Women’s Basketball
The Emory women’s basketball team played two hard-fought games this weekend against University Athletic Association (UAA) foes the New York University (NYU) Bobcats and the Brandeis University Judges (Mass.). A win against Brandeis and a loss against NYU elevated the Eagles to 16-6 overall and 7-4 in UAA play.
In the first game of the weekend, NYU executed a 14-3 run late in the fourth quarter to come away with a 54-50 victory over the Eagles.
Junior center Blair Ripley led the Eagles on the inside with 13 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks, and junior guard Molly Weiss joined Ripley in double figures with 11 points and three 3-pointers. With her six blocks, Ripley moved into sole possession of No. 2 all-time on the Emory women’s basketball team’s blocks list with 109.
The 58-57 win on Feb. 16 against Brandeis also proved to be a nail-biter,. Before the game, the Eagles honored their six seniors with an on-court ceremony for Senior Day.
With less than eight minutes remaining in the game, the Eagles led by 11 points But a 12-2 run by the Judges in the ensuing six minutes cut the Eagles’ lead to 56-55. After Ripley made two free throws, the Judges scored once again to make it a one-point game with 34 seconds left. The Judges ultimately missed a winning shot at the buzzer.
Once again, Ripley dominated with a career-best 23 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
The Eagles have a three-game road trip to end the regular season, starting with matchups against Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) (Pa.) on Feb. 21 and Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) on Feb. 23.
Men’s Basketball
The No. 8 Emory men’s basketball team cruised to victories in both of their games this weekend as they defeated NYU 99-81 on Friday and toppled Brandeis by a whopping 28 points on Senior Day. With the two wins, the Eagles improved their record to 19-3 overall and 9-2 in the UAA.
In the first game, junior guard Matthew Schner and junior forward Matt Davet led the way with 16 points apiece, while four others joined them in double figure point totals.
In their next game against Brandeis, junior guard Romin Williams and junior forward Lawrence Rowley combined for 46 points. Trailing by five points at halftime, the Eagles exploded for 61 points in the second half while shooting 71.4 percent from the field as a team.
With their 95-63 win, the Eagles tie Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) at the top of the UAA, and will head into the final three games of conference play against CMU beginning Feb. 21.
Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Dive
The Emory swimming and diving teams won their 22nd and 28th consecutive UAA team championship for the men’s and women’s teams respectively in Chicago this past weekend.
To help clinch the championship on Saturday night, the women’s team won the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. The winning relay team included, freshman Caroline Maki, senior Caroline Olson, sophomore Taylor Leone and junior Lucy Daro. In total, Emory won 11 swimming titles and posted 23 All-UAA finishes, 154 points over runners-up NYU.
Individually, sophomore Clio Hancock clinched gold in the 1650 freestyle to win her first-ever individual UAA title and Maki finished first in the 100 freestyle for her first career UAA title.
At the end of the meet, freshman Savannah Sowards was named UAA Women’s Co-Rookie of the Year after finishing No. 2 in the 4×100 medley relay and No. 3 in the 100 butterfly.
With an 8.5-point lead heading into the 4×100 freestyle relay, the men’s team needed a good showing by senior Sage Ono, sophomore Colin LaFave, junior Chris Nicholson and sophomore Pat Pema to secure the championship. The group prevailed, as Pema’s anchor leg allowed the quartet to overtake UChicago in the final seconds to seal the team title.
The final 16.5-point margin of victory was the second closest men’s finish in the history of the UAA Championships .
At the end of the meet, sophomore Lucas Bumgarner received the UAA Men’s Diver of the Year award for the second time in his two-year collegiate career.
Both teams will compete in the Emory Invitational Feb. 21-22 before the NCAA Championships in March.
Women’s Track and Field
The women’s track and field team competed in the Samford Invite and Bulldog Open this weekend in Birmingham, Ala. There was no team scoring at the meet, but many Eagles broke individual records.
Junior Rebekah Bondi achieved a new personal-record of 25.75 seconds in the 200-meter dash, an No. 18 place finish out of 47 runners that put her in eighth-place on the 200 sprint list in Emory history. Bondi also ran the 60 dash in a career-best 7.73 seconds
12 other Eagles recorded personal-bests at the competition this weekend.
The Eagles’ next meet will take place Feb. 22 at the University of South Carolina (USC) in preparation for the UAA Indoor Championships from Feb. 29 to March 1.
Men’s Track and Field
The Emory men’s track and field team also competed in the two-day Samford Invite and Bulldog Open in Birmingham, Ala. this weekend.
Sophomore Spencer Moore finished first out of 28 runners in the 3000 run with a time of 8:38.70. In the 5000 run, junior John Cox finished at No. 2 out of 20, crossing the finish line at 4:55.62, making him the seventh-fastest Eagle in the event in program history.
The Eagles will travel to Columbia, S.C. for the USC Indoor Open on Feb. 22.
Baseball
This weekend, the Emory baseball team destroyed Millsaps College (Miss.) 18-1 and saw its games against Lynchburg University (Va.) and Huntingdon College (Ala.) cancelled due to rain.
In the game that the Eagles played, they compiled 18 runs on 11 hits, eight walks and six hit-by-pitches (HBPs). The six HBPs against Millsaps tied the second-highest mark by an Emory team in University history.
Freshman outfielder Jack Masonis and junior infielder Jacob Singer led the offense with four hits and six runs batted in (RBI) between them. Sophomore infielder Zeke Diamond also contributed to the offensive explosion with two RBIs.
Senior pitcher Richard Brereton led the Eagles on the mound, tossing five innings of three-hit ball and striking out 17 of the batters that he faced.
The Eagles will return to action on Feb. 19 at Berry College (Ga.) before taking on DePauw University (Ind.) for a Saturday double-header.
Men’s Tennis
The Emory men’s tennis team cruised into its spring season opener this weekend, defeating Point University (Ga.) 8-1.
Junior Hayden Cassone took care of business at No. 1 singles as he beat his singles opponent 6-4, 6-4. Sophomore Antonio Mora defeated his opponent at No. 2 singles 6-4, 6-2. Together, Mora and Cassone defeated their doubles opponents 8-2 and placed No. 1.
Sophomore Andrew Esses easily dispatched his opponent at No. 3 singles.
Next up for the Eagles is the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III National Men’s Team Indoor Championship in St. Peter, Minn. from Feb. 21-23.
