The women’s basketball team (25-6) wrapped up its season with a 55-52 loss to DePauw University March 17 in the NCAA Division III national championship game.
The Red and Green, winners of 24 of their past 27 games, trimmed a 17-point second-half deficit to one point twice before DePauw prevailed.
Senior Jenny Southworth ripped away an offensive rebound for a put-back with 59 seconds remaining in the game, cutting the Tigers’ lead to two (52-50). After two DePauw free throws, senior Sarah Schell drove for a layup to trim the Bears’ deficit back to two (54-52) with 21.6 seconds left, but WUSTL would get no closer.
Sophomore Jamie McFarlin, who was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team, finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while sophomore Halsey Ward added a game-high 16 points.
The day before, the Bears upended UAA-rival and No. 3 New York University, 72-53. McFarlin finished with a career-high 22 points and 15 rebounds.
Men’s basketball third in D-III consolation
The No. 8 men’s basketball team advanced to the NCAA Division III Final Four for the first time in school history and came away with a third-place finish by defeating No. 2 College of Wooster, 92-84, March 17 in Salem, Va.
Sophomore Tyler Nading scored a game-high 22 points and sophomore Sean Wallis added 21 points as the Bears’ recorded their highest finish in school history. With the win, the Bears ended their magical season with a 25-5 record, tying the school record for most wins in a season.
Junior Troy Ruths finished with 17 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Aaron Thompson tied his career high with 16 points on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range, while classmate Cameron Smith tied his career-high with 10 points.
In the national semifinals March 16, the Bears fell short in a 67-65 loss to defending champion Virginia Wesleyan College. Ruths had a game-high 21 points.
Men’s swimming places 18th at NCAA title meet
The men’s swimming team placed 18th at the 2007 NCAA Championships, which were held March 15-17 in Houston.
Junior Perry Bullock paced the Bears on the final day of competition, qualifying for the evening’s consolation final in the 200-yard butterfly. Bullock clocked a school-record time of 1:53.31 to place 15th in prelims and followed with a 15th-place finish overall with a time of 1:53.59 in the consolation final.
On the second day of competition, freshman Alex Beyer set the school record (4:03.00) in the 400-yard individual medley in prelims, placing 11th to qualify for the consolation final. He went on to place 11th overall in the evening in another record time of 4:01.50.
Sophomore Kevin Leckey also turned in a strong swim in the 200-yard freestyle, qualifying for the championship final. He placed seventh in prelims in 1:40.67, marking the first event this week that the Red and Green made the championship final. In that championship heat, Leckey earned the Red and Green’s first first-team All-America honor of the week by placing sixth (1:40.77).
WUSTL finished with 63 points, while Kenyon College tallied 570 points for the team championship.
Softball wins fifth UAA Championship
The No. 12 softball team (10-4, 6-2 UAA) captured its fifth UAA championship by posting a 6-2 record last week in Altamonte Springs, Fla. Senior pitcher Laurel Sagartz threw a shutout in the final game as the Bears defeated No. 10 Emory University, 1-0.
After starting conference play 1-2, the Bears won five straight games — all by shutout — to pick up their fourth straight UAA title. Sagartz, who improved to 8-0 all-time against Emory in her career, allowed five hits and struck out seven as she picked up her eighth win of the season. Junior Laura D’Andrea drove in the only run of the game in the bottom of the fourth when she hit a home run off Emory starting pitcher Ashley Tobar.
Senior Jamie Kressel finished the UAA Championship hitting .625 with two home runs and 11 RBI. Sagartz was 5-0 on the mound with a 0.34 ERA.
In four years at the UAA Championships, Sagartz allowed just two earned runs in 112 innings for a 0.12 ERA.
Baseball goes 3-3 at UAA Championship
The baseball team (13-4, 3-3 UAA) went 3-3 last week at the 2007 UAA Championship in Sanford, Fla.
The Red and Green, which tied for second place, defeated Case Western Reserve University twice (15-6, 10-0) and added a 4-1 win against the University of Rochester in the conference finale to wrap up the week.
Sophomore Zander Lehmann paced the Bears at the plate, batting .417 with eight runs and three RBI. Senior David Kramer batted .407 with five RBI, while freshman Nick Vom Brack hit .368 with six runs. Senior Andy Shields went 1-1 on the mound with a 2.00 ERA and two complete games.
Men’s tennis wins four matches on spring trip
The No. 10 men’s tennis team improved to 5-3 with four wins on its spring break trip to California last week. The Bears opened with non-conference victories over New York (9-0) and No. 16 Whitman College (7-2) in Claremont, Calif., March 13-14.
On March 17, Washington U. fell to No. 4 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, 7-2, in the semifinals of the Stag-Hen Invitational, before defeating No. 13 Kalamazoo College, 8-1, in the third-place match.
On March 16, the Bears defeated No. 16 Bowdoin College, 7-2, in the opening match of the Stag-Hen Invitational.
Women’s tennis splits matches in California
The women’s tennis team won two of four matches during its spring break trip to California last week. The Bears (3-4) defeated California Lutheran University, 9-0, March 13 to open the trip, winning all six singles matches in straight sets.
On March 15, the Red and Green fell to No. 10 Carnegie Mellon University, 7-2, but rebounded for a 9-0 win against Colorado College the next day.
WUSTL wrapped up the trip with a 9-0 loss to No. 16 University of Redlands March 17.
