Student Life Archives

The fans were bundled up for what promised to be an exciting match-up against Maryville University, a St. Louis rival. Game-time temperature hovered near 50 degrees, far from what St. Louisians are used to in September. But a little cold air was not going to stop the Bears.
Senior Jessica Glick got the scoring started late in the first half to give the Bears a 1-0 lead, a lead which they took into halftime and never relinquished.
It was Glick’s team-leading eighth goal of the season. The Bears’ strong defense thwarted any scoring attempts by Maryville. The Bears added a goal in the second half to close out the 2-0 victory. The Bears’ strength was their passing, as they threaded many gaps to allow for shots on goal. “Our passing was the best part of our game, I only wish we could have scored a few more goals,” said Glick.
More goals or not, the Bears won a tough conference game against a familiar foe in Maryville. Glick added, “Its always nice to beat a St. Louis opponent..the team always gets up for those games and we were really in sync.”
This game defined what the 2001 Bears are made of, very strong defense with timely scoring. The Bears already have victories of 8-0 and 7-0 this season. Wednesday night’s victory pushed the Bears to 4-1-2 for the season and added another victory to Coach Hippler’s already impressive win total. The Bears next game is on Saturday, September 29 versus Case Western Reserve at Francis Field. This game could most likely define the Bears season, one in which they face a familiar UAA foe.

WU football cracks Top 25
Rising steadily like steam from a chimney, the Washington University football team has made an entrance in the AFCA Division III poll for the first time since 1996.
The Bears debut at the 24 spot this week after knocking off then-No. 15 Albion College by a score of 17-7 last Saturday.
On Saturday, Larry Kindbom’s Bears look to further their ascent and boost their record to 5-0 against the Rhodes College Lynx.
No other UAA squads appear in the rankings, but Carnegie Mellon, WU’s opponent on October 13, waits in the wings only three teams back from the Top 25.

Web Master

Rickey’s World:
Cal Ripken, Jr., and Tony Gwynn are leaving the game in a few short days and Barry Bonds chases The Mac and his three-year-old record. But give some major props to Rickey Henderson. This man is amazing. With two more runs scored, Henderson will break Ty Cobb’s all-time record for runs scored with 2,246. Other players on this list of the top run scorers of all time: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig and Mel Ott. If you’re familiar with baseball history, you’re drooling over these names. If not, these are the greatest positional players of all time.
Assuming Rickey does score two more runs in his career, this record will be a feather in his cap. He already owns the record for most leadoff homeruns with 79, and this past April he passed the Babe for most career walks. Henderson currently has 2,137. And to top it all off, Rickey is only five hits away from becoming the 25th player ever to have 3,000 hits. By the end of this season, Henderson will be the sole owner of three all-time records and a member of the baseball elite club.
But why has he been treated like a hot potato throughout his career? Henderson began playing in 1979 with the Oakland Athletics. After six years in the Bay Area, he moved across the country to the Big Apple, where he donned pinstripes for five years before returning back to Oakland. But in 1993, he was traded to the Blue Jays, where he would play 44 games before again returning to the A’s. After two more years, he moved south to San Diego for two years before being moved to Anaheim, where he would play 32 games. Then to Oakland for a year, New York with the Mets for two years, some time in Seattle, and this season with San Diego. Phew, that was painful. By my count, that’s 11 changes with seven teams over 23 years.
Henderson will leave the game on a bus to Cooperstown, where he will be enshrined as the league’s greatest leadoff hitter. But Henderson doesn’t slip off the tongue with the likes of best all time. I’ll admit, he certainly hasn’t had the impact of players like Ruth, but his statistics speak for themselves. Just recently, he had his 500th double and his career on- base percentage is over .400. Along with all his other records, Henderson deserves some credit. Next year will be his last in baseball, and I surely hope he gets treated the way Ripken and Gwynn have been treated this year. He’s earned it.

NFL Game of the Week is…Bengals at Chargers?
That’s right. It’s a battle between two teams that were a combined 5 – 27 last season.
So who is going to win the epic battle between the Bengals, who have been the laughing stock of the league for many years now, or the Chargers, who tanked last season by winning only one game, even though they had a strong D? At first glance, the Chargers seem to be the better team. Through the first two weeks of the season, the Bolts rank fifth in total offense at 367.5 yards/game, fourth in scoring with 31.0 points/game and fifth in rushing offense at 131.5 yards/game with their rookie running back LaDanian Tomlinson taking most of the load. The Chargers D, led by middle linebacker Junior Seau, ranks fourth in total D, allowing only 225.0 yards/game. But don’t count out the Bengals just yet. Quarterback John Kitna is being revived in Cincy, where he has a 94.0 QB rating with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. The Bengals also sport a rush defense that has allowed only 66.0 yards/game.
The Bengals passing D is mediocre at best, so if Doug Flutie can hit the airwaves, the Chargers will open the season 3 – 0. But if Corey Dillon decides to come to the game the way he did last year, the Bengals could be the surprise of the year. Should be a great game.

November bound?
With the scheduling changes due to the recent terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C., baseball’s Fall Classic will most likely move into the month of November. But who is going to be playing? My choice is the St. Louis Cardinals. Here’s why: PITCHING.
That’s right. The team that bats McGwire, Pujols, Edmonds and Drew has an even better pitching staff, especially lately. Last year’s ace, Darryl Kile, has not reached the 20-win plateau that he found last year. But make no mistake about it, Kile is the real deal. He’s 15-10 this season with a 2.96 ERA, putting him fourth in the NL. And since the All-Star break, Kile is sporting a 2.45 ERA with six wins. Kile’s most recent victory, a 5 -1 win over the Central rival Astros was his most impressive win, with seven shutout innings.
Next to Kile in the rotation is Matt Morris, who many argue is the team’s ace. He’s 20-8 this season with a 3.38 ERA. He’s won 10 games in the second half of the season and is 8-1 in August and September.
Left-handed rookie Bud Smith has emerged as the team’s next-best starter, posting a 6-2 record with a 3.31 ERA in 13 starts. His no-hitter last month certainly has highlighted his rookie season so far, but a few W’s in October will change that.
The Cards’ fourth starter, Woody Williams, may be the best fourth man in any rotation. He’s 14-9 this season with a 4.24 ERA, but he’s been a changed man since a waiver wire deal brought him to St. Louis. In nine games, he’s 6-1 with a 2.51 ERA and three complete games.
Rounding out the five-man rotation is Dustin Hermanson, who the Cards certainly expected more from this season. He’s an even .500 at 13-13 with a good ERA of 4.42. Hermanson has pitched well of late, posting a 3.44 ERA in the second half of the season. Albert Pujols recently stated that he was sure the Cardinals were going to make the big dance. I agree with this, and with a little luck and the same pitching they’ve gotten over the past two months, they’ll be knocking on the World Series real soon.

Many of you may not know this, but WU has a club sailing team that competes against Division I schools from around the country. Oh, and they’re damn good, too. WU had its first regatta of this season this past weekend in the Davis Cup at Iowa. The Bear’s took second, seven points behind first place Western Michigan, and 38 points ahead of third place University of Minnesota.
A sailing regatta is scored in a very different way than most sports. There are 14 teams competing with 14 boats. Each teams has an A and B squad with four participants in each boat. There are two races matching the A teams against each other, then the boats come in and the B squads go out. This happens all day Saturday and Sunday as each team uses each of the 14 boats so as to make the regatta fair. Certain boats race faster, giving each team a fair chance to win. For each race, the first place team gets 1 point, second place 2 points, and so on. After the two days of competition, the points are tallied up and the team with the lowest score wins.
The Bears’ next regatta is this weekend at the Fall Fury in Wisconsin. WU will also compete in the Buckeye Invitational at Ohio State on the weekend of October 13-14.
To get information and pictures for the sailing club, check out www.rescomp.wustl.edu/~sailing/ links.html.

Web Master

Baseball tonight – the natty light of tv

Watching TV is easy and fun. You can do it while eating lunch, playing a card game or working on a problem set.
And it makes you dumber. That’s fun. We all like to make ourselves dumber (or else we wouldn’t have chugged eight Natty Lights in a row before heading out to the Rat last night).
What’s that you say? You don’t want to become dumber? Then you better stop watching TV. Or, if that’s too much withdrawal for you, then at least start with ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, because it just might be the worst offender out there, at least for sports fans. Studies have shown that listening to one Baseball Tonight commentator for five minutes kills as many cerebral brain cells as two Natty Lights, one shot of Jose, and a joint.
But maybe you just can’t do without your Baseball Tonight, in which case here are a few brief translations that should help you decipher what Harold Reynolds is really telling you:

“Player X has played well since a certain date because of Reason Y.” Common recent uses: Scott Rolen’s performance since Larry Bowa challenged his manhood, and Boston’s performance since Jimy Williams was fired. Translation: Player X has played well because he’s a good player.and, well, that’s all we know. Maybe he’s been facing a lot of fifth starters lately, or he switched to a corked bat, or maybe the bloopers are falling in. Or maybe the analyst actually is right, because Rolen got angry and started hitting the weights a little more. The point is, we can’t know. To use geek terms, correlation does not mean causality.
“Bret Boone is the AL MVP because he has a lot of RBI.” Translation: Boone has a lot of RBI because he’s having a solid year (a .956 OPS) in the middle of the best lineup in the majors. This makes him about as valuable as Juan Gonzalez (.985 OPS at a less demanding defensive position), which leaves him comfortably behind the Giambi-Rodriguez-Thome crowd in the MVP race.
“Great:” As in, “Tony Muser is doing a great job in Kansas City this year.” Translation: This word means absolutely nothing. Analysts will apply it to anyone and everyone, regardless of performance, because they need to fill air time without hurting anyone’s feelings. Hurt feelings mean angry players and managers, which means less access for ESPN.
(Brief aside: A fun drinking game would be the Great Baseball Tonight drinking game. It’s simple. Every time an analyst uses the word “great,” or certain synonyms like “outstanding” or “terrific,” you drink. Let the Natty Light flow like water – all comparisons between Natty Light and water aside).
“Joe Blow deserves MVP consideration in the National League this year.” Translation: No he doesn’t. Barry Bonds deserves consideration, and Joe Blow deserves a hearty handshake. Joe Blow might be having a good season, but Bonds is having one of the top three seasons in baseball history. This should probably be another MLBeat altogether.
“On Sunday we’ll have a special hour-long edition of Baseball Tonight with extra analysis.” Translation: On Sunday we have a lot of ads to air, so on Sunday we’ll try to take up that extra air time with as many “Greats” and “Outstandings” as possible. Buy an extra case of Natty Light for this one.

Anthony Jacuzzi

The men’s soccer team earned its greatest win of the season so far in their first University Athletic Association matchup this past Sunday, Sept. 23. The Bears defeated the defending conference champion and archrival Carnegie Mellon University, 2-1, on the Tartans’ own turf, improving their record to 3-2-1. The Tartans, who went 14-3 (6-1 within the UAA) last season, fell to 2-1 overall.
WU’s next challenge comes against Case Western Reserve University at home this Saturday, Sept. 29, at 10 a.m., as they seek a second consecutive UAA win. If this game plays out like the last, it will be a challenge, but one that the Bears will ultimately contain.
“It was definitely a close game that probably could have gone either way,” said midfielder freshman Josh Farber of the recent CMU battle.
However, the early lead helped WU gain confidence.
“I played a ball to the left side of the field, across the field through some defenders, to our left back, [freshman] Matt Twardowski,” said midfielder James Ward “Then he played it up to [senior midfielder] Casey Lien, who beat a defender and touched it past the goalie.”
Midfielder sophomore Nate Reller felt that the team was rather nervous and did not play particularly well in the first half. But in the second half, “we were more organized, comfortable and got more into the game.”
Despite WU’s quicker movement of the ball and tighter defense, CMU tied the game at 1-1 midway through the second half. Tartan junior Adam Hibshman slipped a shot past junior WU goalkeeper Giles Bissonnette, who has played all 90 minutes in each of the team’s six games and has posted two shutouts. However, the Bears quickly answered.
From within the six-yard box, an opponent deflected a WU corner-kick out towards Ward. From about 13 yards out, Ward knocked the ball towards teammate Farber, who headed it in.
“It bounced right to me, and I flicked it over the goalie,” said Farber. “I was really excited because it was my first college goal, and it gave us the lead. We just knew we had to hold on for the last twenty minutes.”
Unlike the two previous games, the team would continue to monopolize possession and clinch the victory. Two weeks earlier, the men had lost 2-1 against both University of the South and Rhodes College, as each opponent put one past them towards the end of each game.
“We played very well in the games we lost; we just couldn’t find the back of the net,” said Ward. “That cost us winning two games that we had dominated and should have won.”
The victory over CMU has made it easy for the players to get past those upsets and focus on the opportunities ahead of them.
“It was possibly the most important that we will play for the majority of the season because it set the tone for the next set of UAA games to come,” said Ward. “It definitely boosted the team’s mentality because now we’re going into another conference game with a win behind us instead of a loss, and knowing we still need a win but didn’t lose the last game.”
Though a rookie, Twardowski knows that traditionally Case Western has not been a very strong team, but he considers it possible that they recruited a talented freshman class. WU posted a 3-0 shutout against a Case Western team that finished 4-12-2 last season, but is currently sporting a 4-2-1 record. As long as the Bears improve upon the intensity level they displayed in later half against CMU, they feel they should prove the better team Saturday.
But no one can argue that the team has anxiously awaited playing at home on Francis Field.
“We’ve been on the road every weekend so far,” said Reller. “We traveled three of the four weekends to hotels and one Saturday we were gone all day to Jacksonville, Illinois. Also, it will be nice to sleep in our own beds this weekend.”
Due to the unfortunate events of Sept. 11, the men’s first home game against Westminster College set for the following day was cancelled.
Trying to look at the situation in a positive way, Ward said, “I feel like now that we’re finally at home we’re apt to perform even better. Hopefully we’ll get some people to come out to watch us and support us too.”
As of now, the team has six more home games scheduled during the month of October. And after Saturday, the men will have five more contests against teams within the conference.
Usually, a team must win six of seven UAA matchups to earn the conference title, which is based solely on a team’s conference record. WU has won the title six of the last 14 years, most recently in 1999. As usual, this season the team has a goal of regaining the conference title, thus qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, and advancing from there.
Luckily for the Bears, last Sunday’s win put them one step towards that goal, and a win this Saturday morning would only move them closer.