Weekly sports roundup (11/11-11/17)

All eyes are on the football team as we enter the final days before this year's Yale-Harvard game, but other teams have earned themselves a portion of the spotlight, too. The men's cross country team finished 7th in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships, the team's best performance since 2004, and three Yalies finished in the top 50: Kevin Dooney ’16 took 11th place with a time of 30:28.4, John McGowan ’15 was 35th at 31:06.1, and Duncan Tomlin ’16 was 46th at 31:22.0. Dooney's performance this weekend earns him a bid for the Division I NCAA Championships this weekend, making him the first men's cross country runner in three years to make it to nationals.

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

For some teams, it may even be a case of hogging the spotlight. The women's volleyball team defeated Princeton 3–1 and swept Penn this weekend, claiming yet another Ivy League championship—the team's fourth straight title and its fifth in six years. The Princeton victory was the team's 200th win under head coach Erin Appleman. The Bulldogs (19–4, 13–1 Ivy) now advance to the NCAA Tournament, beginning next Tuesday with a game against Stony Brook. 

In its final game before this season's face-off against Harvard, the football team (5–4, 3–3 Ivy) fell to Princeton 59–23. Princeton, undefeated in the Ivy League, scored three times in the first quarter, and those big plays carried the Tigers onward to victory. Princeton is currently first in the Ivy League, followed by Harvard.

Adding a sixth game to its undefeated streak, the No. 9 men's ice hockey team beat Sacred Heart 5–1 in a nonconference game this weekend. Captain Jesse Root ’14 scored two goals and Trent Ruffolo ’16 added a goal and an assist. The Bulldogs (4–1–2, 2–0–2 ECAC) face off against Colgate and Cornell this week.

The women's cross country team came in at 13th at NCAA regionals, besting 27 other teams with its score of 385 points. Although the team will not advance to Nationals, several Bulldogs put forth strong performances. Kira Garry ’15 led her team with a personal-best time of 21.31.40 for 54th place.

Is the tide finally turning for the women's ice hockey team? The Bulldogs (2–5–1, 2–3–1 ECAC) earned their first two victories of the season this weekend, defeating Rensselaer 2–1 on Friday and Union 6–4 on Saturday. During the second event, the Bulldogs scored the most goals in one game since a 10–1 win over Sacred Heart four years ago.

In Tuesday night's home opener, the women's basketball team defeated UMass-Lowell 90–77, but the team's fortunes weren't as great in its second home game. The Bulldogs (2–1, 0–0 Ivy) fell to Sacred Heart 67–54 on Saturday. Yale was within three points of Sacred Heart in the second half, but the team rallied and defeated Yale.

On Saturday night, a season ended in disappointment for the men's soccer team. The Bulldogs fell 3–2 to Princeton, coming in at fifth in the Ivy League with a record of 2–3–2 (4–11–2 overall). Both of Yale's goals came from seniors in the first 10 minutes of the game: Peter Jacobson ’14 made the first shot past Princeton's goalkeeper, and Scott Armbrust ’14 made the second.

A disappointing finish for the women's sailing team, too: the Bulldogs finished sixth at the Women's Atlantic Coast Championship hosted by Cornell. The team can now look forward to a three-month break from sailing before beginning the spring season.

And the results weren't as good as expected for the coed sailing team. The No. 2 Bulldogs finished their fall dinghy season by placing third at the Atlantic Coast Championship hosted by College of Charleston. Next weekend, the match racing team will travel to St. Petersburg, Florida, to compete in the ICSA Match Racing National Championship.

It was a heartbreaker for the men's swimming and diving team this weekend. The Bulldogs fell to Columbia 153–147 — an outcome they could have reversed by claiming just one more race at the meet. Still, Andrew Heymann ’15 claimed three first-place finishes, more than any other Yalie this weekend.

The women's swimming and diving team faced a similar fate in their Ivy opener against Columbia this weekend, but by a wider margin. Yale lost 185–115. One of the weekend's strongest performances came from Eva Fabian ’16, the defending Ivy League champion in the 1,000-yard freestyle, who won her race with a time of 9:55.31, nearly 10 seconds in front of the next competitor.

The men's basketball team faced some tough opponents this week. They lost to No. 19 UConn 80–62 on Monday, then barely missed out on a major upset against Rutgers Thursday, losing 72–71 in the final seconds of the game.