Month: April 2020

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Fordham Women’s Basketball coach Stephanie Gaitley’s teams are known for playing hard-nosed defense and making opposing offenses earn every point. That being said, the Rams don’t mind offensive outbursts every now and again.

The Rams got one such explosion on Sunday.

Fordham took down previously undefeated Charlotte by the lopsided final of 76–51 in Fordham’s largest victory since its triumph over Duquesne in last season’s A-10 semifinal. The Rams entered the game with a record of just 1–4 and looked to add some momentum ahead of a two-game trip to the Bahamas over Thanksgiving break; the Rams achieved that on Sunday. For the second straight game, Fordham got impressive contributions from its supporting cast.

The Rams drilled five three-pointers to account for 15 of their 21 points in the first quarter. Four of these five shots came from junior Bre Cavanaugh and sophomore Kaitlyn Downey to give Fordham a 21–12 lead after 10 minutes. As it turned out, the first quarter would account for half of Cavanaugh’s points on the day, as she finished with 12. Downey, on the other hand, had a lot more where that came from.

Fordham blew the lead out to double digits with over eight minutes left in the half on a three-pointer by freshman Anna DeWolfe, who soon caught fire en route to the best game of her young Fordham career. The Rams dropped 23 points in the second quarter, with DeWolfe and Downey combining for 18 of them. All in all, DeWolfe, Downey and Cavanaugh combined for 34 points in the first half, and Fordham was up by 19, 44–25. It marked the highest first-half output for the Rams since the aforementioned 2019 Atlantic 10 semifinal, and it showed how capable Fordham was of breaking out offensively once the team’s shots started to drop. The Rams made 10 threes in the first half and finished the game with 15, the second-most in a game in the history of the program.

In the second half, Fordham didn’t take its foot off the gas. The Rams outscored the host 49ers by six and, more importantly, kept the game out of shouting distance for Charlotte the rest of the half. Downey finished the game with 24 points and DeWolfe continued her tear in the second half, finishing with 25 points on 10–22 shooting and 4–11 from deep. For her role in the Rams’ two victories during the week, DeWolfe earned Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honors, averaging 20 points per game in victories over Northeastern and Charlotte.

With the win, Fordham moves to 2–4, entering a very important portion of its out-of-conference slate. The Rams will travel to the Bahamas on Wednesday in preparations to face nationally-ranked Arkansas on Friday afternoon at the Bahamas Hoopfest. The Razorbacks will be the second nationally-ranked opponent Fordham has faced this year, with the first being Notre Dame in the season opener. Then, the Rams will take on Lehigh Saturday afternoon. The two opponents are a combined 10–1 on the season, and the games will be no easy task for Fordham.

However, the Rams can worry about those over the next couple of days. As for now, they can briefly enjoy a good victory against a Charlotte team that had been teams like Richmond — whom the Rams will see during A-10 play — and Wake Forest by double digits. Sunday was the best performance of the Rams’ season, and Fordham should be competitive abroad if it can find a way to replicate it.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

No one said the Fordham women’s basketball team’s schedule was easy. Matchups with teams like Notre Dame, Penn State and Villanova had the potential to give a young team trouble early in the season. Those teams all handed Fordham losses, as did Columbia in the second game of the season.

Entering Wednesday night at 0–4, the Rams needed to step things up. Against Northeastern, a team Fordham had never beaten before, Fordham reversed both trends.

The Rams pulled away late for a 74–58 victory to get their first win of the year. Redshirt junior Bre Cavanaugh led the way with 21 points, six rebounds and two assists, but the night was highlighted by several key contributions on offense from role players. Sophomore Meg Jonassen came through with 10 points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench, highlighted by a putback layup to put Fordham up seven points with four minutes left. Fellow sophomore Vilisi Tavui notched six points in her first appearance in a week. Both performances were necessary for the Rams, as junior Kendell Heremaia and sophomore Kaitlin Downey both struggled on the offensive end and got into some foul trouble.

“Hats off to Meg [Jonassen],” Fordham women’s basketball coach Stephanie Gaitley said. “I thought Meg made a big putback for us, that was a big play for us in the fourth quarter. She gave us some great minutes.”

Fordham’s frontcourt players weren’t the only ones contributing offensively. Junior guard Katie McLoughlin drilled two threes off the bench in 12 minutes, as she’s carved out an important role for herself in Gaitley’s rotation early on in the season. As for the starters, freshmen Anna DeWolfe and Sarah Karpell contributed in different ways. DeWolfe scored 15 points and made three shots from outside before fouling out with just over a minute left. Despite only scoring six points, Karpell made a massive impact defensively, holding the Huskies’ top scorer, junior Stella Clark, to just seven points.

“I think the freshmen stepped up and made some big-time plays and big-time shots,” Gaitley said, referring to her two first-year guards.

While there were positives for Fordham, there are still issues to be ironed out ahead of Sunday’s matchup with Charlotte. Fordham turned it over 17 times on Wednesday, but the team got away with it by forcing 21 Northeastern giveaways, leading to 25 Fordham points. Heremaia and Downey struggled, the former with decision-making (six turnovers) and the latter with early foul trouble that kept her on the bench for most of the second quarter. Both are two of the team’s three captains, along with Cavanaugh, but neither player got going on Wednesday.

Still, only one thing matters from this game. Fordham is in the win column, and at a critical time in its season: The Rams will not return to the Rose Hill Gym until Dec. 8, with trips to Charlotte and the Bahamas at Thanksgiving within that time. To call the fifth game of the year a must-win would have been incredibly disingenuous, but the tilt carried more importance than a typical early-season, out-of-conference matchup.

Gaitley realizes that while a win is a win, her team will need to play better to beat upcoming opponents Charlotte, Arkansas and Lehigh.

“In order to beat the teams we’re gonna play, we’ve gotta have everybody playing on all cylinders,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Fordham Squash has gotten off to an excellent start in the 2019–20 season, winning seven of its first nine matches. The Rams came into this year with high expectations, having won last year’s Chaffee Cup at the Collegiate Squash Association Championship. This year’s team, heading into this weekend, picked up right where last year’s left off.

The Rams started the weekend with a Friday evening matchup against Stanford. The meeting would be the first home contest for head coach Sahel Anwar’s team this season, and the Rams kicked off their home slate in electrifying fashion, with a dominating performance in which each Fordham player won his individual match. The only close call was sophomore Patrick Rodden’s match against Stanford’s Chris Peisch, which went to five sets. Despite dropping the fourth set, Rodden buckled down to win the fifth set and maintain Fordham’s momentum.

However, Fordham’s Friday victory did not carry over into Saturday morning’s contest with California. Fordham senior and leadoff player William Douglass won his match to start the day against Cal’s Charlie Love in five sets. But Douglass would be the only winner on the day for the Rams, as the Golden Bears took the next eight individual contests to win the match 8–1. The score belied how competitive some of the individual matchups were, as freshman Jacob Bennett, junior Justin Deckoff, sophomore Dylan Panichello and freshman Caleb Schumaker all took their opponents to five sets before ultimately falling.

In the afternoon, though, the Rams bounced back with a resounding 7–2 victory over Northeastern. The Rams were particularly strong on the back end, as they took the final five matches to down the Huskies and move to 9–3 on the season. But once again, inconsistency plagued Fordham on Sunday, as the Rams fell 9–0 to Columbia to finish the weekend with a split.

Statistically speaking, several players have begun to distinguish themselves in the early going of the season. Junior Justin Deckoff has helped fill the void left by Justin Esposito, who graduated after last season. Deckoff has won 10 of his first 12 matches to start the year and has the best individual record on the team. His fellow junior, Griffin Fitzgerald, is not far behind with a 9–3 mark, while freshman Jacob Bennett has put up the same record in an impressive start to his Fordham career. Bennett is one of three freshmen on the Rams, with Justin George and Caleb Schumacher as the others. The other two first-year players are also off to good starts, with George at 5–1 and Schumacher at 7–3.

Fordham Squash will be in action this weekend with home matches against Washington University of St. Louis, Bard College and New York University. The matches kick off at 9 a.m. Saturday on the Lombardi Squash Courts.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Not many things can stop Fordham senior and cross country superstar Ryan Kutch. Evidently, not even a foot of snow can do so, either.

Last Friday’s NCAA Northeast Regional Championship was scheduled to be held at the Audubon Golf Course. However, Mother Nature had other ideas, dumping nearly a foot of snow in upstate New York between Monday and Tuesday. Because of the conditions and extensive cleanup necessary to make the golf course passable for competition, the event was moved from the golf course to a local road course, where conditions would be more favorable for the runners.

As it turned out, the quick change and abbreviated preparation time had no ill-effects on Kutch’s performance.

Kutch was able to finish this 10K course in a blazing 28:52.5, which was good enough for fourth place and an automatic bid into the NCAA’s 2019 Cross Country Championship. Kutch made history, as no Fordham runner has taken part in the NCAA Championship since 1977. His run of historic feats continues, as he will compete on a national stage to conclude his collegiate career.

Kutch’s outstanding top-five finish also helped his team, which finished 14th overall in the event. There were four other Ram runners who scored on the day: senior Nicholas Raefski (80th — 30:22.6), sophomore Brandon Hall (87th — 30:30.6) and freshmen John McGovern (93rd — 30:32.9) and Colin Flood (164th — 31:50.3). Two other competitors for Fordham were freshman Jack Craven (198th — 31:00.4) and senior Sean Sullivan (208th — 32:57.4).

For his part in leading Fordham to a 14th-place finish at regionals, Kutch was named to the NCAA’s All-Northeast team for the 2019 fall season. Kutch’s stellar performance is just the latest in a long line, highlighted by last year’s individual Atlantic 10 Championship and this year’s second-place finish at the conference tournament. Kutch has been one of the standard-bearers for the Fordham track and cross country teams over his four years in the Bronx, and his presence has been particularly important this season, as the team deftly handled the transition from former head coach Thomas Dewey — who retired over the summer after 39 years at the helm — to current coach Brian Horowitz, who used his knowledge of the team as an assistant and applied it to a head coaching role.

Next up for Kutch is the NCAA Cross Country Championship Saturday in Terre Haute, Indiana. The forecast calls for sunshine and chilly temperatures in the low-40s. It does not call for snow. Even if it did, though, it wouldn’t have too much of an effect on Ryan Kutch.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Folks, the Houston Astros are back in the public eye again.

An investigation by The Athletic has found Houston guilty of stealing signs, a baseball practice as old as peanuts and crackerjack. According to “The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball,” the first known interception of baseball signals came courtesy of the National Association’s Hartford Dark Blues … in 1876. Ulysses S. Grant was the president of the United States.

But this time, things are different. The MLB has recently instituted new restrictions on where teams can film games electronically, so as to reduce this practice, which is an attempt to find out what the pitcher is throwing so that the batter can better time his swing. The Astros did this two years ago and — evidently — did so a little too well.

According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, the Astros electronically stole signs in 2017, the year they won the World Series. The system was simple: the team rigged its center-field camera to a video feed in the tunnel just steps from its dugout. When team officials had deciphered that a breaking ball was coming, one would loudly bang a trash can underneath the television. This information was relayed to Rosenthal and Drellich by A’s pitcher Mike Fiers, who left the team after the season and alerted his new teams — the Tigers and A’s — as to what was happening.

If you find his story utterly preposterous, just remember that baseball is the most ridiculous sport in America and quite possibly the world. Unwritten rules exist for the sole purpose of old heads keeping the game’s new guard in line, while teams like the Astros violate the written rules.

However, when you get past the total absurdity of baseball — there are many other things I could get into here — what the Astros did is no different than what players and teams do in other sports. Everyone who plays the games is trying to win — unless you’re carefully observing “the process” — and to do so, teams will do certain things. Players are the same way, especially when money and incentives are on the line.

Countless players, especially in baseball, have taken performance-enhancing drugs to improve their performance. This practice wasn’t illegal until 2004 in the sport. In 2007, Sen. George Mitchell was the lead investigator of two eponymous reports that ripped the lip off the “secret” we already knew: Players like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro and others were taking steroids. After the Mitchell Report, big names like Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz and Bartolo Colon were implicated in a scandal that alleged they obtained performance-enhancing drugs, including human growth hormone, from a clinic called Biogenesis in Florida.

From a team perspective, though, every team is looking for a small advantage to win. As soon as the Astros story broke, sanctimonious fans of other teams broke out of their Twitter egg existences to rip the organization to shreds. To be clear, what Houston did is a problem, and this incident is the latest embarrassment for an organization that has clearly established that it only thinks in the form of crunching numbers. But the problem with this criticism is that, according to this excerpt from Rosenthal and Drellich, the Astros are not alone.

“To this point, the public’s understanding of sign stealing mostly rests on anonymous second-hand conjecture and finger-pointing. But inside the game, there is a belief which is treated by players and staff as fact: That illegal sign stealing, particularly through advanced technology, is everywhere.”

Everywhere is a fairly large space to exist in. That begs the question: Why was the public so shaken to its core to hear of this story?

The reason why is that it represents an intersection of a hated villain (the Astros) and a practice that, though hated in baseball circles, is incredibly common in a sport that is supposed to clamp down on these things. Ten percent of all current MLB managers were in the Astros’ clubhouse on a daily basis (Houston manager A.J. Hinch, Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Mets manager Carlos Beltran) that year, and Cora and Beltran could face discipline for their actions. But the only thing separating the Astros from the rest of baseball, in this instance, is that they have been caught.

In fact, there’s evidence that the Astros are still doing it. The Yankees complained of a high-pitched whistling sound during this year’s ALCS when their pitchers were on the mound, and MLB confirmed that this was taking place, without confirming who was doing it. A more recent, informal investigation by well-known Twitter personality Jomboy — who has found himself at the center of this discussion with video breakdowns demonstrating how the Astros got away with this — found that someone in or around Houston’s dugout was whistling during Game 2, with Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman on the mound, to signal an impending breaking ball.
Over the course of the past five years, the Astros went from striking out the most in the American League to striking out the least. Part of the reason why was because they knew exactly what was coming from opposing pitchers.

And that, my friends, is why sign-stealing won’t be going away without significant intervention from Major League Baseball.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Fordham Women’s Basketball is coming off one of the best seasons in its history. The Rams went to last year’s NCAA Tournament after defeating VCU 62–47 in the A-10 title game. The game was a showcase of the Rams’ identity, with a steely defensive performance and timely shots to lead Fordham to a conference crown.

That game, played on March 10 of this year, is also the last game Fordham has won, to date.

The Rams’ issues starting the 2019–20 season continued this week, with two losses to Penn State — by a score of 72–59 — and Villanova, by a final of 73–66.

In last Wednesday’s trip to State College, the Rams fell behind halfway through the first quarter and couldn’t get the lead back for the rest of the night. Fordham lost to Penn State last season by a score of 72–55 and could only fare marginally better this time around.

Penn State got a 72–59 win behind a 25–47 shooting performance (53.2%) from the field. The Nittany Lions shot over 65% (15–22) in the second half. Particularly concerning for Fordham’s defense was allowing 28 points in the paint to the Rams’ 14, and Penn State also earned 16 fast-break points to just six for Fordham.

There were some positive signs for the Rams. Junior Kendell Heremaia continued to show her improvement from last season, with 19 points, including a 5–11 performance from beyond the arc. Sophomore Kaitlyn Downey was on a minutes restriction with concussion-like symptoms, but she was able to make four threes and score 14 points in just 21 minutes. Outside of these two, though, Fordham shot 10–37 (27%) from the field.

With the loss, Fordham started a season 0–3 for the first time since the 2007–08 season. Fordham finished that season 0–29. Head coach Stephanie Gaitley’s team looked to correct that on Sunday afternoon against Gaitley’s alma mater, Villanova, but, despite the Rams’ best efforts, their defensive struggles continued.

Entering the game, Fordham made a change to its starting lineup. Downey reentered the starting five after staying healthy following the Penn State game, and freshman guard Sarah Karpell stayed in the lineup, moving redshirt sophomore Vilisi Tavui to the bench. Tavui started the first three games at center but Gaitley made the move to go smaller and quicker. The decision gave her team a better chance to defend against a Villanova offense that showed a propensity to shoot from the outside and work around screens and long passes. Tavui would not appear in Sunday’s game.

Once the game started, the Wildcats attacked inside the painted area and exploited its height advantage over the Rams.

To do so, Villanova coach Harry Perretta — in his 41st and final season at the helm — turned to freshman Madison Siegrist. In her first career start, Siegrist scored 15 points in the first quarter, with 12 of those coming in the paint. Villanova carried a 20–14 lead into the second quarter, with all but four of those points coming from inside. In an encouraging sign for Fordham, junior Bre Cavanaugh — who shot just 24% in her first three games of the season — started the game by attacking the rim and getting to the line early on. Cavanaugh scored 23 points and, as has been the wont of her and Gaitley, played all 40 minutes for the third time in the Rams’ first four games.

The Wildcats expanded the lead into the half, and Siegrist and senior Mary Gedaka combined for 26 of Villanova’s 31 first-half points. In the third quarter, Fordham began to come back with more explosive offense and improved defense. The Rams got out to a 14–4 run to start the second half to tie the game at 35 on a Cavanaugh three just over four minutes into the third quarter. But Villanova had yet another answer, and threes from Siegrist and freshman Brooke Mullin — the niece of St. John’s and NBA great Chris Mullin — led Villanova to a six-point lead heading into the fourth.

Again, Fordham responded. The Rams cut the lead to two when Heremaia’s three-pointer gave Fordham a one-point lead with 4:47 to play. But Siegrist and Mullin came through with back-to-back baskets, and foul trouble for both Downey and Heremaia hampered their play down the stretch. Siegrist’s three with 2:39 to go put Villanova up by eight points, and the Wildcats ultimately won by seven.

“You can’t decide to play when you want to,” Gaitley told WFUV on Sunday. “I thought they were the much tougher team.”

Fordham’s defense was especially porous inside. The Rams allowed 44 points in the paint, and breakdowns presented themselves all game. Foul trouble did not help, but Fordham’s defense struggled mightily even without that consideration.

Fordham is 0–4 for the first time in 12 years, and the last time this happened, Fordham didn’t win a game all year. Fordham will win this year, and it will likely come sooner rather than later. However, the team must correct its early-season issues, as the Rams have now allowed 70 or more points in three straight games, a feat virtually unheard of for a Fordham program that prides itself so much on defense.

Next up for Fordham is a Wednesday night home matchup with Northeastern, a team the Rams lost to on the road last season. Tip-off from the Rose Hill Gym is at 7 p.m. This will be Fordham’s last opportunity to win at home until Dec. 8, as the Rams will travel to Charlotte, the Bahamas and Manhattan College in the meantime.

If Fordham wants to get that first victory, it will have to beat a Northeastern team that also enters the game winless. One team will exit with its first win of the year. Northeastern, like Fordham, has played a difficult schedule to date.

Fordham’s tough schedule has reared its ugly head so far this year. The Rams will try to learn from their missteps so far, but Fordham will have to raise its level of play if it wants to improve its results.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Fordham Squash looked to replicate its success from this past weekend at the Navy Round Robin held in Annapolis, Md.

The team saw mixed results.

The weekend did not start overly well for Fordham. The Rams were swept 8–0 by Navy in the first match on Friday. Navy didn’t even concede a set to the Rams, as the Midshipmen took every individual match in three sets.

Fordham didn’t fare much better in the first match on Saturday afternoon. Fordham’s second match against Haverford went very similar to its first against Navy, as junior Justin Deckoff was the only Ram to win his individual match. At a quick 0–2 on the weekend, head coach Sahel Anwar’s team needed to respond to salvage what had been, to that point, an unsuccessful weekend.

Fordham, as it has each of the past three years, did just that.

It started with a 9–0 sweep of Boston University to get Fordham on the board with its first win of the weekend. Fordham was able to win its first eight individual matches in straight sets and took the ninth by default since there was no Boston player to participate in it. In the final match on Saturday, Fordham looked like it was going to get a tough test from Lehigh; the Mountain Hawks’ Max Fern and P.J. Walsh defeated Fordham sophomores Patrick Rodden and Jack Reed, respectively. With the match tied at two, Fordham climbed into second gear as junior Tommy White, freshman Jacob Bennett, Deckoff, sophomore Dylan Panichello and freshman Caleb Schumacher all won their individual matches. Four of those five Fordham players won in straight sets. In a match like this, Fordham’s depth and overall talent shined, especially in the second half of the lineup.

In the span of a couple of hours, Fordham went from struggling to thriving. On Sunday, the Rams looked to go above .500 and finish off the weekend with a win over Georgetown.

Sunday’s match got off to an inauspicious start, as senior William Douglass fell to Georgetown’s Brando Sodi in three sets, putting Fordham in an early hole. After that, though, the Rams ripped off seven straight wins, highlighted by Bennett’s come-from-behind victory over Georgetown’s Max Sodi in five sets. Bennett lost the first two sets before winning the next three to preserve Fordham’s momentum. His win and Fordham’s others were plenty for the Rams to escape the Navy Round Robin with what can be considered a successful weekend, winning three out of five matches.

Fordham is back in action this coming Friday. The Rams will take on Stanford at 1 p.m. before hosting California and Northeastern on Saturday. All three matches will be held on the Lombardi Squash courts on Fordham’s campus.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Fordham Women’s Basketball played a heart-stopping, emotional and taxing game against Notre Dame last Tuesday. Entering Sunday’s matchup against Columbia, the Rams and head coach Stephanie Gaitley were concerned with a letdown against a tough team, especially coming off the high of taking the Irish down to the wire.

On Sunday, Fordham’s fears became a reality.

The Rams fell 70–51 to Columbia at Levien Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon after being outscored by 18 points in the second half. Fordham got off to a slow start in the first quarter, as the host Lions carried a seven-point lead into the first media timeout, halfway through the first quarter. Fordham trimmed the deficit to one by the end of the quarter, and the Rams were up 31–27 with a minute to play before half.

At that point, Columbia sophomore Madison Hardy took over, with a deep three and a nifty reverse layup in a span of under a minute to give Columbia a one-point lead heading into halftime. Fordham regained a 35–34 lead two minutes into the second half when junior Kendell Heremaia made a layup underneath. On the next possession, Columbia sophomore Mikayla Markham countered with a lay-in of her own and the lead changed hands once more.

Thanks to Columbia’s dominance, Markham’s layup precipitated the final lead change of the game.

Columbia started to pull away late in the third quarter, outscoring Fordham 19–12 over the course of 10 minutes. In the fourth and final quarter, back-to-back threes from Hardy and junior Madison Pack gave the Lions a 14-point lead, and Fordham was unable to get back within less than 11 points for the rest of the game. The Rams scored just eight points in the quarter and multiple defensive lapses allowed Columbia to run away with a 70–51 victory and hand the Rams their second-straight loss to start the year.

Offensively, Fordham struggled again with making shots. However, last Tuesday’s season-opener with Notre Dame showed that Fordham could stay in games with anyone if the team could defend. On Sunday, the second part of that equation went out the window, with Columbia getting easy looks inside and making 58% of its shots in the second half. The Lions were able to make the occasional deep shot but, more concerningly for Fordham, got inside consistently to convert easy looks at the rim.

Fordham’s offense consistently went through sophomore Kaitlin Downey, as she tallied 19 points on 8–14 shooting while also hitting three shots from behind the arc. Downey was the only Ram to shoot above 50%, as the rest of the team made just 12 of its 40 shots on the day. Heremaia had success down low and in the post, which is an encouraging sign for the Rams going forward. However, the Fordham offense has struggled to produce over the first two games of the season.

Still, Gaitley — a defensive-minded coach who logged her thousandth career game on Sunday — will be far more concerned with her team’s defensive miscues on Sunday. While there were issues the entire game, Fordham’s defense was particularly porous in the second half. The other concern for Fordham is that Columbia outmatched the Rams’ energy in many phases, including the rebound battle, which Fordham lost by 10.

We’ll find out just how much Fordham has cleaned up when the Rams face yet another critical early-season test at Penn State tonight at 7 p.m. Fordham fell to the Nittany Lions by 17 points in the Bronx last season. The Rams will have to improve their level of play from Sunday’s game to avoid that outcome this season.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Fordham Women’s Basketball. In 2011, head coach Stephanie Gaitley took over a program in disarray; the Rams had won just 11 Atlantic 10 games in the four years before her arrival. Now, six postseason berths and two NCAA Tournaments later, Gaitley’s Rams are a national power, and the team showcased that on Tuesday night.

Fordham fell 60–55 to Notre Dame, the defending national runner-up and 2018 national champion. The Irish entered the 2019–20 season having lost their entire starting five — Jackie Young, Brianna Turner, Marina Mabrey, Jessica Shepard and Arike Ogunbowale — from the season before. If there was a time for Fordham to upset the sixteenth-ranked Irish, it was 7 p.m. on Tuesday night in front of a sold-out crowd at the newly-renovated Rose Hill Gym .

The Rams came tantalizingly close to doing just that.

Fordham struggled to shoot in the first half, and early jitters presented themselves in the form of early turnovers. Junior Kendell Heremaia had five in the first quarter, but settled in to have a nice game in the second half. However, in the first, Muffet McGraw’s Irish were able to get a double-digit lead behind stingy defense and timely shooting from freshman Sam Brunelle. Notre Dame led by as many as 15 points in the second quarter and carried a 12-point lead into the halftime break.

Throughout the second half, though, Fordham refused to go away. 

Fordham chipped away at the double-digit deficit with tight defense and timely offense. The Rams’ inability to convert outside shots was an issue all night; the team was 3-18 (16.7%) in the first half and closed the game with an 8-38 (21.1%) performance from outside. Fordham was down 11 entering the fourth quarter, but started the final frame on a 7-0 run to electrify the audience in the Bronx. Notre Dame soon pushed the lead back to 10, but Fordham went on another 6-0 run to cut the lead back to four. After a series of misses, Kendell Heremaia’s layup with 29 seconds left brought Fordham within three. The Rams got within two with sophomore Kaitlin Downey’s late basket with 11 seconds left, but Notre Dame put the game away with an offensive rebound on a missed free throw by freshman Anaya Peoples.

Fordham, improbably, could have won the game with better shooting. Junior preseason all-conference selection Bre Cavanaugh was 6–22, freshman Anna DeWolfe was 5–16 and Downey was 3–11. That being said, with Fordham’s stars having their offensive struggles, the Rams’ ability to keep the game close with a team that nearly won the national championship the year before shows that Gaitley’s team can play with just about anyone in the country.

And that wasn’t the only positive from Tuesday night, either. Freshmen DeWolfe and Sarah Karpell were extremely impressive, with Karpell winning several possessions defensively for Fordham. Sophomore Meg Jonassen was forced into duty with big minutes down the stretch, as Downey and sophomore Vilisi Tavui both hit major foul trouble. Still, with the inexperience of the Rams, the team didn’t buckle on a big stage. 

The other takeaway of the night was just how far the Fordham program has come in just under a decade. When Gaitley took over the program in 2011, a night like Tuesday night — with a sold out Rose Hill Gym and a national power coming to play — was a pipe dream. In the span of eight years, Tuesday night became a reality, thanks to hard work and a winning culture.

Fordham lost on Tuesday night. In many ways, it’s unclear just how much the Fordham Women’s Basketball program won.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2019.

Fordham Cross Country competed in the Atlantic 10 Championships on Saturday at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va. The men’s team finished in third while the women’s team finished 11th out of 14 teams. 

Senior Ryan Kutch entered the event looking to defend his A-10 crown from a season ago. He was outstanding once again this season, but finished behind St. Joseph’s Zachary Minion by four seconds. Kutch earned all-Atlantic 10 honors for his performance, as did fellow senior Nicholas Raefski, who finished 15th with a time of 25:46.9. Both seniors wrapped up their Fordham Cross Country careers in style on Saturday.

“I am most proud of having the best team to push me each cross country season,” Kutch said. “We always came into the season with big goals each of my four years. Although that goal wasn’t necessarily always hit, we still put in the necessary steps to get there.”

Other finishers for Fordham were freshmen Kyle Flood and John McGovern, who finished in 26th and 27th, respectively. Sophomore Brandon Hall finished 34th in a time of 26:20.8. Other competitors on the men’s side included freshmen Jack Craven (60th — 26:53.6) and Nick Lundberg (63rd — 26:55.7), junior Christopher Strzelinski (65th — 26:56.4), senior Sean Sullivan (87th — 27:15.9) and freshman Ryan Fahey (104th — 27:58.6). 

Over on the women’s side, the team finished 11th out of the 14 teams competing in the tournament. Freshman Alexandra Thomas was the best finisher for head coach Brian Horowitz’s team, coming in 26th place with a time of 18:59.0. Senior Sydney Snow was the other top-50 finisher for the Rams with her 43rd-place time of 19:12.0. 

After Thomas and Snow, other competitors for Fordham included sophomore Bridget Alex (70th — 19:49.9), freshman Taylor Mascetta (71st — 19:50.4), senior Kataryna Krzyzanowski (80th — 20:02.0), freshmen Sarah Rubenheimer (102nd — 20:35.2) and Nicoleta Papavasilakis (104th — 20:38.5) and juniors Maeve O’Connor (120th — 21:14.5), Julia Herms (124th — 21:30.5) and Bridget White (128th — 21:52.5). 

This performance by the Rams leads them into the NCAA Regionals in Buffalo, N.Y. on Nov. 15. It also wraps up the first Cross Country regular season under head coach Brian Horowitz, who took over for Thomas Dewey in the offseason. 

“Coach Horowitz has done a great job in his first season so far,” Kutch said. “The freshmen have also stepped up and have worked hard to make the travel meets and score for us at meets. We still have two big races to go, so we are excited to showcase what we have for those meets.”

Those two big races are the NCAA Regionals and the ECAC/IC4A Championship at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx on Nov. 23. The team will take the next few days to get ready for both of those events.

“This year was the highest team finish [at A-10s] and we had a super young team,” Kutch says. “I am happy where the team will be in the future.”