A look back at some of the shining moments of the 2008-09 Wesleyan sports year:

Jeremy Kaminer ’10, Men’s Basketball
Wesleyan men’s basketball had lost 16 straight contests to Amherst since the 2001-02 season, a span in which the Lord Jeffs dropped just nine total NESCAC games—four of which came in 2001-02—and hosted the conference tournament all but two years. On Jan. 6, then-9-0 Amherst looked poised to make it 17 in a row, as the Jeffs held a 57-45 lead with ten minutes to play in Middletown. Wesleyan, however, rallied to take a five-point lead with 30 seconds left, only to see the visitors tie the game with seven ticks remaining. After a timeout, Kaminer found himself double-teamed along the far baseline with time running out. The Cardinals’ point guard threw up a 30-footer as the clock hit zero that hit the glass and swished through the hoop, sending the Silloway Gym crowd into hysterics and giving head coach Joe Reilly his first career victory against the national power.

Ali Fourney ’09, Women’s Basketball
Fourney, who tallied her 1,000th career point in a victory over Trinity on Feb. 8, 2008—becoming only the second Wesleyan junior ever to reach the milestone—entered the Cardinals’ Feb. 4 game at Emmanuel needing 11 points to break the career scoring record held by Angie Palmer ’95. With a layup with 7:49 to go in the second half, Fourney reached 1,418 career points to clinch the record, eclipsing Palmer’s total of 1,416. She finished her illustrious career with 1,498 career points, including 430 in 2008-09. She finished the season with a career-high average of 18.7 points per game, which led the NESCAC. She also finished second in the conference in steals (3.7 per game), seventh in field-goal percentage (47.4%), eighth in assists (3.53 per game), and ninth in blocks (1.0 per game). Fourney is the only player in Wesleyan women’s basketball history with 100 career field goals, three-pointers, free throws, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.

Wesleyan Men’s Ice Hockey
Entering its Nov. 22 home game against Amherst, Wesleyan had a fair amount going against it. The Lord Jeffs had taken the last eight games in the series—including back-to-back shutouts—and spoiled Wesleyan’s first-ever home NESCAC tournament game with a 2-0 victory in 2007. Amherst kept the Cardinals off the board through the first two periods, but Dallas Bossort ’09 scored just 39 seconds into the third period to give Wesleyan a 1-0 lead—one it would not relinquish. Cardinal goaltender Tim Archibald ’10 was spectacular in net, stopping 34 Amherst shots, including 16 in the second stanza. Amherst displayed impressive sportsmanship, racking up 38 penalty minutes in the contest, but it was Wesleyan that emerged with a victory, its first shutout in the 82-game series. Even more impressive was that Wesleyan was the only NESCAC squad to defeat Amherst in a conference game, and one of only five teams overall to take down the NESCAC champion Jeffs in 2008-09.

Dave Wilkinson ’09, Men’s Swimming and Diving
Wilkinson became the second Wesleyan diver in the last seven years to compete at the NCAA Championships and placed 19th and 13th (out of 22 divers) in the one- and three-meter dives, respectively, the latter of which earned him honorable-mention All-America laurels. Wilkinson scored 392.25 on the one-meter and 417.35 on the three-meter. He had finished fourth on the one- and three-meter boards during the NESCAC Championships and also earned the Senior Diver of the Year award, given annually to the senior diver with the most career points in the Championships. At Nationals, Wilkinson’s 13th-place effort in the three-meter dive earned Wesleyan four team points, placing the Cardinals in a tie for 53rd place among the 57 scoring teams.

Rachel Stemerman ’09, Women’s Ice Hockey
With a 35-save performance in the women’s ice hockey team’s season finale, Stemerman ran her career total to 3,012 stops, the second-highest total in NCAA Division III history. Despite missing two games with an injury, Stemerman stopped 923 of 999 shots in 2008-09, an average of 42 stops per game as well as being 148 higher than the previous Wesleyan record (and the fifth-highest in Division III history). She had back-to-back 51-save games against Colby and Bowdoin on Feb. 6 and 7, bringing her career total to ten 50-save games. Seven of those games came in 2008-09, including a 66-save performance at Holy Cross on Jan. 20. She made 34 saves against Nichols on Dec. 6 for her fourth career shutout. Stemerman opened her Wesleyan career with a 53-save performance against Trinity and recorded 46 stops in a shutout of Hamilton five games later. Stemerman was named second-team all-NESCAC in recognition of her performance.

Lisa Drennan ’09, Volleyball
Drennan, who was also named NESCAC Player of the Year after her sophomore season (2006), established herself as one of the best all-around players in NESCAC history. She led the NESCAC in kills (4.70 per set)—and was third in Division III in that category, her third straight year in the top five nationally—and finished second in the conference with a .315 hitting percentage. Drennan was also named an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III second-team All-American—the only player in New England to receive such an honor—and was also named a New England Women’s Volleyball Association (NEWVA) and AVCA New England Division III first-team all-star and a CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine second-team Academic All-American. She finished her career with 1,865 kills, second in Wesleyan history; her average of 4.92 is a program best. Drennan also helped lead the 2008 Cardinals to their fourth straight winning season and ninth in the last ten years, as Wesleyan finished with a 21-7 record.

Wesleyan Men’s Lacrosse
From 2004 to 2007, Wesleyan and Middlebury met in the finals of the NESCAC Men’s Lacrosse Championship each year—with the Panthers defeating the Cardinals each time. After both squads bowed out in the ’08 semifinals, the teams renewed their rivalry in the 2009 semis. Wesleyan battled back from an 8-3 halftime deficit to tie the score at 14-14 with 15 seconds left and got the game-winner from Dan Latzman ’09 36 seconds into OT. The following day against Tufts, the Cardinals jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never led by fewer than three the rest of the way en route to a 14-10 victory, avenging an earlier 12-10 loss in Medford. The win gave Wesleyan its first NESCAC title in program history and sent the Cards into the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in five seasons.

Drew Black, Wrestling
Drew Black became a household name this past winter when he helped revive an alumnus who had collapsed in the fitness center, but he also finds time to coach a Wesleyan wrestling match every now and then. Black, who took over the Cardinal matmen in 1998, picked up his 100th win in the red and black with a 33-9 victory over Coast Guard, Wesleyan’s sixth straight over its in-state foe, on Jan. 25. Black set the school mark for victories in a season with a 17-2 showing in 2001-02 and has finished .500 or better seven of the past nine seasons. Black’s milestone added to the team’s impressive highlight reel, which featured a pair of NCAA qualifiers (Dan Bloom ’10 and Greg Hurd ’10), a New England champion (Bloom), and four National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Scholar All-Americans (Bloom, Hurd, Dan Conroy ’10, and Dave Bachy ’11).

Meaghan Dendy ’10 and Talia Bernstein ’11, Softball
Both players were named first-team all-NESCAC for the second straight year after leading Wesleyan to its second consecutive NESCAC West title. Dendy finished 12-8 on the mound for Wesleyan, breaking her own seasonal record of 11 wins (set in 2008) and improving her career record to 30-19, the highest career win total in program history. Dendy also tied for second on the team with a .365 average, picking up 46 hits to raise her career total to 137 and tying her with Becca Feiden ’08 for second on the all-time list. Dendy’s 46 safeties ranked second on the ’09 Cardinals behind Bernstein, whose 55 hits broke the team record of 51 and gave her 106 for her career. Her .482 average is the third-highest seasonal mark ever at Wesleyan—and the highest by any player with at least 100 at-bats—and Bernstein is the first sophomore to reach the 100-hit plateau; she is currently tied for seventh on the all-time list. Bernstein was also named a National Fastpitch Coaches Assocation New England second-team all-star and a New England Intercollegiate Softball Coaches Association (NEISCA) first-team all-star; Dendy was an NEISCA honorable-mention selection.

Liz Wheatley ’09 and Ravenna Neville ’10, Women’s Cross Country
Thanks to a pair of strong performances in the New England Division III Championship, both runners advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time. Neville placed fifth of 330 runners at the New England race with a time of 23:02.6, while Wheatley placed 11th overall—and ninth among NESCAC runners—clocking in at 23:10.7. At the NCAAs, Neville finished 52nd of 279 runners (and 10th among NESCAC entrants) with a time of 22:02.92, while Wheatley covered the 6000-meter course in 22:30.10, finishing 101st overall. Wheatley was also named a United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national scholar athlete—one of four Cardinal runners to receive the honor—and both the men’s and women’s squads received USTFCCCA scholar team honors.