Weekly sports roundup: Sears is Ivy Player of the Week, again

For the third time this season, Justin Sears ’16 became the Ivy League Co-Player of the Week in men's basketball, following an impressive performance on the hardwood at home this weekend. Sears averaged 16.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in Eli wins against Columbia Friday (69–59) and Cornell Saturday (61–57). Currently 3–1 in Ivy play, the team travels to Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.

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

It's already looking like a strong season for the men's and women's fencing teams. Hosting Vassar and Drew at home, the Yale teams each added two victories to their season records. The men beat Vassar 19–8 and Drew 15–5, while the women went 16–11 and 22–5, respectively. 

Although the men's swimming and diving team lost to both its rivals at its two-day double-dual meet against Harvard and Princeton this weekend, the Bulldogs managed to break several important records. Brian Hogan ’17 made an impressive entrance into the college swimming scene when he made the fourth fastest 1,650-yard freestyle race in the NCAA this season with his time of 14:53.36, 52.44 faster than his seeded time and 13.43 faster than the Yale record. Hogan also set records in the 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, and 400-yard IM. 

The overall results were similar for the women's swimming and diving team at the HYP double-dual meet, but without the record-breaking performances. The Bulldogs lost to the Crimson 195–105 and to the Tigers 179–121.

The men's squash team remains undefeated in the Ivy League after adding two more conference victories. The No. 3 Bulldogs (12–1, 4–0) blanked No. 10 Penn and went on to defeat No. 7 Princeton in a tight 5–4 victory. 

A season of sweeps was put to the test this weekend: after 12 of the past 13 games ended in scores of 9–0 for the women's squash team, the No. 5 Bulldogs (13–2, 3–1 Ivy) lost to No. 3 Penn with a score of 5–4 but went on to beat No. 4 Princeton 5–4. Up next: games against Brown, Harvard, and Dartmouth this week. 

The women's basketball team beat Princeton 76–51 on Friday night for its third straight win in Ivy League play. But the next day's game against Cornell snapped the team's streak: Cornell won 65–56. The Bulldogs (9–9, 3–1 Ivy) remain tied for first in the league, alongside Cornell and Harvard.

The No. 13 men's ice hockey team may have started its weekend with a devastating 3–2 overtime loss to No. 11 Cornell, but the Bulldogs (11–6–4, 6–5–3 ECAC) were back in action by Saturday night, when they vanquished No. 18 Colgate. Yale stopped six of seven power plays and ended with a score of 4–1. 

At this year's Bulldog Invitational, the women's gymnastics team came in fourth place with 187.125 points. Bridgeport won the meet with 192.275 points. One of the day's top scores went to Morgan Traina ’15, who made a 9.725 on the beam, tying for third place.

The women's ice hockey team's five-game unbeaten streak came to a halt this week, when the Bulldogs (7–12–4, 5–7–4 ECAC) lost to No. 6 Cornell and Colgate, with scores of 6–3 and 2–1, respectively. The unbeaten streak was the Bulldogs' longest in seven years. 

The season is off to a rough start for the No. 58 men's tennis team, which lost its first home match to East Tennessee, ranked ten spots behind the Bulldogs. The final score was 5–2. The Bulldogs have a few days off before they host Georgetown and Fairfield this Sunday.