The bus stops here
Corsairs' season ends
Aspirations of NCAA III Division tournament play for the UMD men’s basketball team ended abruptly Friday night, as Rhode Island College defeated your Corsairs 76-68. Despite the RIC hosting the game in their arena The Murray Center, many UMD faithful provided the arena with a home atmosphere.
Senior Paul Pawlowski, playing in his last game ever as a Corsair, set the tone with 2 early steals and a crowd-awing block. The first half consisted of back and forth play, with UMD falling down by 5 within the first 10 minutes. As the final minutes waned, junior Corey Tynes took over for a 2 minute span, sending the crowd in a frenzy with a 3 pointer followed by an acrobatic lay-up putting the Corsairs up 28-26. Tynes was fouled hard on the play. As he rose from the ground, Tynes tipped his hand to his ear, requesting the crowd to raise the volume. RIC would add a quick three-point play and a free-throw before half. Reece Freeman also added two free-throws to even the contest at 30-30.
As the players exited towards the locker room, the festive atmosphere in the building continued as a dance-off broke out between a UMD faithful and a RIC student. When play resumed in the 2nd half, senior Stephane Abelard (playing in his last game) took control of the game with 7 consecutive points to start the half. But RIC had answers of their own in their senior star Kinsey Durgin. Durgin came to life in the 2nd half after having just 4 in the first. Durgin poured in 3 three-pointers in a row and added a lay-up to give RIC a 10 point lead, 54-44. Corsairs cut the lead to within two with a 13-5 run. Abelard dropped in a free throw to cut it to 59-57.
But that was as close as they would get. Durgin scored six of RIC’s last eleven and UMD was outscored 17-9 in the last six minutes of the game. Pawlowski ends his career with 8 points, 3 steals and 3 blocks. Abelard had 22 points and 3 blocks. Here at the Torch we would like to recognize and congratulate seniors Stephane Abelard, Paul Pawlowski, and Dave Branca on their careers at UMD.
WALKING THE PLANK
Munyon honored by LEC
Senior Jennifer Munyon was named Little East Conference Women’s Track Athlete of the Week for her performance at the New England Division III Championships, hosted by Southern Maine Saturday.
Munyon made her UMass Dartmouth debut in the pentathlon, finishing second with 2917 points after leading until the final event, the 800 meter run.
“Jennifer Munyon did a great job in her first pentathlon ever at UMass Dartmouth,” said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Devlyn Lovell. “Hopefully, she’ll continue to improve.”
UMD moves to eighth in
USCHO. com division III poll
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s hockey team has gone back up to eighth place in the latest United States College Hockey Online Division III poll.
The Corsairs moved up after falling to ninth last week. They were ranked eighth in each of the previous three weeks, which equals their highest ranking ever.
St. Norbert has taken over first place in the poll from Manhattanville, with Wisconsin-River Falls, Oswego State and Wisconsin-Stout next. Neumann is sixth and Norwich has moved up to seventh. The Corsairs are followed by Wisconsin-Superior and Bowdoin in the top ten. Castleton State, Middlebury, Hobart, Skidmore and New England College complete the top 15.
Corsairs start playoffs with a bang
The top ranked UMD men’s hockey team began its playoff run by crushing the Seahawks of Salve Regina on Saturday night by the score of 9-2. With the win, they advance to the semi-final round of the ECAC Northeast playoff tournament. They will face fifth-ranked Fitchburg State on Wednesday night in New Bedford. Another win will put them into the ECAC Northeast championship game for the second consecutive year.
The Corsairs scored three power-play goals and three shorthanded goals in this contest. Senior forward Peter Lindner was the player of the game for UMass, scoring three goals. He began the scoring with a power-play goal about twelve minutes into the game and added two shorthanded goals in the second period. Twenty-six seconds after Lindner’s third goal, Tyler Trott scored from point blank range with Salve Regina held a two man advantage.
The third period saw the Corsairs scoring four times to make this one a blowout. The Seahawks were blanked in the third period as they watched their season end in a highly energized Hetland Ice Arena. “We have had tremendous following from UMD students this season, even at an off campus arena,” said John Rolli, coach of the defending champions of the ECAC Northeast.
One more win will put the Corsairs into the title game. If they do make it that far, they will have the honor of hosting it. Last year’s championship game was a battle against Curry that saw the Corsairs coming away with a win and an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament. “If you attended the championship win over Curry last season you will never forget the deafening roar and support of our hockey fans in propelling us to that win,” said Coach Rolli prior to the first round game. When asked if the Corsairs would have a shot to win the Division III National Tournament, after the ECAC Northeast tournament, Rolli said “As for the NCAA tournament, that’s way too far down the road.”
Playing with all the confidence in the world, the Corsairs are looking unstoppable. They have done everything to put themselves into the best position to bring back another division title, and even a strong run in the national tournament which takes place after the division tournament ends. Come show your enthusiasm by attending the remaining playoff games. “Once again to the UMD student body: We need you!” said an enthusiastic Rolli. So come out and watch the Corsairs wrap up this season, hopefully with a fantastic finish.
Cheater cheater pumpkin eater
Stock car racing has progressed rapidly in the United States. It began when moon shiners raced each other down the back roads to make deliveries to their customers. The sellers would mock up there cars to get the edge on their competitors. Thus the American sport of stock car racing was born.
This past weekend the NASCAR Nextel cup series was on pace to run its infamous Daytona 500. Five hundred miles of pure American sport, yet the photo finish of the race was out done by scandal upon scandal. Between the running of Toyota cars and the late race crashes these have been eclipsed by four race teams that were caught with violations
The most notable name out of the four teams was the Michael Waltrip racing team; subsequently Michael Waltrip himself is the owner and driver of the No. 55 NAPA Auto Parts car. The crew chief of the car, David Hyder, is suspected of putting a form of jet fuel in the cars intake manifold. Hyder and team director Bobby Kennedy were thrown out of the garage and suspended indefinitely for the infraction.
These strategic placements of the liquid made air flowing over the car bypass the rear spoiler. The rear spoiler keeps the backend of the car down because it is so light, thus creating more drag and making the car slower. By using this technique, Waltrip’s car would gain approximately 2-4 seconds on his lap time and add 4-5 MPH to his top speed.
The No. 55 car was then stripped down to its bare steel to be inspected and eventually it was banned from being used in the race. Waltrip himself was fined 100 points, which is unheard of. NASCAR usually fines drivers points during the season; Waltrip’s point deduction was taken before the season started. Eventually Waltrip was told he could qualify in his backup car as long as it passed inspection. Waltrip qualified in the fifteenth slot of the grid but only finished thirtieth.
Believe it or not, cheating has been part of NASCAR for years. I believe that these so called punishments are childish. The four other drivers that were caught before the Daytona 500 only had points taken away from them. The real punishment should be a suspension for a certain number of races or the person found responsible receives a life long ban.
If all that are given out are penalties, the message will never be made that cheating has real consequences. These are just a slap on the wrist and the drivers and teams will continually cheat. This has to stop; these events show the youth of America that cheating is ok. That is the wrong message we should be sending.
At any rate NASCAR is still the number one watched sports in America. Racing drivers have become icons. I would have to say that if these gods of the pavement have to realize that if they can not win with the equipment they have, they should not be racing.