A Look Back at the Varsity Volleyball Season

MARGARET GREGORY '10

The 2007-2008 Beaver Country Day School varsity volleyball season so far has been impressive compared to years past. Last year, varsity won two games and this year the team has doubled that record with four wins.

The team consists of six starting seniors, one junior, and two sophomores. The captain, Liz Cobb, is a leader both on and off the court, bringing laughs to practice and intensity to games. Additionally, Khadijah Gray has made over 25 kills and 73 attempts, making her the number one hitter on the team. She never lets a block go unblocked or leaves a hit un-hit. Every player has a sense of leadership and teamwork which makes varsity volleyball such an amazing team. “The team is so close it’s unbelievable, I have never been on a team where everyone is friends and gets along so well!” says Brooke Parker, a junior on the team.

The head coach, Aaron Montgomery, pushes the players every day in practice. He encourages them to try their hardest and to work as a team. Aaron also coaches at Northeastern University and is the assistant coach at Newbury College. His knowledge of the sport is extraordinary and he always has a fun drill for the team to try out every practice.

Come out and watch volleyball play in their last game of the season on February 20 at Chapel Hill at 4:30!
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Girl's Varsity Basketball hopes for a spot in the EIL tournament

LAURA BULKELEY '08

The start to the girl’s varsity basketball season at Beaver has been both trying and exciting. The first game against Berwick was a heartbreaker, when the girls lost by one point in the last few seconds. Though the girls suffered other losses, there have also been some exciting wins against Southfield and Bancroft. Dani Lubin Levy (’09) and Janaya Hart (’09) have led the team as junior captains.

Though the captains play a large role, other players such as Emily Belowich (’11) and Ibbie Yardley (’10) are regular starters and help the team with their high spirits and tough play. Their promise, along with a strong JV team, keeps hope for a strong program in the future. Already, Kasjah Scarlett (’11) has been brought up to varsity from JV and has had ample playing time. At the end of the year, the team will only lose three seniors, one of which has started in two games. Unfortunately, the team has begun to suffer due to injuries. Jessye Crawford (’08) and Kasjah Scarlett are both out due to hand injuries. Kasjah will be out for two weeks, and Jessye will be out for the rest of the season.

Though the team has gotten off to a rough start with a record of 4-9, there is still time to improve. The girls have beaten in-league Bancroft twice, showing that Beaver is a competitor and will hopefully grab a spot in the EIL tournament. The end of the season will surely be intense; come support the team on senior night this Friday at 3:30pm.

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Loss to Kansas Revealing for Boston College

DANA SPIGELMAN '08

Kansas’ post players produced 55 points including 25 from junkyard dog Darnell Jackson, who rarely scores far away from the basket. Kansas exposed BC all the way around. They were simply too weak and too slow in their defensive rotations to stop the tough Jackson and the polished Darrell Arthur. Kansas point guards routinely stood beyond the three-point line and lobbed alley-oops over the unaware BC defenders to their dominating big man. Al Skinner was simply out coached as Bill Self was able to time and again find the flaws in BC’s game plan. However, Skinner can only be blamed to a certain extent. BC showed their youth, committing 14 turnovers and making horrible decisions at every turn. Tyrese Rice committed six turnovers, unusual for the smart and instinctive point guard. Rakim Sanders was caught taking awful fade-away three pointers and Corey Raji seemed overly passive. It certainly got ugly in Conte Forum.

The young BC squad also showed their youth. Biko Paris was not bothered at all by the most intense pressure he will ever have to face, reversing his dribble and easing his way up the court against the intense Russell Robinson, Sherron Collins and Mario Chalmers. Rakim Sanders, while at first showing his youth, scored 14 points and led a minor second half surge with a barrage of threes and an electric put-back dunk. Through the first half Tyrese Rice also showed just how good he can be, dominating Kansas and keeping BC in the game as long as he could. Rice has a history of stepping up in big games against quality point guards, dating back to games against UNC, Georgetown and others over the past two years. Those strong spotlight performances can only be an indication of further success to come for the BC star.

With only a match up against a weak Robert Morris squad left, BC has just about finished off their non-conference schedule. In somewhat of a rebuilding year, the realistic goal for BC has become a NCAA tournament bid and they will have to play well now to achieve it. With a win over Robert Morris, BC will go into ACC play at 11-3 (1-0 inside the conference). With only the fifteen conference games left BC has a pretty easy conference schedule, facing Duke and Clemson each only once. The remaining games are against beatable teams and a 9-6 mark against the remaining schedule appears attainable. That would leave BC 20-9 with a 10-6 record in the ACC and a lock for the NCAA tournament. While this is attainable, it is still highly unlikely that the inconsistent, young Eagles could pull it off. They will need Rakim Sanders and Corey Raji to mature quickly, continued solid play from Biko Paris, Shamari Spears and Tyrelle Blair. Despite what anyone says, this is a solid BC team and one that nobody in the ACC is looking forward to playing. Although this year has the potential to turn for the worse, the future in Conte Forum is bright.

Image from: ESPN

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Beaver Basketball Starts Season With Big Road Win

DANA SPIGELMAN '08

In a season where Beaver returns only one starter and two rotation players from the previous year Beaver answered a lot of questions with a big win on Friday night at Concord Academy. With an 8-0 run right out of the gate Beaver set the tone from what would be an up and down game. Due to a barrage of three pointers from star guards Ephraim Herskovitz and Logan Furr and commanding point guard play from Chris Quinn Beaver jumped out to a 20 point lead early versus Concord. However, the game settled down at the end of the half, with Concord shaving the lead to 15 points.

In the second half the shooting touch went cold and Beaver started to play sloppy, committing six fouls in less than five minutes of play to open the half. The mistakes resulted in foul trouble, forcing backups Cam Bloy, Arian Fararooy and later Jahrad Delossantos into big minutes. With Concord cutting the lead to nine Beaver was never rattled and fought back. Among other big plays Logan Furr was fouled twice beyond the arc, making 5 of 6 free throws to help secure the victory. In a 74-62 victory, Beaver showed a lot on opening night, not only getting 38 points from Ephraim Herskovitz and 19 points from Logan Furr but also getting key contributions from starters Deon Bragg, Justin Conway and Chris Quinn to supplement the two scorers and put away a scrappy Concord Academy team.

Image: Boys Varsity's third game
Image credit: Toph Tucker

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Varsity Soccer: What a Season

TYLER STARR ‘10

Boys Varsity Soccer’s record is not an accurate indication of their season. They finished the season 1-9-5, with several close games that did not go their way. The team enjoyed only nominal luck throughout the entire season. Whether it was injury, poor officiating, or missed opportunities, Boys Varsity had no breaks this term.

The season began with Lamarre Rey’s departure from BCDS. His departure left a hole at keeper. Luckily, senior Chris Rush stepped up and became the new keeper for the team, doing a great job replacing Rey.

The team was plagued by injuries all season long. They started without Oliver Hunt ’11, who was lost for the season due to a knee injury suffered last summer, and Angelo Cabral ’11. Hunt was one of the top scorers at Shady Hill in 2006 and would have been a great addition to the team. Excluding Arian Fararooy ’08, every starting player has been taken out of a game due to some form of injury. Some could call it lucky that only a few starters have had to miss a game due to injury. Angelo Cabral ’11, Oliver Hunt ’11, Tyler Starr ’10, Marco Fabrizio ’09, Gabe Reich ’09, Will Searle ’09, Chris Rush ’08, and Zach Levandov ’08 have all had to sit out at least one game. Injuries varied from a sore groin to a partially torn MCL to a concussion.

The Landmark game may have been the worst game of the season for the team. Despite standing as the team’s only victory, four starters got hurt and three did not play the next two games. Ten minutes into the game, Tyler Starr ’10 suffered a concussion. “[Tyler] and the other player ran into each other then both toppled backward,” Murray Hershkowitz ’10 recalled. Angelo Cabral and Andrew Emmons ‘08 suffered foot injuries and came to practice the next day on crutches. In addition, Chris Rush sustained a mysterious arm injury. Andrew Emmons was able to play with the pain in the next game, and, fortunately, Chris Rush only missed the next two games. Unfortunately for starters Tyler Starr and Angelo Cabral, their injuries were season-ending.

The team also had several close games. They had five ties and three games where they only lost by one goal. While time was running out in their second game against Pingree, five shots were taken that either hit the cross bar or were deflected by a player. In their first game against Landmark, they fought back from a three-goal deficit to make it 3-4 and with one minute left missed a crucial free kick. In their second game against Bancroft, Beaver was winning with ten minutes to go but fell apart at the end and tied the game. Coach Cabral does have an answer for these close games: a month long trip to a soccer academy in Portugal during the summer. Whether or not that is the solution to the team’s problems, it is a start.

Though the team had a losing record, you have to look at all these factors to fully understand the hardships of this long season.
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Another Win for the Golf Team!

ERIK TOBIAS '09

It was a damp, gloomy afternoon when the swirl of yellow and blue hit the soggy turf of Putterham Golf Club. The Beaver Golf Team sported their new overwhelmingly colorful yellow and blue Vineyard Vines uniforms for the first time this year. The team was off to a brilliant start as usual, having seven wins and one loss this year. However on October 10th, Beaver played a newcomer to the league, Portsmouth Abbey. Both teams headed into this match tied for first place. Both teams came out strong, but Portsmouth Abbey stood no chance against Beaver's skilled team. The team claimed five wins and one tie that day. This match moved Beaver into first place. As Max Campion put it, "It was close today, but we really stuck this one out and won the match."

Max is currently one of the best players in the league and is a co-captain of the team. He came in with a whopping one over par, 37. The team's number two player, Adam Buchinder, came in with a level par, 36. Erik Tobias, the team's number three player shot a two over par, 38, while the rest of the team shot scores of 40, 41, or 48. As coach Larry McKinney said, "Not only did the team play well today, but they were the best dressed team in the league." Some say the colors intimated the other the team, but as a co-captain Jamie Beckingham put it, "we simply played our best out there today!" The team has four more matches left this season and if they continue on pace, they will have won their seventh title in the past eight years. Good luck Beaver Golf team!
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Start To a New Soccer Season

TYLER STARR '10

The boys’ varsity soccer team has had a rough start to the season. They started the season off with a come-from-behind one to one tie against Portsmouth Abbey. The team then went 0-3-1 in their next four games. They came from behind in the game with Pingree. They were losing two nothing at the half before a penalty kick goal by Captain Gabe Reich ‘09 and a goal by Will Searle tied the game at two.

Maybe the worst part of those series of games was that Gabe Reich got injured in the Pingree game. Reich says, “I partially tore my ACL before the Pingree game and during the Pingree game I partially tore my MCL.” This was a big loss for the team because Gabe Reich is a starter and a crucial part of the team’s transitional game. Gabe hopes to be back on the field in two weeks.

The team has a lot of new players on it and is missing a few key players from last year. Though the team lost key players, there is still a bevy of players returning from last years team: Avery Hunt ’08, Oliver Katz ’08, Rafael Cabral ’09, Willie Searle ’09, Chris Rush ’08, Arian Fararoy ’08, Zach Levandov ’08, Andrew Emmons ’08, Murry Hershkawitz ’10, Robert Awkward ’10, Marco Fabrizio ’09, and Gabe Reich ’09. The team has seven new players and one new starter: Angelo Cabral ’11, Nate Newmark ’11, Henry Moorhead ’10, Jason Stoll ’10, Jackson Van Raan ‘09, Tyler Starr ’10, and Matt Friedman ’10 . Captains, Avery Hunt ’08 and Oliver Katz ’08, both agree that losing Graham Lloyd ’07, starting sweeper last year, was a big loss. They are also missing their leading scorer from last year, Stratos Saropoulos.

Arguably the biggest loss from last year’s team was Lamarre Rey, who went to Pingree. going to Pingree. Lamarre was the starting keeper on the team for the last three years. “At first it was very devastating knowing that one of the best goalies in the league was leaving,” Oliver Katz says, “but it was resolved by Chris Rush’s performances this season.”

Chris Rush, a “bench warmer” from last year’s team, accepted the challenge of becoming the team’s new keeper. “He has been getting better every practice,” Gabe Reich says. Avery Hunt also agrees that Chris Rush “has been doing well.”

Thanks to the new athletic center, boys’ varsity soccer has been practicing in the gym two times a week. “Going to the weight room helps our team because it helps smaller kids get stronger,” says Oliver Katz.

Their latest game against Chapel Hill was a disaster. In the first half there was a Chapel Hill free kick which was kicked in the air into the goalie box. Rush jumped over a Chapel Hill player to get the ball. A foul was called on Rush for knocking the Chapel Hill striker down while trying to get the ball. Five minutes later the ref ended the game. Coach Cabral had received two yellow cards and a red card, the refs were nowhere to be found, and all BCDS players were outraged. When asked to use one word to describe the game, Reich and Katz answered “ridiculous.”

With eleven more games left, the team looks to step up their game. They are hoping to win their game against Concord on Friday to whom they have not lost to in five years.
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