We are truly into the pointy end of the fall season. This is where titles are won, and most importantly, where the Blue Jays establish themselves as one of the most dominant forces in all of DIII sports! So lets take a look back at some of the biggest headlines from Hopkins sports this past week.
Football: L (28 – 29 (OT))
Heading into the Centennial Conference Championship game, Hopkins couldn’t have had more momentum, having gone undefeated through their first nine games of the year. Up against a good Franklin & Marshall (F&M) team, it was never going to be an easy matchup, but the Jays got out to a strong start, scoring the first touchdown of the game.
The Blue Jays wouldn’t stop there though, scoring two more unanswered touchdowns to take a 21 – 0 lead with just over eight minutes left in the second quarter. Unfortunately the scoring would dry up for Hopkins as F&M would mount an enormous comeback. After surrendering two touchdowns before the end of the first half, Hopkins could not manage a single score in the second half, while the Diplomats scored a fourth quarter touchdown that would tie the game and send it to overtime.
In the overtime period, Hopkins would get possession first and score a touchdown. However, the Blue Jays defense were not able to stop F&M from responding with a touchdown of their own, and the resulting two point conversion try that ultimately cemented the conference championship for the Diplomats. Hopkins will now have to wait for the DIII Football playoffs to continue their season in an attempt to win their first ever DIII national championship.
Women’s Basketball: W (102 – 25), W (73 – 49)
After beginning their season with two wins, the Women’s basketball team played host to Trinity Washington University at the Goldfarb Gymnasium.
To say that the game was not close would be a disservice to the performance that the Blue Jays put on display. Hopkins not only won the game comfortably, but if they had not scored another point after the first quarter they still would have won the contest. It was a complete team effort in every sense of the phrase, as Hopkins had six individual players score nine points or more, including a perfect performance from equal-leading scorer, senior forward Grace Soltes who scored 12 points and went 5 – 5 from the field including two three pointers.
Later on in the week, Hopkins faced off against #19 Catholic University away from home. Despite not getting off to a hot start, falling behind in the first quarter 11 – 17, the Blue Jays rebounded and made up ground very quickly. A dominant second half allowed Hopkins to take a commanding lead, and ultimately win the game off of the back of an impressive 16 point output from senior guard Kendall Dunham.
Men’s Cross Country
The weekend saw the Men’s Cross Country team participate in the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. After winning the Centennial Conference Championship two weeks ago, the Blue Jays were keen to keep the winning ways up.
Hopkins was up to the challenge.
Junior Kenny Wanlass led the Blue Jays to a regional championship by becoming the fourth runner in program history to win the individual regional title. However, he was not the only strong performer on the day as Hopkins had seven runners finish in the top nine of the race as Hopkins finished with 23 points, well in front of second placed Carnegie Mellon who scored 64 on the day.
The team will travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina next weekend to take on the NCAA championships, where they will be hopeful to win it all!
Women’s Field Hockey: W (6 – 0), W (3 – 0)
On the back of a strong win over #12 Dickinson, the Women’s Field Hockey team continued their season in the NCAA tournament, taking on #22 Worcester Polytechnic Institute at Homewood Field.
As has become almost expected from this team, they cruised to a win, not even allowing a goal against their stout defense. Senior midfielder Zoey Bennett opened the scoring with a goal in the third minute, quickly setting the tone for the dominant performance that would result. The scoring would be spread around the team with six different players all managing to score, while Worcester could only manage a single shot the entire game.
After advancing through the first round, the Blue Jays took on #9 Middlebury for a chance to advance to the NCAA semifinals. Hopkins would open the scoring in the first period thanks to a goal from graduate forward, Grace Nockolds. Middlebury were unable to answer back, and Hopkins capitalized on adding another two goals in the next two quarters, taking a 3 - 0 lead into the fourth that would ultimately finish as the final score-line.
With this win, the team will now travel to Hartford, Connecticut this Friday to take on Babson for a spot in the National Championship!
