By ryan April 13, 2001
Holding a 10-game winning streak and heading into an important weekend would certainly be an encouragement to any team. This is the situation the Cornell women’s softball team finds itself in, entering a two day span which may ultimately decide whether this season will see the Red win its second Ivy League title in three years. The winning streak has come on the wings of consecutive sweeps of Ivy foes Brown, Yale, and Columbia, as well as non-league bashings of Canisius and Siena. The balanced play of the Red has propelled this club into its position at the top of the conference. The pitching staff, which has performed well all year, has seen the consistency of aces senior Nicole Zitarelli and freshman Sarah Sterman, who are complemented by a variety of surprise contributions, such as the complete game gem thrown by rookie Nicole LePera this past Wednesday against Canisius. The bats, which struggled early in the year, have recently come alive, prompted by the hot streaks of freshman Kate Varde and senior captain Charlotte Brombach. Of late, the lineup has also seen any spot from one to nine step up on any given night. Of course, a streak alone guarantees nothing and the Red will have to be hitting on all cylinders this weekend to emerge successful. The much anticipated weekend pits the Red (6-0 Ivy) against Dartmouth (4-0), its lone partner at the top of the league, and defending champion Harvard (3-1) which is currently holding the second spot in the Ivies. Dartmouth has beat Penn and Princeton on its way to the only other undefeated record in the league. It is led by senior Carrie Hoverman who is currently 30th in the nation with an amazing average of .410 at the plate. The Big Green’s ace on the mound is freshman Lisa Caruso who was last week’s Ivy League Pitcher of the Week after shutting out Princeton and holding Penn to only one run. Every year Harvard is the one series that any fan of Cornell softball makes sure to circle on their schedule and this year is no different. With its only loss coming to Princeton a week ago, the Crimson looks to be as competitive a team as any previous year’s squad. It is also the defending champ which mixes a sense of pride into the rivalry associated with this weekend’s contest. The Crimson depends heavily on the plate performance of junior star Sarah Koppel who came into the season with a .324 lifetime average and is currently riding a streak which, two weeks ago, earned her Harvard Athlete of the Week honors. Harvard is also a team which has lost many of its key players from last year’s title squad. Particularly crushing for the Crimson were the losses of Deborah Abeles, who holds five Harvard hitting records, to graduation and All-Ivy first-teamer Suzanne Guy who is taking the year off. However, the Crimson has substantially made up for these losses, amongst others, by bringing in a very talented freshmen class. This weekend is exactly what the Red has been gearing up for: an opportunity to show just how good it is and hopefully take a huge leap towards a goal it has been talking about since last summer. Archived article by Scott Jones
By ryan April 13, 2001
Senior Steve Zammit seems like a normal guy. He is a double major in economics and government, like most people in the Arts college. He is a big fan of baseball, and like most of the country outside of the Empire State, is hoping for the Red Sox to dethrone the Yankees. However, there is one rather impressive difference between you and Steve: he just won the American Forensics Association National Individual Event Tournament title. In plain english — he is the top collegiate speaker in the nation. The AFA National Championship, held in Washington D.C., this year, consists of 11 individual events split between speeches and acting. Each event has preliminary rounds, a quarterfinal round, a semifinal round and the finals. Steve competed in six of these events, making it to the quarterfinal round in all but one event, and the final round in four. And once he made it to the final round, Steve was in rare form. He took fourth in the impromptu speech final round, third in the communication analysis speech final round, second in the informative speech final round about cutting-edge technology and he won the persuasive speech event. The national champion is determined by how many points competitors earn from their finish in each event. What makes Steve’s victory so impressive is the work he put into not only his speeches, but the Cornell Forensics team. The squad has three coaches who help the competitors, but given the number of people on the team and the quantity of speeches each competitor has, it is impossible for the coaches to work with everyone. So for the past few years, Steve has run the extemporaneous speaking team here, by giving assignments and running practices. Last spring Steve was at Cornell-in-Washington, which would force most people to take a reprieve from any team they are a member of. Not Steve. He would race across the country to help the squad and be a vital member of the team. Indeed, much of the team relies on Steve’s leadership and commitment. “Not only is he an amazing competitor, but he also makes it a point to help the newest members of the team,” said junior Bilge Tanyeri. For Steve, Forensics appears to be more of a way of life than just a club. From humble beginnings during his sophomore year of high school where he got an impromptu topic at the end of class and used the night to write and memorize the speech that earned him the title as the top speaker in the land, Steve has loved his experiences in Forensics. “The [high school] speech coach had this artificial concept of me actually being good [from the impromptu speech], and said I should join the team. I have enjoyed every minute of it since,” he said. While at a tournament, Steve watches other speakers to enjoy their speeches and learn from them, not in the hopes of crushing them in the judges’ minds. He has made friends all over the country, in addition to the relationships he has forged with members on the Cornell squad. And as the second individual national champion from East Hill, he has solidified Cornell’s reputation as one of the top forensic teams in the land, despite other schools giving scholarships for their programs. Now, after having years of work pay off in the form of a national championship, Steve has become a legend on the team he has worked so hard to improve. Clearly, Steve’s work ethic, talent, leadership and devotion are qualities that not only any athlete, but also all of us should admire. And for that, he is truly a champion.Archived article by J.V. Anderton