While Washington University fans might be accustomed to seeing the men’s soccer team in red and white game-day garb, a new team project has players dressed in cowboy hats, swim trunks and fanny packs.

Players have filmed comic videos of themselves singing and dancing on four road trips this season and intend to continue this experiment in music video production. Videos of the team breaking it down have found a following resulting in thousands of YouTube hits.

Last year, during the University’s snow day, players decided to record a video of themselves lip-syncing to the Yung Humma song “Lemme Smang It” for team entertainment. Although players originally intended to only show the videos to themselves, this season the videos are posted on YouTube and filming has become a WUSTL FC tradition. When they’re not taking corner kicks or blocking shots, team members are serenading each other on airplanes, recreating a rollercoaster on metal bleachers or interrupting a study session in nothing but swim suits. No song is too silly and no bystander is safe.

“We decided to take up our time on the road trips we would start creating videos,” junior forward Zachary Query said. “After the first one we just had such a good time, we decided to continue with the tradition—and we’re actually undefeated on the road trips when we make videos.”

Each YouTube upload features players lip-syncing a different song while dancing and joking around in different cities; one features Waka Flocka Flame’s “No Hands” in Memphis, another, the Far East Movement’s “Rocketeer” in Atlanta, yet another, Taylor Swift’s “Mean” in New York City and most recently, The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” in Dubuque, Iowa.

“Basically [players] just dance a lot and I have the video camera on most of the time–especially when our coaches are talking, or dancing,” senior forward Dylan Roman, who films and edits the majority of footage, said. “At the end of the trips or during the trips…I sort of just put it to the song and see what we need, and then at the end of the trips we fill in the last bit of lyrics and hopefully it turns out well.”

Players joked that “they don’t choose the song, the song chooses them”; on the road they will play the track frequently to catch moments of singing along or miming to a specific lyric–but not all action is improvised.

“We pick the theme for outfits a couple days in advance, we pick the song a couple days before, and people start to get really excited about what we can do with it,” senior midfielder Zach Hendrickson said. “The one in New York for ‘Mean’ definitely had the most planning involved, and choreography. We filmed particular scenes in important places and things like that.”

The videos feature players in a variety of zany costumes and situations. In the “Mean” video the team is seen decked out in plaid shirts and jeans as cowboys while singing and square dancing with the famous “Naked Cowboy” in Times Square. This production has proved to be the team’s most popular thus far with more than 1,800 views on YouTube.

In New York City, players received a variety of reactions from passersby–some applauded their choreographed dance sequence, others stopped to see what might be distracting nine boys pointing off into the distance, and the team even had a run-in with law enforcement.

“We got censored at 30 Rockerfeller Center,” senior midfielder Kevin Privalle said. “We were trying to do something and they just saw a ton of people; a guard told us we had to leave.”

For the song “Rocketeer” some players are featured in satiric tourist garb, donning belted khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirts while wearing oversized headphones and fanny packs as accessories. Airport security can only gaze as team members waltz through check-in enthusiastically giving a thumbs-up to Roman’s camera.

According to senior captain Michael Chamberlin, the team’s decision to wear costumes originated from head coach Joe Clarke’s flexibility with what players wear while traveling.

“Joe doesn’t make us all wear the same thing on road trips like some teams do so we decided to start off by kind of making a joke of that and all dressing the same but with our own idea of how we wanted to dress,” Chamberlin said. “It’s evolved into having costume days and theme days every time we travel. The bar is set every trip by [senior midfielder] Cody Costakis who just goes above and beyond with his costumes.”

Although the players do the majority of the performing in videos, notable guest appearances are made by assistant coach Rick Rone, Clarke and a bugle-playing Boy Scout the team encountered at a rest stop en route to Boston.

“I don’t think [the coaches] enjoy being in the videos as much but they definitely enjoy watching the finished product,” Query said.

The Bears travel to the University of Chicago this weekend and intend to produce another video during the trip. The team has a chance to clinch the University Athletic Association title with a victory, and would otherwise receive word of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament on Monday, Nov. 14.

Matt Mitgang | Student Life

Senior Claire Voris delivers a pitch during the Bears’ 16-2 victory over Blackburn College. Voris leaves the softball program with her name in the Washington University record book in several important categories, including first in appearances and second in complete games and strikeouts as of Thursday, April 28.

The senior pitcher began her softball career 17 years ago, and she is capping off her career as a pitching mainstay at Washington University with team records and league accolades.

“I started playing softball when I was five or six…I played other sports but softball was always kind of ‘my sport,’” Voris said. “My dad used to catch for me outside, we’d start with a bucket of balls and all the balls would be in the woods by the time we were done with practice, but we just kind of stuck with it.”

As a freshman in 2007, Voris immediately found herself in the Bears’ starting rotation. Entering the role behind graduating senior Laurel Sagartz, Voris felt the need to prove her abilities on the mound.

“[Sagartz] was a really talented woman, so coming in behind that was a little intimidating,” Voris said. “The team had gone to the national championship and I was just this little baby freshman, the only freshman on the team that year. [The team] didn’t have a lot of pitching at that time, so I kind of inherited a starting position that I had to prove that I earned very quickly.”

Voris explained that in her time at Wash. U., her game improved as she became more confident.

“I think I’m a more confident human being in general, definitely on the mound,” Voris said. “Before I was pretty good at faking confidence with stoicism, I think now I have more confidence to really back up the stone face.”

According to softball head coach Leticia Pineda-Boutté, Voris’ ability to remain calm on the mound has been key to her success.

“Claire has mastered the quality of having great known presence, where regardless of what’s going on in the game, whether she’s having a great game or we’re struggling, you can never tell by looking at her mannerisms on the mound,” Pineda-Boutté said. “You have to make sure you don’t have emotions on the mound…and that’s what makes her such a dominant pitcher.”

At the beginning of her senior season, Voris was selected as captain by her teammates and coaches. Pineda-Boutté noted that while this may be her first year as a leader in name, Voris has always been an example for her teammates.

“This year it’s really been no different from her leadership perspective, she’s really been a leader her entire four years, just this year she was given the title of captain,” Pineda-Boutté said. “Claire’s always been a great leader on [the] team and she leads by example…she doesn’t ask her teammates to do something that she doesn’t do herself.”

In a standout season for the Bears, Voris has helped lead her team to a No. 22 national ranking. On April 23, Voris struck out a season-high 14 batters in a 1-0 win over Monmouth College. She was tabbed University Athletic Association athlete of the week shortly afterwards.

“You’re not supposed to say that you’re doing well along the way because you might jinx it, but honestly a lot of athletes don’t notice when [they are] on a streak because it just feels so good you’re not even thinking at that point,” Voris said. “I didn’t notice that it was going well until the umpires were congratulating me at the end [of the game].”

While much attention has fallen on Voris in recent weeks, she explained that the Bears hope to finish the season strong in part to honor her fellow senior Ally Berenter, whose season ended early because of an injury.

“She’s a wonderful athlete…so [her injury] was kind of a rough thing to go through,” Voris said. “It’s a very small team, so when you lose someone it’s a big impact—especially a starting player, especially a captain, especially a senior.”

Pineda-Boutté emphasized that when Voris graduates she will be missed not only for her talent, but also for the personality she brings to the team.

“Claire will definitely be missed next year; she’s a great person overall aside from softball,” Pineda-Boutté said.

Mark Edwards

Former camp counselor Mike Oppland (Calumet College Class of 2006) guards camper Charlie Harned, now at Clayton High School, during the 2007 Wash. U. men’s basketball summer camp. The camp has been held annually in the Field House since 1984.

Varsity programs including baseball, football, basketball, soccer, tennis and volleyball each sponsor a series of summer camps with sessions running from early June to mid-July. Camps are offered for children ranging from first graders to high school recruits. While some camps, like those for volleyball and football, offer sessions devoted to specific parts of the game, others offer a general overview. The Wash. U. basketball camp has been operating since the Field House gym opened in 1984 and has graduated approximately 4,000 athletes.

“Each camp is different. In our camp, what we try to do is focus in on the younger kids…our focus is on skill development,” said Mark Edwards, head coach of the men’s basketball team. “There’s two things that we think are really important with this and that we really enjoy doing: One is that we develop their individual skills, including how to be a member of a team. We think this is something that’s left out in the teaching process today…the second thing that’s extremely important in our camp is that the kids have fun. For most of them this is their first taste of basketball, and if it’s not a fun experience for them, they will never give it a chance.”

Edwards and Nancy Fahey, the head coach of the women’s basketball team, staff their camps with their own assistant coaches, area high school coaches and Wash. U. players. According to Edwards, coaches look forward to the opportunity to work with younger athletes.

“It’s refreshing to be able to shift gears and go back to the fundamentals,” Edwards said. “You have all these young kids who are just anxious to learn and be a part of the game. It’s really fun to have a blank tablet to work with.”

While the basketball camps focus on younger children, other teams have counterparts for high schoolers. Many of these camps offer players the opportunity to live on campus for a week while showcasing their talent for coaches, and have become a tool for recruiting the newest classes of Bears athletes. Joe Clarke, head coach of the men’s soccer team, and his staff offer residential camps in July.

“[Clarke] gets to look at a lot of potential players, and we find some players through that camp,” said junior Michael Chamberlin, a coach at Clarke’s camp for two years. “You get to play in the residential camp for the high school students, that’s a lot of fun…it’s exciting to see players play well and know that they’re coming in, and hopefully you like them when you interact with them at the camp too.”

Many athletes are first exposed to Wash. U. coaches at the camps, allowing coaches to interact with players who they may not have met in the normal recruiting process.

“I was not recruited, really—because of the camp I got recruited, so it actually makes a big difference in the actual team,” said sophomore Zach Query, also a soccer player.

For athletes who are employees of their coaches’ camps, teaching the game to younger children allows them the opportunity to refine their own techniques.

“I went to Joe’s camps as a kid, so being able to work them was cool,” Chamberlin said. “It’s really fun to play sharks and minnows [a dribbling drill] with the kids and try to keep the ball as long as I can while they all try to steal it. I usually don’t keep it very long, but it definitely helps [the campers’] dribbling skills.”

Edwards noted that players who have coached at his camps in the past have enjoyed the opportunity to carefully examine basic skills of the game.

“We have seen, from the feedback of our players, that in teaching the game it causes them to look more at the fundamentals of the technique they’re trying to teach,” Edwards said. “Secondly, [it is] important for them to be able to communicate that. As a player, it allows them to have a better understanding of how to learn, and how to take the information that is being given out and actually see it for the instructional value that’s there…as long as they’re involved in basketball every year, they learn something new, and that includes myself.”

Matt Mitgang | Student Life

The Bombshells and their friends cheer on the volleyball team at the 2010 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Elite Eight in November. The Bombshells are a student cheering section started in the fall by members of the women’s basketball team.

Senior Alex Hoover formed the group hoping to garner fan support for other women’s varsity programs. She began recruitment for the Bombshells by contacting the captains of every female team on campus, and received positive feedback.

“Obviously people at Wash. U…their number one priority is not athletics. We don’t go to a school like Duke where the gym is going to be filled,” Hoover said. “I think getting athletes to start supporting other sports is the best way to get people to come to games…I’m hoping that this idea can catch on and people will get more excited so that on a Friday night, a basketball game or soccer game is the place to be.”

Members of the Bombshells explained that although many athletes at Wash. U. have become accustomed to playing in front of smaller crowds, enthusiastic fans would have the potential to boost teams’ performances.

“As varsity athletes ourselves…we know how it feels to play in front of a huge crowd and how much of an impact that can have not only on your school spirit, but [also] it definitely affects your game,” senior Hannah Cusworth, a teammate of Hoover’s, said. “It’s easier to get another athlete [to join] because that athlete knows what it’s like to have the gym be dead, or there be no one in the stands.”

The name for the group was suggested by women’s basketball head coach Nancy Fahey. In a meeting with her captains regarding team bonding, the athletes began to consider how they could extend team spirit to the entire community.

“We wanted to incorporate this idea of school spirit,” senior Monika Monson said. “It’s a way for us to bond as a team and also bond among other female athletes.”

The Bombshells’ first event was the homecoming football game against Westminster College on Sept. 25. Members of the basketball and volleyball teams took to the stands clad in pink, armed with signs and cheers . Dressed in all black, players from the baseball team also attended in conjunction with the Bombshells.

“There was a lot of planning that went into it…we were all doing really crazy cheers and just trying to be loud,” Monson said. “We stood the entire game, all four quarters, and it was cold but it was a lot of fun.”

The group hopes to work in collaboration with Red Alert and the Bomb Squad, a student cheering section largely composed of Phi Delta Theta fraternity brothers. Since Hoover and her teammates are seniors, they hope that working with other spirit groups will generate not only casual membership, but leadership as well.

“If we have more incentives for people to come, I think that’s going to encourage more people to come to the games,” Hoover said. “Unfortunately it’s my senior year, but I’m hoping to be able to find enough people who are interested in taking the reins on this and making it happen.”

While female athletes were integral to the group’s creation, the Bombshells hope to continue to grow and generate interest among more athletes and non-athletes alike.

“I think it would be cool if we came back years from now…if it became a more organized group, like a subdivision of Red Alert,” Cusworth said. “It could potentially become a Student Union-recognized group. That would be really cool.”

The Bombshells will bring their cheers and pink attire to the home softball games this weekend. They will be attending in support of the team’s “Strikeout Cancer” effort.

“It’s a great chance to support our softball team as well as cancer awareness, so it’s a perfect opportunity for anyone and everyone to come out…you don’t have to be an athlete or a female to support,” Hoover said.

Matt Lee | Student Life

Junior captain Evan Winograd releases a flick throw against University of Wisconsin Whitewater’s Senior captain Kurt Egan in the finals game at the 2011 Midwest Throwdown tournament on March 6. The Washington University Contra Bears took a 15-11 win over Whitewater, placing them as the undefeated tournament champions.

Contra began on Wash. U.’s campus 20 years ago. Statistically, 2011 has been one of Contra’s strongest seasons; its current record stands at 13-4 and the team has been ranked as high as 24th nationally thus far.

Ultimate Frisbee is not an NCAA-sanctioned sport; yet, the team participates in 4-7 tournaments a semester. Many tournaments are organized by the participating teams without imposed structure or direction from a larger governing body.

“It’s much more about the participants themselves holding themselves accountable to the rules of the game, the structure of the tournament and communicating with other captains [and] other teams,” sophomore Jacob Zax said. “It definitely encourages teams to build connections with other teams.”

Without a separation of teams into the NCAA’s three divisions, Contra is matched up against schools much larger than Wash. U. whose varsity teams compete in Division I athletics. However, team members explained that most Ultimate squads have a range of talent; although some members enter college with formal experience, others start their collegiate Ultimate careers with only a general athletic background.

“Very few people are formally trained in Ultimate from a young age…there’s no little league for Ultimate,” sophomore Scott Schwartz said. “You can tell almost every team is a really diverse group in terms of their skills and athleticism.”

Contra is organized into A and B teams. Contra B is a more informal group for students generally interested in the game, while Contra A is the equivalent of the team’s varsity squad. Its season culminates with the College Series, a playoff-like series of tournaments organized by USA Ultimate. Contra members are enthusiastic about the talent of their team this season and hope to advance farther than ever before.

“This year is definitely our strongest year,” junior captain Evan Winograd said. “The final goal is to go to nationals and play well. The team has never been to nationals so it’s something we’re definitely pushing hard for and definitely involves a lot more work put in.”

In preparation for the College Series, Contra has increased its number of weekly practices. Team members are also expected to dedicate time to training outside of the team’s organized sessions.

“It’s pretty common to see multiple Contras on Mudd Field or in front of the library just throwing around,” Schwartz said. “It’s casual, but it’s important [because] we like playing, we just happen to throw all the time.”

Team members pointed to Contra’s close-knit community as one of its greatest strengths.

“There’s really a ton of love on the team, it’s such a community,” Zax said. “There’s really a sense of the ‘Contra culture’, which is really strong and welcoming and supporting. This team especially has a fantastic group of guys.…I think we all feel that this is the year for us in terms of, ‘it might be the best that we’ll ever be’.…We think we are good enough to go to Nationals; we want to do that for each other.”

Tomorrow, Contra will begin play in the Huck Finn tournament, its last before the College Series. Although the Huck Finn is held in Missouri, most of Contra’s tournaments require team members to travel long distances. Trips in the past year have included Charlotte and Atlanta.

“Since we’re so far into the season at this point, we’re just refining our defensive schemes,” Winograd said. “We’ve done a pretty good job of running our offense efficiently so we’ll just keep working on offensive flow and making sure we don’t have any kinks.”

James Harrang | Student Life

The Stereotypes won the semi-final of a national a cappella competition on Saturday. The all-male singing group will be going to New York to compete in the finals.

The all-male group took first place out of eight competitors in the Midwest semifinal of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), which was held Saturday night in Edison Theatre. The group edged out the University of Michigan’s G-Men by one point for the top spot and will now advance to the national final in New York City.

All of the a cappella groups that competed Saturday had placed first or second in their respective quarterfinal rounds. The semifinal win was a first for the Stereotypes, and group members explained that advancement this deep into ICCA was significant, not only for current members, but also for the history of the group.

“Basically we were founded because of wanting to do something different with all-male a cappella,” said senior Nevin Watkins, social chair of the Stereotypes. “We wanted to be competitive; essentially we wanted to do stuff like ICCA in order to challenge ourselves. This is the pinnacle of what we’ve come to.…We’ve been slowly reaching this every single year.”

The Stereotypes performed a three-song set that included arrangements of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero,” Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know,” and John Legend’s “If You’re Out There.”

According to senior Dithu Rajaraman, the group’s musical director and co-choreographer, initial planning for the competition began after a narrow second-place finish in the 2010 semifinal.

“About a year ago…a couple of us started thinking [about] what we could do better. It was a slow start, but we were just thinking of song choices and the attitude of what we wanted to deliver, the kind of tone of the set that we would want to create,” Rajaraman said. “As far as this year, just intense rehearsals—there was a lot of musical work, but there was also a lot of emotional work and a lot of group cohesion, and that is a big part of why I think we are so fortunate to be so successful today.”

Although the set proved to be a winning formula at the Stereotype’s quarterfinal in February, senior Jonathan Branfman explained that the group strove for improvement between each round of competition. Preparation included work with Chip Broze, an alumnus of the Stereotypes and choral conducting student at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“We definitely did not sit on our laurels after quarterfinals. We realized that the semifinals are a whole other level of competition and that in order to represent ourselves and Wash. U. well, we would have to step it up, and we did,” said Branfman, the Stereotypes’ co-recording chair. “[Broze] came back and did a couple workshops with us to enrich our tone and our ability to produce a really beautiful sound, and I think that came through tonight.”

ICCA producer Emily Flanders noted that the competition level for the semifinal was high, especially in the Midwest.

“I’ve been to a lot of semifinals in my day.…It was incredible. This show was epic,” Flanders said. “None of us knew who was going to win until we actually had the scores.…[Deliberations] took a long time because our judges were so impressed.”

The Stereotypes’ competitors at the national round will include the AcaBelles of Florida State University, Vocal Point of BYU, Pitch Slapped of the Berklee College of Music, the Buffalo Chips of SUNY Buffalo and a wild-card group that has not yet been named.

“I feel unbelievable. It’s been months and months—years of hard work—and I’m really excited that we get to show it all off in New York. [Advancing] is a really big deal to us, and we’re really excited to have had such strong support,” said senior Michael Shabot, the Stereotypes’ group coordinator. “I’m just so proud of each of the 16 members. Each member is truly dedicated to this group, and each person is the addition that has made this group what it is, and I’m so glad to be a part of it.”

Over spring break, the Bears traveled to Altamonte Springs, Fla., for the UAA tournament and faced four different UAA squads twice. Following the tournament, the team picked up wins against Oswego State University and Keene State University in Clermont, Fla.

“I guess [playing so many games is] definitely a lot to go through, but I think we handled it pretty well,” junior Alyssa Abramoski said. “A lot of us were pretty tired, but we made it work.”

According to head coach Leticia Pineda-Boutté, a packed week of games allowed the team a unique opportunity to focus on only softball. In addition, traveling helped to develop players’ bonds with one another.

“I think our team dynamics, our team chemistry are great. During these long trips, the team has a chance to figure out the personality of the team as a whole and mesh together,” Pineda-Boutté said. “That’s one of the things that really sticks out to me. The team really gets to blend together over these past 12 days of playing, so that’s a great thing.”

The Bears were 6-2 against UAA opponents for the week, including shutouts of the University of Rochester (6-0) and Brandeis University (10-0). Scoring was no challenge for the Red and Green in most games as they outscored opponents 51-22.

“Our bats were really getting around on pitchers; we were scoring a lot of runs in the games,” said senior Claire Voris, who was named UAA athlete of the week on Monday. “I think just scoring early and keeping up the momentum throughout the game was probably one of our biggest assets.”

The team’s only losses in the tournament were two shutouts to then No. 10 Emory University. Pineda-Boutté noted that UAA competition for the Bears has become more difficult in the past few seasons, but the team is pleased with its second-place finish in the tournament.

“Our conference has improved significantly, especially since I’ve joined the Wash. U. staff. We definitely have our work cut out for us,” she said. “This early in the season, the challenge for us is not having played as many games as other schools in the conference and having to be our best at that particular time.

“Not having an automatic qualifier out of the conference…it’s more for bragging rights so to speak, so second in the conference is not a huge disappointment.”

Upon their return to St. Louis, the Bears recorded a 1-0 shutout against Fontbonne University on Saturday, March 19 but fell to No. 19 Coe College later that day. After an 8-2 win over Augustana College, however, the Bears had their revenge against Coe. Freshman Kelsey Neal hit a walk-off home run in the seventh inning to edge the Bears over the Kohawks 5-4.

“Going into that game, I really wanted to beat Coe, and I know the rest of the team really wanted to beat them too, especially since they beat us the day before,” Abramoski said. “We were really happy to do that.”

The victory marked the Bears first against a ranked opponent. Voris explained that although the win was exciting, the team hopes to avoid depending on late runs.

“We’re very good at getting the big hit that scores a lot of runs, but we’re still struggling at manufacturing runs and moving a player forward…doing the little things correctly,” Voris said. “We had a freshman hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, but that’s not always going to work out in your favor.…[We need to work] on the little things so we don’t have to depend on that kind of outcome in a game.”

The Red and Green return to action Wednesday for two games against Blackburn College at home. The first game begins at 4 p.m.

“[The win] was a really good confidence booster. I think we needed that,” junior Natalie Tingir said. “It was close with Chicago….We just needed to get over the edge a little bit to beat them…[so] it was good to sweep these guys.”

The Bears opened with strong doubles play against the Screaming Eagles. Freshmen Evelyn Qin and Betsy Edershile claimed an 8-2 victory over Michelle Girgenti and Lindsey White in No. 1 doubles, Tingir and freshman Corinne Rauck were 8-2 winners over Morgan Coquerille and Ellena Stumpf in No. 2 doubles, and senior captain Elise Sambol and freshman Theresa Petraskova teamed up to defeat Alyssa Hoover and Logan Ackerman 8-0 in the No. 3 spot.

“It is nice when you come out of those doubles, when you only really have to focus on getting two of the singles points,” head coach Kelly Stahlhuth said. “In a weird way too, it’s nice to have that lead, [but] you go into singles, [and] you can’t relax.”

In No. 1 singles play, Tingir defeated Girgenti in three sets (6-4, 3-6, 6-0). Tingir explained that one of the biggest challenges of the match was the similar style of both players.

“[Girgenti] was a tough girl. It was kind of freaky because it felt like I was playing myself—she had my exact game,” Tingir said. “I was winning the important points—a lot of the games were going to deuce, and I was winning those games. Staying consistent was one of my things.”

Five other Bears were winners in singles play on Saturday. Qin, Petraskova and Sambol claimed wins at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively. Sophomore Paige Madara defeated Ackerman in the No. 5 spot (6-1, 7-5), while fellow sophomore Brittany Trimble took the No. 6 match (6-4, 6-0).

Stahlhuth noted that although the score appeared lopsided, the Bears did meet challenges in singles play.

“I wanted our level to keep rising the whole time…no matter what they bring for us I wanted to keep raising our game—it’s like gears, sometimes you’re in second gear and have to raise it into third,” Stahlhuth said. “I wanted us to react, rather than be influenced by their game.”

After a week of practice, the Bears will look to improve upon their 2-1 record on Saturday against Kalamazoo College

“We’re going to tweak a few technical things that we’ve got to just fix…[In] doubles, I want to keep working on our strategy, high percentage, making sure we’re still working on our net game,” Stahlhuth said. “Just drills where it becomes more automatic—our shots will be there without us really having to focus on them.”

The No. 16 Bears dropped a challenging match to No. 4 University of Chicago 8-1 last Saturday in Belleville, Ill.

The Maroons boasted four of the region’s top players in singles in addition to the top two doubles teams. But according to senior captain Elise Sambol, their opponent’s ranking did not affect the Bears’ strategy for the match.

“Honestly I don’t know any of the opponents’ ranking…we just know as a team overall they were very tough, and they won’t take it easy on us,” Sambol said. “We know that if they make a mistake, it’s not going to happen very often, and we need to take advantage of it…we don’t think about [rankings] when we step on the court.”

The Maroons swept Saturday’s doubles. Sophomore Kate Klein and junior Natalie Tingir fell to Kendra Higgins and Chrissy Hu 8-1 in the number-one spot, the Maroons’ Carmen Vaca Guzman and Linden Li defeated freshmen Evelyn Qin and Betsy Edershile 8-4 in second doubles and Sambol and freshman Theresa Petraskova also lost 8-4 to Jennifer Kung and Aswini Krishnan at third doubles.

According to head coach Kelly Stahlhuth, however, the setback in doubles did not affect the team’s overall effort.

“The nice thing is, every single person fought every point. Being down 3-0 after doubles, it can be easy to say ‘it’s tough, they’re really strong’…so it’s nice to say we didn’t quit,” she said.

Stahlhuth added that she noticed the Bears could improve their performance with a more sustained effort in doubles matches, something she hopes to address as the team prepares for the long season, which will extend late into the spring.

“We have a few things we can work on, so I’ve started to figure that out [for] the next couple weeks of practice,” Stahlhuth said. “Doubles we played half of the match pretty strong, so now we’ve got to work on the other half, the ending.”

Sambol’s 6-3, 6-0 victory over Tiffany Nguyen at sixth singles marked the Bears’ only victory for the day.

“Overall I think this year we definitely have the talent to beat [Chicago], it just didn’t work out that way…I think if we would have won at least one of our doubles [matches], that could have changed the attitude into singles,” Sambol said. “Going into singles up 3-0 instead of down 0-3 takes some of the pressures off the singles players…it was tough to come out strong right away.”

Sambol noted she was encouraged by the team’s depth—the Bears acquired several new players through recent transfers to Wash. U.

“This year we’re really fortunate to have such a deep team…we have a lot of newbies on the team, and they’re really driven and motivated,” Sambol said. “That will really help us out in April because the season is so long that sometimes when it comes to UAA[s], we’re really exhausted.”

The Bears return to action Saturday in St. Charles, Mo. to face the University of Southern Indiana. The match against the Screaming Eagles is set to begin at 12:30 p.m.

Luke Elders, a senior in the Olin Business School, and his partners can make such a lofty claim; they started the Heartland Fight League for Mixed Martial Arts in 2010 and are preparing for its biggest event on Saturday.

Elders, a former amateur MMA fighter, suffered a knee injury that took him from competition. But the following fall, he developed a way to remain involved in MMA through his coursework in the business school.

“I was enrolled in the Hatchery, which is a business planning class in the business school, and I got together with my friends, and we decided we were going to write a business plan about starting a promotion,” Elders said.

With help from professor Clifford Holekamp, Elders and fellow senior Will Davidson, Hartland’s current Chief Financial Officer, spent the remainder of the semester and winter break developing  an amateur MMA promotion company and planned its first event for March 2010.

The young company experienced an initial struggle to attract fighters to their competition.

“At first, it was us cold calling some gyms and saying ‘Hey, we’re going to be good some day, trust us.’ That’s why we almost didn’t get it off the ground at first, the only reason we did was that I knew a couple of gym owners from when I fought,” Elders said. “I don’t know why, but they trusted us enough to give us some fighters, and we ended up having seven fights in the first show.”

In the interim between that event and the group’s next fights, Heartland underwent changes in approach and leadership. Davidson, choosing to take a minority role in the company, sold the majority of his shares to Saint Louis University senior Joe Clavin, a friend Elders met through an internship with College Works Painting. According to Elders, after the first fight, the group worked to improve credibility with local gyms.

“Since then, I think we’ve done a really professional job with how we handle the fighters, and a lot of people saw that we had good match-ups. We just built credibility so with the next fight, there were a couple more people who called and said ‘hey, I saw what you did, I’d like to be involved.’ That’s progressed and worked it’s way up to [Saturday’s] fight,” Elders said. “Most gym owners in the area at this point really know who we are; they respect us a lot.”

Heartland also worked to tailor its events to the needs of amateur fighters; Elders used his prior knowledge as a fighter to attract new athletes to events.

“As an amateur athlete, especially in Mixed Marital Arts, the reason a lot of these guys are fighting for free is for the recognition and I guess, in a sense, the glory of it all,” Elders said. “So I just kind of took a lot of things that I know I would have enjoyed and built credibility with fighters that way, and I think that’s just helped tremendously.”

Stepping Up, the largest event for Heartland thus far, will take place Saturday night at the St. Charles Convention Center. Eighteen fighters are scheduled to compete, and the group has arranged appearances from ESPN radio personalities Bob Stelton and D’Marco Farr, a former player for the St. Louis Rams. In addition, the event features several food and drink specials for attendees.

According to Clavin, one of the biggest obstacles to Heartland’s owners is the struggle to offer premium entertainment without incurring major expenses.

“The biggest challenge with this event is growth because we have the same 800 to 1000 people to our past three events, but we need to try and break those numbers and grab the rest of St. Louis and get them to our events…coming up with ways to grow the company without having an acute, huge expense column on our balance sheet [is a challenge],” Clavin said.

Clavin also explained that Heartland hopes to occupy a unique niche in the world of MMA fighting. Although the UFC and Strikeforce dominate the professional arena of the sport, Heartland hopes to become the premiere league for “minor league” MMA fighters. To work toward this goal, the owners have worked to distinguish Heartland from other amateur leagues, which described as having a lack of professionalism.

“There’s no high school, college, or minor league MMA…we’re trying to attract fighters to our organization, and they can use us as a spring broad to bigger and better things because there is no stepping stone for MMA fighters currently,” Clavin said.

Heartland Fight League’s “Stepping Up” begins tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the St. Charles Convention Center. Ticket prices range from $30 for general admission to $75 for VIP and cage-side seats.