Mercurial Violets Thrive in Golf, Struggle in Volleyball

via gonyuathletics.com

NYU students competed in a variety of sports this weekend including volleyball, cross country, and tennis.

Rachel Ruecker and Miguel de Laveaga

While the ranked women’s soccer team was held to a tie and the men came out on top to improve their season record, NYU’s other sporting contingents were spread all throughout the eastern seaboard. Here’s a look at how they all did.

Golf

Both NYU golf teams were back in action this weekend, as the men headed upstate to Victor, New York and the women traveled to Williams College in Massachusetts. Both teams came off promising performances last weekend and were looking to build upon them.

The men, who finished second last weekend in the Liberty League Championship, impressed with a solid first place finish in this weekend’s Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship, hosted by Ravenswood Country Club. The Violets broke records for both single-day and two-day team performances, shooting a school-low 584 for the weekend event. Garnering First Team All-Tournament honors were freshman Jensen Ji and senior Eric Tarakjian. Both shot very respectably, at 141 and 143. Those two led the way for NYU as they took second of 15 teams in the event. The men look ahead to next weekend’s Manhattanville Invitational, held in nearby Westchester.

All the way up in Williamstown, the women took home third place. They once again came very close to that second place crown, finishing only one stroke behind Amherst College. Host Williams College finished a comfortable 14 strokes ahead of the Violets to win their own event. Junior Alyssa Poentis was back in action this weekend, finishing a single stroke away from individual victory with a 149 overall. Sophomore Jenni Bluetling, too, was back from inaction this weekend, taking home a tie for seventh place with junior Kristin Lee. The women have next weekend off before their final tournament of the fall, the NYU Invitational at their home Forest Hill Field Club.

Tennis

The women’s team had the week off heading into this weekend’s Intercollegiate Tennis Association Nationals, leaving the men to compete at the ITA Northeast Regionals with four Violets — senior Matt DeMichiel, senior Umberto Setter, sophomore Benedict Teoh and freshman Vishal Walia — emerging victorious in the singles and moving onto the second round. DeMichiel and Setter came away victorious after round two. Setter is the lone Violet who will play today in the semis.

Meanwhile, in doubles action, Setter was equally successful with freshman partner Zeb Zhang as both they and another doubles duo, Teoh and DeMichiel, competed right through until round three, where they were both ousted.

Volleyball

The good times came to a screeching halt for the women’s volleyball team as they dropped three straight this weekend in University Athletic Association play in Pittsburgh. In their first game, they won the initial set against Case Western Reserve University 25-20, but would drop the next three 25-23, 25-15 and 25-21. They were no luckier against Emory University where they fell in three straight, going 25-15, 25-22 and 25-11. The Violets’ characteristic strength was nowhere to be found as the Emory Eagles led across the board, notably out-blocking the Violets 8-3. Their last game on the weekend came against the University of Rochester where they again came away with a first set win, 25-21, but lost the next three 25-19, 25-18 and a disconcerting 25-8.

The women play next at home this Friday against Hunter College. The game starts at 6 p.m. at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility.

Cross Country

In this weekend’s Paul Short Run at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the men’s team came fifth of 45, with top showings from senior runner Jorge Maldonado, who came in third in the 8K with a time of 24:45, and junior Max Mudd, who came in 26th with a time of 25:16. On the women’s end, junior Megan Davis was the top NYU finisher in the 6K, coming in 157th in 23:15.

 A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Oct. 3 print edition. Email Rachel Ruecker and Miguel de Laveaga at [email protected].