Author: Cooper Sutton

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Nicholson ’14 finishes great season

By Cooper Sutton

Sports Editor

Mike Nicholson ’14 transcended his team’s third-place finish in this past weekend’s Patriot League Championships in Kinney Natatorium, setting new school records in the 200 and 400 meter individual medleys. Navy won the championship for the eighth consecutive year.

“Getting a team record [at Bucknell] is a huge honor considering all of the great swimmers that have swam here,” Nicholson said. “Winning the 400 IM was probably the biggest thrill of my life.”

Nicholson’s record-breaking performance in the 200 IM secured him third place in the event, but by winning the 400 IM, he became the first first-year in four years to win an individual event in the Patriot League Championships.

Thomas Brown ’12 set another school record in the 200-meter backstroke. In the prelims he swam a record time of 1:48.04, coming in third for that event. In the finals, he finished in second with a 1:48.95.

Matthew Segar ’12, Christian Treat ’13, Trevor Reitz ’14 and Eric Sokolosky ’12 combined to break a third Bison record in the 400 free relay. With a time of 3:00.87 the team came in second place.

Overall, in the three-day championships, the Bison recorded program top-ten times in an outstanding 17 events.

The series of top-ten records did not help the team compete with Navy, who beat the Bison by 490 points. Navy finished the meet in first by far with 1056 points. The battle for second was much more competitive, Army finishing in front of the Bison by 37.5 points. Army finished with 603.5 to the Orange and Blue’s 566.

“Our main goal heading into the meet was to beat Army for second place,” Nicholson said. “Our meet was far from a failure though. We saw many team records drop, on both the swimming and diving sides of the meet, and we ravaged the top-10 lists in many events.”

The winter season for the team as a whole ended this past week, but the ECAC Championships will take place this weekend for those swimmers privileged enough to qualify.

The team will be motivated in future seasons by the results of the championships. “Getting third was definitely a disappointment, but I know it will only motivate us in the spring and next year to make sure we don’t lose to those kids again,” Nicholson said.

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Baseball looks to win league again

By Eric Brod

Senior Writer

To say the Bison’s run through the Patriot League Tournament last year, which that ended in a league championship and NCAA tournament berth, was unexpected would be an understatement. After an up-and-down 2010 regular season that saw the Orange and Blue finish with an underwhelming 25-35 record (7-9 in league play), the team rode the MVP performance of first baseman Doug Shribman ’11 to a Patriot League Championship.

Despite the losses of Andrew Brouse, Ben Yoder and B.J. LaRosa, the Bison return poised for another run at the league title. Much of the team’s success lies on Shribman, who was named to the Louisville Slugger All-American third team for the preseason. Last season, Shribman exploded for 21 home runs and 62 R.B.I.’s while hitting at a stellar .359 clip. During the tournament, he took his game to another level, belting seven home runs and driving in 16 runs in only six games.

Shribman feels that his dedication to preparation will be crucial for a repeat performance this season.

“You just have to continue to work hard and be ready for any pitch that could come at any time,” Shribman said. “It doesn’t really matter what pitch is coming because you still have to swing at good pitches to hit and take advantage of those opportunities. If you are working hard and maintaining your swing, then it doesn’t really matter how the pitcher throws to you.”

Also returning for the Bison are outfielders Drew Constable ’11 and Bob Donato ’12. The pitching staff also returns with a solid core, led by right-hander Jack Boehm ’12 and Dylan Seeley ’11.

Seeley believes the pitching staff is well-suited to help lead the team back to the NCAA tournament.

“As a pitching staff our goal is always to give our team a chance to win every game, and I believe we are very capable of that this year,” Seeley said. “Last year’s postseason run can give us a lot of confidence going into the year. A bunch of guys got good experience and pressure situations and were successful. Hopefully, that success will give us confidence to start off the season.”

The Orange and Blue will be tested early in the season. Today they travel to face James Madison in a four-game series, and next weekend they will compete against a tough Richmond Spiders team. League play begins April 2, when the Bison will host Lafayette for a four-game, two-day series. Regular season action concludes for the club with a four-game series against Army, and the Patriot League Tournament is set to kick off on May 14.

With a lot of expectations and accolades surrounding the 2011 Bison baseball team, anything short of an NCAA tournament berth will be considered a major disappointment.

“We just have to continue to work hard through the rough times, which inevitably come with any baseball season, and not let a rough game or two bring us down even farther,” Shribman said. “Last year we started playing poorly and it affected us for far too long mentally, so this year we have to do a better job of relaxing and just playing the game like we know we can.”

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Cohenca ’12 pulls off big win

By Chris McCree

Writer

The men’s tennis team dropped its third straight contest on Sunday night, losing to Penn State in University Park, Pa. Taking on a very talented Nittany Lion team, the Bison lost all three doubles matches and managed to win only one out of six singles matches. However lopsided the match may have been, the program took an important step forward as it saw Gregg Cohenca ’12 claim the team’s first singles victory against Penn State since 1986.

Coming off of a tough 7-6, 7-6 loss against Duquesne University last weekend, Cohenca won a grueling three-set thriller against Penn State’s No. 1 singles player Bryan Welnetz. Unfazed by losing the first set 5-7, Cohenca bounced back and won six straight games in the second set to even the match. His second-set momentum carried over into the third and he was able to knock off Welnetz 10-6 for the Bison’s one and only victory of the day. With the victory, Cohenca was named the Susquehanna Valley Limo Bison Athlete of the Week.

“It is important for us to take the positives out of a match, and seeing Cohenca compete at such a high level is very powerful,” Mark Malloy ’11 said.

Penn State was able to claim the remaining matches in decisive fashion. Other than Cohenca, the Bison were not able to win a set off of the Nittany Lions. The only other close match was the No. 3 doubles match, in which Josh Katten ’13 and Kelly Morque ’13 fell to Penn State’s Harry Seaborn and Bryan Welnetz by a score of 8-5.

Cohenca attributed the team’s struggle to pure intimidation.

“Going into this match we knew we were facing a strong and talented team,” he said. “I think we all started off the match a little nervous and that translated into us playing passively.”

Despite the score, the team doesn’t seem too discouraged by the loss.

“As a whole, I feel that the team competed at a high level. With Penn State being the best team we face all year, it is important for us to take away the positives from the match. We were aggressive at the net in doubles and applied pressure on our opponents in singles,” Malloy said.

The Bison will try for their first win of the season tomorrow as they play host to Georgetown at the West Branch Tennis Club in Williamsport, Pa. At this point in the season, the Orange and Blue seek to use Cohenca’s big win as a rallying point.

“He sparked a flame in our team,” Malloy said. “We can use his match as inspiration for our future ones. Each player on our team needs to bring more to practice and, as a result, will be better prepared for better teams in the future. I think that with more energy throughout our whole team, we will play at a much higher level come Saturday.”

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Women’s tennis loses

By Lindsay Regruto

Staff Writer

Despite a desire for revenge, the Bison women’s tennis team fell to Binghamton 7-0 in its second match-up against the Bearcats. With the loss, the Orange and Blue’s record dropped to 0-4 for the spring season.

“We’re having a bit of a rough start, but nothing really unusual for this time of the year,” Head Coach Rebecca Helt said. “We start off playing some of the strongest teams in the region and we look to those matches to identify where we need to work in terms of our overall match play.”

Even with a rough start, the Bison didn’t go down without a fight. Dumitrita Iepuras ’12 put up a fight in the second set of her singles match but ultimately fell 6-3, 7-5 to her Binghamton opponent. Lauren Rottkamp ’11 and Elizabeth Morgan ’14 gave Binghamton the toughest time at doubles but could not pull out the win, falling 8-5.

The Orange and Blue will have some time off the court to focus on the upcoming half of the spring season.

“This time of year we’re still making adjustments in the line-up, adjustments in our doubles teams, and just looking to get everyone healthy for the second half of the spring season,” Helt said.

The Bison will be back March 5 in New York against St. Bonaventure.

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Lady Bison win two huge games

By Eric Weiss

Senior Writer

The women’s basketball team got back to its winning ways this week, downing Holy Cross 68-52 at home on Saturday and then beating Lafayette 46-34 in a defensive struggle at home on Wednesday.

With a tape-to-tape win against the Crusaders, the Bison demonstrated just how dominant they could be. The trio of Rachel Voss ’13, Shelby Romine ’14 and Felicia Mgbada ’13 led the scoring attack for the Bison, all tallying in the double digits for points.

The first half of the game was all Bison as the Orange and Blue dominated play on both sides of the ball, never allowing Holy Cross to get into a rhythm. Early in the second half the Bison had built a solid 21-point lead, and the game looked all but put away.

“Some games you make everything while some games you don’t. Our game against Holy Cross just happened to be a great shooting night for us,” Voss said.

Holy Cross went on a 10-0 run and was able to narrow the score to 57-48. But Romine helped stem the tide though with a three-pointer of her own to silence the Holy Cross rally.

After the dust settled, the Bison came away with the win and some impressive statistics, making the Holy Cross game one of the best in their season. Voss ended as the points leader with 14, but Romine and Mgbada were both close on her heels with 13 each.

At home against Lafayette, the Bison built a comfortable lead of 9-0 in the first half and never looked back. The closest the Leopards would come to regaining the lead was 12-7 just minutes later, but the Orange and Blue built a comfortable 16-point lead with just under five minutes to go in the first half.

In the second half it was the same story for the Bison as they built a 21-point lead with just over 11 minutes to go in the contest.

Higham was the leading scorer for the home team, netting 11 points and 14 rebounds. The point totals were well spread for the Bison with almost all players seeing significant action.

The Orange and Blue will use these two games as building blocks as they head toward the Patriot League tournament, peaking at exactly the right time.

“At this point, our focus is finishing top four in the league in order to secure a home game in the first round of the tournament,” Voss said.

To accomplish this goal, the team’s next  three games will be critical. The Bison play at home against Colgate tomorrow, and on the road at Lehigh and at Army next week.

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Men’s basketball continues to roll

By Greg Stevenson

Senior Writer

Despite conceding an 11-point lead with four minutes to go, the men’s basketball team took advantage of a dominating performance by Bryson Johnson ’13 and fought back hard in overtime, outlasting a tough Lafayette Leopards squad, 74-69, on the road in Easton, Pa. on Wednesday night. The victory gives the Orange and Blue their 10th conference win of the season and leaves them one win or one American loss away from clinching the Patriot League regular season title.

Johnson had a career night, scoring 30 points, including five three-pointers and a perfect 11-11 from the free-throw line. Off the bench, Enoch Andoh ’12 added two key baskets down the stretch in overtime to pull away from Lafayette.

“It’s always a great feeling to be able to give your team a nice spark off the bench,” Andoh said. “Everyone, starters and reserves, kept their composure tonight. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to help us win with a couple of clutch buckets.”

Early on, Lafayette seemed unfazed by a Bison team that had a two-game lead in the Patriot League and had blown out most of its conference opponents. The Leopards scored the first five points of the game and held the advantage until the eight-minute mark in the half. The Bison and Leopards traded baskets for the rest of the first period, until a three-pointer by Johnson gave the Orange and Blue a five-point lead at halftime.

“Lafayette is a very well-coached team that when they execute their offense they are a very hard team to guard,” Bryan Cohen ’12 said. “The keys to winning this game [were] to really disrupt their offensive flow and motion offense by having great ball pressure and preventing the ball from entering the post. We had great practices this week at guarding their offensive sets and we [felt] very confident going into [the game].”

The Orange and Blue opened the second half with the first seven points, extending the advantage to 12. But every time the Bison jumped out to a big lead, the Leopards had an answer. Down by 11 late in the second half, Lafayette charged back with an 11-0 run to tie the game with just over a minute to go. Two missed free throws by Mike Muscala ’13 and an off-the-mark three-pointer at the buzzer by Johnson pushed a game that had seemed out of reach into overtime.

In overtime, Lafayette picked up right where it left off with a three-pointer in the first 10 seconds of the extra period. But three free throws from Johnson and the two baskets in the paint by Andoh sparked the Bison to a hard-earned victory over a tough conference foe.

“Going into Easton, we all knew that we had a big game ahead of us,” Andoh said. “But we were able to focus defensively, contain their key players and squeak out another road win.”

With the win, the Orange and Blue move within one game of securing home court throughout the Patriot League tournament. Despite the second-ranked American Eagles also winning Wednesday night, the Bison only need to win one of their final three games or the Eagles to lose just one to earn the regular season conference crown.

Looking to secure the regular season league championship, the Orange and Blue head to Colgate on Saturday for their final road game of the year. The Bison are looking for the same success that helped them beat the Raiders by 27 the first time they faced each other this season.

“It definitely feels good to be close to wrapping up the number one spot going into the conference tournament,” Cohen said. “However, it is only a stepping stone for our bigger goal of winning the Patriot League and going to the NCAA tournament. We are playing well as a team and we feel very confident going into the final stretch of the season.”

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Carey ’14 shines in debut despite loss

By Andrew Arnao

Contributing Writer

Despite an outstanding effort by Ali Carey ’14, the Bison women’s lacrosse team fell to St. Bonaventure 14-10 in their season opener on Sunday.

In her collegiate debut, Carey scored five goals, highlighting the large youth presence on a team that saw seven first-years playing in the opener.

Other top performers included Katelyn Miller ’14 with two goals, Julia Braun’11 with one goal and an assist, Madison Hurwitz ’13 with one goal, Kerri Althouse ’14 with one goal and Molly Ford ’14 with two assists.

The Bison fell behind 8-2 in the first half after struggling to clear the ball. The Orange and the Blue fought back though with a strong end to the half. In the last six minutes the team scored five goals compared to St. Bonaventure’s one to make the halftime score 9-7.

“Since our team is so young, we played pretty frantically at first and threw the ball away a lot on the clears, which gave St. Bonaventure a big lead,” Miller said. “In the middle of the first half I think we kind of pulled things together, and we had a good comeback to keep the score close.”

After failing to make any saves, St. Bonaventure’s goalie Sara Schalagenhauf was replaced with backup goalie Karly Kocis for the second half. Kocis proved much more effective, making nine saves over the second half while allowing only three goals. Meanwhile, the Bonnies started off the half with four consecutive goals, ending the Bison’s momentum and putting the game out of reach.

Bison goalie Alyssa DeLorenz ’11, who had allowed nine goals against two saves in the first half, recovered nicely to allow only five goals against seven saves in the second half.

The Bison were plagued by 23 turnovers, 15 occurring in the first half. The Bison were also 11 for 22 on clears, compared to 17 for 18 for the Bonnies. Still, the team is optimistic about the future.

“The thing that was great about this game was that we never gave up on each other or got frustrated with each other even though we were down,” Althouse said. “I have faith that we’re going to improve with every day that goes by, and we’re going to keep growing together as a team.”

Carey, the star of the game, also applauded the performance of the younger Bison.

“Having 14 freshmen on the team, I thought nerves were definitely going to be a factor, but everyone stayed really positive,” she said. “Our seniors and coaches have done a really great job preparing us for the game.”

“We have a great attitude and great team chemistry which will definitely be our most important qualities moving forward in our season,” team captain Braun said. “Now that we have the first game under our belts we can work on the little things like protecting our sticks and hopefully improve for our next game against Howard.”

The Bison hope to use their inspiration from this game against Howard tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.

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Men’s track dazzles in Winter Classic

By Cooper Sutton

Sports Editor

The men’s track and field team finished its regular season on high note this Saturday at the Bucknell Winter Classic with 10 different Bison claiming victories.

Most notable among the victorious Bison was Robert Arent ’12, who won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.19 seconds and came in second in the 200-meter dash, which was won by Isaih Bell ’11. The hurdles time was the second-fastest in Bison history, 0.03 seconds behind Arent’s own career best. Arent’s name now appears on 10 different University top-10 lists.

In the 800-meter run, Chris Sacks ’14 took first place with a 1:52.89. His time was the fastest for a Bison athlete in seven years.

Two separate throwers put themselves on the top-five list for shot-put this weekend. Zachary Shapiro ’11 took first in the event and fourth all-time, posting a throw of 51-5.75. Coming in second place was Tom Barr ’12, who threw a 51-4.25 for fifth all-time.

The Bison had a strong showing in the triple jump as well, taking the top four spots. Ray Holmes ’14 won the event with a distance of 46-6.75. The other top-four finishers were Kevin McGuire ’11, Dan Kubinski ’11 and Alex Prieto ’14, in that order from second to fourth.

Three separate pole vaulters, Ian Ferguson ‘13, Drew Fitzgerald ’11 and Daniel Markwalter ‘13, tied for first place, clearing the 14-9 jump.

Capping off the successful day for field events, Leonard Joseph ’13 took first place in the weight throw, throwing a career-best 57-5.75.

The Winter Classic seems to have been a boost for the team going into the Patriot League Championships.

“I think the Winter Classic demonstrated our team’s capability going into the championships,” Nigel Robinson ’14 said. “We’ve been hit with a lot of injuries this year, but we’re still a very competitive team. I think it’s evident how hard we’ve been working that we’re hitting plateaus so late into the season.”

The team hopes to reach new heights this upcoming weekend in the Patriot League Championships hosted by Navy.

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Five Lady Bison take gold in Winter Classic

By Joyce Novacek

Writer

Five Bison took gold for the women’s track team at the Bucknell Winter Classic last Saturday. Beth Braunegg ’14 won the 1,000 meters, and the Bison swept the 500 meters with Erin Horleman ’14 leading the way.  In the field, the Orange and Blue posted impressive results in the shot put and pole vault.

Braunegg’s time of 2:54.75 seconds in the 1,000 meters was a personal best.

“I feel that last weekend’s performance set me up really well both mentally and physically,” Braunegg said. “I’m learning to set more ambitious goals and also to have more confidence in my capabilities.”

Thanks to her performance, Braunegg was deemed the Patriot League Rookie of the Week. This is the fifth consecutive week that a Bison has received this honor.

Horleman ran a time of 1:19.42 to win the gold in the 500 meters. Her teammate Valerie Sans ’13 took silver in the 500 meters, while teammate Hannah Jones ’14 placed third.

The Orange and Blue also continued their success on the field. Rebecca Frey ’11 and Emily Ando ’14 took first and second place in the pole vault, respectively, both clearing career-best heights.

In the throws, Sarah Bella ’12 was the victor of the shot put, throwing 41 feet, eight inches. Teammate Rebecca Misko ’12 finished second, and Laura Rycek ’11 placed fourth.

“The Winter Classic provided the team with a good experience and got everyone pumped up for the Patriot League Championships next weekend,” Bella said. “We have a very strong team this year, and I am very confident that we will do big things next weekend and make it a meet to remember.”

The Winter Classic wrapped up the regular season for the Bison, who will travel to Annapolis this weekend for the Patriot League Championships, hosted by Navy. Last year the Bison won the Patriot League title, defeating second-place Navy.

“Our primary focus going into Patriot Leagues this weekend is to support, encourage and motivate each other in order to ultimately win the championship,” Braunegg said.

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Water polo starts with four straight wins

By Scott Padula

Contributing Writer

Interim Coach Paul Rave started his career strongly as the women’s water polo team started its season by going 4-0 at the Bison Invitational this weekend. This is the third time in four years that the team has won its season opener.

The Bison began the invitational Friday evening by defeating Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The two teams battled for the lead in the first two quarters, with the score tied at 4 going into the half. The Orange and Blue responded in the second half, outscoring the Athenas 7-3. Hallie Kennan ’12 and Julianne Valdes ’14 dominated on the offensive end netting five and four goals respectively, while Mackenzie Ferry ’14, Amanda Skonezney ’12 and Tara Murao ’13 combined for seven of the team’s 16 steals.

“Everyone was on the same page and we were all able to execute some of the things we had been working on. Paul is an incredibly fundamental, defensive-minded coach and I think that showed in our play,” Haley Prickett ’11 said.

Prickett also contributed to the 11-7 Bison victory with three assists.

With three goals from Valdes and a pair each from Skonezney and Heather Smith ’14, the Bison cruised to an 11-1 victory over the Gannon Golden Knights in their second match of the tournament. Strong showings in goal from both Brittany Connell ’12 and Rena Heim ’14 also allowed the Bison to coast to victory.

The Bison defeated Wagner 11-4 in their final match Saturday. The teams remained close in the first two quarters but the Orange and Blue offense exploded in the third, netting five straight goals and seizing a victory. Valdes, Smith, Murao and Ariel Frankeny ’12 scored a pair of goals each as a total of nine different Bison registered a point in the well-distributed affair. Heim had another strong performance with eight saves in 32 minutes of action. The victory gave the Bison a 3-0 record for the third time in program history.

The Orange and Blue wrapped up a perfect Bison Invitational by defeating the Siena Saints 11-8 Sunday. The Bison started the game by scoring four of the game’s first five goals, taking an 8-3 lead into halftime. Both offenses looked sluggish to open the third, missing several costly opportunities. Siena managed to net a mere goal, while the Orange and Blue could not connect. The Saints ferociously tried to mount a comeback in the fourth, cutting the deficit to two on several occasions. Each time the Bison managed to fend them off thanks in large part to the efforts of Connell and Heim. Similarly to the Wagner game, the Bison played selflessly as 10 different players registered a point.

“This weekend showed us that we have the basis for a great team, we just need to continually improve our awareness and communication as we learn to play with each other,” Prickett said. “We’re a really young team and I think it’s great we started the season off 4-0, but this coming weekend will be another test. As far as I’m concerned we still have a lot to prove.”

The Bison will head to College Park next weekend to compete in the Maryland Invitational. There, they will face Wagner, George Washington and the host Terrapins as they hope to protect their flawless record.