 /7 during the fall and spring academic semesters.
There are counselors at the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center, located in Seigle Hall, Suite 435, available confidentially to any University student. The office can be reached at tel:314935-3445 or by email at mailto:rsvpcenter@wustl. edu.
The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at tel:1-800-656-4673 or via online chat at https://hotline.rainn.org/online 24/7.
Bears football falls 27-20 to No. 23 Wheaton in blow to playoff hopes
MATT EISNER
FERNANDEZ
With 20 seconds left in the WashU football team’s matchup against Wheaton College, sophomore kicker Jacob Weinstein lined up for an on-side kick. If the Bears, who were trailing 27-20, recovered the ball, it would give WashU a chance to complete a huge comeback against their rival.
Weinstein’s kick had a good bounce. For a moment, it looked like the ball could go in WashU’s favor, but the football bounced in the hands of a Wheaton defender, who dove on it and recovered the kick for the Thunder. Ballgame.
Bears football lost 27-20 to No. 23 Wheaton on Saturday, Oct. 26. They entered the fourth quarter down 27-3, nearly riding a wave of late momentum to mount a stunning comeback. With Wheaton’s victory, the Thunder took sole possession of second place in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW). WashU, on the other hand, fell to Wheaton for the fifth-straight season.
“We weren’t good enough in the moment,” head coach Aaron Keen said. “We’ve just got to find a way to rebound.”
The Bears started the game with momentum, despite being without senior quarterback Clark Stephens for a second-straight game due to injury. On the opening drive, sophomore linebacker Joy Chane sacked Wheaton quarterback Mark Forcucci on third down, setting up an early three-and-out. WashU drove down the field but settled for a field goal, unable to convert a red zone opportunity in the opening minutes.
On the next Wheaton drive, junior defensive back Ryan Schmadtke recovered a fumble, setting up a Bears possession in their own territory. But after a holding penalty set WashU back 10 yards, sophomore quarterback Levi Moore’s pass was intercepted.
Moore was picked off once in the game, as was senior receiver Taidhgin Trost on a flea-flicker try later in the game. WashU struggled with turnovers and penalties throughout the game, especially in the first half.
“It’s the beauty of the sport,
WSOC from page 1
The second half proved to be more of a defensive battle, with WashU holding the Tartans to three shots with the Bears only notching one shot. The match marked the 12th shut-out for the Bears backline, led by senior goal-keeper Sidney Conner. Conner, who has recorded 22 saves this season, had two saves in the second half, keeping the clean sheet for the Bears. Two days later, the Bears returned to Francis Field to defeat Case Western 3-1. Despite less than 48 hours separating the games, the Bears’ fatigue did not show, as they quickly pulled ahead of Case Western. Four minutes into the match, Koleno teed up senior Meryl McKenna,
whose cross into a crowded box found its way to junior Kaci Karl. Karl slotted the ball into the goal, putting the Bears ahead 1-0. Ten minutes later, junior Grace Ehlert, the Bears’ second-leading scorer, found the goal for the 11th time this season to extend the Bears’ lead.
In the 22nd minute, Viscovich took a shot downfield, and a botched save from the defender caused the ball to pop free. Viscovich capitalized on the opportunity, firing the ball into the top corner of the net, recording her second goal of the season and allowing WashU to pull ahead by three.
Despite an early goal in the second half to put the score at 3-1, the Spartans were unable
and it’s a hard thing in the sport that you play just once a week,” Keen said. “We’re pouring our heart and soul into this game, and we didn’t necessarily come out and play perfect football.”
WashU prevented Wheaton from scoring after Moore’s interception, and at the beginning of the second quarter, senior defensive back Zachary Ginsburg intercepted a Wheaton pass. However, after a stop, the Thunder found the end zone on a fourth down play on their next drive.
After another defensive stop and a blocked WashU punt, Forcucci ran into the end zone for a second Wheaton touchdown, bringing the score to 14-3 late in the second quarter. Turnovers continued to plague the WashU offense throughout the game. In the third quarter, a Wheaton defender stripped the ball from senior running back Ken Hamilton, setting up a Thunder possession in WashU territory. Wheaton’s Forcucci found senior receiver Ben Bonga for an immediate Wheaton touchdown, extending the Thunder advantage to three scores.
Junior
Caiden Hill
to come back, held to only six shots throughout the match, compared to WashU’s 12. The Bears also dominated on corner kicks, recording 10 to Case Western’s one.
While the weekend was WashU’s first UAA doubleheader, playing back-to-back
intercepted a Wheaton attempt later in the quarter, but the Thunder held WashU to just one yard on the ensuing drive. Wheaton converted on their next drive, bringing the score to 27-3.
In the fourth quarter, senior running back Kenvorris Campbell put WashU back in the game with a 58-yard run for a touchdown. Building on the drive, Trost rushed for a two-point conversion on a reverse, making the score 27-11.
WashU’s offense continued to drive down the field in the fourth quarter thanks to sophomore wide receiver Makael Carter, who had a total of 87 yards in the contest. Levi Moore passed the ball to Carter for a 24-yard reception, putting the Bears in a 27-17 game. However, WashU was unable to convert a two-point attempt, keeping the deficit at two possessions. Still, the comeback was on. A year after losing on a 36-35 walk-off Hail Mary to Wheaton, WashU was aiming to return the favor to the Thunder.
After Carter’s touchdown, the Bears were in position to get the ball back with over three minutes left. On third
games has been a focus for the Bears throughout the season to prepare for this weekend and the NCAA tournament — where many games are played within two days of each other.
“I think day-two legs is something that our team trains all season long,” Viscovich
down, Forcucci fired a deep ball to Bonga that was incomplete. But, to the ire of the WashU sideline and supporters, the referee threw a late flag on the play, penalizing Hill for pass interference. The penalty forced WashU to burn their timeouts, and while they held Wheaton scoreless, it killed the momentum that the Bears had garnered.
“We’re down two scores, and that would have been a huge play to get a stop there,” Keen said. “The bottom line is, they saw something they called, and we’ve got to deal with it.”
With less than a minute to go, the Bears had one last shot in the dark. On third down, Moore found Carter for a 38-yard reception — the longest pass of Moore’s collegiate career. Moore and Carter connected for a 19-yard pass later in the drive. On a fourth down attempt with just 30 seconds to go, however, Moore’s pass barely missed an open Carter. WashU settled for a field goal from sophomore kicker Ross Muchnick, making it a one-score game and setting up Weinstein’s onside kick attempt. Wheaton recovered the ball and won the game.
said. “So whether that’s coming home from a trip and practicing the next morning, we’ve had a couple double non-conference games, coming home training on that third day to prepare ourselves for weekends like this. And I think we have a super deep
The Bears finished 27-20 against Wheaton and are tied with North Park University for third place in the CCIW. With the loss, WashU’s playoff chances are bleak. The Bears will need to beat Millikin University in St. Louis next Saturday, Nov. 2. Then, third place will be decided when WashU and North Park face off in Chicago on Nov. 9. The winner of that game will likely decide which CCIW team makes the Culver’s Isthmus Bowl, played annually between the top team who misses the NCAA tournament from the CCIW and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Though only two CCIW teams have made the NCAA tournament in the past few years, the Bears are hoping that this year, after the playoff field was expanded from 32 to 40 teams, they still have a shot at their first playoff bid since 2016. It won’t be easy for WashU to make the tournament, but Keen believes that there’s still an outside chance.
“It’s probably an uphill battle, but we’re not dead yet,” Keen said. “We’ve got to go finish with three strong performances.”
roster this year — everyone’s just ready to go.”
With a spotless conference record, the Bears will travel to upstate New York to take on Rochester on Nov. 3. A win would solidify the Bears bid to the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
ALUMS
ANNA CALVO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
First-year Jack Middleton rushes the passer in the loss to Wheaton.
The WashU men’s soccer team showed grit and resilience over the weekend, securing a pair of tough draws against Carnegie Mellon University and Case Western Reserve University. In a 0-0 stalemate on Friday night, the Bears leaned on their defense to hold firm, while Sunday’s Senior Day matchup ended in a 1-1 tie after a late rally from Case Western. Though the Bears were frustrated not to come away with a win, the weekend showcased their steady progress as they prepare for the final stretch of University Athletic Association (UAA) play.
Friday’s match against Carnegie Mellon was a tense, defensive contest with few clear chances in the first half. The Tartans disrupted WashU’s rhythm early, particularly on set pieces, forcing the Bears to battle for control.
“Carnegie did an excellent job of really neutralizing some of the things that we wanted to
Facing a pivotal fourth set, the Bears were able to minimize their mistakes and fought back to make the match score 2-2, with graduate student Lily Steinbach recording six kills to contribute to a score of 25-22. Then, at a nerve-wracking scoreline of 9-10 in the fifth set, the Maroons recorded six errors over the next seven points as the Bears started off their day with a well-fought win.
After the game, head coach Vanessa Walby described the adjustments the team made to help them win.
“I think our team did an excellent job of engaging
do,” head coach Andrew Bordelon said. “They were really, really challenging us on set pieces.”
In the second half, WashU found their footing and spent more time in Carnegie’s half, finishing with a 16-6 edge in shots. They pushed hard for the winner in the final minutes, but the Tartans’ goalkeeper made several key saves to preserve the 0-0 result. On the defensive end, WashU goalkeeper Cal L’Hommedieu provided stability, recording his second consecutive clean sheet since returning from injury.
“You can see he’s been sharp in training, and his confidence is high,” Bordelon said. “I really like his communication and soccer IQ back there, and he came up big for us with a good save tonight.”
Sunday’s Senior Day game brought more emotion and energy as the Bears honored their seniors before kickoff. Despite a relatively mundane first half, the game sprang to life in the second half, and after more than 70 minutes of pressing, WashU finally
from page 1
later, WashU had a date with Carnegie Mellon, who, despite not being ranked nationally, was now equal to the Bears in UAA play with a 4-2 record (the Tartans lost their first match against No. 17 Case Western Reserve University earlier that morning).
This time, the script was flipped, with the Bears dropping the first set 23-25 after getting out to an early 9-4 lead. They then claimed the second 26-24 as neither team won more than three consecutive points. With the set tied at 24, Steinbach and sophomore Leah Oyewole struck
got their reward. In the 78th minute, junior Nathan Szpak surged down the right wing, slipping past his defender and whipping a pinpoint cross into the box. Senior Landon Green timed his run perfectly, meeting the cross in stride and slotting it past the keeper to send the home crowd into a frenzy. It was a storybook moment — on Senior Day, it was fitting that Green, one of the team’s leaders, would put his side in front.
The Bears seemed poised to hold on for the victory, but just as WashU was tightening their grip on the game, Case Western found a way back. In the 87th minute, a misplayed pass deep in WashU’s territory gave the Spartans an opening, and they capitalized to level the score at 1-1. Though the late equalizer stung, the Bears refused to let the setback define their performance. They dug in for the remaining minutes, determined to keep the result from slipping away altogether.
Bordelon acknowledged the progress his
and a .500 hitting percentage by the match’s conclusion, ended the third at 25-22 and gave the Bears a 2-1 lead. Oyewole was named the UAA’s Offensive Athlete of the Week for her performances, and junior Sam Buckley was named the conference’s Setter of the Week. While the Tartans rallied back in the fourth by a score of 25-19, the Bears were able to show their consistent resilience by coming back from an 11-7 deficit in the fifth to win 15-13. Senior Elise Gilroy had a strong defensive performance with 33 digs, almost a third of the team’s
team showed despite the disappointing result. “Ultimately, if we can create better opportunities in those final moments, I think we’re really a very dangerous and very good team,” he said. While two draws may not have been the perfect ending to their home campaign, the Bears left the weekend with valuable lessons. Their defensive foundation, bolstered by L’Hommedieu’s steady play, gives them the confidence they need as they head into the season’s final games. And with sharper execution in the final third, they believe they have what it takes to finish their UAA schedule on a high.
With two games remaining in their season, the Bears sit in fifth place with a 1-2-2 conference record. They also wrapped up their home campaign without losing a single home game, recording six wins, two draws, and zero losses in eight home matches. The Bears will now focus on two crucial road games, starting with a visit to Rochester on Nov. 3.
The team’s resiliency shined through as they had to face two tough opponents and the first five-set test in over a month since they faced Case Western in September.
The Bears have now recorded 10 straight victories across all play, providing significant momentum as they approach the tail end of their season. Now, they are hoping to conclude their season with consistency.
“We are trying to take things match by match and finish the regular season strong on the court and in the classroom,” Walby wrote.
The Bears have now
stronger foundation for the NCAA Tournament, which they are firmly on track to qualify for.
The Bears will seek to add to their strong run of victories on Oct. 31 against Illinois Wesleyan University and Greenville University on Nov. 6. On Nov. 9, the Bears will host both DePauw University and Millikin University in the WashU Tri. Finally, the UAA championships, the conclusion to conference play, follow not long after on Nov. 15 and 16 in Rochester.
BRI NITSBERG | MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR
SAM POWERS | JUNIOR PHOTO EDITOR Junior Anna Freeman spikes the ball.
Sophomore Quentin Gomez heads the ball against Case Western.