Author: Cooper Sutton

Mike Wolf

Contributing Writer

The women’s volleyball team made another positive move in the Patriot League with a 3-1 win against Navy last Friday night. Twenty-four hours later, the team suffered a heartbreaking loss against American to move to 6-3 in Patriot League play.

Kristen Titley ’14 had one of the best performances of the weekend, recording her first career double-double Friday night. She posted a career-high 19 kills and 14 digs in the four set match against Navy.

Titley contributed heavily to the Bison’s success as she more than doubled her previous personal best in kills. After a tough loss in the first set, the Orange and Blue came back to win the match 22-25, 27-25, 25-23, 25-23.

Heidi Kamp ’11 blocked three balls which put her at fourth on the all-time block list. She currently has 302 blocks. Head Coach Cindy Opalski also found a career milestone, coaching her 600th match for the school.

Katie Baumgarten ’12 had a career night with 15 kills. In the second and fourth sets, Baumgarten helped to propel the offense with six kills in these two sets during long runs by the Bison.

Moving into third place in the Patriot League following Friday’s game, the Orange and Blue were faced with a tough challenge against American, who holds first place in the division. The Bison lost in straight sets.

In the first two sets of Saturday’s match, no Bison had more than a single kill until the third set. The Bison lost the first two sets 25-11 and 25-7, but lost only 25-20 in the third.

The third set brought some offensive improvement as Kamp, Titley and Kyleigh McAhren ’12 had more than one kill. The Orange and Blue were only able to put together 18 kills and three blocks as a team.

The Bison will need to get past the tough loss as they finish their road trip with a game at Colgate at 4 p.m. this Saturday.

By Sebastian Genty

Marketing Director

Coming off its best year in school history, the men’s crew team hopes that this year will be equally impressive.

The team opened its fall season Oct. 16 in Rochester, N.Y. at the Head of the Genesee Regatta. The Bison competed against  Brown, Cornell, Hobart and Marietta. The team’s efforts paid off as the Men’s Varsity 8+ ranked third, and the JV boats were all the fastest in their divisions.

Highlighted by silver medal performances at the Knecht Cup and American Collegiate Rowing National Championships in the spring, the Men’s Varsity 8+ finished last season ranked 22nd in the country amongst all programs (Divisions 1-3 and all club programs).

“Both our fall and spring seasons will certainly be a challenge but we are looking to capitalize on last year’s performances and again redefine our own measures of success,” said head coach Paul Bugenhagen.

This promising start will set the pace as the team tries once again to beat previous school records.

On Oct. 23 and 24, the team competed at the Head of the Charles in Boston, Mass., the world’s largest regatta, where last year the Varsity 8+ finished fifth in the college division, another school record. Last year’s winner was Williams College, but this year the Bison were looking to wear the crown. The Varsity 8+ came in 12th out of 42 in their event.

“We have a strong group, but they are young so anything is possible. I am confident that the group will find success, it’s just a matter of when. It’s all part of the process,” Bugenhagen said.

The team will close out its fall campaign at the Rutgers’ Fall Classic on Nov. 6 in New Brunswick, NJ. This regatta will feature the Bison first-year crews competing against some of the strongest teams on the East coast.

“I am extremely excited with this year’s group of freshmen. We brought in some good high school talent and we have great walk-on talent as well. I think the combination will be a potent mix come spring-time,” assistant coach Al Monte said.

By Justin Cohen

Contributing Writer

Before this wild 2010 NFL season began, most people looked at the Steelers with disinterest as their starting quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, would be on the bench for six games due to a sexual assault case at a Georgia nightclub. The Steelers would have a six game period, including their bye, where they could go under .500 without their star quarterback. Most people were already awarding the division to the Ravens, who looked like a much better team on the offensive side of the ball while maintaining their usual defensive stinginess. This year did not look like it was going to be a good year for a city with six Super Bowl titles, and, if they were going to save themselves, they would need to rely on their defense more than ever to even keep them in the divisional race.

Fast-forward five weeks and the Steelers are 3-1, coming out of their bye in solid contention in their division. Oh, and Ben Roethlisberger is coming back. With the help of backup quarterbacks Dennis Dixon, Byron Leftwich and Charlie Batch, the Steelers won their first three games of the season and lost the fourth in an extremely close game against the Ravens. The Steelers have never looked better on defense with their hard hitting linebackers and Troy Polamalu making spectacular plays. Rashard Mendenhall is also averaging 102.8 yards per game, which is second only to Houston’s Arian Foster.

Although their defense and rushing attack have been outstanding, the true star has been Roethlisberger, who hasn’t even played a down in 2010, as he managed not be a distraction for the team while he was suspended. His suspension could have hung a cloud over the Steelers and undermined their quest for a successful season, but now they are poised to take the NFL with full force, and, with three divisional games in the last five weeks of the year, they will rely on Big Ben to lead them to a possible postseason berth and maybe to even greater heights. During his first couple practices with the team, Mike Wallace could not remember Ben throwing a bad pass. The Steelers realized from the moment he took his first practice snap that “Ben was back.”

Roethlisberger has handled his suspension with class as he constantly worked out on his own over the first four weeks of the season. Commissioner Roger Goodell reduced the suspension to four games after Roethlisberger showed good behavior and remorse over his actions in Georgia. Roethlisberger returns to the lineup on Sunday when the Steelers face the Cleveland Browns. It will be exciting to see how Roethlisberger fares in his first game of an already wild 2010 season. Ben’s return to the league shows Goodell’s crackdown on the personal conduct policy has been working and that it has taught the players who make foolish choices to be truly sorry and not to make them again in the future. Roethlisberger will make an immediate impact on and off the field.

By Eric Brod

Senior Writer

When Spencer Whalen ’13 came to campus last fall, he knew he wanted to continue with the sport he grew up with: swimming. After competing on his high school, club and summer teams throughout his youth, Whalen knew it would be hard to adjust to life without a swim team.

When he found out there was no club swim team at the University, Whalen became determined to set up some type of club.

“I ended up going to the pool and doing workouts on my own for the first couple months of the school year,” he said. “I found it difficult to get myself to go to the pool by myself, so after a while I got my roommate from last year [Matt Szymanski ’13] to join me for some light workouts. Then I came up with the idea of making my own attempt at a club swim team.”

This summer, Whalen decided shared his idea of starting an on-campus swim club with Recreational Services, but then decided to take matters into his own hands, first sending out a message through the Message Center and then creating a Facebook group titled “Bucknell Swimming Enthusiasts.” Within a few hours, the group had 20 students in it. The group is now up to 40 people, and more have expressed interest.

This year, Whalen’s main goal is to make some noise and hopefully get the University to recognize them as a team. Currently, they offer practice twice a week. Whalen keeps attendance in a notebook.

“I am responsible for organizing everything at the moment, workouts attendance, etc., and it would be a lot easier if we could get a paid coach on board to get our team headed in the right direction,” Whalen said.

Although Whalen feels the Enthusiasts are a long way from competition, his main focus is on getting recognized as an official club.

“I am hoping that our goal of being recognized as a club team comes to fruition soon because it is something that we all hold as a true passion of ours—it is also something a school like Bucknell needs, too,” he said.

By Cooper Sutton

Sports Editor

The men’s golf team participated in the Joe Agee Invitational on Saturday and Sunday and in the Richmond Intercollegiate on Monday and Tuesday. William & Mary and Richmond hosted the tournaments.

The Orange and Blue took ninth place out of the 14 teams in the Joe Agee Invitational, finishing with 605 in the two rounds of play. Old Dominion held the lowest score of the weekend with 578.

On Sunday, the five golfers combined to shoot a 310 in the first round. The team shot a 295 in the final round Sunday, which raised it one spot on the leader board.

Jon Hartman ’13 put up the best numbers of any Bison in Fairfax, hitting a combined 144 over the two days. He tied for the seventh-lowest individual score at the tournament.

The Bison struggled at the Richmond Intercollegiate, coming in 11th place out of the 11 teams there. Richmond won the tournament at Independence Golf Club in Richmond with a total team score of 855. The Bison trailed significantly with a score of 928.

Although the score seems like the team played very poorly, the conditions of the course played a factor.

“Richmond was one of the tougher tournament fields that our team will see all year, so although we didn’t play as well as we expected, our low finish was a bit misleading,” J.J. Szmadzinski ’12 said.

Szmadzinski led all Bison in scoring in Richmond, posting a total of 223. He tied for 29th in individual scoring.

“I kept the ball in play and made quite a few birdies over the course of the tournament which always helps,” Szmadzinski said.

The team will not play again until November when it takes part in the Kiawah Island Intercollegiate.

By Cooper Sutton

Sports Editor

The women’s golf team had a solid showing this weekend at the Zippy Invitational, hosted by Akron at the Rosemont Country Club in Fairlawn, Ohio. The Bison played through tough conditions to come in third place out of 12 teams.

The hometown Zips came in first, followed by Grand Valley State. The race for first place was tight; Akron finished only four strokes ahead of Grand Valley State. The Orange and Blue finished 15 strokes behind that with an overall score of 969 for the tournament.

The low score of the weekend belonged to Kasha Scott ’14, who scored a 79-79-83 over three rounds. This strong showing put her in 12th place in the tournament for individual scores.

“I think I had the lowest score this weekend because I tried to maintain a positive attitude, and I just kept grinding after a bad hole and kept fighting to post a good score,” Scott said.

Scott’s good score was not a tribute to any dazzling play on the golf course, but rather her ability to stay fairly consistent throughout the tournament.

Going into Tuesday the Bison trailed second place by only four stokes.Without a single player in the 70s on Tuesday, the team fell further behind Akron and Grand Valley State. Brittany Rendell ’12 scored Tuesday’s top score with an 81.

Tough conditions caused high scores across the board this weekend.

“The conditions were tough. We played 36 holes the first day, which can always be hard since it is such a long day and it was really windy on that day,” Rendell said. “It was a tough course, if you didn’t hit the ball well, especially in the fairway, you would find yourself in a lot of trouble with water, out of bounds and trees guarding every fairway.”

“I know that the team could have played a lot better, and we are going work really hard to play to our full potential in our last two tournaments for this season,” Scott said.

The Bison look to improve on their solid performance this weekend at the Rutgers Invitational.

By Chris McCree

Writer

The men’s water polo team struggled this past weekend on the road, losing 7-4 to Princeton. With the loss, the Bison extended their losing streak to six straight and fell to 0-4 in the CPWA Southern Division. The Tigers came away with a similar three-goal victory earlier in the year at the ECAC Championship in Boston.

The Bison offense scored a season-low four goals against the Tigers and did not have one player with a multi-goal game. Beau Caillouette ’12, Richie Hayden ’11, Howie Kalter ’11 and Paul Reamey ’11 all scored for the Orange and Blue.

“I would say that we came out a little flat against Princeton. Our team is still trying to establish chemistry, and as individuals we have not yet found our roles to best serve the team,” Sean Coghlan ’11 said.

Recently, the Bison have struggled on defense, letting up double-digit goals in each of their last three contests. This time, the Bison stifled the Princeton offense, allowing only 10 shots on goal. The Bison sprinters had a good day, winning all four sprints. Brian Barron ’13 won three sprints and Spencer Richley ’12 won one.

After the loss, the Bison have an overall record of 7-8. The team has a great opportunity to salvage its season this weekend as it will host league rivals Johns Hopkins, Navy, George Washington and Princeton. The Orange and Blue have lost to every one of these teams this season, but they are optimistic about their chances this weekend.

So far this season the Bison are 3-7 the road but 4-1 at home. The Bison, who have played nine straight away matches, hope to benefit from home-pool advantage in their pivotal games this weekend.

Joe Ruby

Writer

The men’s soccer team played to a 2-2 draw against Patriot League rival Holy Cross (3-7-2, 0-2-1 Patriot League) on Saturday in Worcester, Mass. Brendan Burgdorf ’13 and Luke Joyner ’12 scored for the Bison, and Tommy Caso ’12 saved  seven shots in relief of injured starter Marc Hartmann ’12.

Down 1-0 at the beginning of the second half, the Bison quickly got to work. In the 47th minute, Joyner got control of a corner kick and passed to Burgorf, who scored his fourth goal of the year to tie the game.

The Bison struck again to take a 2-1 lead at the 68:46 mark, when CK Kumah ’13 passed the ball deep into the penalty area for Joyner, who netted his  second goal of the year – and second goal in his last three games – to give the Bison the advantage. The goal came moments after Caso saved a Holy Cross penalty shot at the 67:19 mark.

The Bison’s lead did not last. After a Bison foul and subsequent Holy Cross free kick, Crusaders defender Tom Van Grinsven scored with 54 seconds remaining in regulation, assisted by Pat McCann. The Bison were called for 16 fouls in the contest compared to the Crusaders’ three.

Each team managed a shot during 15 minutes of overtime, but both defenses held to finalize the draw.

The Bison got off to a rough start, as Hartmann left the game with an injury just six minutes in, leaving Caso to take his spot in goal. Just over 10 minutes later, Monty Sanders scored the game’s first goal for the Crusaders with a shot from well outside the box.

The teams were even in shots and shots on goal. The Bison managed 15 shots, 11 on goal, and the Crusaders posted 16 shots, 10 of which were on goal. Hartmann saved one shot before leaving the game, and Caso and Holy Cross keeper Evan Polanik saved eight shots each. The Bison held a 10-3 advantage in corner kicks earned for the game.

The Bison (4-6-1, 1-1-1) have two home games scheduled for this upcoming week, hosting Army (1-9-0, 0-3-0) in a Patriot League matchup on Friday at 6 PM and Adelphi (6-5-0) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

By Joyce Novacek

Writer

The field hockey team faced tough competition this past weekend, falling to Lafayette 4-2 on the road on Saturday and losing to Columbia 3-2 at home on Sunday. In both games, the Bison fell behind early, and were unable to fully recover.

On Saturday, the Bison went into halftime down two goals to the Lafayette Leopards. Just two minutes into the second half, Tayler Siegrist ’13 sparked the Bison offense, scoring on a penalty corner and bringing the Bison within one goal of the Leopards. Corinne Raczek ’11 assisted Siegrist’s goal.

The Orange and Blue were never able to tie the game since Maria Machalick of Lafayette scored the Leopards’ third goal of the game before Katie Durkin ’13 scored the Bison’s second.

Goaltender Sarah Zargarpour ’12 made four saves but also allowed four goals.

“The team’s focus going into this weekend of competition was that we had to win Saturday’s game against Lafayette if we wanted to have a chance at being number one in the league and hosting the Patriot League tournament, which was one of our season goals. After the Lafayette game on Saturday, we were very frustrated because we knew that we could have beaten them, but we failed in doing so,” Siegrist said.

Against Columbia, the Bison were again down at halftime but only by a 1-0 deficit. The Orange and Blue tied the score when Mallory Smith ’12 made a clean pass to Kelly Bruvik ’11 who capitalized on a one-on-one opportunity by scoring the first Bison goal of the day.

The Lions responded to the Bison goal by scoring two goals of their own, putting the Bison down 3-1.

On the last play, Morgan Kauffman ’11 scored a goal off of Siegrist’s assist, but it was a little too late.

After these two games, Bruvik and Kauffman are tied for the most goals scored this season with six apiece.

“We certainly had a rough weekend and weren’t able to play the quality of hockey we are capable of playing. I think our frustrations from this past weekend will push us to have a great week of practice and hopefully have a better turnout against Lehigh,” Christine Weiss ’11 said.

The Bison continue their home stand on Saturday when they face Lehigh at 1 p.m. in a Patriot League match-up. On Tuesday, they travel to University Park, Pa. for a non-conference game against Penn State at 7 p.m.