Welcome to the first weekly athletics recap for Clark athletics and beyond. With the semester underway and athletic competitions taking place nearly everyday of the week, now is as good a time as ever to go over what is happening within the sports world of Clark University. In these weekly editions, the results of all games from the past week will be packaged into one place, and any particularly outstanding Cougar victories will be covered in more depth. Alongside this, we will go beyond the Clark perspective and show off some of the most notable intra-conference results from the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). At the end of each round-up will also be any Clarkies who earn athlete of week honors from NEWMAC, as well as standings for the Cougars and a brief look ahead to the next week’s action. 

To start us off, let’s go over what has transpired over the past week within Clark athletics. We’ll go in chronological order, starting on Monday September 26 with Clark women’s soccer at home against Framingham State. The Cougars started the new week strong with a five to zero thrashing of the Rams.

Moving on to Tuesday the 27, there were four competitions for our Cougar teams: men’s tennis, field hockey, women’s volleyball and men’s soccer. The men’s tennis squad lost zero to seven at Stonehill College, this coming despite a strong six to three match victory for Dariy Vykhodtsev and Graham Russo in one doubles. Cougars field hockey visited the St. Joseph (CT) Bluejays and came home victorious after an Erin Hynes goal set up a one to nothing victory. Women’s volleyball played a match at Coast Guard Academy that ended in a zero to three loss for the Cougs.

Finally on Tuesday, the men’s soccer team played the Brandeis University Judges at home, unfortunately ending in a zero to two loss. On both Wednesday the 28 and Thursday the 29, there was only one Clark sporting event for each respective day. On the 28, the Cougars women’s soccer team continued their winning ways with a three to zero home win over Salve Regina. The 29 brought another loss at the hands of Brandeis University, as the women’s volleyball team fell zero to three in Waltham.

Friday, September 30 was an off day for Clark athletics, so we turn to the lively day of Saturday, October 1st. Both the Women’s and Men’s cross country team competed at the Keene State Invitational: finishing in ninth and 11 place respectively. Women’s volleyball dropped both games of a doubleheader at Babson College, losing zero to three to Babson and one to three to the Gordon College Fighting Scots. Men’s soccer also took a visit to Babson College on Saturday, coming home empty handed after a zero to two loss versus the Beavers. Continuing on, the field hockey team won a home game two to zero with a solid performance against Mount Holyoke College. There was a home women’s tennis match scheduled for Saturday, however it was postponed to a later date. Finally, the women’s soccer team closed out the day with a one to zero win over cross-town rival WPI. To wrap up the week, there was one sporting event Sunday October the second: rowing. The Cougars crew began the season at the Head of the Riverfront in Hartford, Connecticut. The team finished strong, coming in at eighth place out of 31 teams. 

Looking a bit more in depth, the Clark Women’s soccer team had an outstanding week. The team finished with a record of three wins and zero losses in the games they played over the past seven days. Not only did the Cougars win all three matches played, they comprehensively dominated this week; scoring nine total goals while conceding none. Clark women’s soccer had strong performances on both sides of the pitch, but especially on offense, with a five to nothing win over Framingham State as mentioned before. The outburst in scoring this week was spearheaded by NEWMAC women’s soccer offensive player of the week: Jamie Joseph. Joseph, a graduate midfielder from Cazenovia, NY, recorded six total points across the three games this week. This included two assists against Framingham State, a goal and two additional assists versus Salve Regina, and finally the sole goal in the team’s one to nothing victory over WPI. 

Moving on to wider scope, let’s take a look at the NEWMAC as a whole; there were a few remarkable games from across our conference this past week. On Wednesday, September 28, the Endicott College Gulls dismantled Clark’s fellow NEWMAC member Springfield in an inter-conference field hockey matchup. By the end of the game, the score read eight to zero in favor of Endicott, expanding their shutout streak to five games. Looking to Saturday the first, there was another blow out; the Catholic Cardinals football team crushed intra-conference opponent MIT 42 to seven. The victory was largely thanks to senior quarterback Nico Casares, who in his first career start threw for 448 yards and five touchdown passes. Turning to volleyball, there was another noteworthy game on Saturday. WPI and Springfield squared off Saturday in a tightly contested NEWMAC matchup. WPI ended up winning the contest three to two, but the game was filled with back and forth action; the Engineers and the Pride traded sets for much of the game, and every set was tightly contested. Ultimately, WPI won two sets in a row, sealing their victory in this exhilarating match. 

Before this round-up is concluded, we should take a look at what’s to come for Cougars’ athletics. Women’s soccer will look to extend their winning streak to four games, as the team visits Wellesley College for an afternoon match Wednesday, October 5. On the other hand, Clark’s women’s volleyball team will look to snap a four game skid with a home game against Springfield College coming Tuesday October fourth. Also coming on Tuesday, MIT will be visiting Worcester for a night time matchup with our Cougar’s field hockey team. Clark also has two more home competitions on Wednesday the 5th of October, with the men’s tennis team facing Assumption College and men’s soccer playing Worcester State. On October 6, both the women’s volleyball and tennis team will be matching up against Worcester State and Bridgewater State respectively. Finally, on Friday October 8, field hockey will be at Wheaton College, women’s soccer will be hosted by Coast Guard, and men’s soccer will play at WPI in a Worcester based bout. 

We’ve reached the end of this semester’s first weekly sports round-up, I look forward to bringing more for all my fellow Cougar athletics fans. As always best of luck to all Clark teams in their upcoming games and roll Cougz!