Wash U No. 1, Emory No. 6 in Director's Cup

Washington University is No. 1 in the fall Director's Cup standings, and Emory is No. 6. See how the other UAA schools fared. Fall standings

Emory Joins Brandeis in Basketball Top 25

• Men's basketball: Emory (6-0) has joined Brandeis (8-0)  in the latest (Dec. 7, 2010) D3 men's basketball poll. Last week, the University of Chicago upset Illinois Wesleyan, which dropped from No. 2 to No. 10. NYU's men's team also received 29 votes.

• Women's basketball:  Washington University (5-1) remained No. 6 in this week's poll (Dec. 7), and the University of Rochester (6-1) moved up one spot to No. 11.

D3hoops.com Top 25 Polls

UAA Men's Basketball Schedule and Scores

UAA Women's Basketball Schedule and Scores


• Swimming: Four women's teams from the University Athletic Association are ranked in the latest (Nov. 10, 2010) college swimming coaches poll, including Emory at No. 1. On the men's side, five UAA teams are ranked.

TYR/CSCAA DI, II and III Polls (PDF)

• UAA Men's Swimming and Diving

• UAA Women's Swimming and Diving


• Volleyball: In the final AVCA poll (Nov. 23, 2010),  Emory was ranked No. 2; Washington University No. 3; and NYU No. 12.

Final AVCA Division III Volleyball Poll

The Nerdy Nine

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore was one of the founding members of the University Athletic Association in 1987.

The school's athletic director at the time was Bob Scott, who had coached lacrosse at Johns Hopkins from 1955 to 1974 and won seven national championships. Bob Scott also wrote "Lacrosse: Technique and Tradition," which was published Oct. 1, 1976. It is considered to be the best instructional book ever about lacrosse.

Lacrosse is king at Johns Hopkins, where simply fielding a team is not the goal, where simply fielding a competitive team is not the goal. Year in and year out, the goal of the Johns Hopkins lacrosse program is to compete for and win national championships. The men's team has won 44 national championships since first competing in 1892. The women's team has won three.

Partly because of the travel costs associated with the UAA and partly because of a dedication to Division I lacrosse, Johns Hopkins dropped out of the conference after the 2000-01 athletic seasons.  The Blue Jays joined the Division III Centennial Conference, which also includes Muhlenberg, Swarthmore, Ursinus, Franklin and Marshall, Haverford, Gettysburg, Washington College,, Dickinson, Bryn Mawr and McDaniel.

In lacrosse, however, Johns Hopkins competes in Division I. NCAA rules allow D3 schools to compete and offer scholarships in one men's sport and one women's sport, except football and basketball. Other D3 schools with one Division I program are Colorado College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in men's ice hockey.

Tim Downes, the athletics director at Emory University, served as an associate AD at Johns Hopkins from 1995 to 1999. Steve Duncan, the new head baseball coach at Washington University, was an assistant baseball coach at Johns Hopkins from 2008 to 2010.

The UAA has several nicknames. The "Traveling Conference" and the "Airplane Conference" refer to the fact that UAA athletic teams have to fly to a majority of their conference games. Of course, Case Western Reserve, Carnegie Mellon and the University of  Rochester are within "bus and van" distance, which is how the vast majority of the 450 Division II teams travel.

The "Geek League," another nickname, however, is all about the tendency of UAA athletes to major in subjects such as microbiology, biochemistry or computer engineering. And why shouldn't they? UAA schools are among the most elite academic universities in the country, and most offer a full menu of options for academic pursuits. But the sciences and engineering stand out.

While doing research for my book about the UAA, I visited Brandeis University in October 2010 and stopped at the Rose Art Museum. The Rose is known for its collection of contemporary and modern art. When I told the student who was working at the entrance desk why I was at Brandeis on that fall afternoon, she said, "Oh, you're writing about the 'Nerdy Nine'." That was the first time I had heard that particular nickname.

Apparently the alliteration and cleverness of it has outlasted the fact that Johns Hopkins dropped out.

This blog entry is based on research for my book about the University Athletic Association.

Please email me at kevinsquieraustin@gmail.com with the names of UAA athletes from 1987 to the present who have significant career, personal and community accomplishments since graduation.

Copyright 2010, Kevin S. Austin

Emory Plays for National Championship Monday

The Emory University volleyball team will play for the NCAA Division III championship on Monday after beating Washington University 3-1 (18-25, 29-27, 25-21, 25-20) on Saturday.

Emory lost to Wash U in five sets on Oct. 16 and beat the Bears in four sets in November for the University Athletic Association title.

Emory plays Calvin College at 3 p.m. ET for the national title. Washington won the national championship last year, and Emory won in 2008.

Check the Emory Athletics website for live video and statistics.

Soccer: The Emory women were the only other UAA school still alive for a national title this weekend, but they lost to Hardin-Simmons 2-1 on Saturday on Hardin-Simmons home field. The Eagles ended the season 16-2-4. No. 2-ranked Hardin-Simmons is undefeated. Match story.

Men's cross country: All five UAA men's teams finished in the top 20 in the Division III championship meet on Saturday: 9. Washington; 10. NYU; 16. Brandeis; 17. Rochester; 20. Carnegie Mellon.

The top five UAA finishers were:
23. James Vavra, Jr 24:50.1, Rochester
24. Michael Burnstein, Jr 24:51.8, Washington
29. Andrew Zitek, Jr 24:57.9, NYU
30. Sebastian Schwelm, Sr 24:59.4, NYU
45. David Hamm, So 25:11.9, Washington


Women's cross country: Washington University finished second in the championship meet, eight points behind winner Middlebury. 2. Washington; 10. Chicago; 18. Case Western Reserve; 26. Emory; 28. NYU.


The top five UAA finishers were:
4. Elizabeth Lawton, Sr 21:22.0, Chicago
6. Taryn Surtees, Sr 21:26.1, Washington
8. Justine Jeroski, Sr 21:28.6, Case Western Reserve
23. Elizabeth Phillips, Jr 21:49.1 , Washington
30. Jessica Londeree, Sr 21:58.2, Washington

Complete results.

Wash U vs. Emory in Volleyball Quarterfinals

The Emory and Washington University volleyball teams will meet for the third time this season in Saturday's national championship quarterfinals.

The two teams split their earlier matches in UAA competition.

Washington beat NYU 3-0 and Emory beat Christopher Newport 3-2 in matches played Friday at Washington, which is hosting the national championship.

The match begins at 7 p.m. ET.

On the other side of the bracket, Juniata faces Calvin at 4:30 ET.

The championship match is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday.

LIVE VIDEO

LIVE STATS

NCAA Volleyball Tournament Starts Friday

Emory's volleyball team celebrates winning regional championship Sunday.

Volleyball
Here are the matchups for the volleyball championship this weekend at Washington University, with each team's national ranking in parentheses. Wash U, Emory and NYU are all in the same bracket, so there won't be an all-UAA final.

12:30 p.m. Friday - University of St. Thomas (12) vs.  Juniata College (3)
3:00 p.m. Friday - Calvin College (10) vs. University of Massachusetts-Boston (24)
5:30 p.m. - Emory University (1) vs. Christopher Newport University (5)
8:00 p.m. - Washington University in St. Louis (3) vs. NYU (15)

Check the Wash U web site for more information and live coverage on Friday. Washington University Athletics

Soccer
Emory will play Wheaton in the next round of the NCAA women's soccer championship Friday in Abilene, Texas, at 2:30 p.m.

The teams do have at least one common opponent in the regular season: The University of Chicago. Emory lost at home to Chicago 1-0, and the Maroons lost on the road to Wheaton 1-0.

Check the Emory web site for more information and live coverage on Friday. Emory Athletics

Emory, Wash U, NYU Advance in Volleyball

All three UAA teams in the NCAA volleyball tournament have advanced to the Finals.

No. 1-ranked Emory beat Cal Lutheran in five sets, while Washington swept UW-Platteville and NYU swept Stevens.

The championships start Friday at Washington University in St. Louis.

In women's soccer, Emory is going to the Sweet 16.
The Eagles beat Lynchburg 1-0 in the second overtime period in a very physical match that included three yellow cards.
The Brandeis women's team lost 6-0 in a second-round match against Williams.

In men's soccer, Wash U lost to Loras in a shootout at  historic Francis Field in St. Louis, and Emory lost to Lynchburg 2-1 in Atlanta.

•  Cross country: Five men's teams from the UAA qualified as at-large teams for the national championship meet: Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Rochester and Washington University.
On the women's side, Emory and Washington University earned automatic bids.
Case Western Reserve, Chicago and NYU all earned at-large bids.
Individual qualifiers are: Hillary Snyder of Rochester; and Emily Wobb and Cortney Baker of Carnegie Mellon.
The championship meets, hosted by Wartburg College, will take place in Waverly, Iowa, on Nov. 20. The men's race starts at 11 a.m. ET, with the men's race at noon.

A Very Good Day for the UAA

Waiting for the NCAA tournament field at Washington University.

The NCAA announced tournament selections Monday in men's and women's soccer and volleyball, and once again the University Athletic Association came out very well.

Five of eight women's soccer teams  made the D3 field of 64, a record for the conference. The teams are Chicago (conference champion), Emory, Washington, Rochester and Brandeis.

In men's soccer, four UAA teams made the field, including conference champion NYU and Emory, Washington, and Rochester.

In volleyball, another record for the UAA, as five teams were selected: UAA champ Emory, defending national champion Washington, NYU, Chicago and Case Western Reserve. The bids are the first ever for Chicago and Case Western Reserve. It shows how far the conference has come after the recent dominance of Emory, Washington and NYU.

In St. Louis this morning, Washington's women's soccer team showed up early at the athletics complex to watch the scheduled webcast, but they ended up having to wait and wait and wait.
The Bears, who finished second nationally last year,  were on the bubble.
The team, coaches and Athletics Director John Schael gathered in the lobby of the athletics complex for what was supposed to be an 8 am CST live webcast. After waiting a half hour, they were informed that the webcast was canceled and that the field would be released at 9, St. Louis time. They filled the time studying, joking, braiding hair, drinking orange juice and chocolate milk and eating bagels and muffins provided by the athletics department.
No one seemed surprised that the announcement was delayed.

When the field was finally announced, just after 9, I could hear their cheers all the way from the basement office of women's basketball coach Nancy Fahey, whom I was interviewing. (Her team won the national championship last year and in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. They reached the Final Four in four other seasons, and nine trophies crowd the top of a cabinet on the wall behind her desk.)

Now it's time for the Wash U women's team to schedule practices and make travel plans, something every UAA team is used to.

The volleyball team, ranked No. 1 nationally for much of the season, knew they would make the tournament and would have to travel for the regionals because they are hosting the national championship meet this year.

And the men's soccer team earned a bye and will play at home, at least for the first round.

It will make for a busy weekend around the UAA, with seven of eight schools competing in regional tournaments.

Tradition, Dominance, Pitching In at Emory

Last week I visited Emory University, in my own backyard.
Some folks have suggested that I would favor Emory in my UAA research because I have lived in Atlanta and near the campus since 1983.
Not so.

Doc Partin's letter sweater in Tim Downes' office

And to prove it, I got lost, as I have done at Rochester, Carnegie Mellon and Case Western Reserve. My Atlanta friends may marvel at my idiocy, but it comes down to whether Springdale intersects with Oxford. It doesn't. You have to take a two block jog on Emory to get to Oxford. Thankfully I wasn't driving Honey so I didn't run up my mileage needlessly.

At Emory, Doc lives
Hanging in the office of Tim Downes, the athletics director at Emory, is a slightly moth-eaten glaringly yellow letter sweater that belonged to Doc Partin, the "patron saint" of Emory athletics and physical education.
He came to Emory as a student after the war, which is how my parents and their generation always refer to World War II, and didn't retire until 2002. His full name, William Clyde Partin Sr., was replaced by "Doc" after he earned his PhD from Vanderbilt.
He was Emory's AD from 1966 to 1986, but his involvement in Emory athletics lasted from 1950 to 2002.  He died in June 2009.
When you read the tributes to Doc written at the time of his death, it's easy to wish that you had known him.
"His love for Emory, our athletes, and our community was something you felt the moment you met Doc.  And from that moment, you knew you had a new best friend!" wrote Jenny McDowell, who has led the Eagles volleyball program into national prominence and won the D3 championship in 2008.
"Clyde Partin was the best of us.  He was a mentor to many, a great story teller, the best ambassador Emory University ever had, a lunch buddy and a dead pull hitter," wrote John Curtin, the cross country and track coach.
Today, Tim Downes is carrying on Doc's legacy as the Clyde Partin Sr. Director of Athletics, a position endowed by alumna Deb Jackson. (Downes was born in 1966, when Partin had already served Emory for 16 years.)
After Doc's death, a family member found his letter sweater from the '40s and wanted Tim to have it.
In Doc's day, there were no endowed chairs for athletics, and in our world there are lots of  PhDs. But very few Docs.

A coaches' work is never done
While visiting Emory last week, I interviewed Jenny McDowell and Jason Zimmerman.

Taylor and Trevor Zimmerman with Honey.

Jenny has a national championship trophy in her office from volleyball in 2008. Jason's goal is to win one in men's basketball.
Emory volleyball is so good that, along with Washington University, they form a nearly impenetrable top tier within the University Athletic Association. Any UAA team that wants to contend nationally first has to get by those two.
This year is no different, with Emory ranked No. 2 and Wash U. No. 1 in the latest D3 poll.
As I was wandering around the Woodruff Athletics facility last week, though, I saw the fullness of coaching a national championship team. hours before their Friday night matches, there was Jenny down on the empty court clearing loose volleyballs from the court and making sure everything was set up properly. Later, I came across her lugging folding tables into a meeting room for the team's post-game event.

It's a UAA thing: Attention to detail and doing what it takes to get things done. By the way, Tim Downes the AD also helped with the tables. Last year, at the UAA volleyball championships, I saw Tom Weingartner, the University of Chicago AD and former Stanford linebacker, moving trash cans between matches to help out the facilities staff.
Later that day I ran into Jason again, this time with his wife, Traci, and children, Trevor and Taylor. They were back on campus for the Emory soccer matches against Rochester.
It's not unusual to run into coaches attending games or matches to support their colleagues and athletes.
Because it was close to Halloween, Jason's kids were in costume, appropriately dressed as an Emory cheerleader and basketball player. They were intrigued by Honey, my 1984 RV, so Jason had them pose for a picture by her side.

Farewell, Terry

Terry Gurnett has coached women's soccer at the University of Rochester for 34 years, and this season is his last. He is the all-time wins leader among D3 women's soccer coaches, and third among all NCAA divisions. His teams have won two national championships.
Before the match Friday night, Emory honored him by announcing his accomplishments over the loudspeaker system and with a short presentation.

Terry Gurnett's players joined in the post-match presentation.

After the match, the Rochester alumni group in Atlanta further honored him under a bright tent and catered meal at the end of the stands.
Terry has wide-ranging interests, say his friends and colleagues, so the alumni group presented him with one of the huge volumes of the Oxford University series the History of the United States to keep him occupied. He will also continue working at Rochester as an associate AD.

On the pitch
After this weekend's matches, the Emory men are 3-1-2 in conference play and 1 point behind NYU for the conference championship and automatic NCAA D3 tournament bid. They were ranked 14th nationally in the Oct. 26 poll and play at Carnegie Mellon Nov. 7 in the last regular season match. (my friend Keith Graham, who along with his wife, Chrys, always picks the Dutch in our World Cup pools, attended with me).
The Emory women are 3-1-2 and tied with Wash U. for second place. (The University of Chicago women clinched the conference championship Sunday against Brandeis.) The Emory women, ranked 6th in the latest poll, also finish the regular season against Carnegie Mellon Nov. 7 in Pittsburgh.
National tournament selections are announced Monday, Nov. 8.

Coming Up
Honey and I made it from Atlanta to Chicago on Saturday and early Sunday, the longest and shortest leg of my trip. I can see the top of the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower from where I am parked.
Read about backfires, windmill farms and the nastiest stretch of road ever coming soon on this blog.
New national polls are out Tuesday, the UAA cross country championship was Saturday and the volleyball tournament is this weekend.

How many ...
Joke texted to me this weekend by my son the art student:
How many performance artists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
-- I don't know, I left before it was over.

Skype me up, Scottie
Wednesday at 2:45 Central Time I am scheduled to appear on a live webcast. The victims are thepulsenetwork.com, a social TV network.
"It's What's Next, Now."
That's why they scheduled me.

Honey Blows Another One

The University of Rochester men score the tying goal against Chicago on Oct. 15.

Honey and I made it to Boston from Rochester about 7 a.m. this morning. We're parked on a level lot (woohoo) at the edge of campus next to the commuter rail line.
Friday night I watched the Rochester women beat Chicago 1-0 in the cold, wind and rain. Nasty night. The Rochester men tied Chicago 1-1 in the 7:30 game. The rain had stopped, thankfully for the fans.

The fans go wild at Fauver Stadium in Rochester.

The drive across Western New York and Western Massachusetts was absolutely gorgeous, though windy. Fall color appears to be about 60 percent near Rochester but more like 85 percent in Massachusetts.
Normally, I don't find road signs very interesting, but this morning on I-90 I passed a sign that said "N.H.- Maine and Cape Cod, 2 miles." Something very romantic and alluring about being so close to this corner of the United States. Only in the UAA.

Today, Emory is at Brandeis; Chicago at Case Western Reserve; Wash U at Rochester; and Carnegie Mellon at NYU. 

Nate wrestles a tire and wins.

Sounds like  a gunshot on the Mass Pike
Honey and I were making good time getting to Waltham from Rochester last night on the Mass Pike when I heard a very loud pop. Knew immediately what it was cause I heard the same sound on the New Jersey Turnpike a couple of weeks ago.
Honey blew another tire. Left, rear, inside (not one of the new ones).
I need an official UAA Road Trip Tire Sponsor.
Nate McCarthy was home eating dinner and watching the Texas-Nebraska game when he got the call. Nate works for Pete's Tire Barns, Inc. (16 locations in Western Mass.)  He had to drive down to his shop in Springfield to pick up the bright yellow then head to my location.

This tire is history. A rare 8.75 by 16.5.

We checked my spare first, and it looked OK though not perfect.

After about a half hour under Honey with a jack and wrestling tires off and on, Nate had me back on the road.

Told me is was good that I didn't have tire rot. Said he went on a call once where a guy with a newer RV than Honey (most RVs are newer than Honey) had two tires pop while his rig was sitting in his driveway.

Nate played football for Dallas Community College in Texas for a couple of years, but quit because of shoulder injuries and a lack of playing time. In high school, he cleared 6 feet in the high jump.

Texas won, 20-13.