Sports In A Minute

Compiled By Broadside Sports Staff

MEN’S BASKETBALL
The Patriots enter the 2008-09 season realizing that no game will be a cakewalk for them. Last Wednesday, the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets held on to defeat Mason 73-72 in their only exhibition game this season. The Division III team took a 13-point lead after guard Kevin Voelkel drilled a three-pointer with 7:51 left in the first half. The Yellow Jackets shot 13-for-23 from behind the arc, including 7-for-10 coming in the second half.

The Patriots rallied in the second half, shooting 5-for-7 from long distance, but guard John Vaughan’s last-second three-pointer was not enough to save the team from preventing the upset. Senior guards Dre Smith and Vaughan led Mason with 20 and 19 points, respectively. Smith shot a respectable 9-for-14 from the field and Vaughan made 4-for-6 three-pointers. Both freshmen Andre Cornelius and Ryan Pearson combined for 15 points in 33 minutes. The team opens their season at Vermont University this Saturday, looking to build off their season-opening 60-53 win last year against the Catamounts. Mason returns to the Patriot Center for the home opener on November 17 against Brown University.

MEN’S SOCCER
The men’s soccer team found the right time to be on a hot streak as the Patriots defeated Old Dominion University 3-1 to clinch a spot in the CAA tournament. Mason (10-6-2, 6-4-1) concluded the 2008 season in a four-way tie with College of William & Mary, Old Dominion, and Northeastern University with 19 points in the CAA. Freshman midfielder Ryan Gracia led off the game in the 35th minute with his fourth goal of the season. Senior forward Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe, the reigning CAA Player of the Week, added some insurance with his team-leading fifth goal. Junior midfielder Richard Edgar tallied Mason’s third goal in the 57th minute. Coming off three straight shutouts, goalkeeper Sean Kelley nearly registered his fourth until senior midfielder Trevor Banks put an end to Kelley’s streak of 358:58 without allowing a goal. Prior to Mason’s 2-0 win over Drexel University on October 29, the Patriots ranked ninth in the CAA. The team jumped six slots since then. Mason, William & Mary, and Old Dominion each have a 6-4-1 CAA record, but William & Mary has a slightly better overall record for second place. The third-seeded Patriots host the CAA first round match against the sixth-seeded Hofstra University this Tuesday.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING
Coming off an outstanding appearance in the Pod Meet, freshman Ashley Danner continued swimming at a high level. In Saturday’s meet against University of Maryland and University of North Carolina, Danner was the only Mason swimmer to win an event. The freshman won the 100-yard breaststroke event with a time of 1:01.98 and followed that with a first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:14.28. In both events, Danner beat the second-place swimmer by approximately two seconds. The women’s ‘A’ team led off the day with a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. The ‘A’ team with Danner, Junior Claire Weems, freshman Nicole Harmon, and senior Mary Beth Cheslock concluded the day’s session with a bronze in the 200-yard freestyle. Sophomore Jenny Kane placed third in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Sophomore Lisa Faulkner also represented Mason with a second-place finish in the three-meter diving event.

MEN’S SWIMMING
The men’s swimming team headed up north to College Park, Md. to compete against the two ACC schools in Saturday’s swim meet. No Mason swimmer won a single event. Freshman Preston Wolter finished third in the 1,000-yard freestyle event with a time of 9:35.19. Wolter touched the wall 25 seconds after the top finisher. Mason’s strongest presence came in the diving events. In the one-meter diving event, freshmen Bryan Bahr and Derrick Butts, and senior Ryan Metzker took slots 2-through-4 with scores of 289.9, 271.8 and 262.05 points, respectively. Metzker and Butts swapped positions in the three-meter dive, and Bahr earned the silver with a score of 300.3. Both the men and women host the Patriot Invite from November 21-23.

PATRIOT ACHIEVEMENTS
Senior Jessica Paris represented the women’s soccer team after being named to the third-team All-CAA for the second straight year. Paris became the 11th overall Mason player to earn more than one All-CAA selection, first since Sarah Coughlin earned honors in 2003 and 2004. This season, Paris was sixth in the CAA with seven assists while scoring once.

Last week, two Mason athletes were named CAA Male Diver and Female Swimmer of the Week. Freshman Bryan Bahr captured the gold in the three-meter diving event with a score of 329 points in the Pod Meet. Bahr also finished second in the one-meter event. Fellow freshman Ashley Danner broke two school records last weekend in the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard breaststroke. She won her third event in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.83 seconds.