ABC Article About Wash U Women's B-Ball Win Streak

Check out this interesting article here about the 81-game win streak by Washington University's Women's Basketball Team from 1998-2001. The team, hot off last year's National Championship, recently began its season and KWUR Sports will be broadcasting every home game live all season long.

Highlights & Summary: Wash U 36, Westminster 6

Last night at Francis Field, the Wash U Bears defeated the Westminster (MO) Blue Jays, 36-6. This put the Bears at 2-2, getting them back to .500 and putting them at 2-0 at home for the season.

The game started out slowly, with neither team scoring in the first 25 minutes. With 8 minutes left in the second half, Westminster inexplicably put their quarterback, Tyson Kankolenski in to punt. After looking like he might run with the ball, he punted it straight into the air and it fell out of bounds just nine yards past the Westminster line of scrimmage, giving Wash U the ball at their 43 yard line.

Wash U took advantage of this field position to go ahead, 3-0. After Westminster went 3 and out on their next possession, the Wash U offense drove 70 yards down the field, led by a 21 yard run by QB Steve Sherman and a 29 yard reception by WR Tom Gulyas. Sophomore RB Chris Castelluccio ran for a 3 yard touchdown and WU went up 10-0, a lead that they took into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Bears continued their special-teams dominance, blocking a Jake Hilton punt and recovering it deep in Westminster territory, allowing the offense to start the drive in the red zone. Sherman wasn't able to take advantage of the fantastic field position as he threw three incomplete passes. But Eric Chalifour was able to nail his second field goal of the game, a 33-yarder that put Wash U up 13.

On the kickoff following the field goal, DE John Schneider forced Westminster returner Kelvin Williams to fumble. Bears LB Ed Ferguson fell on the ball on the Blue Jays' 34 yard-line, giving the Wash U offense another short field. Sherman made another great run, scrambling for 16 yards to start the drive. On the next play, Sherman avoided pressure before hitting WR Drew Sexton in the corner of the end zone. Sexton made an amazing catch on the sideline, managing to reel in the ball and get a foot inbounds to give the Bears a 19-0 margin. Chalifour missed the extra point, but the damage was already done.

Westminster went 3-and-out again, and Wash U took over with good field position again, starting the possession at their own 44 yard line. After failing to convert on third and 2, Wash U faked the punt, direct snapping the ball to third-string QB Adam Banks, who found Gulyas wide open for 24 yard completion. Two plays later, Junior WR Easton Knott caught a 24 yard touchdown pass from Sherman, giving the Bears offense TD passes on back-to-back drives. Chalifour hit the extra point and WU extended their lead to 26-0.

The next two series yielded no scoring, and then on the second play of a drive, Westminster backup QB Corey Ward found their star receiver, Carl Givens, streaking down the sideline and completed the pass for an impressive 66 yard touchdown. Westminster's special teams woes continued, as a botched snap on the PAT attempt held the score at 26-6.

With 7:50 left in the game, as things seemed to be slowing down, Wash U RB Daniel Grimm busted through the line on a simple dive play, beating the Westminster defense for a 42 yard touchdown run. One the first play of Westminster's drive following the touchdown, Ward threw an interception that Kyle Larkin returned all the way to Westminster's 13 yard line. Chalifour hit another field goal, giving the Bears a 36-6 lead that ended up being the final score.

New Feature: Stats Page

We have added a new section to the site, our Statistics page, where you can view up-to-date stats that go more in depth than your normal collection of stats. These numbers are calculated by KWUR Staff to give extra insight into Bears Sports. Our announcers use much of this information for their analysis, and now you can see the stats yourself!

So far we've added 2010 Football, 2009 Football, and both Men's and Women's 2009-10 Basketball.

Here's a sample:

2010 Football (Through September 19th)

WUSTL Sports Summer in Review

Even with the student body off campus for the summer, there has still been some action involving WUSTL sports teams. We'll get you updated so you can go into the school year knowing what's going on!

Men's Tennis

On May 30th, senior John Watts becomes Wash U's first singles champion by defeating Emory University's Chris Goodwin 6-1, 6-2. Earlier that week, Wash U's Men's Team fell in the National Semifinals to #1 Middlebury, the team that went on to win the title.

Women's Tennis

The Women's team lost to University of Chicago in the third round of the playoffs, failing to upset the team that ended up finishing fourth in the nation. Freshman Kate Klein was named the ITA DIII National Freshman of the Year, the first Bear to ever win that award. Klein lost in the first round of the singles tournament as she faced a tough challenge in the bracket's #5 seed.

Baseball

On May 25th, Coach Ric Lessmann announced his retirement after 17 years as the Bears' head coach and 45 as a collegiate coach. The winningest coach in team history, his decision to retired was based mainly on health reasons. In July, Steve Duncan was hired as the new head coach of the team. He comes from an assistant coaching job at John Hopkins, a team that finished 5th in Division III in 2010.

Women's Soccer

On August 12th, the Women's Soccer team was voted 2nd in the NSCAA pre-season poll. The team finished 2nd in the nation last year after losing to Messiah College in the National Championship game. The Bears are returning 62% of their games started, 57% of their goals, and 64% of their assists.

Men's Soccer

The Men's Soccer team was named the #2 team in the conference by the UAA coaches in their pre-season poll. The team went 9-7-3 last year, ending the season 4th in the UAA with a 3-4-0 conference record. They return 75% of their games started, 52% of their goals scored, and 78% of their assists. While they lost their leading goals scorer, John Hengel ('10), they are returning defenders Harry Beddo and Randall Schoen, who were both first team last year.

Women's Volleyball

Yesterday the Women's Volleyball team, fresh off a National Championship in 2009, received all 24 first-place votes in the AVCA top-25 poll. The team returns five starters, including junior Lauren Budde, the Most Outstanding Player of last year's NCAA tournament and sophomore Kelly Pang, who was named AVCA Freshman of the year. Junior Kristen Thomas and sophomores Marilee Fisher and Drew Hargrave will also return as starters for the Bears, who are in great position to repeat as champs for third time in four years.

Football 2010 Season Preview: Part Two

In Part One of our Bears' Football Season Preview, we looked at the team's offense, finding that they will be returning a solid percentage of their productive players from 2009. For the second part of our Season Preview, we will look at the Bears' Defense, and try to get a sense of how things will shape up for this unit in 2010.

In 2009, the Bears' defense was about average for Division III. They gave up slightly more points per game (25.3 to 25.1) and a few more yards per game (374 to 344) than the average DIII defense. The unit was far superior when compared to the team's offense, which was significantly below average in both categories (19.4 ppg, 285 yds/gm).

We will be looking at some statistics courtesy of the WUSTL Athletics Site, which provides all the raw numbers used here. You will see a couple new stats here called wAst and wTkl. wAst is the number of assisted tackles a player makes multiplied by .46, a number taken from the average number of players assisting on a tackle. wTkl is simply wAst plus Solo tackles. This is more accurate in assessing production that simply adding assists plus tackles, since it rewards players for making the more difficult solo tackles.

In order to see how the Wash U. Defense can continue and improve on this success, we will look at each level of defense: the defensive line, the linebackers, and the secondary.

Defensive Line

The Bears used four different starting lineups in 2009, the most common being the lineup they used for the last 5 games of the season, with senior Brendan O'Mahony, sophomore Dan Sufranski, junior John Schneider, and senior Nick Gialessas.

Sufranski started every game at defensive tackle, while O'Mahony took the other DT spot for the last nine games after junior Todd Palmer started the first game at DT. At defensive end, senior Tim Taylor started off the season as a starter before being replaced by Schneider in the sixth game of the season. Nick Gialessas was consistently in the starting lineup as a DE, starting nine of ten games.

John Schneider was the most productive member of the DL, leading the unit in both Solo tackles and assisted tackles. Brendan O'Mahony and Nick Gialessas were able to get some good tackles for loss, as both of them made over 20% of their tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Despite starting all ten games, sophomore Dan Sufranski was able to accumulate just 12 wTkls, including just one TFL.

With O'Mahony and Gialesses graduated, Schneider and Sufranski have to really step it up in 2010 as the Bears will need some unproven players to step up on the defensive line. DT Todd Palmer and DE Greg Larson with both be seniors next year, and Coach Kindbom will likely count on them to fill the shoes of the productive defensive linemen that graduated last year.

Linebackers

The Bears' linebacker corp had a similar pattern to the DL as they used a few different lineups in the beginning of the season before settling into a consistent crew for the second half. The alarming thing you can see from the above chart is that only one non-senior started multiple games in 2009.

Luckily, there were a couple linebackers who managed to be productive without starting games.

You can see here that while WU has lost a solid trio in Berryman, Schiffman, and Buchanan, they still have some talent that remains from 2009. Kyle Huber, who will be a senior this year, lead the entire defense in both solo tackles and assists. His 6 tackles for loss shows his ability to get into the backfield at will. Huber will be a player to watch for the Bears in 2010, as he will be one of the top LBs in the conference.

Sophomores Kyle Larkin and Nick Hilliard will have to replace Berryman and Schiffman in the starting lineup, but you can see that they got some experience in 2009 so they at least have something to build on. With these two playing as Junior and Huber returning as one of the leaders of the defense, the Bears should have a decent group at the linebacker position.

Defensive Backs

Compared to the DL and LB units, the Wash U's secondary was quite stable in 2009, as they only used 2 different starting lineups. However, one thing that is similar to the other units is the secondary's reliance on seniors, as three of the four main starters have now graduated.

The lone returning starter is Brandon Brown, who was selected to the 2010 Preseason All-American team by D3football.com after starting all ten games in 2009.

As you can see here, the Bears have lost a lot of talent in the secondary. Tim Machan had a consistent presence in '09 with 54 wTkls including an impressive 43 solo tackles. Cornerback Nick Vom Brack was second on the team in both Passes Defended and Interceptions, and Tim Olivos also did well, playing next to Machan at safety the whole season. All those players will be gone in 2010, which will leave a big whole to be filled.

You can see in the above table how important Brown will be to the secondary this year. While his pass defense numbers are comparable to Vom Brack's his additional 13 wTkls make him a better rounded player. How the team fills out the rest of the DB unit will be interesting to see, as Marcus Shelby was the only other non-senior with ten or more wTkls.

Overview:

The Bears' defense was a strength last year, and a lot of their success was due to the seniors on the team. With those player gone, the team will need some younger guys who haven't seen so much playing time to take advantage of their chance to be on the field and prove themselves. A reassuring thing is that on each unit of the defense, they have a player who played at a high level in 2009: the DL has John Schneider, the LBs have Kyle Huber, and the DBs have Brandon Brown. All three of these players will be seniors in 2010, so they should show leadership and help this defense realize its potential.

Football 2010 Season Preview: Part One

2009 was a tough season for the Wash U Bears Football team. The program's 16 year streak without a losing record came to a close as the team went 4-6, including a 1-2 record in UAA play. They were outscored 253-194, as their opponents out-gained them on offense 3740 yards to 2846 yards and they had 28 turnovers compared 21 takeaways.

However, looking to 2010, the Bears are in position to turn things around and improve upon last year's record. With a strong core of returning offensive players and some solid returning defensive players, including Second-Team All-American cornerback Brandon Brown, the Bears have a good chance to return to a .500 or better record and compete for a UAA title.

To evaluate the Bears' potential for 2010, we will look at each unit for the team, starting with the offense, then going to the defense before finishing up with special teams.

Part One: OFFENSE

Quarterback

Last year WU started the season with Mitchel Bartel (’11) as the starting quarterback, hoping he could fill the shoes of Buck Smith (’09), who started for WU in ’07 and ’08, completing 55.9% of his passes for an average of 5.92 yards per attempt, while throwing TDs on 7.1% of his attempts and interceptions on 7.4%. Bartel struggled early, throwing INTs on the first two drives of the season.

Coach Larry Kindbom showed that he was willing to switch QBs at will, putting Steve Sherman (’12) in for the rest of the game. Sherman finished the game going 9-19 with a pick and a TD. After that opening game, Sherman became the starter for the rest of the season.

Sherman was a serviceable QB throughout the year, completing 53.3% of his passes with 3.5% TDs and 3.5% INTs. With Buck Smith graduated, the Bears threw on just 43% of offensive plays compared to 52.6% of plays in 2008. This coincided with a more conservative air approach, as Sherman threw a TD or INT on less than half the percentage of possessions (7.0% to 14.5%) that Smith did in 07-08.

Sherman was clearly tentative to throw the ball down the field, as 66% of his completions were for 10 yards or less. He also struggled to get rid of the ball, being sacked on 10% of his dropbacks (D3 avg: 6%).

When Bartel was under center, he was able to avoid the sacks (3%) and got the ball deeper down the field (54% of completions less than 10 yards), but his interception problems were deadly (8% of pass attempts).

While Sherman had problems with sacks, he was able to use his athleticism to run out of the Pistol formation, a set that Coach Kindbom implemented with Sherman in mind. Not including sacks, Sherman ran for 158 yards on 36 carries for an average rush of 4.39 yards. On first down, when plays designed for him to run are more likely than on other downs, Sherman ran for 5.40 yds/carry. He was least effective on third downs, running for 3.57 yds/carry, probably due to being in more scrambling situations instead of set running plays.

If Sherman can improve in 2010 then Wash U will be quite content with their QB situation. He must become more comfortable on deeper passes in order to open up the field and make some bigger plays. He has shown himself to be an effective runner at times, but he must do a better job of using his athleticism to avoid sacks. If he can complete deeper passes and improve on his pocket presence, Sherman will be a valuable member of Wash U’s offensive attack.

Running Back

On the opening drive of WU’s 2009 opener against Greenville, Matt Glenn, the Bears’ leading rusher in 2008 injured his knee, forcing him to leave the game. After attempting to return to the game in the second quarter, he came out and spent the rest of the game on the sideline. Taking his place was Jim O’Brien, who shared the ball-carrying duties with Glenn in 2008, finishing second on the team with 308 yards on 90 carries and tied with Glenn for the team lead with 4 rushing touchdowns.

With Glenn injured, O’Brien had a chance to prove his ability as a #1 back. In next game, O’Brien ran for 143 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries, helping the offense score 41 points and defeat Westminster. O’Brien was the Bears’ #1 back for the rest of the season as he went from taking the ball on 28% of WU’s carries in 2008 to 48% in 2009. He also raised his yards per carry rate from 3.4 to 5.2, which was integral in the Bears’ team yds/car going from an abysmal 2.5 in 2008 to a much more respectable 3.8 in 2009.

O'Brien scored 6 of the Bears’ 15 rushing TDs (40%), which is impressive considering that he only took the ball on 38% of WU’s carries within the 3 yard line, the area in which they scored 9 of their 15 rushing TDs (60%). He was the team’s most effective goal line back, scoring on 43% of his carries within the 3, while his teammates scored on just 27%.

O'Brien's 5.2 yd/car average was powered by a consistent attack, with nearly a sixth of his rushes going for exactly 4 yards. He was able to break runs open on occasion, running for 15 or more yards on 5% of his carries, but his main value was in his ability to keep the drive going with a decent run, as he went for at least 3 yards on 72% of his carries. In comparison, the rest of the team ran for 4 yards or more on just 35% of their carries.

O’Brien was able to contribute on all downs. 55% of his carries came on first down, and he was averaged 5.4 yards on those carries. On second downs, he was able to acquire an average of 86% of the yards needed to get a first down. O’Brien was also able to earn a first down on 63% of his third/fourth down carries, making him a significantly more effective short distance back than WUs other options, as the other backs converted just 34% of such opportunities.

While the other backs did have a tougher task ahead of them, having to go an average of 5.84 yards for the first down compared to O’Brien’s 4.21 avg yards to go, the difference in yds/car (4.95 to 3.25) was still drastic enough to indicate that O’Brien really was the most effective third-down-runner.

O’Brien will be returning for his Senior Year, and he should see over 50% of the carries in 2010. Since Glenn (63 carries in ’09) and Greg Lachaud (19 carries) graduated in May, the secondary load will fall on Senior Sam Kentor, who ran for 39 yards and 2 TDs on 11 carries and Clay Reed, a Junior who ran for 23 yards on 10 carries.

WU will also likely start to utilize sophomore Chris Castellucio, who played the most out of the freshman class in 2009 as an effective member of the Special Teams squad, returning 20 Kickoffs for a total of 389 yards.

Wide Receivers

On the other side of the Bears’ passing attack, there were six Bears that caught 10 or more passes in 2009. These six accounted for 78% of the team’s completions and 83% of the aerial yardage. While Wash U will return 4 of these 6 players, both Matt Mangini, the team’s #2 receiver, and Greg Lachaud, the team’s H-Back, have graduated.

Mangini led the team with 13.7 yards per reception and was second on the team in both catches (21) and yards (288). While he was dynamic enough to stretch the field and get extra yards, he was fifth out of the six main receivers in reception%, catching just 46% of the ball thrown to him.

Lachaud played out of the H-back position, catching a respectable 56% of passes thrown to him while earning enough yards after the catch to average 10.5 yds/rec and to score 2 TDs.

Wash U will be returning their top receiver, Tom Gulyas, who led the team in Receptions, Yards, TD, and caught 58% of the passes thrown to him, good for second on the team and first among Wide Receivers. Running back Jim O’Brien was able to bring down an impressive 91% of the passes, making him a very good check-down option for QB Steve Sherman. He was only able to get 6.1 yds/rec, but that is expected when only taking dump-off passes.

Austin Morman and Easton Knott also played a significant role in the passing attack. Morman, who is also one of the best punters in Division III, pulled down 52% of the passes thrown to him for an average of 11.5 yds/rec. Knott was able to muster 12.4 yds/rec, but his 36% reception rate left something to be desired. Despite being third on the team in times thrown to, he was just sixth in receptions.

In 2010, Gulyas will be a senior while Morman and Knott will both be juniors. Gulyas should continue to be the #1 target and has to potential to be an All-UAA wideout. If Knott can improve his reception rate, the Bears’ will have a solid triumvirate of receivers to go along with Jim O’Brien coming out of the backfield.

Michael Weiss, who will also be a junior in 2010, should see some more playing time with Mangini gone. Weiss caught 8 of the 14 passes thrown to him last year, a good start for a player who will have many more opportunities in 2010.

Offensive Line

In 2009, the Bears used four different lineups for their offensive line. The most common was the one they used for the last five games of the season: sophomores Joe Rhein and Phil Stoecker, juniors David Mackey and J.J. Gotlieb, and senior Jared Daiber. Rhein, Mackey, and Daiber were all named second-team all-UAA and Stoecker was an honorable mention. With four of their five starters returning in 2010, the line should be one of the Bears’ strongest units.

The Bears will need to replace Jared Daiber, who started all ten games in 2009, moving well out of the offensive guard position, often leading the way on screen passes and pulling on outside runs. WU will likely turn to Matt Hasmonek (’12) who started the first five games of the season at guard before falling to injury and being replaced by Gotlieb for the rest of the season.

Jon Mollet, the team’s other guard, played in seven games in ’09, the most of any freshman offensive lineman on the team. Between those two, the Bears should be able to fill that empty hole in their line. Adding a year of experience to each of their four returning starters should allow the team to have a cohesive attack, and this bunch will definitely help the Bears’ skill positions reach their potential.

Coming Soon- Part Two: Defense

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Welcome!

Welcome to the KWUR Sports website, a great new way to follow all of the sports teams that play at Washington University in St Louis. During the school year, KWUR Sports covers Bears games with live broadcasts on 90.3 FM in Clayton and on the KWUR website. This site will allow us to bring all of our coverage and more in one place.

On the sidebar you can listen to the two broadcasts that we did from the 2010 D3 Women's Final Four in Bloomington, Illinois, in which the Bears defeated Amherst College in the Semi-finals and Hope College in the Finals to win the National Championship.

Starting in September, we will bring analysis, stats, and archived broadcasts of all the games we cover. You will also be able to come to this site to view live broadcasts, including the possibility of live video.

We hope that this site will help Bears fans be able to follow the fantastic teams that Washington University has to offer.

GO BEARS!