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The Setonian
Sports

Fencing | Jumbos make strides with all weapons in top half at Regionals

March 24

    The Tufts fencing season that stretched eight weekends of meets over nearly five months came to an end March 8, when Tufts was sent home in the NCAA Regionals after two weeks of championship competition. All three Tufts weapons finished in the top half of their fields in the New England Championships to conclude the season, but 2008-09 saw even more impressive feats among the individual fencers.     Senior foil captain Christine Lee finished off her accomplished career with a sparkling season. One of the highlights of her year came with winning two of her three bouts against one of the top teams in the nation in NYU. Lee defeated sophomore Amanda Rysling, who not only bested her last year, but performed well enough this year to earn a spot in Nationals.     Lee's bid for her own Nationals spot was foiled at Regionals, however, when she went 1-4 in the first round, though two of her losses were decided by a single point. As a freshman, Lee advanced to Nationals and recognizes that as the best year of her collegiate career.     Nevertheless, Lee went 30-6 in regular-season bouts this year, the top record for any Jumbo, and was named to the first-team All-Northeast Fencing Conference.  And while her senior year may not have been her strongest, it was still a memorable one for Lee.     "I loved the team," Lee said. "Every year the dynamic changes, and people go away, so this year wasn't particularly better or worse, but it was definitely a fun year. I'm just going to look back at fencing as something I found that cemented me in college. Fencing gave me more of a sense of belonging to Tufts."      The epee squad was also particularly strong for Tufts this year. Sophomore Coryn Wolk spearheaded the attack, as she started the season by winning two of her three bouts against nationally ranked No. 4 Harvard. Wolk also earned bronze at the annual fall individual tournament known as "The Big One," where the epee squad placed three fencers inside the top 20 at the event out of a field of 59 epeeists. Junior epee captain Amani Smathers went abroad following the winter break, and junior Rebecca Hughes returned to assume the captain's role, moving sophomore Georgia Ranes up a spot on the ladder.     The trio of Wolk, Ranes and Hughes went on to trample NYU 8-1 as well as score victories over Brown and MIT, who have received national votes along the way. But as the weeks passed, the trio began to feel the toll of a long season — Wolk and Hughes both battled ailments with their knees and were forced to fence through injuries. Still, all three qualified for NCAA Regionals, with Wolk and Ranes making it to the second round and being named to the All-Conference second team.     "I think I was more consistent this year," Ranes said. "I fulfilled my potential to a degree, but there's still room for improvement. It's a matter of figuring out what works well for me and staying focused. It's a good season, and I can't complain, though it would've been awesome if I could've gone to Nationals. We work hard to a degree, but compared to other teams, our team isn't as structured as Div. I squads. For Div. III we're one of the best, if not the best, so you can't complain when you have that standing."     Wolk will spend the next year abroad, while Smathers will return for her senior season.     Tufts' sabre squad was likely the weakest component of the team, though it made great strides from last year. Sabre jumped from 10th place in the 2008 conference championships to fourth place this year. Led by junior sabre captain Alexandra Cheetham and freshman Sarah Danly, sabre put up one of its strongest performances at Tufts' own home conference meet.     With the season now over, Tufts will look forward to the growth of several fencers going into next year, particularly the freshmen.     Danly fenced as the sabre squad's A fencer at the end of the year, while freshman Michaela Paulson performed admirably in her limited action as epee's fourth fencer. Freshman Meredith Paul also had a strong year as foil's next-best fencer behind Lee. All three can expect to play a bigger part on the team when next season rolls around.     "I'd have to say Sarah Danly did a really good job this year," Ranes said. "She held her own. She lost a bit of steam toward the end of the season, but [she has] so much potential just waiting to be tapped into. [Paulson] showed a lot of potential, too."  

The Setonian
Sports

Inside the World Baseball Classic | WBC exposes differences between MLB and NPB play

March 24

    "How do you say ‘baseball'?"     That's the World Baseball Classic's (WBC) slogan, plastered around Dodger Stadium in a variety of languages. The message is great. Baseball is baseball around the world, and everyone, from communist Cuba to the Netherlands, enjoys it. But baseball isn't played the same way all over the world.     In Japan, they say "yakyuu" and in terms of execution, that means something a little different from "baseball." Something must be going right with yakyuu though, since the Japanese have just repeated as WBC champions.     Japanese style baseball is the ur-Smallball, a style that has Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire salivating. Run prevention is the name of the game. Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) teams (the Japanese major leagues) score a combined run per game fewer than their American counterparts. The cultural emphasis on run prevention carried over to the WBC, where the Japanese team featured the second-best pitching staff (by ERA) of the tournament in 2009, and the third-best in 2006.     Japan's staff in 2009 was led by Hisashi Iwakuma, Daisuke Matsuzaka and 22-year old phenom Yu Darvish. Matsuzaka was named tournament MVP in both 2006 and 2009, and in both tournaments combined, he has posted a 6-0 record in six starts, with a combined 1.95 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 27.2 innings. Darvish, in his first tournament in 2009, struck out 20 batters in 13 innings, setting a WBC record for strikeouts.     The pitching, although an important source of strength for the Japanese teams, is not that unusual. In MLB, there is the old saying that pitching wins championships, and there is no question that pitching is appropriately valued by American baseball players and management. It is their style of hitting that sets the Japanese apart, from both an individual and a strategic standpoint.     You'll never see a Japanese player with a stance like David Ortiz. In his prime, Ortiz crowded the plate, bent at the knees and waist, and used his stride and unwinding of his upper body to generate massive power. Even Japanese power hitters do not hit like that. Most Japanese hitters have a stance like Ichiro Suzuki, where a quick twisting motion of the upper body is used to generate line-drive power, and the open stance allows the player to spoil pitches to all areas of the strike zone. Additionally, during the follow-through of the swing, players like 2009 shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima are already lifting their back foot to take the second step down the first base line. Japan's team isolated power in 2009 was a paltry .094, worse than any of the other advancers out of pool play with the exception of the Netherlands, who couldn't hit their way out of a paper bag.     The Japanese hitting style emphasizes bat control, speed and slapping the ball to all fields. As a team, the Japanese posted a .299 team batting average in 2009 and a .311 average in 2006. The team rarely strikes out, just 5.4 times per nine innings in combined WBC play, and a tenth of team strikeouts come from Michihiro Ogasawara's 10 strikeouts in 9 games in this year's Classic. A typical Japanese at bat brought in the game-winning runs in the 10th inning of the 2009 classic. Ichiro had an eight-pitch at bat, fouling off a number of pitches including one nearly in the dirt, before finally slapping a change-up back up the middle for the game-winning RBI.     Strategically, Japanese baseball is alien to American fans, especially the sabermetrically inclined. Broadly speaking, the emphasis is on low-power teams to score a run at a time using base running, sacrifices and timely singles. The Japanese love putting runners in motion, leading both tournaments in steals. Part of this strategy is born from the style of hitting. With great contact hitters and good team speed, putting on the hit-and-run makes sense in a variety of situations. If an MLB team had the kind of personnel that the Japanese WBC teams have featured, managers might be more inclined to use motion on the basepaths.     The more bizarre style of play concerns bunting. In NBP games, it is not rare to see bunting in the first inning, and the Japanese didn't reinvent the wheel for the WBC, either, leading both the 2006 and 2009 WBC in sacrifice bunts. The strategic implementation of the bunt is possibly slightly more sound if runs are at a premium, which in NBP play is true. Most devoted students of sabermetrics, however, know that bunts are usually a self-defeating endeavor and lower the team's run expectancy.     Case in point: In 2009 pool play, with Iwakuma on the mound spinning a gem, the Japanese were losing to the Koreans 1-0 in the seventh inning. Ichiro opened the frame by slapping a single through the infield. Hiroyuki Nakajima followed, and manager Tatsunori Hara ordered him to bunt Ichiro to second.     This would be considered a horrible decision by most American fans for a variety of reasons. Ichiro is very fast, and he could probably steal second all by himself without any nonsense on Nakajima's part. If you want a fast guy on second, let him steal and don't bother with the bunt. Nakajima is one of the best hitters on the Japanese team and is far and away the best at getting on base. Over the course of the 2009 Classic, he posted a ridiculous .364/.516/.545 line, and Hara decided to take the bat out of his hands. Ichiro did not score in that inning and Japan ended up losing 1-0. It was a poor strategic decision on Hara's part and would be inexplicable in an MLB game.     The key difference is primarily cultural. Japanese culture emphasizes harmony, teamwork and sublimating individuality for the greater good. Bunting is possibly the ultimate expression of these cultural values. The efficiency aspect matters less than the fact that the Japanese team plays the game the right way. Japanese fans would not think twice about that bunt in the seventh inning or even a bunt in the first. Bunting is an extremely important part of Japanese baseball. 2006's leading slugger, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, slugged .613 and had two home runs in 31 at bats. He also had five sacrifice bunts.       The Japanese team is establishing quite the dynasty with the bunt-happy small-ball style. They managed to beat a slugging Cuban team in 2006 and a Korean team in 2009 that was led by a fantastic pitching staff. Anyone who saw the capacity crowds in 2006 and 2009 can tell you that international baseball is alive, well and growing faster than ever. But when talking about Japan, don't call it baseball. It's yakyuu, it's different and it has worked pretty well so far.  

The Setonian
Sports

Men's Tennis | Jumbos go 3-1 over break

March 23

The nationally ranked No. 30 men's tennis team got hot during its spring break trip to Florida, notching wins against non-conference foes LeTourneau and Grinnell. It wasn't all fun in the sun, though, as the Jumbos also recorded their first loss of the season versus Johns Hopkins.

The Setonian
Sports

Top Ten | Highlights from the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament

March 23

    The 2009 NCAA Men's Sweet Sixteen is a novice bracketeer's dream. This year has sent the lowest combined seeding total to the final 16 since the tournament expanded in 1985. That means that those who filled out the bracket by penciling in the lowest seed for every game are not doing so badly this year; unfortunately, some of us brave basketball connoisseurs are. But even for the bracket-busted, the tournament thus far has not been without its memorable moments... 10. Husky Domination: No, we're not talking about the 34-0 UConn women. After a six-overtime stumble in the Big East Tournament, the men from Conn. have been the most impressive of any of the top seeds, routing Chattanooga in the first round 103-47 and sending home Texas A&M in similar fashion for a combined 82-point margin of victory. 9. Barely Here: First seeds Pittsburgh and Louisville should be counting their lucky stars for the opportunity to play in the Sweet Sixteen, as both favorites were very nearly upset in the second round. Pitt was tied at the half and up by just three with 39 seconds left to go against Oklahoma State. Meanwhile, Louisville was down 63-61 to Siena with just 5:34 left in the second half. 8. Big, Consistent East: All season, the Big East has fielded a plethora of top-ranked teams, and the end of the season is no exception. The most dominant conference in the nation sends five teams to the Sweet Sixteen. 7. Seven Repeat Seekers: Seven coaches of teams still in the tournament have won the title at least once before. Those include Rick Pitino (Louisville), Bill Self (Kansas), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Jim Calhoun (UConn), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Roy Williams (North Carolina) and Jim Boeheim (Syracuse). 6. Clutch Free Throws: With 1:19 to go, VCU narrowed UCLA's lead to a single point after a pair of free throws by Bradford Burgess. The Bruins' Alfred Aboya answered with two of his own before Eric Maynor then hit another pair for the Rams to keep the lead at one. It's too bad Maynor then missed the last-second game-winner. 5. Speaking of Clutch: With five seconds left, Kim English sunk a pair of free throws to break a tie and boost 3-seed Missouri over 6-seed Marquette. 4. Overtime Underdogs: 12th-seeded Wisconsin topped 5-seed Florida State 61-59 in a thrilling overtime finish, sealed by Trevon Hughes with an old-fashioned three-point play.

The Setonian
Sports

Baseball | Jumbos get anything but spring 'break'

March 22

Dropping nine of its first 11 games is certainly not the way the baseball team envisioned starting its season, not to mention how it wanted to spend spring break. Playing 11 games in 10 days against teams that were already in midseason, Tufts went just 2-9 on a road trip through North Carolina and Virginia, including four one-run losses.

The Setonian
Sports

Women's Track and Field | DMR enters NCAA championship meet today as nation's top-seeded squad

March 12

    For the distance medley relay (DMR) squad of the women's track and field team, while the scene may be the same at Nationals at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind. this weekend, the cast is very different.     For the second year in a row, the Jumbos will enter the championship meet ranked first in the nation, this time after posting an 11:47.96 at ECAC Championships last weekend at the Gantcher Center.     But nearly one year to the day after taking home the NCAA Div. III title in the DMR, only one Jumbo from the '08 relay team will take the track later this afternoon: sophomore Stephanie McNamara. After the graduation of DMR veterans Katy O'Brien (E '08) and former tri-captains Cat Beck (LA '08) and Kaleigh Fitzpatrick (LA '08) — who were three-quarters of a DMR team that broke the NCAA Div. III meet record en route to a second-place finish in 2007 — sophomore Amy Wilfert, senior quad-captain Jackie Ferry and classmate Halsey Stebbins have stepped in to round out the group.     "Right now, we're seeded No. 1 in the nation, so there's definitely that pressure — we're going to have that target on our back," Ferry said. "I don't think it's pressure to repeat what they did last year; it's more just that we want to come in and run our seed.     "We're only returning Steph from the team that won, and she's running the mile leg instead of the 1,200, so we're completely different — you can't even compare the two," Ferry continued.     After submitting two provisional-qualifying performances, the group nailed the automatic qualifier on its home track in large part thanks to a strong start by Wilfert in the opening 1,200-meter leg and a solid anchor stint by McNamara. While the sophomore pair made the trip to cross country Nationals just last November, for Ferry and Stebbins, the NCAA experience is a bit newer. Ferry's last indoor Nationals experience came her freshman year in the 4x400-meter relay, and this weekend marks Stebbins' first time at the meet.     "It's really exciting," Ferry said. "I mean, I've been working towards this for the past four years. Freshman year didn't go very well in the [4x400], so it's really nice just to have another chance to hopefully do better this time."     "It's just such a big honor," Stebbins added. "You enter college with that kind of dream never knowing if it's actually attainable. To be here is just kind of surreal and very exciting."     Coming off a race that marked an improvement of close to 10 seconds on their previous mark, Wilfert, Stebbins, Ferry and McNamara are ready for the chance to defend their top seed and national title.     "I think we're going to be competitive with any team out there," coach Kristen Morwick said. "It's just going to be a matter of how fast it goes out and things like that. We may not be able to control everything, but if everyone runs the race they're capable of running, we're going to do really well.     "I just think it's nice that we pretty much graduate two-thirds of the team and can still come back and be ranked No. 1. The ranking doesn't mean everything — I mean, that's why you run the race — but we have a shot. We have a really good shot to win it again."     McNamara won't be done after the relay, however, as she will return the next day to race the 5,000-meter run. After putting up NCAA qualifiers in both the open mile and the 5k, Morwick and McNamara opted for the longer race after McNamara hit a personal record time in the 3,000 meters the day after running the DMR, a situation that simulated the approximate spacing of events this weekend.     "I think she had her choice of either doing the mile or the 5k or both, and when the relay did so well, it just made sense to have her run fresh for the relay," Morwick said. "We're lucky we had the opportunity to put her in the [5k]."     "I think we thought this would be maybe her best chance to score high in the event," Morwick continued. "It's more similar to cross country Nationals — she can just go out with the leaders and see what she can do. If she has a really good race, she could be in the top three, and who knows … I think top three is a really good goal for her."     And unlike every season since 2004, the runners will not be the only Jumbos representing Tufts at Nationals. A testimony to the newfound balance achieved this season between the team's runners and field event specialists, freshman jumpers Nakeisha Jones and Dayorsha Collins will compete in the triple jump and the high jump, respectively.     "To be able to get two jumpers here this year when we didn't have any the previous few years definitely is a testament to the fact that we are a much more balanced team," Ferry said. "Especially the fact that they're freshmen — they have three more years to do this."     Jones has been awaiting this weekend's competition since January, when she landed an NCAA provisional qualifier in the triple jump in her first-ever collegiate meet. She followed up her opening performance with an even better one two meets later, surpassing the automatic qualifying standard with a jump of 39'3". Jones held the No. 1 mark in the country from that point until just last weekend.     "She's excited," Morwick said. "She seems pretty laid back, but when she gets out there, she's really competitive. She's not going to want to lose to anyone that hasn't beaten her already. Some of her biggest competition is in New England, and she's beaten them before, so she kind of has the advantage in that way."     Collins rounds out Tufts' representatives at Nationals, having received confirmation earlier this week that her provisional qualifier had made the NCAA cut.     "It was definitely good to know that I was going," Collins said. "I knew I could compete with the people who had qualified automatically — I just didn't have long enough to practice or I don't have as good technique as they all have so far."     And while Collins also posted her highest marks relatively early in the season, she is confident that she will be able to channel her successes this season to turn out a strong upcoming performance.     "In the beginning of the season when I didn't have any tension or anything for high jump, I went there being like, ‘Just jump' — I had nothing to prove," Collins said. "Later, when I was trying to work on my technique and [was] overthinking, I wasn't able to jump as high, so now at the end of the season I'm thinking ‘Just jump' and do it naturally. That's just what I'm focusing on, and the rest will just fall into place."

The Setonian
Sports

WEEKLY MUMBO JUMBO

March 12

"I don't know if there's anything we're going to try to do except for just win. That's all I want to do: just win."

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