Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.
With Eli Wallach visiting the campus back in October, we at Hoot Sports decided to borrow from the title of probably the most famous film Wallach starred in: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and apply it to a look back at 2005 in sports.
I promise never to call Caitlin Malcolm 07 Malkin like I did with the season preview two weeks ago. Given her play recently, I doubt anyone else would make that mistake as her dominant play, which included a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) in little over 15 minutes, helped lead Brandeis to their 83-39 blow-out over the previously undefeated Wheaton Lyons.
After the tip-off tournament, the Brandeis Judges lost their number 8 preseason ranking in the d3hoops.com poll They became number 7 and, after their game against Wellesley, they became number 4.
Five years ago, were one to suggest that Brandeis womens basketball would be a Division Three power, Ill bet that someone would have laughed at you, since from 1992-2000/01 the Judges went a combined 85-130. Since then, Brandeis has risen quite nicelygoing 12-12, and then 13-11 before breaking through with a 22-5 record for 2003-04. Last season they went 23-4, 10-4 in UAA play, and won their second straight ECAC Championship and enter this season ranked number 8 on d3hoops.coms preseason poll.
The UAA Championship was witness to an upset that came from what appeared to be from no where. Who would have thought that number one nationally ranked Washington University, winner of all but one tournament in the 19 year history of the UAA, would be sweptby number 3 nationally ranked Emory (30-25, 30-22, 30-27)? Where was Brandeis you may ask? You would have to look further down.
The long and winding road does eventually lead to that door;
hopefully Brandeis success in the Judges tournament will lead them up the path of respectability. Following a tough string of matches in which Brandeis went 1 and 8 in the past two weeks, Brandeis came roaring through the Judges Classic to win the tournament, overcoming past defeats and a string of injuries that saw every player take the floor (We had some players playing out of position Coach Kim said). Their tournament came complete with a record-setting performance by libero Shannon Trees 08 who served a record setting consecutive 26 serves that led to Brandeis points.
Two weeks ago, Brandeis had a difficult tournament in St. Louis and suffered a crushing home loss to Tufts. Heading into the Amherst hall of fame tournament, the goal of the Judges was to put St. Louis behind them and cut down on the errors and communication issues. One out of three isnt bad.
There they were, face to face, mano a mano, Judges versus Jumbos, the battle of two division three schools with unusual mascot choices (and names, what the heck is a Jumbo?). It was at Red Auerbach Arena that the womens volleyball team fought hard, but it was not enough, as the Judges lost their fifth game in a row 3-0 (30-24, 30-28, 30-24).
They are not down yet. After a rough start to the season, the Brandeis volleyball team used a 4-1 weekend to bring themselves back up to .500.
Last weekend was a trial by fire for the volleyball squad, and they returned slightly singed. Brandeis went 1-2 at the Amherst Invitational Tournament, beating Trinity College on the first day (30-26, 30-23, 25-30, 26-30, 15-12) before losing a tough one to Middlebury (30-21, 20-30, 30-18, 31-33, 7-15) and then collapsing against Amherst (30-15, 30-19, 30-22). This weekends tournament brings the Judges record to 5-7.
