Blue Wave’s strong performance foreshadows future success

It was a good weekend for the Geneseo Blue Wave, as both the men’s and women’s teams came in first place at the Ithaca invitational, which took place from Friday Dec. 2-Sunday Dec. 4. “I was very pleased with the performance of both teams. We have been working hard all semester and took just a couple of days’ rest and they responded well,” head coach Paul Dotterweich said.

Senior men’s swimmer Kevin Schaub continued his impressive season, with a win in the 200m backstroke with a time of 1:52.85. Schaub also swam on two winning relays. Schaub helped win the 200m medley relay along with teammates sophomore swimmer Troy Miller, junior swimmer Scott Guyton and junior swimmer Jeff Doser, with a time of 1:34.24. The same group also won the 400m medley relay with a time of 3:28.91.

“Our medley relay success is a function of the guys on the relay,” Dotterweich said. “They are talented athletes and seem to feed off each other.”

The men were able to win by 600 points because of the team’s depth, in addition to their talent, according to Dotterweich.

The Knights clearly have depth and they have top-end talent, as seen in the performances by junior diver Sam Randall, Doser and Schaub alone week in and week out.

“Sam, Jeff and Kevin are definitely critical to our success,” Dotterweich said. “In most meets, we can count on those guys for multiple wins.”

The women also impressed over the weekend. With the win, they moved to 5-1 overall on the season, same as the men.

Sophomore swimmers Nancy Shemet and Nancy Nasky performed extremely well during the meet. Shemet won the 400m IM with a time of 4:42.79 and finished second in the 200m butterfly. Nasky won the 1,650m freestyle with a time of 17:27.26.

Additionally, Shemet swam on three top-three relays. This included the 200m medley relay with a time of 1:49.23, the 400m medley relay with a time of 4:00.99 and the 400m free relay with a time of 3:33.11.

“Both Nasky and Shemet are important pieces to the puzzle, but similar to the men, we won last weekend because of our depth,” Dotterweich said. “Two weeks ago, Ithaca’s women beat us in a dual meet where having a few studs won’t carry your team. In a championship format, depth wins.”

The women finished with 1,528 points, placing ahead of the second-place Bombers who had 1,433 and third-place Shippensburg who had 1,190.

Both sides of the Blue Wave are off until Jan. 14, when they have a tri-meet at Carnegie Mellon. They will face the hosts and Westminster.

The Blue Wave will focus on finishing the season strong, however, Dotterweich stated two specific goals they are focusing on: “Simple: win SUNYACs and send people to NCAAs.”

Blue Wave surfs to success

The Geneseo men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have recently had phenomenal performances. In their last meets against Ithaca College and Hartwick College, the Knights went 3-1. The men won both of their meets with a score of 213-81 over Ithaca and 207-92 over Hartwick. The women lost to Ithaca, 162-138, but defeated Hartwick 246-54. Senior swimmer Kevin Schaub gave another dominating performance against Ithaca and Hartwick, with four different event victories. Schaub won the 200m butterfly with a time of 1:56.46, the 200m backstroke with a time of 1:55.17 and the 200m IM with a time of 1:59.60. Schaub also swam a leg in the 200 medley-winning relay, which the Knights won with a time of 1:26.40.

Junior swimmer Jeff Doser also had a fantastic meet. Doser won two individual events—the 100 and 200m freestyle—and helped add a leg in the 200m free relay. In his 200m freestyle win, Doser finished with a time of 1:42.75—the 17th fastest time nationally.

Other notable events include 1 and 3m diving, where junior diver Sam Randall won both, posting a score of 267.10 in the 1m and 311.95 in the 3m. The men are now 4-1 and will face Ithaca again for the Ithaca Invitational on Friday Dec. 2-Sunday Dec. 4.

The women also had a strong meet to bring them to 4-1 this season, same as the men. Sophomore swimmer Nancy Nasky won three individual events in the meet, including the 1,000m freestyle with a time of 10:43.94, the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:58.77 and the 500m freestyle with a time of 5:15.47. Not only did Nasky win the 1,000m, but she did so with a time that ranks 21st nationally.

Other notable events included diving, where senior diver Claudia Kolakowski finished in third in the 1 and 3m dives. The women will also swim next at the Ithaca Invitational Friday Dec. 2-Sunday Dec. 4.

With the Knights performing so well in the meets against Ithaca and Hartwick, two swimmers were honored with SUNYAC Athlete of the Week recognitions. Doser won Men’s Swimming & Diving Swimmer of the Week and Nasky won Women’s Swimming & Diving Swimmer of the Week.

Three swimmers were honored with SUNYAC Athlete of the Week earlier on Nov. 18. Schaub won Men’s Swimmer of the Week, Randall won Men’s Diver of the Week and sophomore swimmer Sydney Ng won Women’s Swimmer of the Week.

After the invitational, the men and women do not have another meet until Jan. 14, when the Blue Wave will face both Westminster College and Carnegie Mellon University at Westminster.

Blue Wave victorious at first home meet

It’s November, which means that the Geneseo men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams’ seasons have just kicked off. The Blue Wave had their first conference meet on Saturday Nov. 5, where the men and women took down SUNY Fredonia 168-127 and 168-121, respectively, at Alumni Pool. The win took the men to 1-1 and the women to 2-1 on the year. This comes after their season opener, where the men fell 133.5-109.5 and the women won 130.5-112.5 against Canisius College at Erie Community College.

They had multiple event winners against Fredonia, including senior swimmer Kevin Schaub and junior diver Sam Randall. Schaub took first in the 200m butterfly with 1:56.95, the 500m freestyle with 5:04.01 and helped to win the 400m medley relay. Randall took first in the 1-meter diving with a score of 303.35 and second in the 3-meter diving with a score of 324.90.

Due to their performance against Canisius, not one but three of the athletes were named SUNYAC athletes of the week in swimming and diving.

Junior swimmer Jeff Doser was awarded Men’s Swimmer of the Week for winning two individual events and being part of a winning relay team. Senior swimmer Leeza Seelbach was awarded Women’s Swimmer of the Week after also winning two individual events and for being a part of a winning relay team. Additionally, senior diver Claudia Kolakowski won Women’s Diver of the Week after winning both of her events. “Our team is always happy to have SUNYAC swimmers and divers of the week,” Randall said. “The fact that our team had three speaks volumes to the amount of effort that our coaches put into our program.”

The Knights won the 2016 SUNYAC Championship, and have the same goal for 2017.

“We are looking again to win the SUNYAC Championship, as well as send a larger group of athletes to the national championship,” Randall said. “I believe our team can win SUNYACs for both men and women’s teams.”

It isn’t just high goals, though, that they set in the pool. This year, the team also has a goal of a cumulative 3.3 GPA, and they hope that several of their athletes can make the dean’s or president’s list each semester. “They truly go above and beyond to push us both academically and athletically to become the model program on this campus,” Randall said.

Randall is one of the best Division III divers in the entire country. Last year, he made it to the NCAA Regional Championship, winning the 1-meter title, and this year he intends to do the same.

“My individual goals this year are to go back to nationals and to achieve two more All-American award finishes,” Randall said.

On top of making sure returning teammates do well this year, the team does an excellent job at making the freshmen feel right at home, as the change to the college level can be difficult.

“We have a program in which we have ‘bigs’ and ‘littles’ on the team, where an upperclassman is responsible for looking after a freshman … the freshman class is always welcomed with open arms,” Randall said. “As a team, we acknowledge that the freshmen will one day become the leaders.”

The teams are in action again this Saturday Nov. 12 when they face off against conference rivals SUNY Cortland at 1 p.m.

Men’s soccer season ends before SUNYACs

It was a tough last week of the season for the Geneseo men’s soccer team. It seemed likely that with only three games left in the season that the team would qualify for the SUNYAC Tournament after missing out in 2015. But after losing back-to-back away conference games against SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Plattsburgh, the team barely missed out on qualifying. The Knights seemed to be in prime position to make the SUNYAC Tournament. They went into their last two conference away games with a 4-3 conference record. All they needed were winning results against Potsdam and Plattsburgh. Instead, they suffered a 1-0 loss to Potsdam and a 2-0 loss against Plattsburgh on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22, respectively.

“I think we knew that [we were in prime position to qualify], which got in our head a little bit,” head coach Dominic Oliveri said. “I knew it was going to be a difficult road trip. We knew we needed a result against Potsdam … we just did not play.”

For such an impressive season, the losses seemed to be attributed to a couple of mistakes and possibly some nerves, costing the Knights a trip to the playoffs. Two of the three goals scored on the Knights in the two-game stretch came from crosses into the six-yard box. “If we were in form, we would have cleared those initial balls,” Oliveri said.

In their previous five games before the game against Potsdam, the Knights’ defense was impeccable, posting three clean sheets and only letting in two goals. Going into their last game against St. John Fisher College, the team already knew they wouldn’t qualify, but it still meant a lot to get a result, as the team won by one goal. It especially meant a lot for the seniors on the team.

Oliveri said he didn’t initially plan on playing any of the seniors in the game against St. John Fisher, but that at practice the night before, the seniors told Oliveri how much it would mean to them to play. Oliveri had them start the second half, and they played for about 20 minutes. In the 52nd minute, junior midfielder Walter Savidis notched the game winner for the team with an unassisted goal.

With the win against St. John Fisher, the Knights ended the season with a record of 9-7-2, going 4-5 in conference play with a home record of 3-4-1 and an away record of 5-3-1. In 18 games, the team scored 26 goals and allowed an average of 1.44 goals per game. Senior forward Ethan Gunty led the team in points with 17, followed by senior midfielder Matt D’Amico with 15 points, and freshman forward Bryan Wager with seven.

As for next year, Oliveri hopes for the team to not only qualify for SUNYACs, but also for his younger players to continue to grow. The team was full of freshman and sophomores this year; Oliveri wishes to generate improvement in terms of their skill, as the college level can be tough to adapt to initially.

Moving forward, Oliveri also plans on possibly making some tactical changes to his team in order to get more numbers up on the field. “We don’t get enough forward up sometimes,” he said.

Regardless of not making the SUNYACs, the men’s soccer team should still be proud of a well-played season.

Volleyball makes SUNYACs for first time in five years

It has been a good week for the Geneseo volleyball team. The team recently qualified for the SUNYACs for the first time since 2011, as the No. 5 seed. In their quarterfinal matchup versus the No. 4 seed SUNY Fredonia, the Knights won to advance to the semifinals on Tuesday Nov. 1.

The team has had a good season, going 17-14 overall and 5-4 in conference play. They will face SUNY Brockport on Friday Nov. 4 in the semifinals at 7 p.m.

“It’s surreal. It’s truly an indescribable feeling. And to feel the support of an entire athletic department, campus and community behind you is even more amazing,” senior captain Tricia Baxley said in an email.

Fredonia was tough competition for the Knights, but it will be a whole different game to play when the Knights face off against Brockport for the semifinals. Brockport finished their regular season with a record of 30-3 and went 9-0 in conference play. In their previous game against Brockport on Oct. 8, the Knights lost 3 sets to 1.

“I think we can absolutely win SUNYACs; there is nothing more motivating than knowing that other teams out there don’t think you can do it, and there’s nothing more fulfilling than proving people wrong,” Baxley said.

While it’s the first time in five years that the Knights qualified for the SUNYACs, Baxley believed that it was going to be a special season right from the beginning.

“Although GSUVB has always been a team with great chemistry, it just felt different this year; any player can look to their left or right and trust the person next to them to get the job done, and that’s so important whether it’s in practice or when the game is on the line,” Baxley said.

While adjusting to the college level for any sport can be difficult, that just wasn’t the case this year with the volleyball team in regard to new players.

“There was no hiccup at all when [the freshmen] first arrived on campus for preseason in August. They stepped right into their roles with confidence, respect and humility,” Baxley said.

Even if the Knights don’t win on Friday, it won’t change the fact that the Knights had an amazing season. For the seniors, though, the semifinals against Brockport could mark their last game as a Knight.

“Four years goes by too quickly and I wish I had one more, but I know that every time I look back on the season that we made it to SUNYACs and proved people wrong I will smile,” Baxley said.

With such a talented freshman class, the SUNYACs could become a norm for the team.

“Not only is each individual team a family, but the athletic department as a whole is a family. Through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, you can count on any and all teams for support,” Baxley said.

This is something that not many teams, let alone colleges, can say. When you have chemistry like that, anything can happen.

English Premier League keeps fans on edge

The English Premier League is generally considered to be the best football league in the world. It has it all: pace, technicality, skill and some of the best teams and players the globe has to offer. While most EPL seasons are phenomenal, this season could prove to be the most exciting—or excruciating—season yet, depending on the team you support.

The season is only nine matches in, but the title race couldn’t be any closer. Manchester City is currently atop the table in first place, followed by Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. To make matters even tighter, all five are separated by, at most, a single point—a feat that has never occurred before at this point in any EPL season.

Behind world-class manager Pep Guardiola, Manchester City started off the EPL campaign strong, winning six games straight. In their last three games, however, Manchester has looked flat. During these three league games they’ve suffered a 2-0 loss to Spurs and have had consecutive 1-1 draws to Everton and Southampton.

City is still favored by most to win the league, and if Guardiola can get the production back from prolific goal-scorer and striker Sergio Agüero, league-leading assister and attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and midfielder Raheem Sterling, the Citizens could easily win their second title in three years.

Arsenal had aimed to go on top of the table, but failed to do so with a draw to newly- promoted Middlesbrough on Saturday Oct. 22. Arséne Wenger is entering his 20th season as the Gunners manager and is aiming for his fourth EPL title.

The Gunners started off slow, suffering a 4-3 defeat to Liverpool on opening weekend, followed up with a draw to last year’s EPL champions, Leicester City. Since then, however, the Gunners have been on a tear, winning six and drawing one. If the Gunners want to win their first EPL title in over a decade, they will need to play flawlessly behind the likes of attacking midfielder Mesut Özil, forward Alexis Sánchez and their new signing, midfielder Granit Xhaka.

Then we have Liverpool. The once English giant has never won an EPL title; the last time they even won a league title was in 1990. Since German Jürgen Klopp took over last season as manager, though, the Reds have been phenomenal.

The Reds have scored more goals than any other EPL side at this time. Their star-studded offense—which includes attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho, midfielder Roberto Firmino, striker Daniel Sturridge and winger Sadio Mané—is a treat to watch. The question is whether or not they can keep this up all season and finally lift the title that has evaded their grasp for so long.

After a disappointing season last year—where they finished in 10th place—Chelsea looks to win their fifth EPL title. Manager Antonio Conte’s team started off the season strong with three wins, but have since suffered defeats to Arsenal and Liverpool.

Since then, they have revitalized, however, winning three straight matches, including the 4-0 dismantling of Manchester United on Sunday Oct. 23. With the change to a 3-4-3 formation and attacking midfielder Eden Hazard playing like his usual self, Chelsea could claim number five come May.

Although they find themselves in fifth place, the Spurs are still the EPL’s only undefeated team. Centre-back Mauricio Pochettino’s side has played well so far, defeating City and drawing against Liverpool. While they have drawn their last two games, the Spurs will soon get back their defending scoring champion, forward Harry Kane and defensive rock Toby Alderweireld.

Men’s soccer clinches senior day victory

The Geneseo men’s soccer team has continued their season into October, going 3-1-1. Since the start of October, the team has played well, scoring five goals and only conceding three. The Knights’ striking skills this month include impressive wins over such conference rivals as SUNY New Paltz (2-1), SUNY Brockport (1-0) and—most recently on Saturday Oct. 15—SUNY Oswego (2-1). The win against Oswego was much needed, especially after a tight 1-0 loss to SUNY Cortland the day before.

Oswego’s sophomore forward Jason Siracuse started the scoring early with a header in the eighth minute. Twenty minutes later, though, Geneseo senior midfielder Matt D’Amico equalized. Then in the 63rd minute, fellow Geneseo senior forward Ethan Gunty notched the game winner. This left Oswego to fall to 1-7 in the conference.

With their win over the Knights, the Cortland Red Dragons moved to 7-1 in the conference and clinched a playoff spot. The Red Dragons increased their lead at the top of the table by five points over SUNY Oneonta, who is currently 5-1-1. As of now, Cortland, Oneonta and Buffalo State are the only teams who have clinched a playoff spot in the SUNYAC Conference.

SUNY Fredonia and Geneseo are currently tied for fourth in the table with 12 points, although Fredonia technically has the tiebreaker over the Knights, with a record of 10-5-1 versus the Knights’ 8-5-2.

While the whole team has been in fantastic form recently, Gunty and D’Amico continue to impress. The two currently have the most points on the team. Gunty leads the way with 17 points in 13 games, and right behind him is D’Amico with 15 points in 15 games.

Not only are the seniors paving the way to wins, but so is freshman goalkeeper Dillon Medd. With back-to-back shutouts and a career high of 14 saves in the loss to Cortland, Medd was not only named Geneseo’s Male Athlete of the Week, but also SUNYAC Men’s Soccer Defensive Athlete of the Week. To say Medd has been in outstanding form recently seems like an understatement, since he has conceded just two goals this season.

With three games remaining in the 2016 season, the men will be looking for a SUNYAC playoff spot. It will be easier said than done, though, as their remaining three games are all on the road.

The men take on SUNY Potsdam on Friday Oct 21. Potsdam is currently tied for sixth in the table with seven points. On Saturday Oct. 22, the men travel to SUNY Plattsburgh, who are also tied for sixth with seven points. Both Plattsburgh and Potsdam are in do-or-die modes, and a loss would most likely eliminate them from playoff contention.

For their final game of the regular season, the Knights travel to Rochester to play St. John Fisher College, who are currently 4-7-2, on Wednesday Oct. 26. If the team plays like they have all year on the road, though—which has left them at a 4-1-1 record—they should have nothing to worry about and could be looking at a playoff berth.

Men’s soccer gains strength with new players

In their last five games, the Geneseo men’s soccer team is 3-1-0, only suffering a loss to conference rival SUNY Oneonta. But with a 6-1 win over SUNY Fredonia on Sept. 24, a 1-0 win over Nazareth College on Sept. 27 and a 2-1 win over SUNY New Paltz on Saturday Oct. 1, the team is dominating.

After having their two-game winning streak broken by Oneonta, the Knights bounced back in a crucial conference game against New Paltz. They won 2-1 thanks to a goal by freshman forward Bryan Wager, which was assisted by current points-leader senior forward Ethan Gunty. Gunty continues to lead his team with four goals and one assist in his last four games.

While they have been phenomenal so far, the team has suffered some setbacks, however, with a season-ending injury to senior midfielder Alex Clar.

Freshmen midfielder Dean Kousmanidis has been affected by these setbacks. As a new player, he has found himself stepping up more than he originally expected. Although injuries have taken a toll on the team, everyone has stepped up and done their job, which has led to their success.

“We played all 2.5 of those three games very well. We were up on Oneonta with less than a minute left in our first half, and gave up a goal late in the first to shift momentum,” Kousmanidis said. “We didn’t close against Oneonta the way that we have proved we can in other tight games.”

The loss didn’t take a toll on the team, though. “[It] fired us up, didn’t hold us back,” Kousmanidis said. “We knew that New Paltz was a must-win game, and we proved who the better team was.”

Kousmanidis also noted how big of an adjustment college level play is to the high school level.

“The speed of play and physicality are night and day when comparing high school and college,” Kousmanidis said. “It’s a huge adjustment, but having a good group of guys to show us young guys the ropes is helpful.”

While the team currently has a great mentality, the question is how far can they go in the SUNYACs? Kousmanidis believes that if the team can continue to play confidently and can remain focused, they have a great chance to do well in the tournament.

With six games left in the season, though, this is easier said than done. The team has five remaining games against conference rivals SUNY Brockport, SUNY Cortland, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Plattsburgh. Cortland is 3-1 in conference play and 8-2 overall, while Plattsburgh is 2-1 in conference play and 9-2 overall.

The two games that look to be the most challenging ones left for the team are the ones against Cortland and Plattsburgh, as Brockport is 2-6-2 overall and Oswego is 3-8. Together, both those teams only have one win in conference play. One other game that could be tricky is against Potsdam. Although they are 1-2 in conference play, they are 6-3-1 overall.

Regardless of the other teams’ statistics, however, the Knights are looking to go all the way this year in the SUNYACs. They have faced—and conquered—several obstacles already, so they are more prepared than ever for what might come with these next several games.