By ryan February 23, 2001
Coming off one of its best seasons in years, Cornell is looking forward to its opportunity to play for the national team championship this weekend at Yale. Having earned an eighth place national ranking, the Red will be competing in the premiere division in the tournament, which includes the top eight teams nationwide. Cornell’s first opponent in its Class A division will be top ranked Trinity. Although the Bantams are heavily favored in the match and the tournament as a whole, the Red squad is optimistic and not counting out an upset on the tournament’s first day. Goals More realistically, the team’s ultimate goal for the tournament is to place at least seventh, which would mark Cornell’s best national finish in over a decade. The roadblock for such an effort would most likely come in the form of rival Denison, who currently holds the seventh spot in the nation. Looking for Revenge Denison is a team which beat Cornell 5-4 early on in the year, in one of the Red’s most exciting matches. If the squashers run into the club somewhere along the way, it will certainly be a match to watch. Young Bloods With Denison in the back of its mind, Cornell also looks at this tournament as a huge opportunity for a very young squad to gain invaluable experience for years to come. The squad boasts a line up comprised almost entirely of first and second year players, making the future a well of expectations. Formidable Task The first two rounds should be particularly telling for the Red. With a match against the nation’s top squad as well as either the number four or five team in the tournament, it would be an understatement to say that the men have their work cut out for them. Composure and focus in these two rounds will be key for a relatively untested Cornell team. Favorites Trinity, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton stand a top the list of favorites as usual, and the tournament should be one of the most exciting in recent memories. The Red is aiming to add a little of its own excitement to this weekend’s festivities. The team tournament will be followed by the individual national championships next weekend at Harvard. Archived article by Sun Staff
By ryan February 23, 2001
The women’s basketball team has four games remaining in its season. If it can claim victory in at least half of those, the Red will set a new all-time mark for wins in a season. This weekend, Cornell (12-11, 5-5 Ivy) will face Brown and Yale, guests of Newman Arena two weeks ago, except this time it will not have the advantage of sleeping in a familiar bed. Providence, R.I., is the first stop along the road, and the Bears (10-13, 5-5) should prove a substantial road block. Brown is a bottom heavy team with 11 underclassmen and only four upperclassmen, and its youth has taken its toll. After opening the Ivy season with five straight wins, the slumping Bears have dropped their last five. In last weekends action, Brown was lead by junior forward/guard Rada Pavichevich, who lead the team in scoring against both Harvard and Dartmouth with 12 and 19 points, respectively. Additionally, she was the only player to score in double digits in both losses. In its last meeting with the Bears, Cornell pulled ahead in the final minutes to take the game at 66-56. Pavichevich hassled the victors on both sides of the court with 10 points, four assists, and six rebounds, but the real threat came from 6-4 monster Rachael MacDonald who pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds, 21 points, and sank 9-of-10 free throws. MacDonald has lead the team to an average of 40.8 rebounds per game, which is good for second-best in the league. After facing that obstruction, the Red will continue on to the halls of New Haven, Conn., hoping to make them a little less hallowed. Yale (7-16, 2-8) has loitered in the substratum of the conference for the entire season, but regained some dignity last weekend with an overtime win against Harvard. Despite scoring only 12 points in the final 13 minutes of the game, Yale hung on to survive regulation. In the five minute overtime, Harvard was stunned by a team frustrated with losses that should not have been. The Bulldogs out-scored the Crimson 19-8 and propelled themselves out of an eighth-place tie with Princeton. Cornell owned Yale in a 82-57 victory during its last homestand, and fortunately for the Red, the Bulldogs did not bring any 6-4 giants. The Elis received a team-high 14 points from sophomore guard Maria Smear, the only player to reach double-digits in that category. Senior forward Allyson Miller pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. Last weekend, the women faced Pennsylvania and Princeton, looking to take down the Quakers for the first time this year and looking to complete a season sweep of the Tigers. Batting .500 is not too shabby. Penn (17-5, 9-0) refuses to lose to Cornell, a conviction that would not die last weekend. Battling back from a 31-16 half-time deficit by opening the final 20 minutes with a 23-7 run, the Red suffered defeat by a final score of 59-54. The Red retaliated against Princeton (1-21, 1-8) and lead at half-time, but could not stake its claim until senior forward Jennifer Linker sank a pair of free throws with seconds remaining for a 65-60 win. Along with the number of wins in a season, another record is in danger of collapsing. Linker is only the second player to block 100 shots, her reaching the century mark against Penn, and she needs just four more blocks to tie the Cornell record for career denials, set by Kelly Jackson with 106. The Red will face Brown at 7 p.m.. tonight, and will play Yale at 6 p.m. tomorrow night. Archived article by Katherine Granish