For the first time in history, the women’s tennis team posted consecutive winning seasons with a final record of 11-7. The Lady Cardinals finished up the season with convincing wins over Hamilton, Smith, and Mount Holoyoke, yielding just one match over the three-game span. Despite the historic feat of consecutive winning seasons, the Cards were edged out of the NESCAC Tournament for the second year in a row.
The men’s hockey team had perhaps its best season ever, finishing with a record of 11-8-5 and narrowly falling to Amherst in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament. The Cards were handsomely rewarded by the conference, as forward Will Bennett ’07 and goalie Mike Palladino ’09 were named to the First Team All-NESCAC, while head coach Chris Potter was recognized as the NESCAC Coach of the Year.
After taking a semester off from Wesleyan last year and missing the 2005-2006 basketball season, Rob Kelly ’07 returned to the Cardinal lineup this year determined to carry Wesleyan back to the NESCAC playoffs. While the men’s basketball team failed to live up to high expectations, earning a 7-16 record with only two wins in the NESCAC, Kelly unquestionably had one of the best individual seasons among any player in the conference.
All odds were against Dan deLalla ’07 midway through the New England Championships last weekend. Stepping off the mat after Mark DeCicco, his main rival from Springfield College, defeated him by pin, things looked bleak. To win the tournament, deLalla would have to win three consecutive matches, the last two against DeCicco.
Entering the weekend, the men’s basketball team was in prime position to qualify for the NESCAC Tournament. Occupying the eighth and final playoff position before their final regular season match-up with Williams College on Saturday, the Cardinals controlled their own destiny as either a win over Williams or a Bowdoin loss to Bates would clinch a playoff spot.
Coming into the season, the men’s basketball team had every reason to be confident, despite the previous season’s winless conference record. With the return of all players from the year before and the return of big man Rob Kelly ’07, the Cardinals were poised to make their mark in the NESCAC.
Nick Pelletier ’08, Nikki Maletta ’08, David Layne ’10, Julia Kazmers ’08, Dan deLalla ’07, Robert Broadfoot ’10, Casey Simchik ’10, Dave Wilkinson ’09, and Kate Krems ’08 are featured.
The men’s basketball team struggled down the stretch of two games this week, dropping close decisions to City College of New York, 86-83, and Hamilton College, 79-76. The Cards led in the late stages of both match-ups, but it was their opponents who were able to hit clutch buckets in the waning minutes.
Last Saturday marked the opening of the women’s squash season in which the team swept Northeastern and but suffered a 6-3 loss to Wellesley. The team’s number one player, Casey Simchik ’10, went undefeated in the opening weekend, defeating her Wellesley opponent 3-1 before sweeping her Northeastern opponent 3-0. Number three Liz Demakos ’09, and number six, Nicole Gray ’08, also won both of their matches.
A 6-17 record, an 11-game losing streak to end the season, and an 0-9 NESCAC record: based on last year’s results, it would appear that the men’s basketball team would be headed for another dreadful year. But with the return of every varsity player from a year ago and the reemergence of the prolific Rob Kelly ’07, the Cards are poised for the biggest turnaround year of any Wesleyan sport.
In the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament, the men’s soccer team (11-3-3) saw its season come to a screeching halt at the hands of the Montclair State Red Hawks (20-1-0), the eighth ranked team in the country. With the game’s only goal coming in the 18th minute of the first half, the Red Hawks withstood a second half surge by the Cardinals to advance to the Sectionals of the NCAA Tournament.
Last Friday, notable sports journalist Frank Deford delivered the keynote address for the fifth annual Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns, a University forum that examines one global issue yearly through seminars and workshops. This year, University alumni, parents, and friends explored the "Triumph of Sports Culture."
On last Sunday afternoon, Psi Upsilon hosted a haunted house for children of the North End Action Team mentoring program. Events at the haunted house designed for the kids included activities such as bobbing for apples, kickball, and pumpkin painting.
Coming off of a fifth-place finish at the Head of the Charles Regatta last weekend, the men’s crew team put together another exceptional performance at the Head of the Fish Regatta on Sunday. With a time of 10:15.91, the team’s first varsity eight finished in second place out of the twenty boats in the competition, finishing ahead of Williams and UMass in the team’s final competition of the fall season.
With many teams competing against key NESCAC rivals this weekend, look for these standouts to raise their teams to victory.
The men’s crew team’s top boat put together a remarkable fifth-place finish out of 58 teams in the Collegiate Eight event on Sunday, finishing behind only Trinity as the fastest team in Division III. The race was held on the Charles River in Massachusetts at the 42nd annual Head of the Charles Regatta, which bills itself as the world’s largest two-day rowing event.
With only one senior lost to graduation from last year’s varsity squad, the men’s crew team is looking to its incredible depth to improve on last year’s fourth-place finish in the New England Championships. While the majority of the team’s competition, including the New England Championships, takes place during the spring season, the crew team’s fall schedule includes three competitive long distance races.
This Sunday, two Wesleyan alums and NFL masterminds will be facing off against each other on the sidelines. Bill Belichick ’75, the head coach of the New England Patriots, takes on his former pupil Eric Mangini ’94, who was hired as Head Coach of the New York Jets last spring. Our two sports editors provide their expert analysis on the AFC matchup.
Last year, the women’s tennis team just missed qualifying for the postseason when a tiebreaker gave Tufts the edge for the sixth and final spot in the NESCAC Tournament. Five of six starting spots were occupied by freshmen last season, making them one of the youngest teams in the NESCAC, and the year of experience should propel the team to the top half of the conference this fall.
The women’s tennis team defeated the Skidmore Thoroughbreds in convincing fashion in Sunday’s season opener, winning 6-3. The top three women in the singles order added key victories, as Ania Preneta ’09, Mada Ursu ’09 and Rachael Ghorbani ’09 won in straight sets.
The men’s soccer team’s prospects of playing in the NESCAC Tournament last year looked bleak, to put it mildly. Coming off of a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Bowdoin in the last conference game before the conference tournament, the Cards limped into the NESCACs as the 7th and final seed.
This evening, I sat down with dual-athlete Max Schenkein ’08. A potent force on the golf and tennis teams, Max might not exactly be six feet tall, but he goes big when it counts — on the tennis courts and golf courses of course. Max shares his insights on the two teams with us.
This week, I sat down with one of the crew team’s finest, co-captain Matt Carey ’07. Carey, a veteran of the team who has been on the varsity eight since his freshman year, provided the Argus with an exclusive interview about his role on the crew team this year.
These days Jeff Maier ’06 has been carving his name into the history books with his baseball bat. It’s been almost ten years since Maier was a twelve-year-old fan, forever etching his name into Yankees lore by reaching over the right field wall with his glove. On Wednesday, Maier surpassed a milestone that twelve-year-old kids can only dream of.
This week, I sat down with the captain of the women’s tennis team, Suz Ragab ’06. This spring, Ragab has been the main anchor of the tennis team as the only senior on the squad. Ragab has posted a perfect 10-0 record in doubles and singles matches since the spring season began. We’re fortunate that "the Suz" found spare time to divulge her secrets to success with the Argus.
This past weekend, the women’s basketball season came to an end as the Lady Cards fell to Muhlenberg College in the first round of the Division III NCAA Tournament, 57-50. Wes led Muhlenberg for the entire first half and a large portion of the second half, but the Mules took the lead for good with just over three minutes left in the contest and never looked back.
This past weekend, All-American Ben Byers ’07 showed why he is one of the top swimmers in the NESCACs with his performance at the conference tournament. Not only did Byers repeat as NESCAC champion in the 1000 yard freestyle, but he also finished second in the 1650 free and placed third in the 500 free to pick up three top three finishes.
This past weekend was bittersweet for co-captain Ashley Mastrangelo ’06. Although the senior reached the coveted milestone of 1,000 points, a feat only nine other Lady Cards have attained, the women’s basketball team fell to Bowdoin in the second round of the NESCAC tournament, 61-46. However, the Lady Cards will have another opportunity to prove themselves, as they were one of the 63 teams that qualified for the elite Division III NCAA Tournament, slated to begin this Friday.
The fire engines and police cruisers parked along High Street were not responding to burnt popcorn or malfunctioning fire alarms. Rather, on Feb. 16, the brothers of Psi Upsilon hosted a dinner honoring the public service of both the Middletown Fire Department and the Middletown Police Department.
In the blowout victory over Trinity, the Lady Cards controlled the tempo of the contest right out of the gates, as they jumped out to an early 21-9 lead thanks to a combination of suffocating zone defense and a deadly shooting touch from the outside, with freshman Ali Fourney ’09 and co-captain Ashley Mastrangelo ’06 leading the way. The freshman and senior combined for 40 of the team’s 72 points.
As a sports editor, I feel compelled to respond to Zach Waksman, who expressed his dismay over the coverage of Wesleyan Athletics in the Argus. Zach, I suggest that you take a chill pill and lighten up on my sports writers.
The last time Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter ran his mouth for the cameras without any sense of restraint, his squad pulled off the biggest upset in the NFL Playoffs this year.
Newly appointed Jets head coach Eric Mangini ’94, is no stranger to tough decisions on the football field. As a head coach of a semi-professional football team in Melbourne, Australia, Mangini led his team to the championship game, where his brother, Kyle, was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. After yanking his brother from the game, Mangini’s squad pulled off the victory in the championship.
Last week, the Wesleyan golf team competed against Williams and Amherst at the annual Little Three Competition, held this year at Williams College. Facing stiff competition from two of the best teams in the conference, the Cards finished third out of the three teams to wrap up their second to last competition of the year.
With its most impressive outing in nearly four years, the Wesleyan golf team placed ahead of four teams in the competition at Williams. The Cards received several solid individual performances this past Friday, led by senior Adam Stone, who accomplished the unthinkable as he shot a 79 to lead the squad, and junior captain Hal Tift, who shot 83. With a team score of 338, the Cards showed remarkable improvement over previous years as all four members managed to break 90 strokes.
For the first time in over four years, the Wesleyan golf team finished on top of the competition, beating out Connecticut College and St. Michael’s at the Wesleyan Invitational Tournament on Thursday. With the Cardinals sporting several new stars and a younger lineup, the squad won the overall trophy with a total of 10 points, edging out St. Michael’s (9.5) and beating Conn. (7.5) handily.
All season the men’s basketball team have prided themselves on their tenacious defense and relied on their defensive intensity to win ball games. On Saturday, however, the defense-oriented squad fell victim to the high-powered offense of Trinity, as the Cards were eliminated from the NESCAC Playoffs. Despite 15 points apiece from the two big guns on offense, captain Tim Holland ’05 and center Rob Kelly ’06, the Cards could not rebound from an early funk, surrendering 19 points in the first six minutes.
In their final home game of the season, the men’s basketball team played one of their most spirited games on Saturday with a 70-53 thrashing of Connecticut College. Led by senior captain Tim Holland and his game-high 23 points, the Cards scored 16 unanswered points in the first half, propelling the team to victory and the number five seed in the NESCAC Tournament.
After having suffered consecutive defeats at the hands of the Bowdoin Polar Bears and the Colby Mules, the men’s basketball team looks to bounce back in a critical conference showdown with Connecticut College this Saturday. The Cards struggled offensively while in Maine, failing to score more than 50 points in consecutive games for the first time this season as they fell to 3-5 in NESCAC play.
After suffering a heartbreaking overtime loss against Tufts on Friday, Wesleyan’s men’s basketball team was neck and neck with another NESCAC powerhouse, in Bates, as the game came down to the wire on Saturday. Thanks to a last second bucket by freshman Will Griffin with the game tied at 52, the Cards stunned the top ranked team in the conference and defined themselves as a potent threat to be reckoned with as the season comes down to its final stages.
Wesleyan’s men’s basketball defeated two powerhouse Williams and Middlebury teams with emphatic come-from-behind victories in recent conference games. Following a disappointing 12-point loss to Williams in their first contest, the Cards bounced back with authority on January 14 with a stunning comeback from 19 points down, defeating the Ephs with a last-second field goal by Rob Kelly ’06.
The men’s basketball team got off to a slow start by dropping three of its first four contests of the season. But after it appeared the squad was set for a transition year, the men quickly dispelled that notion by stringing together four quality wins. This past weekend, the Cardinals brought home the Skidmore Invitational Tournament championship, as they squeaked out two close victories over Nazareth (56-54) and host Skidmore (70-65) by a combined total of seven points.
The men’s basketball team, led by senior captain and NESCAC player of the week Tim Holland ’05, opened up its season with a 92-76 win over Wentworth Institute on Nov. 19 in the Wesleyan Tip-Off Tournament. More recently it claimed its second victory of the season over Eastern Connecticut 63-60 with Doug Rubenstein ’07 nailing the game winning three-pointer. Holland scored 15 points for the Cards while Rob Kelly ’06 led all scorers with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
In the last tournament of the year, the volleyball team suffered a defeat at the hands of Williams College. Despite high hopes entering the NESCAC playoffs, the eighth-seeded Cardinals struggled from the start of their opening round match against Williams, going down 0-3 against the first-seeded Ephs. The final contest capped the solid collegiate careers of the team’s three seniors, captain Rebecca Mintz ’05, captain Cynthia Ugbomah ’05 and Katie Annand ’05. Facing powerhouse Williams in the first round of the NESCAC tournament was no easy task. Overpowered from the start, the squad failed to surpass the 20-point mark in each of the three rounds, falling by scores of 15-30, 14-30 and 16-30.
In its last tournament before the NESCAC championship, the volleyball team (13-14, 4-6 NESCAC) got one last good look at the conference competition at Bates this weekend. Despite winning the opener 3-1 against Bowdoin Friday night, the team dropped two out of three matches on the weekend. “We were really ready to come to play against Bowdoin,” said Rebecca Rodger ’08. “We were a better team than they were. It was important that we were able to let go of our mistakes against Bowdoin. We had a positive mental attitude, we stayed together and worked well as a team.”
The volleyball team chalked up a successful 2-1 record at this weekend’s Coast Guard Classic Tournament, its second to last before the season-ending NESCAC tournament. The squad bounced back from its loss earlier in the week to Eastern Connecticut State University by opening the weekend tournament with a commanding 3-0 sweep over Westfield State. The Cardinals went on to drop their next match at the hands of Coast Guard but finished off the weekend with a 3-0 sweep over Roger Williams, evening its overall record at 12-12.
Last weekend at Trinity College, the volleyball team suffered two consecutive defeats at the hands of NESCAC rivals Williams and Middlebury. Despite the setback the team came back strong with a 3-0 sweep against Hamilton College, never letting the Continentals score more than 20 points in a single game. With the victory the Cardinals remain one game under .500 with an 8-9 mark, and won their second match against a NESCAC foe.
This past weekend, the women’s volleyball team came up with two of its biggest wins of the season in their own Wesleyan Invitational Tournament. On Friday, the Cardinals avenged their earlier loss to Amherst by defeating them in convincing fashion by a score of 3-1. Less than twenty-four hours later, the Cards defeated another NESCAC rival, Trinity College, by a slim margin of 3-2. Volleyball finished with a 2-1 record for the weekend after a 3-1 loss to Smith, but their overall record now stands at 6-7.
The volleyball team suffered three consecutive defeats this weekend in Amherst at the hands of NESCAC rival Middlebury College, Pomona-Pitzer and Eastern Connecticut. Despite winning a game against each of their first two opponents, the Cards were not able to maintain consistent play to win any of the five-game matches.
Just two days after suffering consecutive losses to NESCAC foes, the women’s volleyball team bounced back with a commanding 3-0 sweep over Rhode Island College in its home opener on Tuesday. Although the team has only nine players, each one provided a solid all-around effort.
The women’s volleyball team opened their season with a successful campaign at the Johnson and Whales Tournament this weekend. The team, consisting of five seasoned veterans and four rookies, finished off the tournament with three straight victories, good enough for third place.
After a strong effort, the men’s lacrosse team fell to Tuft’s first-ranked NESCAC squad Wednesday afternoon, ending the Cardinals’ winning streak at five games. Tufts took an early lead and never allowed the Cardinals to gain enough steam, answering every Wesleyan run and ultimately defeating the Cards 10-7.
Despite finishing last in the Little Three Golf Tournament on Wednesday, the golf team had strong individual performances from senior captain Adam Hodge ’04 and several other members who competed in the last tournament of the season at Amherst College.
Despite a rough start to the spring golf season, the golf team hopes to pick up its play as it enters the final stretch of the year. Facing some stiff competition the past week, the team traveled up to Williamstown for the Williams College spring opener where the team finished eighteenth among the competition…
After coming up just inches short in their last regular season game against the Amherst Lord Jeffs, the men’s basketball team had every reason to be confident heading into the first round of the NESCAC playoffs against the same Amherst team. Although they fell 77-80, the Cardinals played their best basketball of the season in the second half, stifling the Lord Jeffs on the defensive end while lighting up the court with their offensive prowess.
With a critical win over NESCAC foe Middlebury College, the men’s basketball team moved one step closer to positioning themselves for a run in the conference tournament. Despite losing to NESCAC rival Williams a day later, the Cardinals are battling Bates College for the fifth seed in the tournament and will likely face Trinity or Amherst in the first round of the tournament.
This past week, two of the best basketball players in university history reached epic milestones in their respective careers. With his sixteenth point on Thursday versus St. Joseph’s, co-captain Kanem Johnson ’04 became Wesleyan’s all-time leading scorer, while teammate and co-captain Keala Mills ’04 became only the sixteenth player in men’s basketball history to score 1,000 points as a Cardinal.
Co-Captain Keala Mills ’04 has achieved a milestone only the elite players in Cardinal Basketball history have been able to reach. With 22 points against Bowdoin Saturday, Mills became only the sixteenth men’s basketball player to reach the 1000-point plateau. Despite the effort, the Cards fell to the Polar Bears 95-83 on Saturday, but managed a split on the weekend with an impressive 83-70 win over Colby the night before.
Going into the season, opposing teams knew they would have to reckon with two of the best players in the conference when they faced Wesleyan: Kanem Johnson ’04 and Keala Mills ’04. This past Sunday, R.P.I. met its match in one of the most dominating performances in Wesleyan men’s basketball history, Kanem Johnson had a record-setting performance, netting a career high 42 points in the consolation round of the Holiday Inn tournament.
After last year’s 14-10 campaign was capped with a final four appearance in the NESCAC Playoffs, the Wesleyan men’s basketball team looks to build on last year’s relative success with the help of co-captains Kanem Johnson ’04 and Keala Mills ’04. The inside-outside presence of Johnson down low and Mills from the outside proved to be among the best one-two punches in the conference.