January 11, 2012

We asked you to vote for the most amazing performance in Washington College Athletics for the 2011 calendar year and you did.  What might be most amazing was the "get out the vote" effort by supporters of the women's tennis team, which finished first in this year's poll in a landslide.

1st Place - 6,228 votes
April 30th: Women's Tennis Advances to Centennial Conference Championship Match for Second Time in Three Years
After just missing out on a conference playoff berth in 2010, the women's tennis team not only qualified for the 2011 Centennial Conference Tournament, but also landed in the championship match for the second time in three years after a 5-1 win over Swarthmore in the semifinals. Bethany Daller wrapped up the win for Washington with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, victory at No. 6 singles. Jordan Finnegan and Brittany Marshall also won in singles in the win. Washington won two of the three doubles matches. The Shorewomen had opened the season with 11 straight victories and finished 16-4 on the season. 

2nd Place - 2,603 votes
April 9th: Playoff-Bound Softball Sweeps Double-Header Against Dickinson with Pair of Walk-Off Hits
In what proved to be two pivotal victories, Kylie Nottingham homered in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Shorewomen a 4-3 win over the Red Devils in the first game of a home double-header and Lindsey Glascock hit a walk-off single to give the Shorewomen an 8-7 nine-inning win in game two. For good measure, Lauren Dockrill broke the team's single-season hit record in the second game.  The Shorewomen went on to finish 11-5 in conference play and earn the second seed in the Centennial Conference Tournament, marking just their second-ever trip to the postseason. Dickinson wound up the top seed and host for the tournament.

3rd Place - 777 votes
October 22nd: White's Triple-Double Helps Volleyball Clinch First Winning Season in 18 Years
It was only appropriate that the first triple-double recorded by a Shorewoman volleyball player since 2004 was accomplished during the same match that clinched the team's first winning season since 1993. Lauren White had 12 kills, 27 assists, and 12 digs as the Shorewomen swept Catholic, 25-17, 25-18, 25-15. The win was the Shorewomen's 15th of the season, clinching their first above-.500 campaign since finishing with a 25-16 mark 18 years earlier. Washington added one more win before the end of the season to finish 16-12. Those 16 wins were also the most in a single season by the Shorewomen since 1994.

4th Place - 538 votes
October 15th: Playoff-Bound Field Hockey Wins Eighth Straight
A 4-0 shutout of Dickinson gave the field hockey team its eighth straight win, matching the Shorewomen's longest win streak since 1997. Perhaps more impressively, it was also their fourth consecutive game scoring at least four goals and sixth consecutive scoring at least three. Gabby Tarbert, Claire McAuliffe, Kristen Wille, and Hilary Manion each scored one goal in the victory. Washington's hot streak also included a 5-3 win over nationally-ranked Mary Washington. The Shorewomen went on to qualify for the Centennial Conference Tournament for the third time in the past four years. 

5th Place - 458 votes
April 17th: Strong Sunday Racing Sends Sailing Team to National Semifinals
After the first day of racing at the America Trophy, the MAISA Co-Ed Spring Championships, it looked as if the sailing team's run of three straight appearances in the ICSA Co-Ed National Semifinals might be coming to an end. Washington was in 11th place after the first day and needed a top-eight finish to qualify. Mildred Conroy skippered Washington to top six finishes in B Division in seven of Sunday's 10 races. In A Division, Mike Whitford drove Washington to seven top-ten finishes on Sunday after cracking that group just twice on Saturday. The end result was an eighth-place finish at the regatta and a fourth straight appearance at the national semifinals. 

6th Place - 221 votes
December 3rd: Breslin Scores 33 as Shoremen Beat Muhlenberg in OT for First Road Win Over Mules Since 1989
It is the most home team-dominated series in the Centennial Conference. The men's basketball team has won 15 of the last 19 meetings with Muhlenberg in Chestertown, but had lost 18 in a row to the Mules in Allentown - until December 3rd. Kevin Breslin scored a career-high 33 points for the Shoremen, who hustled their way to 30 offensive rebounds in a 96-93 overtime win.  Breslin and Kevin Cunningham combined for 15 rebounds and 14 of those were on the offensive end of the floor. Mark DeBoy, Sal Schittino, and Tony Hawkins joined Breslin as double-figure scorers for the Shoremen.

7th Place - 151 votes
February 18th-20th: Rachel Glasser Earns Most Outstanding Swimmer Honors at Third Straight Cenennial Conference Championships
Over the course of her collegiate career, Rachel Glasser made the Centennial Conference Championships her own personal playground. Her final conference championship meet saw her earn Most Outstanding Swimmer honors for the third consecutive season (becoming just the second woman in conference history to do so), winning three individual gold medals, two relay gold medals, and two relay silver medals. Glasser won every individual event she entered during the 2010-11 season until the NCAA Division III Championships, where she earned All-America honorable mention status in two events to finish her career with seven All-America or All-America honorable mention swims, the most in school history.

8th Place - 97 votes
April 30th: Men's Rowing Wins Second Consecutive MARC Championship AND Women's Rowing Wins Second MARC Championship in Three Years
In a repeat of 2010's Most Amazing Performance, the men's rowing team captured its second consecutive Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference Championship, winning both the varsity eight and second varsity eight races and four of five races overall.  Joining in the fun this year was the women's rowing team, which captured its second MARC Championship in three years by winning the second varsity eight and finishing second in the varsity eight. The Shoremen's second varsity eight went on the advance to the semifinals at the prestigious Dad Vail regatta.

9th Place - 67 votes
April 27th: Women's Lacrosse Picks Up First-Ever Centennial Conference Tournament Win
After starting the season 8-0, the women's lacrosse team hit a rough patch at the end of the regular season, dropping their final three games, beginning with a 7-6 heart-breaker at home against Haverford. Still, the Shorewomen had done enough to qualify for the Centennial Conference Tournament for the first time since 2003. That fact gave them a second chance against Haverford as the Shorewomen went up to the Main Line and defeated the Fords, 10-9, in the first-round game of the conference tournament. The victory was the team's first-ever in a Centennial Conference Tournament game. Rachel Bartee and Carly Eisenbrandt each scored three goals in the win.

10th Place - 57 votes
May 27th: Cranford Earns All-America Status
A 6-3, 6-0, win over Felix Sun of Williams College in the first round of the NCAA Division III Singles Tournament made Adam Cranford the first Washington College men's tennis player since 2007 to earn All-America status. The win capped a remarkable year for Cranford, who earned All-Centennial Conference first-team honors for the fourth consecutive season and was named the conference's Player of the Year.  He finished the year ranked 18th in the nation in singles in all of Division III, quite the turnaround from not even being regionally-ranked at the start of the season. He also helped the Shoremen to a spot in the Centennial Conference Tournament.

11th Place - 50 votes
January 11th: Women's Basketball Stuns Johns Hopkins
We have a feeling a lot more people will claim to have been at this game than actually were. Originally scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on a Tuesday during winter break, tip-off time was moved up four hours to 3:00 p.m. thanks to an impending snowstorm. The Shorewomen, who entered the game 1-5 in Centennial Conference play, rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to defeat the Blue Jays, who were 6-1 in the league entering the game, by a 57-56 final. Meghan Tait converted the game-winning jumper with nine seconds left in the contest.  The win was the beginning of a 7-2 stretch for the Shorewomen, who remained in the conference playoff hunt until the final week of the season despite having eight freshmen and no seniors on an 11-woman roster.