Football wins 15th straight UAA contest
The football team wrapped up its fourth straight University Athletic Association title and fifth in the past six years with a 21-16 win over Carnegie Mellon University Oct. 23.
With the victory, Washington U. extended its UAA winning streak to a conference-record 15 games. The Bears have not lost a UAA contest since falling, 12-9, to the University of Chicago on Oct. 28, 2000.
The Bears (5-3, 3-0 UAA) scored on the opening drive after marching 55 yards on six plays, when senior Kevin McCarthy ran it in from six yards out.
Carnegie Mellon forced a punt on WUSTL’s second possession, but senior Joel Davis’ snap went over punter Chaz Moody’s head. Moody managed to regain possession and get off a four-yard punt. Tartan QB Jarrod Highberger connected with Mark Davis fora 55-yard pass on the ensuing play and then Travis Sivek scored from three yards out to knot the score at 7.
Nate Greenstein added a 31-yard field goal for CMU to make it 10-7.
The Bears fought back right before the break, though, as senior quarterback Adam Meranda connected with senior Scott Armul for a 14-yard touchdown pass with one minute remaining in the second quarter to make it 14-10 at halftime.
In the third quarter, senior Joe Rizzo recorded his second interception of the year and ninth of his career on CMU’s second possession. The interception set up Armul’s second TD of the game, a 25-yard strike from Meranda, to make it 21-10 with 10:38 remaining in the third.
Carnegie Mellon cut the lead to 21-16 with 1:53 left in the third after Sivek scored his second TD on a 1-yard plunge.
Meranda finished the game 22 of 39 for 289 yards and two touchdowns. McCarthy ran for 68 yards on 24 carries and needs just 47 yards for 1,000 in his career. Junior Brad Duesing had four catches for 89 yards, while Armul hauled in four catches for 62 yards and two scores.
Senior John Woock led the Bears defensive unit with 15 tackles and one interception.
Volleyball team winson senior night
The No. 4 volleyball team swept Fontbonne University, 34-32, 30-16, 30-27, on senior night Oct. 23 at the WUSTL Field House. The win — the Bears 14th straight — moves WUSTL to 20-4. Seniors Jasmine Hunt and Colleen Winter had seven kills apiece, and Winter added 10 digs. Classmate Ishi Ballew added six kills and hit .429 for the match.
The Bears, who improved to 24-5 all-time against Fontbonne, trailed the majority of the first game and were down 20-14 before a 9-3 run knotted the score. Washington U. jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the second frame and never looked back.
Junior Megan Houck registered 10 kills on 21 swings, and classmate Nicole Hodgman collected a team-high 20 digs. Junior Kara Liefer, the Division III National Player of the Week, added four kills, six digs and 28 assists.
The team’s senior class has a record of 131-15 — an .897 winning percentage — in its three-plus years on the Hilltop Campus. The seniors have also won three UAA championships and the 2003 Division III national championship.
Men’s soccer splitson Illinois trip
The men’s soccer team earned a split in its two-day trip to suburban Chicago by knocking off Dominican University, 1-0, on Oct. 24.
Freshman Onyi Okoroafor netted the game-winning goal at the 9:33 mark and senior goalkeeper Colin Robinson picked up his eighth shutout. The Bears gained the lead for good when junior Andrew Franklin crossed the ball from the right side of the goal box to Okoroafor, who headed home his second goal of the season.
The tally gives Okoroafor eight points on the season (two goals, four assists), good for second on the team. Robinson stopped two shots to preserve the shutout. He is 8-4-1 on the year and sports an 0.53 goals-against average and a .879 save percentage. The Bears held a 10-9 advantage in shots, firing five in each half, and a 5-3 edge in corner kicks.
A day before, the Bears dropped a 1-0 decision at No. 18 Wheaton College.
Liefer is nationalplayer of the week
Junior volleyball standout Kara Liefer earned Sports Imports/American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III National Player of the Week honors, as announced last week by the AVCA.
This is the first such award for Washington University since Nov. 12, 2002, when Rebecca Rotello earned the accolade. Liefer is the 17th Bear to receive the award. Liefer helped lead the No. 6 Bears to a 4-0 record two weekends ago at the UAA Round Robin No. 2 in Chicago.
In the first match against top-ranked and previously undefeated New York University, Liefer, the Bears starting setter, led the WUSTL offense to a .481 hitting percentage in a 3-0 sweep. She posted five kills of her own against the Violets to go with 30 assists. For the weekend, Liefer led the Bears offense to a .398 hitting percentage. Meanwhile, Liefer also amassed a .548 hitting percentage (20 kills/3 errors/31 attempts) over the four-match span. She also averaged 11.56 assists per game.
Liefer, the reigning UAA Athlete of the Week, leads the Bears in hitting percentage (.375) and assists per game (11.42) in 2004. She also averages 2.16 digs and 0.70 blocks per game. Her 2,527 career assists rank seventh on the school’s career list.
Slavik named D-III swimmer of week
Junior Michael Slavik garnered NCAA Division III Swimmer of the Week accolades, as an-nounced by collegeswimming.com. Slavik helped the Bears to a 153-140 win over Saint Louis University, a Division I program, in WUSTL’s 2004-05 season- opener Oct. 2.
He opened the meet by helping WUSTL win the 200-yard medley relay in 1:37.15, less than two seconds from provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
Individually, Slavik won three events to lead the Bears. He clocked a winning time of 1:45.44 in the 200 free and a mark of 21.78 in the 50 free. In the 200 backstroke, Slavik posted a time of 1:57.39 for the win.