Sports Briefs

Vassar fencing needs to strike back

The men’s and women’s fencing teams need to regain some momentum after losing tough matches to Rutgers and Yale on Jan. 22. Yale won the men’s match 21-6 and the women’s match 24-3, while Rutgers won 21-5 on the men's side, and 18-9 on the women’s.

There were some bright spots to the Brewers’ unfortunate sweep, however.

On the men's side, freshman Mike Kantor went undefeated against Yale and Rutgers with 3-0 and 2-0 wins, raising his record to 17-7, the best for Vassar this season.

On the women's side, sophomore Karolyn Upham spilt her matches, going 1-2 against Yale and 2-1 vs. Rutgers.

The Brewers will try to jump-start their engine on February 5, competing against Drew, Haverford, NJIT, Lafayette and Stevens, at Drew.

–Sarah Palermo, Assistant Sports Editor

Rookie Avitabile soars again

The Vassar men’s basketball team must be pretty grateful for their recruit, and forward, Lawrence Avitabile ’08. One of the most recognized players on the team, Avitabile is continually mentioned in game reports as one of the top performers. He averaged 20 points per game over the past five games. Most recently, he has been named Rookie of the Week by the Liberty League. This is the fifth time he has received this honor, although this time it is shared with Tyler Shaver of St. Lawrence.

This continually impressive player coasted through this week, competing with his team against Hartwick, Hobart and Hamilton.

One of the most frequently mentioned players on the Vassar team, Avitable has helped the team to maintain a steady season so far.

Avitabile performed particularly well in the Hartwick game, scoring 18 points in 18 minutes on 9-12 shooting from the field, an impressive feat, continuing on to score 14 points in the first nine minutes of the second half.

Despite the team’s losses to Hobart and Hamilton, Avitabile still put in a note-worthy performance. However, he met his match in Hobart player Joe Flake, who put up a defense that Avitabile could not overcome, making only nine points, or three of seven from the field.

For this past week, Avitabile averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and shot 54 percent from the field per game. In the most recent NCAA Division III statistics, he was ranked 12 in the nation in field goal percentage at 63.3 percent.

Next up for the team are two league road games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Friday at 8 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Following these are home games Feb. 4 and 5 against Union and Skidmore.

Basketball fans can surely look forward to great things from Avitabile, not only in the last few games of this season, but also in his next three years at Vassar.
–Jennifer Knopf, Sports Editor