Introduction
Despite failing to make the Liberty League Tournament, the Rensselaer women’s basketball team was still selected as the fifth seed in the ECAC Tournament, the selection committee announced Monday morning. The Red Hawks, who missed the conference tournament due to a tiebreaker, earned the surprising fifth seed in the ECAC Tournament, and will take on the fourth seed Oneonta State in Oneonta, N.Y., on Wednesday night.
The Red Hawks have faced and beaten the Red Dragons each of the last two seasons in the ECAC Tournament. The winner of the game will play top seed St. John Fisher in the semi-finals on the Cardinals home court in Pittsford, N.Y., on Saturday at either noon or 2 pm. The tournament finals are slated to be held Sunday at St. John Fisher at a time yet to be determined.
The selection committee obviously overlooked the Red Hawks’ poor preseason record, in which RPI suffered losses to some of the country’s best teams. Rensselaer played drastically better once they entered league play, improving a 2-8 record to 12-12 and going 9-5 in the Liberty League. Conference rival Union was selected as the tournament’s third seed, but RPI cannot face the Dutchwomen until the championship game.
RPI’s entrance to the postseason will extend the career of senior forward Kaitlyn Saunders, who was named Liberty League Player of the Year for the second straight season. The Windsor, Conn., native is Rensselaer’s all-time leading scorer and leads the Red Hawks in virtually every statistical category. Saunders is currently 14th in the nation in scoring, averaging 19.4 points per game and fourth in the country in steals, snagging 4.39 steals per contest.
Editor’s Note: Wrestling co-captain Kurt Munz contributed to this article.
Men’s basketball’s bubble bursts
One game is all the Rensselaer men’s basketball team needed to qualify for the Liberty League Tournament, and now it appears that was all the Red Hawks needed to avoid getting snubbed by the ECAC selection committee for the eighth and final post season bid. RPI, who finished the season 14-11 and 7-7 in the Liberty League, lost the tournament’s final bid to 13-13 Ithaca of the Empire Conference.
Ithaca was 13-10 in the eyes of the committee because losses to Division I Cornell and two other non-Division III schools were not considered. Ithaca also had the advantage of playing the country’s number one team, St. John Fisher, in conference play. The Liberty League is considered stronger from top to bottom, but the Cardinals’ presence certainly aided the Bombers’ resume.
RPI made a solid case, boasting season sweeps over both the Liberty League regular season champion Hobart and Liberty League Tournament winner Union. However, two losses to St. Lawrence and the loss to Clarkson appeared to once again haunt the Red Hawks.
“We only need one more win,” Rensselaer Head Coach Mike Griffin said. “We had 25 chances to do better. We were too inconsistent this season, and I hope next year’s squad takes note of this, that every game does count.”
The missed selection officially ends the Red Hawks season and the college careers of Liberty League First Team selection Paris Moore, Liberty League Honorable Mention John Van Schaick, and senior point guard Kori Massey.
Hershey going back to nationals
Senior Melissa Hershey is on her way to Holland, Mich., to represent the RPI women’s swimming & diving team in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events at the NCAA Championship on March 9-12.
“We’re very proud of [her],” applauded Assistant Coach Daniel Traub of the senior’s accomplishment.
Hershey, a co-captain, will be making her third trip to the national meet. “It’s my third time going,” explained Hershey, “so I think hopefully I’ve got all the flukes out by now. I’ll be a lot less nervous.”
This will also be the last time Hershey represents Rensselaer in a collegiate competition. “I’m a little bummed out,” Hershey admitted about the end of her tenure as a Red Hawk. “I’m trying to push it off until the very end and just not think about it. It hasn’t really hit me yet, I think.”
Wrestling club places seventh
The RPI Wrestling club took part in the NCWA Northeast Regional Tournament on Saturday, February 26, in East Greenbush, N.Y.
The event was a qualifying meet for the national tournament to be held in Dallas, Texas, on March 11 and 12. To earn an invitation to the lone-star state, wrestlers needed to place in the top six of their respective weight classes.
As a team, Rensselaer tallied 50 points and came in seventh in the sixteen team field. RPI also watched six of its own meet the requirements for the national meet despite only having one semester of training.
“For such a short season, we’ve come a long way,” boasted head coach John Jenkins, Jr. “If you think about it, we’ve only been wrestling for about a month.”
Senior co-captain Kurt Munz, sophomore co-captain Rob Venditti, fellow sophomores Eric Pace and Sam Weinburg, and freshmen Matt Gineo and Alex Wruck will represent RPI in Dallas later this month.
Munz placed fourth in the 141 pound class, falling to the eventual champion in the semi-final and to a 2004 All-American in the consolation final.
Venditti overcame both knee pain and a brutal cold to finish fourth in the 157 pound group. “Rob is one of the hardest working guys on this team,” praised fellow captain Munz.
Pace, who was recently selected as one of next year’s captains by his teammates, celebrated with a third-place finish in the 184 pound class.
Weinburg tackled the 235 pound bracket and came out with a qualifying finish of fourth place.
Gineo came in sixth in the 141 pound class, two spots behind teammate Munz.
Wruck enjoyed the fastest pin of his season in a time of 1:44 en route to a sixth place finish in the 174 pound category.
The triumphant six will now set their sights on the nationwide event.
