The seasonal change from fall to winter marks the end of another successful fall sports season consisting of dramatic victories, heartbreaking losses, All-Americans and nationally ranked teams.
The men and women’s cross country teams are still far from finished with their seasons. The men’s team finished sixth at conference, but still has the regional finals coming up in Pomona, California.
“The success of the season all depends on regionals,” said sophomore runner Spencer Corwin. “We are much closer to doing something special [at regionals] this year than we were last year.”
The team will be sending its seven best runners to compete this weekend.
Led by young talent, the women’s cross country team was able to take fourth at conference and is looking strong going into regionals. First-year Erin Campbell and supersonic juniors Emilie and Katri Gilbert received All-Conference honors for finishing in the top 14 in the conference.
The cross country teams are not alone in having successful seasons. Both the men and women’s golf teams have posted their best results in years.
“We ended quite well,” said star first-year golfer Scott Martin humbly.
The men’s golf team reached its zenith during conference championship play, obtaining a third-place finish.
“We’ve been trying to shoot in the 200s all season and we met that goal,” said Martin.
Achieve it they did, shooting a 297, the best men’s golf score in the past decade. Although the team didn’t win the conference championship, Martin is very optimistic going forward.
“If we work hard to improve, I think we can definitely top the conference,” he said.
The women’s golf team posted a great finish coming in second at the conference championship while sporting a national ranking of 11th. Many teams would kill for those credentials; the women’s golf team, however, was not satisfied.
“It was disappointing. Last year we would have been content with our finish this year, but we have raised our standards,” said sophomore Elaine Whaley emphatically.
Although perhaps disappointing, the experience was also beneficial.
“We learned to be cohesive as a team and we learned how to compete at a high level,” said Whaley.
This cohesion is something men’s soccer is trying to build with a team overflowing with young talent. Unfortunately, the results didn’t quite match the talent this year as the team sought to grow together.
“We didn’t get the exact results we wanted, obviously,” said junior Dhavan Vengadasalam. “We played really well this season, but we just ended up losing a few key games, which really hurt us.”
Despite this, the team has a bright future.
“We’re going to be working playing as a team and that will pay off,” said Vengadasalam.
The men ended their season fourth in the conference with a 9-8-2 record.
The women’s soccer team shared the disappointment of the men’s team, but did so with an iron will.
“We didn’t get the results we wanted, but we never gave up,” said junior midfielder Julianne Masser. “We lost a lot of games that could have gone either way, but we stay united, and I’m proud of that.”
Masser had more praise for her team when asked to describe the season in one word: “Resilience. I think that sums it up.”
The women ended up sixth in the conference with an 8-10-2 overall record.
Volleyball had a tough season but finished strong with a final five-game win over Lewis and Clark.
“We had a rough start, and it was frustrating for everyone,” said junior Rachel Schober. “Luckily, we are all hard workers, and it ended up being a great experience.”
The team struggled early on but built steam as the season continued. They ended up with a 4-18 record, which Schober believes is misleading.
“Your record doesn’t reflect how you feel, and I think we have felt good about what we’ve been doing,” she said.
Like golf, tennis is not traditionally a fall sport. The men’s and women’s teams, however, played in ITA regional championships this fall. The men’s side swept the tournament with Andrew LaCava winning the singles title and the duo of Matt Tesmond and Conor Holton-Burke taking the doubles crown. Both went on to compete in nationals in Mobile, Alabama finishing sixth and ninth nationally. More impressive, however, was the team effort from the men. They took seven of the eight quarterfinal spots in the singles tournament and filled out the semifinals in doubles.
“It was especially important we did this well because the conference is the strongest it has been in a while,” said junior standout and singles semi-finalist Sam Sadeghi.
The women’s team also sent two players to nationals with Alyssa Roberg winning the singles title and then teaming up with Courtney Lawless to take the doubles title. Roberg placed ninth at nationals and the doubles team finished sixth.
“The team did really well. Everyone did a great job of working hard and getting better,” said Roberg. “Going forward, we want to get more playing time with our doubles teams, and that will pay off in the spring.”
