Weekly Sports Roundup (3/4-3/10)

It was an exciting week for Yale Bulldogs last week: Several teams made strong ends to their winter seasons, while many others saw promising beginnings to their spring seasons. After weeks of mixed results, the men's basketball team pulled off a strong performance in its last two games of the season. The Bulldogs (14–17, 8–6 Ivy) defeated Princeton 77–61 and Penn 79–65, clinching a third-place Ivy League finish— a stark contrast to the team's sixth-place standing in the Ivy League preseason media poll. The Bulldogs have finished fourth or better in the Ivy League for 13 straight seasons. 

In other sports news this week (information from Yale Sports Publicity):

Women's Tennis

The No. 39 Bulldogs (8–1, 0–0 Ivy) upped their winning streak into six matches last week. The team swept St. John's (N.Y.) on Saturday and went on to defeat No. 75 DePaul 4–3 on Sunday. The victory against DePaul brought the team's streak of consecutive dual-match home wins to 30. The team last lost at home almost three years ago. The Bulldogs travel to Alabama this week to compete in this year's Blue-Gray Classic. 

Men's Lacrosse

It looks like a promising start to the season for the Bulldogs (3–1), who will face Cornell for their Ivy opener on Saturday. The No. 20 men's team defeated Sacred Heart 14–6 on Tuesday and beat No. 17 Fairfield 12–8. Kirby Zdrill ’13 made a career-high four goals at the game against Sacred Heart, and Dylan Levings ’14 won 17 of 23 battles on the X—his best faceoff performance yet. 

Women's Lacrosse

The week turned out just as well for the women's lacrosse team (3–2, 0–1 Ivy). The Bulldogs pulled out a 14–13 victory over Bryant and defeated Hofstra 9–7 later in the week. Seven different players scored goals against Hofstra on Saturday. The team faces off against Sacred Heart on Tuesday before taking on Penn and Harvard for two conference games on Saturday.

Women's Basketball

The Bulldogs (13–15, 8–6 Ivy) ended their season last week with a 77–44 loss to Princeton and a 70–65 victory over Penn. The team's performance landed Yale in fourth place in the Ivy League standings. Megan Vasquez ’13 ended her college basketball career with 1,413 points, sixth on the Bulldogs' all-time scoring list and just shy of the 1,418 points Melissa Colborne ’10 scored while she was a student. 

Men's Swimming and Diving

The Bulldogs came in fourth at the Ivy League Championships in Providence this weekend, and seven swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships at the end of the month. Rob Harder ’15 broke pool records for his 4:19.20 time in the 500-yard freestyle final and for his 9:01.36 time in the 1,000-yard freestyle.

Men's Fencing

Although the Bulldogs qualified the maximum of 10 players to compete in the NCAA Northeast Regionals this year, the results on Sunday proved disappointing. Peter Cohen ’14 led the team with his fifth-place finish in epee competition, and Hugh O'Cinneide ’15 put up a seventh-place finish in saber. The Bulldogs head to the NCAA National Championships in Texas in two weeks. 

Women's Fencing

The women's team saw similar results at the NCAA Northeast Regionals. Madeline Oliver ’13 finished seventh in saber competition, Lauren Miller ’15 came in ninth in foil competitionl, and Katherine Miller ’16 finished eighth in epee competition at her first-ever NCAA Regional event. 

Women's Sailing

Despite only being able to practice for one day outside competition this season, the No. 1 Bulldogs finished fourth at this year's Navy Spring Women's Regatta. Claire Dennis ’13 and Katherine Gaumond ’15 sailed to a fourth-place finish in A division, while Emily Biling ’13 and Amanda Salvesen ’14 sailed to a fifth-place finish in B division. The Bulldogs will spend much of this week training in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Coed Sailing

The No. 3 Bulldogs tied for fourth at the St. Mary's Team Race at St. Mary's College of Maryland. The team heads to St. Petersburg, Florida, for training this week and will compete in the ICSA Dinghy National Championships. They will spend the rest of spring break at the Truxtun Umsted Regatta in Annapolis, Maryland, which the Bulldogs won last year.

Softball

Last week, the Bulldogs took to the diamond for the first time this year, competing in seven games in just four days. The results were disappointing: the opening games gave the softball team a 2–5 overall record. Despite the losses to Central Connecticut, Bradley, Seattle, and No. 18 Washington, the Bulldogs still managed to defeat Ohio 7–1 and New Mexico 6–5. The team will rest today and play a doubleheader against Seattle University tomorrow. 

Baseball

It was a rough start to the season for the Bulldogs. The team faced Army for its three first games last week and lost each time. The team fell 14–4 and 8–4 on Saturday, and lost 4–1 on Sunday. The Bulldogs return to action this week when they travel to the Russ-Matt Invitational in Winter Haven, Fla.  

Women's Gymnastics

The women's gymnastics team finished third with a score of 190.525 points at a meet against Central Michigan and Maryland, who won the meet with 196.025 points. Morgan Traina ’15 delivered a career-best performance in the all-around competition, finishing fifth with a score of 38.625.