Men’s Basketball
The Vassar College men’s basketball team split a pair of Liberty League games this weekend.
On Friday, January 30, they fell to the Skidmore Thoroughbreds 62-48. Senior Luka Ladan had a team-high 15 points for the Brewers. The next night, the Brewers defeated Union College in a thrilling 69-67 victory at home.
The Brewers out-rebounded the Union College Dutchmen 42-29. The Brewers also racked up 19 assists, marking the highest total assists for Vassar against a Liberty League foe this season.
Ladan had 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Senior Alex Snyder had 10 points, 15 boards and six assists. Freshman Jesse Browne had 14 points and three assists. Ladan was named to the Liberty League honor roll for is performance this weekend. Vassar hit the road to play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Tuesday, February 3. They fell 78-50.
Women’s Basketball
The women’s basketball team this weekend also went 1-1 against their Liberty League foes. The women began with a stunning 61-40 defeat of Skidmore.
The Brewers upset the Thoroughbreds and managed to hand Skidmore their first League loss. Freshman Ariella Rosenthal had a phenomenal game. She had 20 points and five rebounds.
Junior Rose Serafini had 10 points, nine blocks and eight rebounds. Junior Colleen O’Connell had eight points and seven rebounds. Junior Caitlin Drakeley had 10 points, six boards and four assists. Junior Alex Moon had seven points, five rebounds and two assists and had an amazing zero turnovers all game.
The next day, the Brewers fell to Union College 51-44. Drakeley had 17 points and nine rebounds. Senior Allyson Pemberton had 14 points, two blocks and two steals. Rosenthal had eight points and five rebounds. After the weekend Rosenthal earned honor roll accolades from the Liberty League.
Men’s Swimming
The men competed in the Skidmore Sprint Invitational. They took first place out of four teams after scoring 469 points. Skidmore took second with 361 points. Senior Luc Amodio won three individual event victories and set the pool record in the 50 yard backstroke.
He had a season best performance in that event. He also took first in the 100 backstroke and the 50 breaststroke. Sophomore Anthony Walker took first in the 100 butterfly, 50 fly and finished first in his season-best time in the 200 free.
Freshman Jonah Strand and fellow freshman Kyle Gray took first and second in the 400 IM. Strand also placed first in the 100 breaststroke and second in the 50 breast. In the relay event, in the 200 Yard medley, Brewer squads took 1st and 3rd. Amodio was named the Liberty League Swimmer of the Week and Strand was the conference’s top rookie for the second week in a row.
Women’s Swimming
The women also competed at the Skidmore Sprint Invitational. The women placed 2nd with 528 points. William Smith College placed first with 542 points. Junior Marie Schmidt had a season best time in her first place finish in the 500 freestyle.
Freshman Cali Corbett was second in the event. Sophomore Julia Cunningham (Full Disclosure: Cunningham is a writer for The Miscellany News) had a new meet record in her first place finish in the 400 yard IM. Cunningham also won the 50 butterfly and was second in the 100 IM. Junior Milee Nelson had a season best in her 100 butterfly 1st place finish.
She also claimed third in the 100 backstroke. Junior Anna Kuo had a lifetime best, second place finish in the 100 breaststroke. Junior Maya Pruitt won the one-meter dive event and senior Kelly Wilkinson took 2nd. Wilkinson won the three-meter dive event and Pruitt went 2nd. The 200 medley relay teams went 1st and 2nd.
Men’s Volleyball
On Thursday, the men’s volleyball team had a huge upset and defeated No.10 New York University 3-2 in their home opener.
This was the first win for the Brewers over the Violets since April 2013 and their first in the regular season since January 2012. This was also the first win for the Brewers over a ranked opponent since defeating the Violets, also then No. 10, in the UVC Championships two seasons ago.
Junior Reno Kriz paced the Brewers offense as he had 13 kills on 30 attempts and he added six digs as well. Freshman Matthew Knigge hit at a team best .556 and had six assisted blocks. Freshman Jorge Rivera had nine kills and six digs. Freshman setter Zechariah Lee had 36 assists and posted seven total rejections.
The Brewers split their road games this weekend. They fell to No. 3 Springfield College 3-0. Sophomore Christian Lizana had seven kills and had one of the team’s two service aces. Kriz and Sophomore Quinn Rutledge had four kills and three digs each. Lee had 19 assists and had five assisted blocks for the Brewers.
The Brewers then defeated Elms College 3-0. Knigge had six kills on nine attempts. Rivera had four kills. Rutledge had eight digs. Lee had 24 assists. He also had five total blocks. Lee was named the United Volleyball Conference Rookie of the Week. This is just the second rookie of the week selection for Vassar ever, the first game last week from Knigge’s selection.