The Bucknellian

By Katherine Harris

Contributing Writer

The women’s field hockey team earned a berth in the playoffs by beating Colgate 1-0 in a thrilling double overtime game during this past weekend’s road trip. The team went on to lose to a nationally ranked Syracuse team.

The Bison traveled to Colgate on Saturday, gearing up to face their Patriot League rivals as they fought for a position in the upcoming league playoffs. The game remained scoreless for all of regulation, with goalkeeper Erica Perrine ’14 keeping the Raiders out of the net for her second shutout of the season. In the second overtime, the Orange and Blue pulled out the victory when forward Mallory Smith ’12 scored a goal less than two minutes into the period.

“Playing at Colgate is always a challenge; they bring a tremendous amount of energy and effort to every game and play a style that is very different than what we normally play against, so we were thrilled to come out on top,” head coach Jeremy Cook said.

On Sunday, the team faced No. 5 Syracuse for its final game of the regular season. The Bison ended up with a 3-1 loss, midfielder Gabby Palumbo ’15 scoring the only goal for the Bison. Perrine once again played a strong game in goal, making 15 saves as she fought off over 30 shots from the opponent.

“Quite simply, I think that the team performed exactly the way we needed to,” Perrine said. “We were completely aware of what was riding on these games, and even when things weren’t going the way we expected or wanted… we fought our way through it and came out at the end of both games with no regrets and results to be proud of.”

With their win on Saturday clinching the fourth and final spot in the Patriot League playoffs, the Bison are now completely focused on the tournament. The Orange and Blue face off against the American squad Friday for the semifinals, and they will play in the championship game on Sunday if they win.

“We will continue to improve this week on the things we have been working on all year, with a bit of added emphasis to our penalty corners,” head coach Jeremy Cook said. “We feel great about the playoffs, we proved earlier this year that American is beatable and now have to do it at their place.”

By Ajan Caneda

Writer

Plagued by unusually snowy conditions, the women’s cross country team finished second for the second consecutive year at the Patriot League Championship last Saturday in Bethlehem, Pa., just three points behind Navy. Patriot League rivals Colgate, Army and Lehigh followed finishing third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Eight teams competed at the meet as All-Patriot League selection Caroline Tolli ’13 led the Orange and Blue with a fifth-place finish and a time of 22:38.50. Four-time All-Patriot League teammate Stephanie Fulmer ’12 also made the top 10, placing seventh only two seconds behind Tolli

“It’s always tough when you come up three points short of a championship,” Tolli said. “We are way more proud of the heart we showed yesterday in having 24 men and women fight hard… Saturday was a great day to be a runner at Bucknell.”

There were other strong performances from the Bison as eight runners made the top 25, the most of any team.

First-year runners Betsy Edinger ’15 and Katie Jessee ’15 placed 15th and 21st, respectively. Emily Liggett ’12, Melissa Smith ’12, Hana Casalnova ’14 and Kelly Grosskurth ’12 also finished in the top 25.

The Orange and Blue averaged a time of 22:53.66 and had an overall time of 1:54:28.30.

The Bison finished 9.12 seconds behind Navy’s average time of 22:44.54. With this close split, it turned out to be a two-team race as the Bison finished 42 points ahead of third-place Colgate.

“Our ladies ran with a lot of confidence and did not let the snowstorm affect them. It hurts coming so close and although we didn’t win, I would say it was a moral victory,” head coach Kevin Donner said.

“They went in with the intention of winning the meet even though we were the underdog,” he said. “We have really improved as a team and have a lot of our runners peaking at the right time. I am very excited for our next meet coming up.”

The Orange and Blue travel to Princess Anne, Md. on Nov. 12 to compete in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships.

“Our team’s close finish behind Navy will give us quite a bit of drive for the Mid-Atlantic Regional meet,” Fulmer said. “Our aim is to beat them and we will be ready to really give them a run.”

By Andrew Arnao

Writer

The women’s soccer team played strong defense but was unable to clinch the final spot in the Patriot League tournament last Sunday in a 1-0 loss to Navy.

Originally scheduled as a home game for the Bison, the game was moved to Susquehanna University due to unfavorable weather conditions on Saturday.

“Our game Sunday was a painful end to a tough season, but it was a game in which we fought till the end. I’m so proud of the way our team was able to come back again and again throughout the season to give ourselves a chance to play for something in our last league game,” Megan DeGennaro ’12 said.

“We faced several challenges this weekend because of weather complications,including the unfortunate fact that we were unable to play our last game at home as scheduled–-a huge advantage to us–-because of our lack of a turf field,” she said. “Even with these complications, we competed and gave 100 percent until the last minute of the game.”

In the one-goal game, legitimate scoring opportunities were scarce as the two teams combined for just seven shots on goal. The Midshipmen’s first goal came 11 minutes in and was the only goal for either team.

The Bison were outshot 12-6, though they led in corner kicks 7-4.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t play our best soccer on Sunday, but I am extremely proud of everyone on the team for working hard and fighting until the very end,” midfielder Tara Cort ’12 said. “We had worked hard to put ourselves in a position where it was in our own hands if we were going to make the Patriot League tournament and that is something I am very proud of.”

Keeper Sandita McDermott ’13 finished the game with four saves, giving her 81 total on the year. She also finished with four shutouts and a 1.14 goal against-per-game average, the third highest in program history. The Orange and Blue have allowed only 19 goals in 16 games, the second fewest in program history.

Sunday was also the final game for seniors Sadie Canter ’12, Casey Crowley ’12, Cort and DeGennaro. Eight starters will return for the Bison next year.

By Eric Brod

Senior Writer

In a road game with serious postseason implications, the men’s soccer team fell to Colgate 2-1 in its fourth single-goal loss of the season on Saturday.

With the loss, the team fell to 7-8-2 on the season and 2-4 in league play. With the win, Colgate improved to 10-4-3 overall and took second place in the Patriot League.

The Raiders jumped quickly to a 2-0 lead, with the first goal coming with just 3:44 remaining in the first half and the second in the 63rd minute.

The Orange and Blue got on the board in the 77th minute when Andrew Powell ’12 scored his first goal of the season off a team leading sixth assist from Brendan Burgdorf ’13. CK Kumah ’13 led the team with four shot attempts.

Marc Hartmann ’12, making his second straight start in goal off a 110-minute shutout of Penn State, made three saves in the game.

“One forward in particular, Steven Miller, is the league leader in goals this year,” Hartmann said. “Our defenders did a good job of shutting him down for a majority of the game, but we got stretched out during one of their attacks and he happened to get behind us and made us pay.

“Overall, I think our defense did a good job of keeping him in front of us and making sure he didn’t get good looks at goal, but he’s a talented player that capitalizes well when he gets an opportunity,” he said.

The Bison and Lafayette square off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Emmitt Field. It is also senior appreciation day for the Bison.

“We’re not the type of team that’s going to lay down against any team, no matter what the circumstances are, so we’re still going to go out and look to go out of our season with a win,” Hartmann said.

 

By Greg Stevenson

Senior Writer

The football team rebounded from a three-game losing streak this past weekend by defeating the Lafayette Leopards 39-13 amidst an unseasonable blizzard on the road in Easton, Pa. The snowy victory was the Orange and Blue’s first win over Lafayette in over a decade and gives the Bison a winning record at 5-4.

Defensively, the Bison continued gaining turnovers. The Orange and Blue added to their national lead in both turnovers gained and turnover margin with seven against Lafayette, including four recovered fumbles. Bryce Robertson ’12 added two more interceptions to his season total, leaving him with 10 to lead the nation.

“We practice turnovers every day,” head coach Joe Susan said. “Our players work hard to create them. Interceptions are created by great coverage and great pressure.”

On offense, the weather severely affected the play calling.

“Our coaching staff always emphasizes that we cannot impact the things we cannot control,” Susan said. “Weather is one of them, so we work to keep our players from being concerned about it. We knew that the passing game would be impacted the most and we adapted our play calling with that in mind.”

With a limited passing game, the rushing game stepped up and carried the offensive load. Leading the way was Tyler Smith ’13, who registered an historical performance for the Bison en route to the win.

An unbalanced offensive game plan yielded 42 carries for the running-back, one short of the all-time Orange and Blue record. His 212 yards rushing was the highest total for a Bison rusher since 2005.

“Lafayette did a lot of things and brought many exotic blitzes, so it took great communication and awareness up front to move the ball efficiently and diagnose their blitz schemes,” Smith said.

“The offensive line did a great job beating the blitz and creating running lanes throughout the game,” he said. “Travis Friend [’14] also played a huge role in our running game. His lead blocks allowed me to get into the open field and make plays.”

Although the Leopards reached the end zone first early in the first quarter, the Orange and Blue scored 25 consecutive points over two and a half quarters to take a 19-point advantage early in the fourth quarter.

Among those scores was a receiving touchdown from Josh Eden ’12, a defensive player converted to receiver for one play, and an interception return from Sean Rafferty ’12. Smith also added two fourth-quarter scores.

The Bison now head into their lone bye week of the season with two conference games remaining in 2011, next week against Fordham and the following weekend versus Colgate. A win in one of the last two games would ensure that the Bison would finish the season with a winning record for the first time since 2006.

“In this bye week, we will have ample time to prepare for Fordham,” Susan said. “We will practice this week with an emphasis on improvement fundamentally and development of our younger players.”

By Scott Padula

Writer

The men’s water polo team heads to Princeton this weekend to compete in the Southern Championships, where it will compete against rivals George Washington, Navy and Princeton, among others.

The Orange and Blue, 10-8 this season, look to bounce back their loss at the Santa Clara Rodeo two weeks ago.

“One thing our team gained from the Santa Clara Rodeo was confidence,” co-captain Spencer Richley ’12 said. “We were ahead of UC Davis, the 12th ranked team in the nation, by three goals heading into the fourth quarter and we were tied with Pepperdine, the sixth ranked team in the country, after the first quarter.” 

“As we move forward, we can look back on the accomplishments made in California and know whole-heartedly that we have the ability to win both Southern Championships and Eastern Championships,” he said.

The Bison, the No. 3 seed in the tournament and the favorite to emerge from Group C, kick off group play against sixth seed Mercyhurst Friday night at 9:30. The Orange and Blue will wrap up group play against 10th seed Penn State-Behrend at 11:20 Saturday morning.

Barring two wins, the Bison will advance to the semifinals where they are expected to meet number two seed Navy. The Orange and Blue split the regular season series 1-1 and finished with the same conference regular season record (5-3). The Midshipmen were awarded a higher seed in the tournament due to goal differential. In the game the Bison lost, they had a two-goal advantage going into the final period.

“Our inability to close out games is something that has greatly ailed our team this season. There have been several occasions where we have been ahead going into the fourth quarter and could not finish. If we hope to be successful in the Southern Championships, we need to solve this problem,” goalie Matt Napleton ’13 said.

If the Orange and Blue are unable to overcome the Midshipmen, they will likely see George Washington in the third place game. In two regular season meetings, the Bison defeated the Colonials 10-8 and 12-5.

If the Bison upset Navy, they will advance to the championship game where many assume they will square off against the No. 1 slated Princeton Tigers. In their first regular season matchup, the Orange and Blue won 10-6, while in their second, they fell 9-8 in overtime.

By Chris McCree

Sports Editor

Profile:

Tyler Smith

Running Back

Junior

Hometown: Hatfield, Pa.

Major: Mathematics

 

Statistics:

Carries: 42

Rushing yards: 212

Yards/carry: 5.0

Total yards: 283

Touchdowns: 2

 

Due to the uncharacteristically snowy conditions last Saturday during the men’s football team’s 26-point win over Patriot League rival Lafayette, the typically balanced Bison offense turned to its running game for  offensive production and running back Tyler Smith ’13 certainly did not disappoint.

The junior running back rushed for 212 yards on 42 carries and two touchdowns, leading a Bison offense which tallied a total of 299 yards and 39 points. Critical to Smith’s success was his ability to outlast the Leopard defense and sustain his high level of play deep into the game.

Despite finding great success in the first three quarters of play, Smith did not score until the fourth, where he contributed two touchdowns to the Bison’s 20-point outburst.

This season, Smith has played a critical role in the Bison offense, rushing for a career-best 582 yards in the team’s nine games so far. With his 212-yard day, Smith became the first Bison to record a 200-plus yard game since 2005 and just the third player in program history to carry the ball more than 40 times in a single game.

With just two games remaining on their schedule, the Bison will look to Smith to continue his strong performances and propel the team to its first winning season in years. This week, Smith and the Bison will enjoy a much deserved bye week and then will travel to Fordham for a Patriot League matchup against the Rams.