Archive for the ‘Women’s Basketball’ Category

That time of the year again

Monday, March 1st, 2010 | Johann Qua Hiansen

Is it really March already? Time seems to have flown by and with it comes the news of the post season for various winter sports as well as the start of spring sports.

Winter sports round-up

Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams clinched the UAA title and automatic bids to the NCAA tournament which starts in just four days. The men host the first and second rounds taking on the Blue Jays of Westminster College. No. 25 Central College and Illinois Wesleyan University will both travel to Wash. U.

The  No. 6 women’s team heads off to Kentucky to face Maryville (Tenn.). The Lady Bears might consider roadtripping with neighboring Fontbonne University who is also competing in the same pod. Thomas More takes on the Griffins in first round action.

Track and field heads off to the UAA conference championship in Brandeis, Mass. this weekend for their last chance to qualify for nationals. One week later, several Bears will be competing at the NCAA Indoor National Championships. Sophomore Dan Davis has already automatically qualified in the 55 meter high hurdles. Davis, senior Chris Malaya, junior Ben Harmon and senior Pierre Hoppenot have provisionally qualified in the 4 x 400 relay. Sophomore Dave Spandorfer has provisionally qualified for the 5,000 meter run as well. On the women’s side, the distance medley squad of juniors Sangeeta Hardy, Kelli Blake, sophomore Erica Jackey and senior Molly Schlamb have automatically qualified.

The swimming and diving team will send several athletes to the NCAA national championships. Senior Alex Beyer is guaranteed a spot in the 400 Individual Medley, 200 Freestyle, and  500 Freestyle. Many of his teammates have submitted  provisional times including two in individual events by both sophomore Chris Valach and senior Dima Galkin. On the women’s side, senior Jessie Lodewyk will be at nationals for the 1,650 Freestyle. Sophomore Karina Stridh has posted several provisional times.

Spring Sports

The No. 3 men’s tennis team added another chapter to their rivalry with Emory University by defeating the Eagles 5-4 in the ITA Division III National Indoor Championship semifinals. The Bears were unable to sustain the momentum and fell 6-2 to top ranked University of California- Santa Cruz in the championship match. The women’s tennis team played hard but fell 5-4 against No. 11 DePauw University and 8-1 against No. 4 University of Chicago earlier in February. Both squads travel down South for several matches.

Softball opened up the season with 7-4 win over Rhodes College and a 12-9 win over Hendrix College this weekend. Baseball had a 2-1 record during their opening weekend at Kelly Field. The Bears split a doubleheader with Coe College, winning the first game 3-1 before being shut out in an 8-0 loss. The Red and Green then overcame a five run deficit in a 6-5 victory over Fontbonne University. Both baseball and softball head to Florida for the UAA championships.

Posted in Baseball, Men's Basketball, Men's Tennis, Softball, sportslog, Spring Sports, Swimming, Track & Field, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball, Women's Tennis | No Comments »

Competing against Division I

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 | Johann Qua Hiansen

In the pages of Student Life, we’ve seen columns in support of becoming a Division I school and those that say we should remain a Division III school.

There will be no comment on that topic in this blog post.

But junior Nicholas Yozamp is taking on students from other colleges in the Jeopardy College Championship on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Central Time.

School spirit can be exhibited in so many ways so support your classmates especially when they get a shot at facing other schools.

This weekend features the 2,000th men’s basketball game in school history against the University of Rochester. At the same time, women’s basketball looks for revenge against the Yellowjackets. The women play at 6 p.m. and the men are at 8 p.m.

After Sunday’s doubleheader against Emory, the school plans on honoring the national championship volleyball team and the national runner up women’s soccer team at 3 p.m. in the Field House.

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Posted in Men's Basketball, sportslog, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball | 1 Comment »

UAA Basketball Round-Up

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | Johann Qua Hiansen

With one weekend of University Athletic Association play behind us, the biggest lesson for all teams is that any team can be beaten.

Wash. U. ranked third in the country, staved off a Chicago upset attempt and held on for a 64-60 win. The Bears never held the lead in the first half being down by as much as seven points. For graduate student Sean Wallis, the game was historic as he became the 19th person in the men’s basketball program to score 1,000 career points.

No. 8 Brandeis University, who the Bears face on Friday, fell to unranked New York University. NYU held Brandeis to under 25 percent shooting and ran away with a 72-50 win. The Violets staked a big lead early on with a 28-15 advantage at the 8:14 mark in the first half.

In other men’s UAA action, Emory defeated Case Western Reserve 98-89 while Rochester downed Carnegie Mellon 76-57.

On the women’s side, Wash. U. controlled both ends of the court with a 63-34 victory over Chicago. The Bears benefited from a 15-19 performance from the free throw line  compared to Chicago’s 10-17.

Brandeis topped NYU 73-68 as NYU could not score from the three point line in the last few minutes of play. The Violets came as close as three points with a shot from behind the arc by Chrissy Kilmurray. NYU was 8 for 34 from the three point line while Brandeis was 4 for 15.

Rochester defeated Carnegie Mellon 58-51 while Case Western sliced through Emory’s defense with a 64-55 victory. Case forced 30 Emory turnovers compared to 21 of their own.

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Posted in Men's Basketball, sportslog, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball | No Comments »

Happy new decade

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 | Johann Qua Hiansen

The naughts (2000s) were quite a decade for Washington University Athletics. Eight of the school’s 17 NCAA Division III national championships and 76 of 135 University Athletic Association titles were captured in this span of ten years. The national titles include the first men’s titles of any sort with Men’s Basketball (2008 and 2009) and Men’s Tennis (2009).

Women’s basketball added two (2000 and 2001) while volleyball added three (2003, 2007, and 2009). Other programs have been to the national championship game for the first time in their history this decade including the softball team (2007) and women’s soccer (2009). Women’s basketball has also fallen in two national championship games including

Several individual NCAA national titles were also won in the 2000s. Michael Slavik won the 50 yard freestyle while teammate Eric Triebe captured the 200 freestyle in 2006. Alex Beyer took the 400 individual medley title in 2009 with an NCAA record breaking time of 3:51.45. In the indoor track and field NCAA championship meet of 2008, Morgen Leonard-Fleckman brought Wash. U. the first pole vaulting title in school history.

What’s ahead in the 2010s?

Washington University athletic programs have seen unparalleled success and continue to grow. The women’s golf program started in 2008 has already climbed to the fifth spot in the latest national rankings. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams were ranked first in preseason polls. The men’s tennis team currently holds the number three ranking while their female counterparts are ranked 15th. The men’s swimming team is eighth while the women rank 12th. This is just in 2010.

For those out there who aren’t fans of rankings, Wash. U. has given plenty of food for thought. The women’s soccer team was ranked number 17 when they faced top ranked Messiah College in the NCAA Division III National Championship game a month ago.  The Bears were number four in the country when they took down #1 Juniata College to win the national championship.

The men’s cross country team was unranked and defeated several ranked squads in NCAA Regionals before racing to their best ever finish (seventh) at the NCAA National Championship Meet. As the women’s team came in tenth, this was the first time in school history that both squads finished in the top ten of the national championship meet in the same year.

We can’t wait to see what happens next. Student Life will be covering all the varsity sports action.  Here are the New Year resolutions for this blog and the sports section as a whole.

  1. Blog a minimum of once a week.
  2. Have at least two other contributors by the end of February.
  3. Continue working with other UAA schools to create a central sports news site.
  4. Expand coverage of Washington University club sports.
  5. Utilize more multimedia where appropriate.

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Posted in Cross Country, Fall Sports, Men's Basketball, Men's Soccer, Men's Tennis, sportslog, Swimming, Volleyball, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball, Women's Golf, Women's Soccer | No Comments »

It’s never been better to be a Wash. U. fan

Saturday, November 21st, 2009 | Johann Qua Hiansen

With the women’s volleyball team capturing their tenth national title in program history and the fifth team national title in the past five years, it has never been better to be a Washington University sports fan.

Men’s cross country took seventh and women’s cross country took tenth at nationals. Women’s soccer advanced to the Final Four for the second time in school history.

When I stepped foot on the Danforth Campus, I had no idea that I would write for sports. I also had no idea I would go on numerous road trips to document the roller coaster of emotions caused by sports. In August of 2007, Wash. U had eight volleyball titles and four women’s basketball titles. Since then, the men’s basketball team captured two titles, men’s tennis picked up another and volleyball has come through with two. Add to that top ten finishes in a multitude of sports and Alex Beyer’s individual national title and Wash. U. is in a sports renaissance.

The sports section has reflected this with a core group of four reporters in the 2007-2008 school year, six reporters in the 2008-2009 school year and nine in the 2009-2010 school year.

Technology has also progressed with the Sports Information Department providing live streams of home games. Both the sports section (@studlifesports) and Wash. U. sports info run Twitter accounts while numerous schools have live stats available making it easier than ever to keep up with the progress of any team.

All that’s missing is the fan numbers. Community members, who had been at Wash. U. during the 1991-1996 Division III National Championship reign of the volleyball and the 1998-2001 Division III National Championship era of women’s basketball, recalled numerous occasions when the Field House was packed.

If you are a Wash. U. student or community member, come out and support the teams. They really appreciate the support and that’s what makes being a sports reporter very rewarding.

Who knows how far teams will go this year?

You can also follow the examples of three exceptional sets of fans. First of all, the parents of athletes are known to follow their children all over the country. A parent on the men’s soccer team runs a blog and a Twitter account that has helped keep Student Life up to date.

Another great group of fans are the men and women of the cross country and track and field teams who made the trip to Cleveland, Ohio despite not competing.

Finally, the men’s soccer team and other students traveled to Rockford, Ill. to support the women’s soccer team in the Elite Eight.  The group called the Conlon Crazies painted themselves in green and red while leading numerous spirited cheers.

Don’t knock Division III especially when your school boasts one of the most well rounded programs out there.

On another note, if anyone is travelling to San Antonio for the Women’s Final Four, my e-mail is [email protected].  The sports section wants to go. Do you?

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Posted in Cross Country, Fall Sports, Men's Basketball, Men's Soccer, Men's Tennis, sportslog, Volleyball, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball, Women's Soccer | 2 Comments »

The Changing Seasons

Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | Johann Qua Hiansen

With the falling leaves and colder temperatures as a backdrop, the fall sports have begun to reach the end of their seasons.

Congratulations are in order to the women’s cross country team for winning UAAs and the men’s team for taking fourth. Junior Taryn Surtees repeated as individual champion and we’ll see how the team looks at Regionals in Wisconsin.

The No. 3 volleyball team steamrolled through the Bears Classic in preparation for UAAs and an automatic NCAA tournament bid. Seniors Erin Albers and Laura Brazeal were recognized on Friday night before the Bears dismantled the Wildcats of Culver-Stockton College. Congratulations to these two great seniors for all of their accomplishments.

The only other home action was swimming and diving. Every year swimmers seem to get faster and faster from the start. Freshman Meg Powers took control with two individual first place finishes, a second place finish in the 2oo back and a first in the 400 free relay. On the men’s side, junior David Chao was the lone Wash. U. swimmer to win an event against Div. I SIUE on Friday. Chao also contributed to the meet clinching 400 free relay at the end as the Bears edged DePauw by four points overall.

Both men’s and women’s soccer picked up wins against Brandeis on Friday. The men’s team fell to NYU while the women picked up an OT victory on a header by senior Becca Heymann. The women have the better chance of taking the conference with a tie and five wins so far.  The Lady Bears are only one point ahead of Rochester. The Bears must beat Chicago to capture the outright title or tie to share the title.. If they lose and Rochester wins, the Lady Bears will be second.  The men will need several upsets and win their Chicago game for a shot at sharing the title.

Women’s golf leapt up the rankings  to No. 5 without playing in a tournament.

Just two weeks remain till the first men’s basketball game the season and a few days before an exhibition women’s game against SIUE. Both Wash. U. teams are ranked preseason No. 1.

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Posted in Cross Country, Fall Sports, Football, Men's Basketball, Men's Soccer, sportslog, Swimming, Volleyball, Winter Sports, Women's Basketball, Women's Golf, Women's Soccer | No Comments »