Basketball

On Friday, the women’s basketball team tied the all-time NCAA Division III win-streak record with their 81st consecutive win, 73-65, at Case Western Reserve University.

The first quarter saw a close fight for the lead. Junior Brooke Batchelor’s three-pointer gave the Violets the lead at the end of the quarter. The Violets trailed CWRU 28-26 halfway through the second quarter, but the team proceeded to score 14 points to CWRU’s four to hold a 40-33 lead at halftime.

NYU proceeded to outscore CWRU 19-16 in the third quarter to maintain a lead. Senior Caroline Peper didn’t get on the board in the first half, but scored ten of NYU’s 19 points in the third quarter. CWRU continued to battle NYU until the end, getting three points away from NYU’s lead with less than three minutes remaining in the last quarter. NYU’s defense didn’t allow CWRU to score again and the Violets secured a 73-65 record-tying win.

On Sunday, NYU women’s basketball team triumphed over Carnegie Mellon University, 69-58,  to break the all-time NCAA D-III win-streak record with 82 consecutive victories.

Peper got the Violets on the board first with back-to-back three-point shots. She remained the only Violet to score with two more three-pointers by the end of the first quarter, when NYU was trailing 14-12. The Tartans continued to lead into the second quarter, with their largest lead of four points before NYU scored seven consecutive points. By halftime, the team was leading 32-29.

In the third quarter, NYU maintained their lead and went on a six-point streak. The Violets tallied 17 points in the third compared to the Tartans’ eight. Heading into the fourth quarter, NYU held a 49-37 lead over Carnegie Mellon. Sophomore Zahra Alexander racked up two points to start the quarter to give NYU its largest lead of the game, 51-37. NYU remained formidable throughout the rest of the game to clinch the record-breaking victory.

NYU is 20-0 in their current season and hasn’t lost since March 2023.

On Friday, the No. 25-ranked men’s basketball team secured a 89-75 win in a UAA matchup against Case Western Reserve University.

The Violets took a large lead in the first half, with 45 points posted against CWRU’s 32 points. Graduate student Luke Kolaja factored in on 14 of the 45 points, and made four out of five three-pointer attempts. 

The team held onto the lead in the second half. NYU maintained its double-digit lead with CWRU only getting within 12 points of the lead with a little over two minutes left. NYU won by 14.

Senior Quinn Clark recorded a season-high 20 points, second on the team behind Kolaja’s 22 points. Clark also tied junior Carnegie Johnson’s high of nine rebounds. The Violets consistently outshot CWRU in field goals throughout the game, posting a 54.5% in the entire game compared to CWRU’s 35.8%.

On Sunday, the men’s basketball team overcame Carnegie Mellon in overtime with a 70-68 win. The first half featured a close battle between the two teams, with Carnegie Mellon leading 28-25 by halftime. The second half saw NYU begin their comeback by outscoring Carnegie Mellon 35-32 to end regulation with a 60-60 tie to force overtime.

In overtime, both teams remained in close contention with each other, with both teams making under 50% of field goals. However, it was NYU that broke the stalemate and notched ten points in overtime to Carnegie Mellon’s eight. Both teams were neck-and-neck throughout the game, with the score tying 12 times. Graduate student Darren Rubin led the team with 18 points, and Clark led the team with eight rebounds.

Both teams will head to upstate New York to play against the University of Rochester on Friday, Feb.13.

Fencing

The men’s fencing team headed to Duke University on Saturday to compete in the Beguinet Classic.

The Violets started off the day with a comfortable 17-10 win over The Pennsylvania State University before securing a narrow 14-13 victory over the United States Air Force Academy. NYU proceeded to lose three matches to the University of Notre Dame, 19-8, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 16-11 and Boston College, 16-11. In their last matchup of the tournament, the Violets secured a close 14-13 win against Brandeis University.

In epee, first-year Szymon Wojciechowski led the group with nine wins. First-year Surya Mattoo led the Violets with 10 wins for the sabers and junior Adam Wong tallied nine wins for the foils.

The women’s fencing team headed to Chapel Hill, NC to participate in UNC’s Miller Invitational on Sunday.

Its first matchup of the day saw NYU go up against host UNC, where the Violets recorded a 17-10 loss. Despite the slow start to the day, NYU proceeded to win its next three matches against Air Force, 17-10, Brandeis, 15-12 and Penn State, 14-13. NYU closed out their tournament with a 16-11 loss to Johns Hopkins University.

Both teams will take the piste again on Sunday Feb. 22 at Long Island University for the LIU Shark Showdown.

Swimming and diving

Both swimming teams headed to West Point, NY for a two-day competition at the Army Invite on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, first-year Hector Mu placed second out of 11 swimmers in the men’s 100-yard butterfly time trial and first-year Molly Sleman placed first out of four swimmers in the women’s 100-yard freestyle time trial. On Saturday, graduate student Daniel Gustin placed second with a time of 20.68 out of five swimmers in the men’s 50-yard freestyle time trial.

Both diving teams competed in the RPI Dive Invitational at Troy, NY on Saturday in their last meet before the UAA Championships.

For the men, senior Makai Harder won the 1m, six-dive competition with a score of 248.80. Sophomore Nolan Jennings placed first in the 1m, 11-dive competition with 468.95 points.

In the women’s competition, senior Meera Kasturi and sophomore Katherine Taylor placed first and second in the 3m, six-dive competition with scores of 307.85 and 295.40, respectively.

The swimming and diving teams will head to the UAA Championships hosted by the University of Chicago next week.

Track and field

On Friday, the men’s and women’s track and field teams headed to the Scarlet Knight Open hosted by Rutgers University at The Armory.

Sophomore Stella Kuttner placed third for the Violets with a time of 4:57.19 in the women’s one-mile race. First-year Alexa McMillian placed fourth in women’s triple jump with an 11.69m jump. First-year Theodore Udelson-Nee won the men’s 3000m race with a time of 8:22.52.

Both teams will head to the David Hemery Valentine Invitational hosted by Boston University and the NYU D-III Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 14.

Volleyball

The No. 7-ranked men’s volleyball team triumphed over Rutgers University-Newark on Tuesday at the Paulson Center in a match that broke the record for the longest set in program history.

The Violets secured comfortable wins in their first two sets 25-18 and 25-20. However, in a third set that would total up to 84 points, four off the D-III record, Rutgers pulled ahead with a 43-41 win after the score was tied 27 times. NYU proceeded to win the final set 25-17.

Junior Emerson Evans led the team with 20 kills and first-year Charlie Clifford tied his season high of 17 kills.

On Saturday, the Violets hosted both Misericordia University and Kean University. In NYU’s first set against Misericordia, both teams were unable to pull away with a lead larger than three points. While tied at 22-22, it was Misericordia who pulled ahead with a 25-23 win. 

The Violets had a slow start to their second set, initially trailing the Cougars. However, NYU won six consecutive points and went on to take the second set with a comfortable lead of 25-17. The third and final sets saw the Violets winning a series of consecutive points, and the team won the sets 25-17 and 25-19 respectively to take the win over Misericordia.

NYU trailed for the first two sets in their second match of the day against Kean. Kean started out strong, taking control of both sets with 25-19 and 25-21 wins. A close third set saw the score tied at 23-23. However, NYU was able to score two consecutive points to give them the third set of the match 25-23.

The fourth set saw multiple ties, with the score tied mid-set at 11-11 and at 22-22 when the Cougars caught up to the Violets’ lead. However, NYU was able to force a fifth set with a close 25-23 win. NYU dominated for most of the final set, taking an early 6-2 lead. The Violets were able to maintain that lead and won the final set 15-9.

Evans led the team with a total of 32 kills across both matches. Clifford tallied 26 kills throughout the day and junior Devyn Nguyen racked up an impressive 102 assists in total.

The Violets will cross the river to take on Stevens Institute of Technology on Tuesday, Feb. 10.

Wrestling

The wrestling team hosted Bridgewater State University and the United States Coast Guard Academy for Alumni Day on Saturday at the Paulson Center.

The No. 15-ranked Violets dominated in their first dual against Bridgewater State with a 47-10 win. Eight Violets won their bouts, with sophomore Xavier Diaz opening up the dual. First-year Nathan Faxon, sophomores Alexander Kaufmann and Mo Talebi, junior John Mairano, senior Nicky Bell and graduate students Ty Finn and Justin Mayes won the last seven bouts to secure the win for NYU.

NYU’s second dual of the day saw them up against the No. 21-ranked USCGA for a close dual that would be decided in the final bout. In the 10 bouts against USCGA, NYU took five wins with the first coming from sophomore Alexander Diaz. Sophomore James Carlock won the third bout for the Violets and it wouldn’t be until the seventh, eighth and ninth bouts that NYU would see wins again with Finn, Mayes and Talebi racking up points for the team. Despite the Violets’ efforts, USCGA took the win 23-19.

The Violets will host the UAA Championship at the Paulson Center on Saturday, Feb. 14.

Contact Sherry Chen at [email protected].