MEN’S LACROSSE
The Chapman University Panthers held off a late rally and defeated UCSD 12-11 in an important Western College Lacrosse League interdivisional match-up this past weekend. After going up 9-3 in the third quarter, Chapman hardly expected to be pushed to the wire by the Tritons.
UCSD went to Loyola riding a wave of several impressive wins, including an upset over UCLA and a dominating 21-10 win over USD earlier in the week. UCSD started off by extending out and playing aggressive man-to-man defense. Chapman’s attackman, Danny Metoyer, made the Tritons pay, tallying three goals and one assist by the middle of the second quarter. This prompted the Tritons’ coaching staff to have their defense try to shut off Metoyer. However, Chapman’s Matt Goto took over the offense, helping the Panthers jump out to a 9-3 lead with 5:59 remaining in the third quarter.
Just when the Panthers saw a large-margin victory on the horizon, the Tritons showed that they were not about to go down without a fight. After UCSD head coach Ed Jeziorski called a timeout to regroup his team, the Tritons came out with a newfound energy and swagger that they had been lacking since the start of the game.
With their sideline loudly chanting, “”UCSD,”” senior Ross Stensrud and freshman Nick Dean led an incredible comeback effort, as the Tritons scored five unanswered goals to bring Jeziorski’s squad within one goal of the Panthers with 12:01 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Chapman responded with a trio of scores to give the Panthers a 12-9 lead. The Tritons answered right back with two goals of their own to make the score 12-11 with 3:40 left in the final quarter.
But no matter how hard UCSD fought, this game just wasn’t meant for the Tritons to win. With the Panthers getting flagged for three penalties in the final three minutes, the Tritons had numerous opportunities to tie the game, but UCSD’s man-up was unable to convert on several wide-open shots up top and around the crease.
With the win, Chapman remained undefeated in league play while the Tritons suffered their second divisional loss. UCSD is now facing a string of home games against Loyola Marymount, Utah, Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth.
BADMINTON
The UCSD badminton team competed in a doubleheader against UCLA and UCSB on March 8. The Tritons needed to win both games to ensure that their match against UC Irvine in May would be for the league title. Mission accomplished.
In their match against UCSB, the Tritons easily won 14-1. For the third time this season, the women swept the competition and were undefeated. The men did a solid job as well, getting key victories and strong performances from Phil Bratton, Mike Do, Chhay Taing and Julian Wu.
Next up for UCSD was UCLA. Although the competition was fierce, UCSD pulled out a 9-6 victory. UCSD got a courageous performance from Riyouko Lim, who played through an injury and managed two key points. In addition, the women received strong performances from Noreen Jue, Melissa McMahon and Stephanie Obayashi, who was playing her first singles match this season. The men also benefited from strong performances by Sna Lim, Kelvin Soo and David Lamb, who was undefeated in all of his matches.
The badminton team is now looking to May 24, when UCSD will play its final home game against Pasadena City College and archrival UC Irvine for the league title.
In addition, the 2003 National Collegiate Badminton Championships will be held at UCSD from April 18 to April 20 in the Main Gym and RIMAC Arena. Colleges from around the country will be attending this tournament.
EQUESTRIAN
The UCSD equestrian team competed in a western competition on March 8 and an English competition on March 9 at Cal Poly Pomona. Colleges in attendance included Cal Poly Pomona, USC, Mount San Antonio College, Pepperdine and USD.
The team brought home several impressive awards. On March 8, Alicia Cunningham-Bryant placed second in intermediate II and Charlene Zil placed third. Nicole Reagan took home the third award in advanced II and Katy Wanner took home second in walk-jog. The UCSD team also took home the Reserve Champion Team award, losing the championship to host school Cal Poly Pomona.
In the English competition on March 9, captain Lisa Calvino placed third in open flat and open fences, with sophomore Katherine McComas coming in fourth in both sections. In novice fences, Courtney Chandler placed second and Marce Evans placed fifth. Casey Kohler placed fifth in intermediate flat and Erica Gross placed fifth in novice flat. In the walk-trot division, Natalie Freeman placed first and Amalea Saunders came right behind her in second.
The UCSD team has two competitions left, to be held on March 15 and March 16 at Clark’s Ranch in San Diego, hosted by UCSD. The UCSD team then hopes to send various riders off to the regional and zone championships at the end of March and beginning of April.
DANCESPORT
If you had walked into the Main Gym on March 1, you would have seen women walking around with tanned bodies, long, glamorous costumes, three-inch heels and fake eyelashes. Likewise, the men were walking around in tuxedos or Latin costumes, and slicked-back hair. The cause of all this excess extravagance? None other than the annual collegiate dancesport competition, Day by the Shores, hosted by the UCSD dancesport team.
This year’s competition was extremely successful, with over 1,500 entries representing more than 22 different schools. Throughout the day, numerous couples representing the UCSD dancesport team placed in the top six in many of the events. Nonetheless, the biggest victories came in the formation and team-match competitions.
In the formation competition, there were five schools competing: USC, UC Riverside, UNLV, NMSU and UCSD. Despite the steep competition, the UCSD competition team rose to the occasion and outshone their competitors by a landslide. With the highest point total by more than 40 points, in addition to receiving first-place ordinals by all five judges, the UCSD competition team took first place with its five-dance Latin medley to “”Evita.”” NMSU came in second, just edging out UNLV by a single point; NMSU received three second-place ordinals and two third-place ordinals from the judges while UNLV received two second-place ordinals and three third-place ordinals. Rounding out the five schools was USC in fourth and UCR in fifth.
In the team-match competition, there were nine schools competing. The team match consisted of four events: endurance swing, balloon pop fox-trot, tacky-tango and the cross-dressing cha-cha. UCSD also came out victorious by placing third in the balloon pop fox-trot and first in the other three events, winning the overall team-match competition.
With more than a month to improve and fine tune the routine, the team should have terrific showings at their next three big competitions at Stanford, Las Vegas and San Francisco in April.
SNOW SKI
Members of the UCSD ski and snowboard team recently competed in the state-qualifier for the U.S. Collegiate Snowsports Conference at Mammoth Mountain. There was a large turn-out, including Tahoe-area schools, such as Sierra Nevada College and Sierra College. Northern California schools, including UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Sacramento State, were also in attendance. Also competing were Southern California schools UCSD, UCSB, UCLA, Cal Poly Pomona and Pomona College.
UCSD’s men’s and women’s ski teams, as well as snowboard teams, qualified for the state competition. This honor allotted them five spaces in each forum. Skiers competed in giant slalom and slalom while snowboarders competed in giant slalom and boarder cross.
The women’s ski team results boasted Sierra Bourne in fourth place overall and Danielle Crockett in seventh place overall in the giant slalom. The following day’s slalom held Bourne in fourth and Danielle Crocked in sixth place. Anne Spohr, Katie Wurden and Katie Roof also qualified to race. The men’s team consisted of Evan Sharbrough, Jake Cohen, Tom Christensen, Patrick Wilcox and Zac Beres. Sharbrough and Cohen placed 26th and 29th in giant slalom and 15th and 20th in slalom, respectively.
Snowboarders Luke Mitchell, Peter Butcher, Andrew Abrass, Wes Parks and Anthony Domenici represented UCSD. Luke Mitchell fronted UCSD competitors, placing second in the giant slalom. Boarder cross was led by Tahoe schools, and UCSD’s competitors were knocked out in early rounds. Biliana Veleva placed sixth in giant slalom, followed by teammates Kate Gorman, Carrie Lew, Leah Schubert and Liz Hughes.
UCSD’s next regular season competition will take place March 29 to March 30 in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
— Compiled by Anu Kumar
Sports Editor
