It’s time for week two of my weekly Clark and NEWMAC sports review, where we will be looking at what transpired from Oct. 3 to Oct. 10. For an introduction on what this review entails, refer to my first round-up last week. With the formalities out of the way, let’s not waste anymore time and jump right into how our Cougar sports teams have done this past week. 

On Monday the third, as with most Mondays, there were no sporting events; however the following day, Tuesday Oct. 4, saw two competitions for the Cougars – field hockey and women’s volleyball. Both of these matches were played at home, with field hockey losing zero to three to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and volleyball falling to Springfield College, also ending in a  score of zero to three.

Wednesday was a rebound day following Tuesday, as the women’s soccer team traveled to Wellesley for a bout with The Blue. Cougars soccer upped their victory streak to four games with a two-one win. Men’s soccer also took part in a match on Wednesday, drawing Worcester State in a home matchup. Clark Athletics also competed in two sporting matches Thursday Oct. 6, with women’s tennis failing to capture victory against Bridgewater State (3-6) and women’s volleyball emerging triumphant against Worcester State (3-0). Despite the three to six loss for women’s, first year Sunjana Venkitakrishnan put in a stellar performance. Winning in both her doubles and singles matches, providing Clark two of its three points on the day. 

On the last day before the weekend, Friday Oct. 7, Clark hosted one event. Men’s tennis ended up losing one to eight in a hard fought series of matches against Assumption College. Moving on to the weekend, field hockey nearly came home victorious after visiting Wheaton College, losing two to three in overtime. Women’s soccer was also on the road, trekking over to New London, CT. to face the Coast Guard Academy Bears. Although not winning the match, the Cougars did continue their unbeaten streak to five games with a two all tie. Finally on Saturday, men’s soccer took the long trip to play cross town rival WPI in NEWMAC play, losing zero to four in the process. This concludes a somewhat slow week in athletics as there were no competitions on either Sunday the 9 or Monday the 10. 

Let’s turn back to Thursday Oct. 6, and take a deeper look at Women’s volleyball. Not only did the cougars emerge with a dominant three to nothing victory, but the game also marked senior day! Four seniors were honored with a pre-game introduction ceremony: defensive specialist Claire Baker, outside hitter Cameron Gill, right side hitter Ava Spach, and outside hitter Claudia Rivera. Rivera stood out on the court as well, leading the Cougz in both kills (19) and service aces (3). The outside hitter was also bolstered by strong performances from teammates: juniors Camille Flurry and Sheyenne Williams each tallied five kills while graduate Marimo Oka recorded 15 digs. Clark was particularly dominant in the second set, finishing off with a score of 25 to eight, including a commanding run of nine straight points won. This win for the Cougars over cross-town opponent Worcester State was a crucial victory, giving the team momentum to take into the final third of the season. 

The NEWMAC also had a few exceptional games this week, starting off with Tuesday Oct. 4 we go to Babson men’s soccer. In an inter-conference game pitted against Suffolk University, the Beavers constructed a towering seven-nil performance. This stomping was led by NEWMAC men’s soccer defensive player of the week Liam Hanlon. The senior center back played well in both of the team’s games this week, extending their shutout streak to four straight matches. 

Moving on to Friday Oct. 7, fellow NEWMAC competitor MIT lost to Wisconson Whitewater in a neural site volleyball game. This match serves as an great example of how the final score of a sporting event is not alway representational of how competitive the game actually was. The final tally read three to zero in favor of Whitewater, however all three sets of the match went into a tiebreaker. The typical threshold to win a set is 25 points, however a team must be leading by two points to win the set. MIT forced all three sets past 25 points, but could not secure any set wins in the end; this match was decided by only a handful of points, and could have gone either way despite what the final score may lead you to believe. This is even more impressive when considering that Wisconsin Whitewater was a formidable foe, going into the game ranked ninth nationally. 

Finally for this past week, fellow Worcester resident WPI and NEWMAC member Catholic slugged it out in a tightly contested football game. On Saturday Oct 8. Catholic came out victorious (24-21) after a fourth quarter touchdown from the Cardinals. Catholic came back to score 17 unanswered points after a hot Engineers’ start in our nation’s capital.

Before we end this week’s edition, let’s examine the Cougars’ position for this upcoming week. Tuesday Oct. 11 Clark women’s volleyball is set to visit the MIT Engineers. Also on Tuesday, field hockey will travel over to Nichols college for a 7 p.m. matchup. Both soccer teams will play at home on Wednesday Oct. 12, with the men’s team facing Tufts and the women’s squad playing NEWMAC rival Mount Holyoke. With only six matches left this game will be important for the women’s team in terms of playoff seeding. There are no events Thursday and on Friday Oct. 14, women’s volleyball will be on the road to face the RIT Tigers. Finally for this week, Saturday will be the most action packed day of all for Cougars sports fans;  every fall sport (including rowing and cross country) will be competing in at least one event on Saturday. We’ll just have to come back next week to see how Clark Athletics performed in these exhilarating contests. And as always, roll Cougz!