RPI Ultimate heads to national tourney

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Tim Langr, A Special to
Sara Melikian/The Polytechnic
SENIOR DAN DONOVAN INTERCEPTS the disc during RPI’s match against Siena College on Saturday in the Metro East Regional Championships.

The RPI men’s Ultimate team competed at the windy Metro East Regional Championship this past weekend. RPI, along with 11 other teams, met at the Saratoga Springs Polo Association grounds to compete for one of two spots at the Division-III College Championships later this month in Appleton, Wisc. For many teams, the tournament represented the most important weekend of their season, with only the top two finishers advancing.

Saturday began with pool play, where the winners of each pool would automatically earn a spot in the championship game. RPI started the tournament as the second seed in pool B, with two of its toughest games of the weekend first thing on Saturday. During the first round, Rensselaer faced Marist College, a team eager to challenge RPI after losing to the team at the Conference Championships. Despite its enthusiasm, RPI’s superiority in the windy conditions allowed it to win handily, finishing the game 13-9.

In the second round, the pool’s third seed Colgate University would give one of the closest and most intense games of the weekend. Both teams traded points for most of the game, bringing the highly physical match to a 12-12 tie with no time left and a double-game-point scenario. RPI senior Dan Donovan was able to connect with sophomore Russell Katz on a key deep pass to just outside of the end zone, and after taking a timeout the offensive line put away the game winning score, 13-12 RPI.

Round three of pool play gave RPI a chance to rest some of its starters in a game against Siena College, the pool’s sixth and lowest seed. While the RPI offense allowed a small number of turnovers and scores by the Siena defense, the defensive line was able to outplay its opponent significantly. RPI walked away with a relaxed 13-7 victory. The team was able to ride its momentum through the fourth round of pool play against the pool’s top seed, the Stevens Institute of Technology. While most of the game was closely contested, RPI was able to pull away during the second half and upset Stevens, 13-10. Having already won its pool, much of RPI’s starting lines rested during Sunday morning’s final round of pool play against SUNY Oneonta. While the team allowed more points than necessary and was down at half, RPI came back easily in the second half and finished the game 13-11, sweeping pool B and earning a spot in the championship match.

In the heavily contested pool A, a number of teams had been in the running all weekend to earn a spot in the finals. After nearly sweeping its pool, top seeded SUNY Fredonia was upset by SUNY Cortland Sunday morning, and was not able to put away enough points to win the pool outright. Surprising most of the tournament, a three-way tie for first in pool A was resolved based on point differential. The overall fourth seed—Connecticut College— earned a spot in the finals, setting the stage for a rematch of last year’s championship match.

After last season’s double-game-point loss to Connecticut College in the game to go to the national championships, RPI entered the finals looking to redeem itself. After starting on defense, RPI was able to break Connecticut’s offense during the first point after a quick turn, with senior captain John Hosmer connecting with sophomore Matt Lustbader in the end zone. After this key play to start the match, RPI began gathering significant momentum. The defensive line would continue to dominate, leading 8-3 at half. RPI continued to press its advantage, and with the help of some big defensive plays from graduate student Chris Persichilli and senior Jay Walker, allowed only one point in the second half. RPI would go undefeated on the weekend, winning the championships in an exciting 13-4 blowout against Connecticut College. Connecticut would go on to lose the second place game against Stevens, who earned the second and final bid to the championships.

RPI Ultimate will attend the USA Ultimate Division-III College Championships on May 19 and 20 in Appleton, Wisc. Along with the Stevens Institute of Technology, it will represent the Metro East region as it competes in a field of 16 teams to become the D-III college champions.

Interested in learning more about competitive Ultimate at RPI? Visit http://frisbee.union.rpi.edu/ to learn about the club teams available at Rensselaer.

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New Senate holds first meeting, appointments

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Ben Pringle, Senior Reporter
Ethan Spitz/The Polytechnic
GRAND MARSHAL KEVIN DAI ’14 ADDRESSES the Student Senate for the first time. The meeting began with a lengthy recess to allow new members of the Senate to learn parliamentary procedure.

On Monday, the 43rd Student Senate met for the first time to appoint cabinet positions and committee chairs, and to discuss its plans for its term.

Newly-elected Grand Marshal Kevin Dai ’14 began the meeting by calling for an hour-long recess—essentially a break from the normal parliamentary procedure—to go over his agenda in a less formal way. After a round of introductions, Dai started by stating his overall vision for the term: “To revitalize the face of student government, have a meaningful impact on students, and to earn the respect and trust of both the student body and administration.” He outlined three main goals to accomplish this: running more focused and efficient Senate meetings, encouraging discussion and debate from all perspectives, and developing strategies to reach currently uninvolved students. Also during the recess, more experienced senators Paul O’Neil ’14 and Chuck Carletta ’14 spent a few minutes going over Robert’s Rules of Order, the formal rules by which Senate holds its meetings. (Senators take turns speaking while waiting on a queue; amendments to motions operate on a stack with the latest version voted on first.)

The Senate then discussed upcoming items for the next few meetings. Dai hopes to vote on the proposed Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities changes next meeting. He also mentioned choosing a tenured professor to appoint to the Faculty Senate and readdressing the minimum GPA requirements discussed by the previous Senate.

After resuming the official meeting, the Senate appointed cabinet positions and committee chairs. All motions passed nearly unanimously. For cabinet, Carletta is the new vice chair (passed 16-0-0); Stef FeKula ’14 is secretary (passed 16-0-0); Greg Niguidula ’13 is treasurer (passed 13-0-2); Kenley Cheung ’13 is chief information officer (passed 14-0-1); and O’Neil is parliamentarian (passed 15-0-0). In addition, two committee chairs were appointed: Tina Gilland ’15 is communications chair (passed 14-0-1) and Russell Brown ’14 is finance, facilities, and advancement chair (passed 14-0-1). All senators are required to either chair one committee or be a member of at least two.

The Senate will meet again next week at 6 pm in the Shellnut Gallery to approve Union Executive Board representative appointments and discuss the changes to the RPI Student Handbook. The meeting is open to all students.

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Editorial Notebooks

Reconsider math education

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Wesley Mounts, Copy Editor

In my last notebook as an undergraduate at RPI, possibly my last notebook that will ever appear in The Poly, I have decided to address two growing concerns from my time. The first will cover a few problems I have seen with professors; the second will deal with the courses of RPI’s mathematics department.

1. When I first entered RPI, my respect for the professors who were teaching me was high. They were the ones who had the knowledge and I hoped that, by the time I graduated, I would have enough of that knowledge to be a contributing member of society and, more importantly, get a job. However, the closer I got to graduation, the more I realize that my trust in professors has been misplaced.

I have had a professor who could not justify the fundamental assumptions that were used as a basis for his course. Without such justification, why should I consider anything I did in that class to be useful? When I confronted the professor, asking for a justification, he told me that it was obvious why the assumptions were true. At best, I would say that justification meant that he was out of touch with his students; at worst, that he had no idea and was attempting to embarrass me into leaving the matter alone. Either way, should someone like that be allowed to teach?

I have seen both professors and my peers defend theories as though they are fact. I tread lightly here because I realize the potential for the misuse of this argument and I do not want my words twisted into justifications for unscientific thought. However, I think that the distinction between the best-supported theory and a fact is important. In fact, I would argue that the misrepresentation of a theory as a fact is as irresponsible as using magic as a justification. As a physicist, the example I will give of this is Einstein’s theory of relativity. Thus far, evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of special relativity, the implication of which is that acceleration to faster-than-light speeds is impossible. Of the professors and physics students I have discussed this with, all of them have treated special relativity as proof that faster-than-light travel is impossible. Is it not possible to devise another theory that fits our observations equally well? Do we even have enough data to say with reasonable certainty that Einstein’s theory is correct? I would argue no. Einstein’s theory is simply the one that best fits the information we currently have available. To treat it as otherwise is a misrepresentation.

2. I have begun to take more and more issue with the way mathematics is taught here at RPI. Here, I will focus on the introductory differential equations course, but the problem is present in several other courses as well. When I took Introduction to Differential Equations my freshman year, I had very little idea why it was useful. In fact, to most of the people I have talked to who did not have any previous experience with differential equations, the course was simply memorizing a bunch of steps for some reason only known by the professor. There was no attempt to explain why differential equations are useful.

Now I am definitely in support of everyone having a basic knowledge of every subject: enough to know where and how to learn more. Is knowing how to follow a recipe to get to a solution to a differential equation that knowledge? I argue for knowledge of how to use math as a tool, how to construct models using mathematics. In fact, is knowing the steps to solve a differential equation even relevant if the equations being solved are not modeling anything useful? I was in my second semester of junior year before I finally learned how to construct mathematical models. All that math that I had learned was finally useful to me. So I have to ask, do non-mathematics students ever reach the point where they understand why all of this is useful? The point where they can begin to construct their own models instead of mindlessly following the steps laid down by others?

Further, I have only taken one course in the math department that asked me to make my own assumptions and justify them (oddly, the only other course that has asked me to do this was a course in biology, which I have seen many math and physics students look down on with something resembling scorn). What did I discover from these two courses? That the assumptions used in constructing a mathematical model will define the results of said model.

I cannot answer any of these questions for you, but I hope I have convinced some of you to at least think about these matters.

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Avacyn Restored wraps up excellent block

Posted on May 2, 2012 by James Lenze II, Senior Reviewer

Stand back, everyone. The Helvault is open, and Avacyn is free. This past weekend, a new Magic: The Gathering set was (pre)released—Avacyn Restored, the last set in the Innistrad block. This set concludes the conflict introduced last year with Innistrad’s release: A plane full of humans defending themselves against all manner of things that go bump in the night. With the breaking of the Helvault, the humans have finally gained the upper hand, as Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and her host of celestial crusaders are here to join the fight. Despite the fact that the demon Griselbrand and his minions were released as well, the forces of good have triumphed.

The set appears to be the reverse of Innistrad in that the color black was severely weakened. Whereas before white was left out of cycles and there was a general feeling of every other color uniting against it, in Avacyn Restored, it’s black against everyone. Black got none of the new mechanics in the set—miracle and soulbond—and appears subpar compared to the other colors.

As for the miracle and soulbond mechanics themselves, I like the latter, but not the former. Miracle takes a fairly balanced card and lets you cast it for much less—as long as it’s the first card you’ve drawn that turn. Sure, it doesn’t work all of the time (or even most), but when it does, it’s ridiculous. Examples of miracle cards include Temporal Mastery, an extra turn effect that costs seven mana normally but can be miracled for two, and Thunderous Wrath, a six-mana burn spell that does five damage to a creature or player and has a miracle cost of one red mana.

Soulbond lets two creatures “pair” together and share abilities. Creatures can be bound when either enters the battlefield, but each creature can only be bound to one other. Shared abilities include vigilance, lifelink, double strike, trample, and power and toughness boosts. Soulbond was a lot of fun, and pairing together two creatures who both have it is highly effective.

Also of note is the plethora of effects that exile creatures and then return them to the battlefield, or return them to their owner’s hand, printed in the set, as well as its relative lack of cards that get rid of creatures. Two of the new “blink” cards—Cloudshift and Ghostly Flicker—exile a creature you control (or two creatures, lands, or artifacts in Ghostly Flicker’s case) and then return it to the battlefield. Other cards such as Emancipation Angel and Peel From Reality return creatures or permanents you control to your hand. These allow you to get double mileage from “enters the battlefield” effects, as well as offering some protection from harmful spells. In addition to this, the set features a low number of destroy cards and several effects that make things much more difficult to get rid of—Avacyn, for example, grants all your permanents indestructiblility. One thing I’m glad for is the printing of Terminus, however, as it gives the game another answer for things like Avacyn (Terminus is a Hallowed Burial with miracle for one mana—it puts all creatures on the bottom of their owners’ libraries).

Avacyn Restored introduces two new Planeswalkers to the game, as well: Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Tibalt is something new to Magic: a two-mana Planeswalker. He’s designed to come out early and build up to his ultimate ability before he can be killed (his ultimate, by the way, is Insurrection—he steals every creature in play, untaps them, and gives them haste). Tamiyo taps down creatures, draws you cards, and for her final ability, gives you an unlimited hand size and perfect recursion—whenever a card goes to your graveyard, you get to add it to your hand instead. The two ’Walkers also have beautiful art, which seems to be a trend for the entire set.

All in all, I think this new set is really cool. I loved Innistrad, and Dark Ascension was decent, but Avacyn Restored blows them both away. It has so many awesome cards that I can’t wait to get my hands on, and was a lot of fun to play with. I definitely recommend fans of Magic to pick up a few booster packs of it, or especially to come to a launch party event for the set this Friday at 6:30 pm at Foam Brain Games on the corner of State St. and 2nd St.

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Baseball fights to exciting finish vs. Skidmore

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Matthew Dawson , Senior Reporter
Ethan Spitz/The Polytechnic
JUNIOR TANNER BOUCHER BELTS the ball in RPI’s twinbill sweep of Skidmore College on Sunday at Robison Field. Boucher hit a walk-off two-run homer in the 10th inning of game two to give the Engineers the win.

Baseball started its week off with a game against non-league opponent Williams College. The Engineers fell behind early and entered the bottom of the fourth down 2-0. RPI then put runs on the board as senior Art Levenson and junior Kevin Prosicki collected RBIs, while senior Kyle Kopacz scored on a wild pitch. Williams tied the game up the next inning, but RPI responded in its half of the fifth as junior Tanner Boucher brought home senior Kyle LaVigne.

Williams then tacked on even more runs in the sixth as it made the game 5-4 in its favor. Once again RPI came back immediately; this time junior Jonny Rio’s single scored Kopacz to tie the game at five. The game remained tied until the ninth, where the Engineers surrendered the winning run due to a pair of errors as the game finished Williams 6, RPI 5.

Next up was a pair of doubleheaders against Skidmore College. The first game of the four started well for the Engineers, but they were unable to stop the Thoroughbreds’ comeback. In the first inning, LaVigne’s single scored Rio. After stealing second, LaVigne was brought home by a single from junior Chuck Erickson. Then in the fifth, Rio’s single scored Boucher to make it 3-0, RPI.

Skidmore began to add runs in the sixth as it put two runners across home plate. Then in the seventh, the Thoroughbreds scored another two runs. The Engineers started well, but were not able to close the game out. With no more runs scored, the game finished as a 4-3 loss for RPI.

Rensselaer completely dominated the second game of the day as senior Levi Washburn pitched a two-hitter and the Engineer bats exploded for 12 runs. RPI managed to score at least one run in each inning except for the third and seventh. LaVigne went 3-for-4 on the day with one RBI, while sophomore Andrew Kalish hit a three-run homerun in the fifth to make the game 8-0. When the dust settled, RPI walked away with a 12-0 victory.

The second doubleheader went extremely well for RPI as it came away with an exciting sweep. In the opener, Skidmore got on the board in the first frame, but the Engineers responded with a big inning in the second. RPI quickly loaded the bases and began batting in runs. Prosicki was hit by a pitch and scored sophomore Eric Kozak, and Kopacz’s sacrifice fly scored Erickson. Senior Cody Vincent’s single scored Kalish, Boucher’s single scored Prosicki, and Vincent scored on an error. Finally, LaVigne forced another error by Skidmore and Boucher crossed the plate to give RPI the 6-1 lead.

Skidmore once again put on a big comeback, eventually tying the game at seven-all in the fifth. The Engineers did not want to lose and quickly recaptured the lead through Vincent’s sacrifice fly, which would end up scoring Kalish. RPI finished scoring in the sixth as it added another three runs. First, a Kalish single brought home two, and then a Prosicki single added another. That would be all the Engineers needed as Skidmore was unable to attempt another comeback and the game finished RPI 11, Skidmore 7.

The finale was a thrilling display of resilience by RPI as it showed Skidmore how to complete a comeback. Straight away, Skidmore wanted to put everything out there to salvage a split in the series and it managed to score seven runs in the first inning alone. The game could have been over right then and there, but the Engineers fought back and scored five runs of their own in the inning. Unfortunately, Skidmore was able to put four more runs on the scoreboard and RPI entered the ninth down 11-5.

Immediately RPI loaded the bases as Prosicki, Kopacz, and Vincent all reached. Boucher was able to reach first after an error by the Skidmore second baseman to score Prosicki. Then LaVigne was able to reach and bring home Kopacz at the expense of Boucher, who was thrown out at second in the fielder’s choice. Kozak was hit by a pitch to reload the bases with the score 11-7, Skidmore. Then, Erickson stepped up to the plate and tied the game with one powerful swing as he launched the ball to right field for the game tying grand slam.

Unfortunately, the Engineers were unable to win in nine, so the game was stretched to extra innings. However, extra innings did not last long as Boucher finished a hard day’s work for the Engineers as he hit a two-run walk off home run to win the game.

This was a critical series for RPI as the Liberty League Tournament approaches. Rensselaer now is 16-8 in the League and is in second place in the standings, a half game back from first place St. Lawrence University and a game ahead of third place Skidmore. The Engineers will finish their regular season this upcoming weekend with a pair of doubleheaders against Vassar College on Saturday at Robison Field at 1 pm and on Sunday at Vassar at noon.

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PSS: brace yourselves, honorands are coming

Posted on May 2, 2012 by The Poly
Public Domain
ON FRIDAY, RPI ANNOUNCED that the U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will be yet another Commencement honorand for 2012. Chu’s work earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997. Since 2009, Chu has led many initiatives and programs involved with President Barack Obama’s energy plans. RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson expressed her pleasure regarding the addition to the list of this year’s honorands, stating that the Institute is “privileged to have each branch of the U.S. government—the Supreme Court, the Administration, and the Congress—as well as the academic and the technology business sectors represented at Rensselaer’s 206th Commencement.” Chu will join Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Antonin Scalia, former Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology Bart Gordon, computer scientist Edward Feigenbaum, and inventor of the digital camera Stephen Sasson ’72 for the 2012 Commencement.
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Editorial Notebooks

Improve Office of Financial Aid

Posted on May 2, 2012 by David Hodson, Contributing Editor

Whenever I interact with the Institute, I always try to take a step back and find focus. Whether it’s FIXX, unhelpful professors, dumb rules, or bad hours and locations, I always try to give the ‘tute the benefit of the doubt. I have drawn the line for Financial Aid, however.

The Office of Financial Aid has major issues—issues in communication, specifically. If I had been hurt by miscommunication once, that’s fine. Twice, that’s a coincidence. Four times? Over a period of not even two schools years? We’re passing into statistically significant territory here.

This semester, for the fourth time since I started college here, I have been the victim of miscommunication. I was told one thing in an e-mail by Financial Aid, in this case assuring me that I had money that evidentially doesn’t exist, and then told another thing in person. And beyond these two inconsistencies, the Bursar’s Office tells me a completely different story. The consistency of communication between departments needs some very serious attention. I would accept being told bad news. I’m no stranger to bad news, and while I don’t like dealing with Financial Aid, I can deal with it. It is another thing entirely to tell me in person that everything will be alright, and that I have money, and to be told by an e-mail or a phone call that it isn’t true anymore, or vice versa. And like I have said, this has happened to me multiple times. I am in a small amount of trouble with the Bursar as we speak because I spent money I was told I had, only to find out that wasn’t true.

The lines of communication between the directors of Financial Aid and the students could also use some publicizing and clarification. I had some serious issues sat the beginning of last semester paying for school. All of my issues could have been easily solved had Financial Aid informed me of my scholarships sooner and bothered to find out why I asked for more loan money than they thought I needed. Instead of accepting my original estimate for how much loan money I needed, Financial Aid rejected money that I later had to come up with out of pocket, and this school isn’t cheap. Paying for things out of pocket isn’t always easy, or possible for that matter.

The final gripe I have with Financial Aid, and the real reason I have drawn the line with them, is that they aren’t even nice about it. Whenever I go to talk to them in person at Academy Hall, they aren’t friendly. Dealing with them feels like being told that they hate me and the bands I like, and are dealing with me only because they are being paid for it. Soften the bad news with a smile, or pretend to sympathize for God’s sake. I’m paying way more than I can afford to go and talk to these people that act like I’m not worth their time. I get it. I’m poor. I’m ugly. I smell. Whatever the reason, I can put on a happy face for customers whenever I work with them at my job; it wouldn’t kill them to do the same.

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Sustainability

Arboretum plans come to fruition

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Rachel Drew, Staff Columnist

About a year ago, shortly after the planting of the Green Roof on the Rensselaer Union, I got an e-mail looking for my support for yet another green project. This one, however, was for a campus arboretum. I was intrigued. What’s an arboretum? Only able to piece together that the “arbor” part implied its relation to trees, I attended the first meeting.

Arriving late due to my confusion with the meeting location (discovering that the H-Building is not the Heffner Alumni house), I walked in to hear a motivated alumnus, G. Stephen Christopher—better known as Chico—discussing his idea for RPI to start a campus arboretum. An arboretum, I then found out, is a tree exhibition. Chico had heard of other campus arboretums and felt that starting one at RPI would foster a stronger connection between the Institute and its surrounding community. Having discussed the possibility with a number of fellow alumni, he found that the financial support was there, making the project feasible. Everyone was quickly on board with the idea and began working to set up the logistics.

Now you may be thinking, “What would this look like?” There are many different ways to set up an arboretum, the simplest of which is to showcase the trees present on campus. For now, the emphasis will be placed on the academic side of campus, where plaques will be made for each tree or group of trees. Trees that have been donated in the past, as well as those donated in the future, will receive special plaques. Maps will be made showing the location of these trees across campus and will be available on an interactive website.

Watching this whole project come together over the past year has been amazing. Approval was received shortly after the delivery of the idea, and plans for identification of campus trees were organized. The tree identification became a day-long event, put together by a biology graduate student, Bianca Pier. About 80 volunteers were taught the basics of tree identification, which was then applied toward identifying over 900 trees on campus. Unfortunately, there was no way to transfer this data onto a map. A standstill in progress followed. However, the interest of alumni was still strong, and a fund was pushed forward through another graduate student, Robyn Marquis, to allow for donations to be made.

Up to this point, I felt as though I had done little to contribute to the project. Realizing that outside help was needed, I took the opportunity to discuss the situation with students who could aid in the more technical side of the project. This is when I found Brian Heller ’12 and Matt O’Brien ’12, information technology and web science majors looking for an independent study project. Excited by the idea of creating a website for the arboretum, they immediately got to work with Scott Litwin, the supervisor of landscape operations who has been the coordinator behind this entire operation.

And so, what was once the idea of an invested alumnus has grown into something real. Come next academic year, there will be visible evidence of the work that alumni, students, and staff members have put forth to make this possible. And when you see a plaque on a campus tree, feel free to investigate further and open your eyes to what may have been a too-familiar area. This project has already brought many people together and I can’t wait to see whose attention is captured next.

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Engineers prep for Liberty League tournament

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Matthew Dawson, Senior Reporter
Ryan Baltazar/The Polytechnic
SENIOR CAPTAIN KELLY ERKERT ROUNDS third base in a recent home game.

Despite the cancellation of both weekend doubleheaders, the RPI softball team finished its regular season strong as it heads to the Liberty League Tournament this upcoming weekend. The teams only games this week came against non-league opponent Utica College. The result was mixed for the Engineers as they won comfortably in the opener, but were unable to complete their comeback.

In game one, freshman Kristina Weltzin pitched a shutout for her 17th win of the year. Weltzin had 10 strikeouts while only allowing five hits during seven innings of work. Her pitching kept Utica at bay and allowed the offense time to get the runs it needed to win.

Those runs came in the fourth inning when the Engineers managed to score six. Freshman Jocilyn Rudisill led off the order and was hit by a pitch. Rudisill promptly stole second base and scored the first run of the day on senior Sara Heller’s single. Additional singles by junior Gillian McCarthy and sophomore Tori Hunt loaded the bases for the Engineers. Junior Aimee Konet hit another single, but this one managed to score two runs as Heller and McCarthy crossed home. With Konet advancing on the throw, RPI had two people in scoring position. Sophomore Jen Shields stepped up and hit a triple to center, scoring Hunt and Konet. Shields then scored on an error to finish the Engineers’ six-run inning.

Those six runs would be all RPI needed as the game played out with no more runs scored by either team, finishing as a 6-0 victory for the Engineers.

The final game of the regular season started with a scoreless first and followed by Utica opening the scoring with two in the top of the second frame. RPI responded straight away with a single by junior Caitlin McGivern to score Hunt, a Konet single to score McGivern, and Konet crossing the plate on an error by Utica. However, the Engineers were unable to hold onto the 3-2 lead for very long as Utica managed to tie the game in the top of the third.

In the fifth, Utica added two more runs to take the 5-3 lead. McCarthy responded with an RBI single to bring the Engineers within a run. Unfortunately, Utica was able to score runs in the sixth and seventh as it took the 7-4 lead.

The Engineers would not go down without a fight as they started a comeback in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs, Heller hit a homerun to center to make it 7-5. Then, McCarthy hit a homerun of her own to make it 7-6. Unfortunately for the Engineers, that would be as close as they got and the game ended Utica 7, RPI 6.

RPI finished the season 24-12 overall and 9-1 in the Liberty League. This weekend, the Engineers host the Liberty League Tournament in which they are the top seed. RPI will play St. Lawrence University in a doubleheader on Friday at 2 pm and either the University of Rochester or Union College on Saturday at 10 am or 12:30 pm, depending on the previous day’s results. All games will take place on Doris Robison Field, so go out and support the Engineers!

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PSS: on the wing

Posted on May 2, 2012 by The Poly
Nicholas Monti/Red Bull
RPI STUDENTS DANIEL POWELL ’13, DAVID SANDLER ’14, AND ZACHARY ZIEMBA ’15—SHOWN FROM LEFT TO RIGHT—PARTICIPATED in one of many events hosted by Red Bull on campus. Powell and Sandler are finalists for the worldwide Paper Wings competition, which is scheduled to be held in Salzburg, Austria, on May 4 and 5. Powell’s plane will compete in the acrobatics competition. Sandler is heading to Austria to test his record paper airplane flight time—nine seconds—against the other competitors from around the globe. For more information regarding the worldwide competition, contact Nicholas Monti ’13 at nickmonti@redbullu.com.
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