By October 21, 2005
March seems so far away right now. We still need to go through about 20 feet of snowfall, the holiday season, and the Super Bowl, among other things. But last Saturday in Newman Arena, on a warm October morning, March was the only thing in the minds of the men’s basketball team. The team is assured of playing at least two games in March, when it travels to Harvard and Dartmouth on the 3rd and 4th of the month, respectively. But after a second-place finish in the league a season ago, the team seems poised to take a trip to the Big Dance for the first time since 1988 – and what would beat March Madness spreading throughout campus after a long, dreary, Ithaca winter? Nothing would. Nope, not even hockey, you puckheads. And after watching the 15 men on the team hustle throughout the 10 a.m. practice while their peers were drinking themselves stupid during Homecoming festivities, it is hard to believe that the 2005 squad won’t be playing a game in the NCAA tournament’s first weekend, with CBS giving us live look-ins and Bill Raftery getting fired up about the gritty little Ivy League team that could. Think I’m getting a little too ahead of myself? Maybe. But there’s reason to be confident in this team. Sure, the squad may have lost its heart and soul from the past few seasons in Eric Taylor ’05, but there are new leaders ready to emerge. Seniors Lenny Collins, David Lisle, and Ryan Rourke are not only standout players, but they are unselfish leaders that will no doubt lead the Red to new heights. One of the reasons why is because the three upperclassmen are not only leaders on the court, but also friends off the court – unlike some other team’s captains at Cornell – which will make the six newcomers, including five freshmen, feel welcome in their new environment. And while the team will look to the captains for guidance, the captains will look to their head coach for direction on the court. Last year, Steve Donahue preached playing as a team, which meant helping each other out on the defensive end and finding the open man on offense. The result was an unselfish team that achieved an 8-6 Ivy record, which included the first sweep of Princeton since the 1984-85 season. The season also concluded with Donahue being named the Ivy League’s Coach of the Year by CollegeInsider.com – a well-deserved honor. Donahue’s method is simple – keep to the basics. For almost the first hour of Saturday’s practice, nobody even took a shot. In fact, the team worked on defensive and passing drills for the better part of the morning. After that, the only shots that the Red took were from the charity stripe, even though the team was tops in the Ancient Eight in free throw percentage a season ago. Yet, my favorite drill of the practice had to be when two players would stand face-to-face and roll the ball to their teammate, who, in turn, had to dive to snatch up the loose ball. It was like watching a Duke-Maryland game in the middle of October in Ithaca. The intensity that the team brought to its second practice of the year will no doubt be looked upon during the tense moments of this season, when a tournament berth could be decided. And make no mistake, Donahue and company were thinking just that on Saturday morning despite the fact that the first game of the season is still three weeks away. Because no matter how beautiful fall is as the leaves change colors, there is nothing that would look better to the basketball team than to see the name “Cornell” pop up on Selection Sunday in the field of 65. Chris Mascaro is the Sun Sports Editor. He May Be Tall will appear every other Friday this semester. Archived article by Chris Mascaro
By October 21, 2005
On paper, it looks as though the volleyball team should have no trouble holding onto its first-place standing in the Ivy League this weekend when it plays Dartmouth (9-7, 2-4 Ivy) and Harvard (3-13, 0-6 Ivy) on the road. However, the Red (12-3, 5-0 Ivy) isn’t about to take anything for granted. “Dartmouth started off the season really strong and Harvard had a pretty good preseason, so I’m surprised, actually, that that they are struggling somewhat right now,” head coach Deitre Collins said. “That doesn’t mean at anytime that it doesn’t turn around for them. So we have to enter this weekend like we enter any other weekend – prepared to play at our highest level, and hopefully come out on top.” This season, the Green has won three tournament titles and strung together an eight-game winning streak – including two victories over Harvard – before losing four consecutive league matches. In last weekend’s action, Dartmouth pushed Brown to five games before falling, 15-13, in the tiebreaker and was swept by Yale the next day. However, both of the matches were on the road, and the Green will have home-court advantage on its side this weekend. Jess Thomas leads the Green with 3.59 kills per game, while Katie Hirsch pitches in with 7.20 assists per game. Dartmouth has a balanced defense, with five players averaging at least two digs per game. After facing Dartmouth, the Red will travel to Cambridge, Mass., where it will face the last of the league co-champions from last year. The Crimson is in the midst of a five-match losing streak that includes sweeps by Yale and a 3-1 loss to Brown last weekend. “I don’t think that we think as much about who the teams were that we tied [for the Ivy League championship last year], because there were so many opportunities for us to step up and be in front – and we would lose. So it wasn’t about the other teams as much as it was about us. So our focus this year is on what we can do and let them worry about themselves,” Collins said. “And as long as we stay one step ahead of the pack by winning our matches, it doesn’t matter who was in that foursome last year. – We know that anyone can win at anytime, but we want to make sure that we’re the ones doing it.” Leigh Martin earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors for the Crimson after putting up 65 assists against Brown. Suzie Trimble leads Harvard with 3.02 kills per game, and Laura Mahon and Kathryn McKinley both notch more than three digs per game for the Crimson. Cornell, ranked No. 3 in the Northeast Region by the RichKern.com/AVCA Computer Index, will be on the road for the first time in conference play after earning an undefeated league record at home. For the first time, the Red will put that mark to the test on another team’s court. “I think it’s important to know that you can win at home because then you always have that safe haven that you can come back to and everybody has to play you here once,” Collins said. “The hard part has been becoming a good road team. We’ve been both up and down on the road, so we’ve got a lot to prove by going back-to-back weekends, having to play hard matches and really fighting to be a good road team as well.” The Red leads the league in hitting percentage (.246), and stands second in the league in opponent hitting percentage (.142). Junior outside hitter Elizabeth Bishop is first in the league with 4.87 kills per game, which also puts her 22nd in the nation. Two of Cornell’s middle blockers, senior Heather Young and junior Joanna Weiss, rank first and second in the Ancient Eight, respectively, in blocks per game. Senior libero Kelly Kramer is third in the league with 4.51 digs per game, and classmate Whitney Fair is ranked third among Ivy players with 12.00 assists per game.Archived article by Olivia Dwyer Sun Assistant Sports Editor