MLB Preview: O’s in the AL East mix

Baseball is back! Happier words have never been spoken. Well, it was a wild off-season. The Kansas City Royals took home their first World Series title since 1985.

Rafael Nadal’s inevitable decline

In 2005, a quiet 19-year-old Spaniard took the men’s professional tennis tour by storm. Rafael Nadal — or, more belovedly, “Rafa” — quickly built a passionate fan base with his absolute domination of the season’s clay court swing quick ascent to world No. 2. He was a wild-card. Not literally, but in the sense that his play style was so wild, so unique and so unheard of that no player could beat him with ease. For one, Nadal plays left-handed, giving him an immediate advantage over most right-handed players whose forehands are usually stronger. His heavy topspin pushed players back, out of their offensive comfort zones. He was quicker, stronger and possessed more innate grit than anyone had seen from a player since the likes of Lendl or Borg.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: TESS MEEHAN — Women’s Track

Tess Meehan is one of seven Hopkins athletes who will be competing at the 2016 NCAA D-III Indoor Track & Field Championships held on March 11 and 12.

Steph Curry captures America’s imagination

I remember Steph Curry from his early days at Davidson College in North Carolina. He was a skilled and athletic scorer who propelled his small school to the national spotlight when the Wildcats reached the 2008 Elite Eight, where they fell just two points shy of the eventual national champion Kansas Jayhawks in a March Madness classic.

Men’s Lax blows out Princeton at home

This past Saturday, the Hopkins men’s lacrosse team came through with a 17-7 win against Princeton University. The home game was well-attended by students and alumni, and the win brought the team to a 2-2 record for the season.

Track & Field brings home first place honors

This past weekend, both the men’s and women’s track and field teams brought home Centennial Conference titles from competitions hosted by Ursinus College in Collegetown, Pa. While the Jays came out on top, the Haverford College Fords did offer some competition. Along with the team titles, the Jays saw many record-breaking individual performances during the two-day event.

Full slate for Men’s and Women’s Fencing Sunday

This past weekend, both the Hopkins men’s and women’s fencing teams were in action, participating in several matches. The men’s team played five matches on Sunday at the Philadelphia Invitational, winning four of the matches. One of Sunday’s victories came against ninth-ranked Duke University. The women’s team also traveled to Pennsylvania for the Philadelphia Invitational and faced stiff competition. They were able to pick up one victory out of four and faced three teams which are currently receiving votes for the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches’ Poll.

Baseball off to an underwhelming start

The Blue Jays Baseball team opened up its 2016 campaign in two hard-fought contests, first losing to the Keystone College Giants and then failing to capitalize on an eight-run lead in a tie with SUNY New Paltz.

The frustrating true effects of rain delays

A week ago, the Hopkins women’s lacrosse team experienced what many sports teams have experienced before: a delay. Unfortunately for the Lady Jays, it was a weather delay that forced them to wait for almost three hours to finish the game.

Coach at Gilman helps change lives

Athlete of the Week: Dene’ Dimartino — Women’s Lacrosse

Last week, senior captain and midfielder Dene’ DiMartino was one of three Hopkins Lacrosse players named to the Tewaaraton Watch List.

Tennis looks to build off solid past weekend

The Hopkins men’s tennis team opened up their spring season with a commanding 9-0 win versus the University of Delaware Blue Hens in Baltimore this past Friday. The win snapped a nine-game losing streak against Delaware and dropped the Blue Hens to 0-6 to start the season.

E-Sports making headway against tradition

Expectations flying high for baseball

Coming off a Conference Championship win last season, the Hopkins baseball team has big goals for 2016. In a five-game series last May, the Jays defeated the Franklin & Marshall College Diplomats for the conference title.

Billups sets blocks record in final game

This past weekend, the Hopkins men’s basketball team closed out their season with a bang as they cruised past Centennial Conference foe, the Washington College Shoremen, by a score of 82-65. With the victory, Hopkins finished their season with an overall mark of 13-12 (10-8 CC), while the Shoremen dropped to 3-22 (1-17 CC) in what has been a very tough campaign. The Jays ended up placing tied for fifth in the final Conference standings, finishing a game behind the fourth-place Gettysburg Bullets in the race for the final playoff spot. The season was certainly not a failure by any means since the Jays were consistently competitive and remained in contention for the playoffs until the final contest of the year. However, the Jays returned with a plethora of seniors from a team that won 25 games last season and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the D-III playoffs. With much of that talent returning, there was a hope that the Jays could once again be a dominating unit. While that did not happen, there is no question that this team faced significant adversity and still managed to be a formidable, albeit rarely dominant Conference challenger capable of beating any team in any given contest.

Women’s Lax off to a scintillating start

The 16th-ranked Hopkins women’s lacrosse team picked up a pair of dominating wins last week, both at home against the American University Eagles on Wednesday and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Sunday.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Haley Schweizer — Women’s Lacrosse

This week’s athlete of the week is Haley Schweizer, a junior on the women’s lacrosse team, who started the season with a record of 3-0. The most recent victory for Hopkins came against Rutgers College, with a win of 14-2. The scoring was led by Schweizer, who had six goals to her name.

Toronto delivers big for All-Star Weekend

Despite starting in late October, the NBA season is said to unofficially begin on Christmas Day. Likewise, with the Super Bowl in the rearview mirror and baseball still around the corner, mid-February is the time when the basketball season really takes off. Before the beginning of the stretch run though, the league’s best headed north of the border for an All-Star Weekend in Toronto that exhibited the best that basketball has to offer — and they did not disappoint.

Loyola knocks off M. Lax in top-10 matchup

On Saturday, Feb. 20, the Blue Jays lacrosse team took on the Loyola University Greyhounds.