Baseball

The baseball team ventured to Florida for a series of seven games over the break, winning four and losing three.

The Violets started the week with a doubleheader against Russell Sage College at IMG Academy in Bradenton on March 14. Despite putting up eight runs in the ninth inning, the Violets fell 12-11. In the second game, NYU couldn’t hang on to its early lead and lost 15-5. Graduate student Kosta Mocklis hit his third and fourth home runs of the season, leading the UAA.

The Violets soon regained momentum with three consecutive victories at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale. 

Junior Matt Dahl set a single-game career high with six RBIs in the team’s 16-2 victory over Russell Sage on March 15. Four days later, the Violets cruised to a 13-3 victory against Elmhurst University, during which senior Harrison Blueweiss extended his RBI streak to five straight games. Friday saw a 6-3 win against Colby College. 

NYU finished the following day at the Chain of Lakes Complex in Winter Haven, splitting a doubleheader against Purchase College — first losing 11-5, then coming back with a strong 19-5 showing.

The baseball team will begin UAA play on Friday with the start of a series against Emory University at the Naimoli Family Baseball Complex in New Jersey.

Basketball 

Women’s basketball closed out its monumental season on Thursday in Salem, VA, falling 60-52 to the University of Scranton in the Final Four. The loss ended both NYU’s NCAA Tournament run and its 91-game win streak, the longest in all of Division III.

The Violets fell behind early with a 17-5 opening quarter and couldn’t recover. After the first basket — a characteristic three-pointer from senior Caroline Peper — was answered by a 9-0 run from Scranton, NYU never led. The defending champions kept up with the Lady Royals for the rest of the game and outmatched them 18-13 in the fourth quarter, but ultimately couldn’t get closer than three points of Scranton.

Peper, in her final show, made four shots from beyond the arc and notched 19 points, five rebounds and two assists, steals and blocks each. First-year rising star Olivia Lagao was NYU’s second-highest scorer with 14 points and added three steals. Junior Yasmene Clark was a force on the glass with 15 rebounds, and junior Brooke Batchelor had nine points and four rebounds.

The Violets end the season 29-1 as the conference and regional champions. 

Fencing

NYU fencing competed in the NCAA Championships at the University of Notre Dame, where the women’s and men’s teams finished 18th out of 26 and 19th out of 22, respectively.

Sophomore Katherine Chen represented the Violets in women’s epee on Thursday, recording 7-8 across her bouts and ranking 16th out of 24 fencers. After the second and final day of competition, Chen ended the meet in 14th place, scoring 11 points overall for the Violets. 

The men’s team concluded the weekend with 16 points, placing 19th out of 22. Senior Jerry Pan scored five points in saber for the Violets, which put him second to last out of 24 competitors. First-year Szymon Wojciechowski turned in strong results in epee, finishing 13th out of 24. He scored 11 victories for NYU across the two days of competition. 

Golf

NYU’s golf teams opened their spring seasons on Friday at the Jekyll Island Invitational in Jekyll Island, GA. The No. 3-ranked women came out victorious, first of 24 teams, while the men finished second to last out of 30. 

Even against programs including No. 1-ranked Emory University and No. 2-ranked Carnegie Mellon University, the women’s team came out of every round better than the last, improving from fourth after round one to first by the end of the competition. First-years Inha Jun and Jiayi Fu, NYU’s highest individual finishers, tied for fifth. Jun hit an even par on Sunday, and the team had a three-day score of +34. 

The men’s team was tied in 29th after day one, but moved up a spot on Saturday with strong performances from junior Jomyuth Luangtana-anan, who led with a +1, and sophomore Oscar Uribe, who followed with a +2. The team had a combined score of +6 in the second round, and a three-day score of +41. 

The women’s team will return on March 30 in Glen Allen, VA, to play at the Randolph-Macon Stith Invitational. The men’s team will next play on April 11 in Glen falls, NY, for the first round of the Tim Brown Invitational.

Softball 

The softball team closed out a series of games against Manhattanville University on March 14 and 15 with 10-2 and 6-4 losses, and also fell 11-1 to Randolph-Macon College. 

THE Spring Games opened on Wednesday in Bartow, FL, where NYU lost 11-4 to Rowan University. In their second game of the day, the Violets bounced back to tie the program record for most runs in a game with a 25-1 victory against the State University of New York, Brockport. Junior Nicole Cicchetti and first-year Emma Sung also tied the program’s single-game record for hits with four each.

Thursday opened in Winter Haven, FL, as NYU bested Hartwick College 10-0 before facing a 10-0 loss to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. The Violets fell 4-2 to Ramapo College and 7-3 to William Patterson University the next day in Clermont, FL, to end the competition.

The softball team returns on Wednesday to face the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Its UAA slate will begin on Friday in the Bronx for a Tear It Up! day doubleheader against Brandeis University.

Swimming & diving 

The women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams capped off their seasons with strong performances at the NCAA D-III Championships from March 18-21. The women’s team claimed its first national title, while the men’s finished with a program high as the runner-up.

The women’s team remained in first after each of the four days of competition. Senior Kaley McIntyre earned five event championships in the meet, sweeping the 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle in all four years of her collegiate career. First-years Maeve O’Donnell and Llew Ladomirak, junior Lian Jeong Engle and McIntyre set a new D-III record of 1:29.38 in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Senior Meera Kasturi earned All-America honors for her performance in the one-meter dive.

The men’s team also featured dominant performances. Despite not claiming a title on the first day of competition, the squad of sophomores Sean Li and Teddy McQuaid, junior Pierce Downs and graduate student Teddy Cross set a new program record of 3:11.75 in the 400-yard medley relay. Sophomore Max Nechydyuk won the first title for the men in the 400-yard individual medley. McQuaid, Li, Cross and junior Greg Wehbe took first place in the 200-yard medley relay, setting a new program record of 1:26.18.  

Volleyball 

The No. 9-ranked men’s volleyball team swept Nazareth University in a Senior Day matchup on March 15 at the Paulson Center. 

The first set was tied 14 times with a late 25-25 deuce. A kill from senior Angus Ebeling put NYU at set point, securing a 27-25 win in the first set. The Violets gained the lead in the second set with an 8-1 run, winning 25-17, and took the third 26-24 for the match victory. Senior Jerry Feng led the team with 10 kills and two aces.

NYU will return to the Paulson Center on Wednesday to face SUNY New Paltz.

Wrestling

NYU wrestling brought home its second-ever individual national champion on March 14 in Cedar Rapids, IA, where sophomore Mo Talebi came out on top in the 197-lb class and the team clinched a program-best fourth of 62 teams. 

Talebi’s 10-5 decision in the final round marked NYU’s first top finish since 2017. Sophomore Alexander Diaz, undefeated in his regular season bouts, took third on the podium in the 125-lb weight class. Graduate student Ty Finn finished fifth in the nation at 175 lbs, and graduate student Justin Mayes earned All-America honors with his eighth-place performance in the 184-lb bracket. 

Contact Sherry Chen, Sayako Ikeda and Kiran Komanduri at [email protected].