Even cross country can sometimes be a contact sport, something that was on display Sunday as all seven Jumbos varsity runners went down in a pile?up on a turn 150 meters into the Open New England Championship at Westfield State.
On March 2nd, Allan "Bud" Selig made his way to the podium, prepared to change professional baseball forever. Selig, the sport's ninth commissioner, is more commonly remembered for his gaffes - such as the All-Star game that ended in a tie - than for his successes, which include almost 20 years without any major labor disputes.
Following two successful showings at the Middlebury Invitational and Williams' ITA Tournament, coach Jaime Kenney and her squad were ready to get back onto the court for more Div. III. competition. This weekend, the men's tennis team traveled to Lewiston, Maine to participate in Bates' Wallach Invitational, hoping to build on their initial success and keep confidence high as the fall season continues.
The Tufts volleyball team returned from its weekend NESCAC play in Maine with more than just the two wins and one loss on the scorebooks. After being blanked 3?0 a week ago by UMass?Boston, the Jumbos were able to prove their mental stamina in wins against Bates and Colby and a near?comeback loss to Bowdoin, all of which contribute to a much?needed confidence boost heading into the home stretch of the season.
On Sunday, the men's cross country team seized a rare opportunity for a Div. III squad of any sport: the chance to square off against stellar Div. I opponents at the Open New England Championship at Westfield State. And seize it they certainly did. The Jumbos finished fifth overall and first among Division III squads.
As the whistle blew for the end of regulation in its road match again Conn. College on Saturday, the situation seemed all too familiar for the women's soccer team. In a season defined by bad breaks, this game - the team's eighth in which they had failed to score in regulation and their third to go to overtime tied 0-0 - was beginning to feel redundant.
Down the stretch, the American League divisional races were fights between the princes and the paupers. In the East, the New York Yankees, the league's most expensive team, held off two teams in the bottom half of the league in salaries, the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays, by the skin of their teeth. In the Central, the Detroit Tigers, after giving Prince Fielder a nine-year, $214 million dollar contract over the winter, rallied to overtake the Chicago White Sox. But it was the financially challenged Oakland A's, composed of replacement-level position players and a young pitching staff, that emerged as the biggest victors in the West, winning six straight to end the season and coming from four games back to surpass the Texas Rangers, baseball's sixth most expensive team.
It's midterm exam time on campus, and not only in the classroom. On the football field, where the Jumbos prepare to take on Bowdoin this Saturday, it's also their chance to show just how much progress they've made since the beginning of the season.
Twenty?three years ago, a pair of great Boston sportswriters sat down for a meeting in the Mayer Campus Center. One was longtime Boston Herald columnist Tim Horgan (LA '49). The other was Tony Massarotti (LA '89) - though he didn't know it yet.
He's a gamer. He's a baller. He's a playmaker and a shotcaller. All he does is win.
Welcome, everyone, to the final day of the baseball regular season.
