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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2001/03/02/red-tumblers-meet-scarlet-knights/)

March 2, 2001

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Red Tumblers Meet Scarlet Knights

By ryan | March 2, 2001

The Cornell women’s gymnastics team will head into this weekend’s meet against Rutgers with two clear objectives in mind, defeating the talented Scarlet Knights, and securing a position in postseason play.

With four meets remaining in the regular season, Cornell must continue improving upon its past performances to ensure itself of a spot in the field of eight teams that will vie for the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships title.

Referring to its chances of making the tournament, coach Paul Beckwith noted, “It looks pretty good right now. Currently, we’re in the eighth position, but we’d sure like to improve our seed.”

However, before the Red begins to worry about the tourney, it must turn its immediate attention to the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers will pose a serious challenge to Cornell, as its roster is laden with gifted tumblers. If recent scores are an accurate indicator, the meet should be a closely contested affair.

“We’ve really got a shot at Rutgers this year because they’re a little bit down,” Beckwith said. “Last week, we scored more points in our meet than they did [in theirs]. And for the past few weeks, our scores have been relatively similar.”

Working in Cornell’s favor will be the return of All-American sophomore Abby Vedder. Returning from a painful heel injury, Vedder will compete in the balance beam and the bars.

In addition, sophomore Shannon Weiman and freshman Stefanie Daehler will try to build on their recent strong showings. Weiman earned ECAC Gymnast of the Week honors with scores of 9.7 on both the floor exercise and balance beam, last week. In the same meet, Daehler broke the school record in the all-around competition. Her record-setting feat did not go unnoticed, as she was awarded with the League’s Rookie of the Week Award.

With a strong showing this weekend, Cornell will be able to kill two birds with one stone.

“We definitely want to win this week against Rutgers, but also put up a strong score to raise our average,” Beckwith commented. “I think they go hand in hand.”

Archived article by Alex Ip

Related

Charity Bowl-a-thon Event Draws Impressive Turnout

By ryan March 5, 2001

Cornell students and the Ithaca community bowled for children’s charities on Saturday at the 18th annual Shamrock Project. The project, organized by the Kappa Delta sorority, raised $2,500 at a six hour bowl-a-thon at Helen Newman Bowling Center. The event, planned by Kristin Myers ’02 and Stevie Smith ’02 raised about $1,000 from the bowl-a-thon itself and another $1,500 from a raffle. The sorority will give 80 percent of the total money raised to the Dispositional Alternative Program in Ithaca. The remaining money will go to Prevent Child Abuse America. Although Kappa Delta sponsors the Shamrock Project annually, it is not always a bowl-a-thon. In the past they have hosted a tennis tournament and a “Shamrock Splash” water balloon toss. The bowling tournament began three years ago. About 150 people from Cornell and Ithaca participated in the bowling event. Heather Petersen ’02, vice president of public relations for Kappa Delta, stressed the importance of giving 80 percent of the money raised to a local charity organization. “We decided to give most of the money locally because it is important to support our community,” Petersen said. “I think people will know that their contributions are making a difference when they can watch these programs at work,” she said. Prevent Child Abuse America is one of four national philanthropy foundations that benefits from Kappa Delta’s fundraisers. Kappa Delta members thought that children’s charities are a worthy cause. “Children are so vulnerable and it is important that they are cared for at a young age so that they can grow up and live normal lives,” said Nicole Savageau ’04. The organizers of this event were impressed by the number of people that came to the bowl-a-thon. “It is great to see so many people here to support the event and these charities. There is even one team that comes to this event year after year and is not associated with any fraternity or sorority,” Petersen said. Archived article by Seth Harris
Squad Suffers Third Loss in a Row Against RPI

By ryan March 5, 2001

After all the preseason accolades, all the whispers of ECAC championships and NCAA Tournamant bids, all the stratospheric expectations, the persistent reality of losing has undoubtedly left a nagging feeling at the bottom of the men’s hockey team’s stomach. So then it was no surprise to see junior forward Denis Ladouceur slowly skating across mid-ice after the final whistle had blown on Friday night, hunched over with a stick clamped in his hands and his eyes not averting from the Lynah Rink ice beneath him. Cornell had just lost its third game in a row, falling 2-1 to Rensselaer and dropping to fifth in the ECAC standings. Ladouceur’s pain was simple to decipher. Having been in a position earlier this season to challenge for an ECAC crown, the Red was now in jeopardy of not even claiming home-ice for the upcoming playoffs. Since a 2-1 win at Harvard, the squad has mustered only a 1-5-1 record through the contest with the Engineers. The offense has once again grown limp, power play opportunities have become scarce, and fans have become restless. “Everybody’s disappointed with what’s happened here. Our guys know the pressure that’s on them right now,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “You can see our guys getting frustrated out there.” What clearly made Friday night unbearable for the Red was that it fired 41 shots at RPI goalie Nate Marsters, and yet had only one goal to show for its efforts. The Engineers on the other hand found a path to victory despite only registering 22 chances against junior netminder Matt Underhill. When asked to explain what the Red needs to improve on during the rest of the season, Schafer was quick with an answer. “Score goals. Guys got to put it in the back of the net,” he said. “It’s been our problem for a long period of time here.” Unlike past games, however, the Red finally took an early advantage against the Engineers. At 7:29 of the first period, senior tri-captain Larry Pierce placed a wrist shot above Marsters’ left shoulder to put Cornell ahead, 1-0. “That was from a guy who hasn’t scored a goal this year,” Schafer commented on Pierce’s score. “That was our best line tonight [Pierce, junior David Franis, and sophomore Shane Palahicky]. They executed exactly what we wanted to do.” “It was good to get on the board first,” Pierce said, adding, “I thought we were going to take off and run with it.” Francis and senior tri-captain Danny Powell recorded assists on Pierce’s goal. The end of the first period left the entire Lynah crowd in a state of confusion. Just before intermission two players barreled into Underhill and knocked him into his own net. Meanwhile, a long RPI outlet pass skipped past the Red’s defense and made its way past the goal line. But because the referees didn’t notice, the Red quickly scooped the puck out its net and cleared it out of the zone. But the tide turned in Rensselaer’s direction early in the second period when Jim Hinkel split Cornell’s defense and roofed a shot out of Underhill’s reach to level the score at 1-1. “That’s a goalscorer’s goal,” Schafer lauded. “He didn’t come in and try to shove it through Matt. The kid got it up in the top part of the net.” From a scoring-chance perspective, however, Cornell dominated the second period, generating 19 shots on Marsters. With RPI’s Eric Cavosie in the penalty box at 5:04, the Red set up shop on Martsers’ doorstep, creating shot after quality shot. But the Red couldn’t break the Rensselaer defense. RPI, on the other hand, required only six shots in the third period to put the Red away. On a power-play at 8:47, Matt Murley scored his 22nd goal of the season when he blasted a low slap shot from the blue-line, beating Underhill on his glove side. “We get all kinds of chances and they score a goal from the blue-line through a screen,” Schafer said, clearly aware of the irony. “We have the best penalty-killing team in the league and they score a power-play goal from the blue-line through traffic.” While it’s obvious Cornell’s offense has been knocking on the door — it hit a couple of posts Friday night — it hasn’t yet been able to break the door down. “We’ve been in that cycle for a good three weeks to a month,” Schafer said. “I don’t know,” Pierce answered when asked to explain the Red’s drought. “But it’s definitely something, though, because it’s been too many games where we’re getting a goal, or getting shut out or getting two goals.” With the playoffs looming only a weekend away, Cornell will now have to find a way top break out of its slump, otherwise the postseason may not last very long. “Frustration doesn’t do you a whole lot of good,” Schafer said. “Our kids got to pick their heads up…and take it upon themselves to change things around.”Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj