Merch. Marine Sent Packing

After ten days off, the Cardinals (6-1) were anxious to get back on the field Wednesday in their highly anticipated conference opener against rival Merchant Marine Academy (6-2). Coach Travis Beauchamp, who worked as an assistant coach at Merchant Marine for three seasons, came into the game looking for his first win against his alma mater.

The game lived up to the hype, and CUA came out with yet another narrow win, defeating the Mariners 3-2.   Junior forward Matt Brady scored two goals and Sophomore Kevin Duffy chipped in with a goal and an assist.  With this win, the Cards move to 1-0 in the Landmark Conference and upped their winning streak to four games.  Meanwhile, the Mariners, last year’s Landmark Conference champions, dropped to 0-2.  

From the first sound of the whistle, the Cardinals came out firing.  Matt Brady put the Cardinals on the board within the first ten minutes of the game off an assist from freshmen Bryan White.  CUA pushed their lead to 2-0 later in the first half when Kevin Duffy found the net off a header that had been crossed into the box by freshmen Michael DiMarco.  Although the first half ended with the Cardinals securely holding a 2-0 lead, Merchant Marine was not ready to throw in the towel.  

The Mariners responded with a spark of their own to begin the second half.   Merchant Marine senior Kyle Luetjen scored two goals within 15 minutes of each other to tie the game at two goals apiece with over 20 minutes to play.

“When Merchant Marine scored we knew we had a tough time ahead,” said Goalkeeper Quinn Daly.  “The defense stuck together under an enormous amount of pressure.”   Yet as has been characteristic of the Cards this season, they proved resilient and found a way to snag the win.  

With ten minutes left in the game, Duffy played a thru ball to Brady, who dribbled around the goalie and scored the game winner.   The defense, led by captain Tim McAneny, held strong for the final minutes which earned CUA their first conference victory.  McAneny, who turned 21 on Thursday, received an early birthday present by defeating Merchant Marine, a team he desperately wanted to beat after they lost to them 5-2 last year.   

The Cardinals outshot Merchant Marine 16-13 and goalkeeper Quinn Daly finished the game with five saves.  After the game, Coach Beauchamp noted, “Even though we had a let up in the second half by giving them back a couple of goals, we worked hard in the end and came out on top. I am really proud of how our guys worked to get us the win!”

The victory has given the Cards confidence that they can play with the elite teams in the Landmark Conference.  ”It was a true team effort and everybody came together, especially when Merchant Marine tied the game in the second half,” said Brady. ”We just put it behind us and went back to work.”

One reason for the Cardinals’ early success has been the contribution they have received from the incoming freshmen class.  In the win over the Mariners, Coach Beauchamp got quality minutes out of his freshmen.  Defenders Brian White and Hal Cogan helped secure their one-goal lead late in the game, and midfielder Michael DiMarco provided a solid presence in the middle of the field.  

Although the Cardinals are very happy with their performance thus far, they are quick to realize that they still have a lot of work to.  “This is just the start of things,” said Duffy. “It was a huge win but now it is behind us.  We just have to keep plugging away, stay level headed, and continue to put the same effort in practice.  If we are able to do this we will continue to get good results”.

The Cardinals are looking to extend their win streak to five games when they travel to Maryland on Tuesday to play St. Mary’s College (2-4-1).  Their next home game is scheduled for Tuesday October 7 at 4:00 against Washington College.

Brady Picks up Player of the Week

Not even half way into the season, junior Matt Brady has established himself as one of the most intimidating offensive players in the Landmark Conference. In his freshmen year, he was honored as the ‘Capital Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year’, and has continued his quality play every since. This year, he has scored in five out of the Cardinals seven games, with a total of seven goals and three assists in the season.  

Brady, a civil engineering major from Woodbridge, Virginia, has been a starter ever since he came to CUA in the fall of 2006.  He was a five sport athlete at Potomac High School, where he played soccer, hockey, golf, as well as ran track and cross country.   

 

Although his high level of play on the soccer field is evidently worthy of great praise, you would never know this if you had a conversation with him.  His modest approach as a player and captain possibly deserves even more admiration.   His unique ability to serve as an intermediate between the players and coaching staff has been critical in shaping the dynamics of this year’s team.    With the help of fellow juniors Brian Pappas and Tim McAneny, Brady has been a major contributor to the program’s steady improvement over the last three years.  

Cross Country Finishes Strong in New York Invitational Meet

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams went the distance Saturday at the NYU Invitational. The women’s team finished the meet in second place, and the men’s team placed sixth overall.

Leading the Cardinals over the finish line for the third straight week was freshman Katie Sacker. Clocking in at 20:03, her time was less than a second behind the third place finisher, earning her fourth place overall. Senior captain Jenna Hackett also placed in the top ten for Catholic, clocking in at 20:38 for a ninth place finish.

Senior Mary Shashaty and junior Remy Ball finished the race as a pair, coming in thirteenth and fourteenth, respectively.

Racking up only 62 points, the Cardinals finished second overall, just behind Vassar College who scored 46.

Sacker attributed the team’s strong performance on Saturday to the strategies they work on at practices. “During practices, we think of strategies to stick together during the races,” said Sacker. In addition to pushing each other physically, Sacker admitted pushing each other mentally to be a key component to their success. “Everyone is very encouraging on the team. We don’t really compete against each other…we encourage each other,” said Sacker.

Yet while she finds herself fitting in with the team, her talent naturally has set her apart from the pack. After her consistently strong performance for the Cardinals, Sacker’s fresh talent was recognized when she was named ‘player of the week’ on Monday. “It’s really exciting and very rewarding,” said Sacker.

As for their upcoming meets, Sacker cited Susquehanna, Juniata and Moravian as the team’s greatest competitors in the conference this season.  

On the men’s side, senior Paul Santuoso was the frontrunner for Catholic yet again, running a 16:58 race that earned him a nineteenth place finish. Next over the line was junior Andrew Smith with a time of 17:28, followed immediately by sophomore Kris Reynolds who clocked in at 17:29.

Their overall performance earned Catholic 163 points, which translated to a sixth place finish out of 10 teams. Hosting team NYU dominated the meet, earning 26 points.

  “I think we are capable of much more than what we have done so far,” admitted head coach Mark Robinson.  ”But the team is right on track, and the top 3 [runners] in particular are progressing quite well.”

While Robinson cited Susquehanna, Scranton, Moravian and Juniata as the main competitors for Catholic, it’s still anyone’s race. “I think in general the meet is wide open this year,” said Robinson.  ”But we will get a better idea when we go up against the entire league on October 11.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams will compete at the Belmont Classics in Philadelphia.

Field Hockey Runs Into Deep Defensive Wall This Fall

Despite the high note they began on, things have been looking rather dreary for Catholic’s field hockey team so far this season.

The Cardinals endured two consecutive losses this week alone, falling to Washington and Lee on Saturday and Mary Washington on Tuesday.

 

With both of the games ending in frustrating losses by one goal, it looks like the pressure of overtime works against the momentum and optimism that this young team had at the beginning of the season.

Saturday’s game against Washington and Lee was the first game of the season against the Landmark Conference’s top pick last Saturday within 54 seconds into the first overtime period by firing a goal passed junior goalkeeper Marian Cassilly, despite her four saves throughout the game. The offense of the Cardinals simply was not at its peak performance with six combined shots on goal.

The Cardinals’ frustration remained and carried over to their following game on Tuesday when they let another one get away against Mary Washington 14 minutes into overtime on their opponents’ home field. The only shot attempt in the first half of the game from the Cardinals was from sophomore Andrea Baick at the two minute mark. The second half did not look much better, with Mary Washington out-shooting Catholic 5-3. In the overtime period, Mary Washington out-shot the Cardinals 5-0, when they succeeded in making their first and only goal at the four minute mark against Cassilly. However, Cassilly was recorded to have had five saves throughout the game.

On Saturday, September 27th, the Catholic University Field Hockey Cardinals will put their best foot forward and try to redeem and regain their positive attitude at their next away game against Christopher Newport at 1:00 p.m.

Cards Setup For Randolf Macon With Huge Win

 The Cardinals won their third consecutive game last Saturday as they went head-to-head with non-conference opponent McDaniel College. The entire game was dictated by an explosive offense that managed to rack up 31 points, and a solid defense that held McDaniel to just seven points of their own.

As they prepare for their first conference game against Randolph-Macon this weekend, the Cards are confident that they will measure up to their opponent. “We are off to a good start and Randolph-Macon is going to be another tough match-up,” said senior linebacker David Woo. “But we need to just keep playing hard and smart football, and we will be successful again.”

 

On Saturday’s game, the Cards scored first and immediately grasped control of the tempo in the game. Both the offensive and defensive coordinators must have been pleased with an all around team effort that their squad put together. The time possession was not a factor for the Cards because they scored early and often. On the opening kickoff, Senior wide receiver and punt returner Andrew Buis returned the kick 57 yards to give all the offense would need. The first drive of the game lasted a little over a minute with senior running back Greg Brown scoring on a three-yard touchdown run, to put the Cards up 7-0. The next touchdown would come on an even quicker drive lasting just one minute and eight seconds due to a remarkable 76-yard pass from senior quarterback Keith Ricca to senior wide receiver Miles Sabrick.

Although the second quarter did not have as much scoring for the Cards, they did capitalize on some great defense that shut down McDaniel and not allow them to put any points on the board for the first half. Freshman kicker Joseph Owens had the only points of the second quarter with a 37 yard field goal to put the Cards up 17-0 going into halftime.

The second half was much of the same for the home team. The Cards scored once in the third with another pass from Ricca this time to Buis on a 60-yard reception and once more in the forth with Brown reaching the endzone for his second TD of the game bringing the lead to 31-0. The Green Terror did manage to get on to the scoreboard before the game wrapped up with the final score of 31-7, giving the Cards another victory.

The Cardinal defense was led by Senior defensive back Nick Olivero who recorded a total of eight and a half tackles, three on his own. Helping him out on defense was Woo, who also chipped in with four tackles and a sack. Offensively, Ricca threw for 321 yards, completing 21 out of 30 passes, with two touchdowns and an interception and Brown had 46 yards rushing on twelve attempts.

 

 

DPS Crime Log Updated September 24, 2008

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Sunday – Tuesday, September 14-16, 2008
THEFT II
Washington Metropolitan Area
Correspondent one reports he was alerted to fraudulent purchases on his credit cards. Further investigations revealed that correspondent one’s credit cards had been removed from his wallet between the listed times.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
STUDENT CODE VIOLATION
Crough Center Westside
Respondent one observed suspect one and suspect two in possession of property belonging to the District of Columbia. Suspect one and suspect two will be referred to Judicial Affairs.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
SICK PERSON
7th & Monroe Streets, NE
Correspondent one was lying in the grass area at 7th & Monroe Streets. EMS was notified and responded. Correspondent one refused medical transport.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
THEFT FROM AUTO
CUA Garage
Correspondent one stated he parked his vehicle in the CUA garage at 1159 hours. Correspondent one returned at 1845 hours and discovered the passenger side window of his vehicle had been shattered and property removed. MPD was notified.
Property Taken: Silver Video I-Pod and I-Pod charger.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
STUDENT CODE VIOLATION
Mall Area
Respondent one reports observing suspect one streaking through the Mall area during the Movies on the Mall event. Suspect one will be referred to Judicial Affairs.

Thursday - Monday, September 18-21, 2008
THEFT
Pryzbyla Center / Dufour Center
Respondent One reports several CUA floor mats were stolen from list location. MPD was notified.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
FIRE
Quinn House
Respondent One reported smoke coming from mulch in the front of the building. A DPS officer respondent to the scene and extinguished the fire.

Lack of Student Involvement Evident from Survey

At most universities, school spirit and student involvement go hand in hand. Here at CUA, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Catholic University has countless outlets for student involvement, yet it seems difficult to get information on the different organizations available. Sometimes it feels like every student lives in their own little makeshift bubbles and do not venture out to see everything going on around campus.

With so many different organizations relating to all aspects of student life, such as religion, service and social life, all the bases are covered. Although the majority of students have not even made the attempt to stumble towards first base.

Through a random sampling of 75 students throughout Centennial Village, North Neighborhood and Southside, findings were “hit or miss” where students were either completely involved or simply not with student organizations. Even so, interests were scattered across the board from ballroom dancing to Program Board.

The student organization survey involved questions such as: “Are you involved in any student organizations?,” “if so, how many?,” “which organizations are you involved in?,” “if you responded no to the first question, why?,” “what organization are you most curious about?,” “were you more or less involved in student organizations in high school?” and lastly “are you involved in the same organizations or different organizations than in high school?”

After tallying the surveys there was a 60 percent involvement rate. The other 40 percent were not involved in any way.

The survey found that residents living in North Neighborhood were more involved than those living on the Southside.

Conversely, out of the 75-student sample there is a 75 percent interest rate for information on organizations. The consensus seems to be that there should be another Fall Fiesta. It seems that in the fifth week of the fall semester not only are freshmen still wondering what’s beyond the walls of their dorm room, but also seventh semester seniors.

Surprisingly, 25 percent surveyed are not only involved in a political based group but also performing -based clubs such as ballroom, dancing and drama. Only three percent of students surveyed are involved in student government.

Forty percent of students surveyed were involved with either Campus Ministry or some campus ministry related event. Thankfully, student interest is still alive and well with 70 percent of students having some interest in finding out more about certain organizations like the College Republicans, College Democrats, Campus Ministry, Program Board, Student Association General Assembly, Take Note and the Greek life.

With all this data, it seems like there is great potential for growth and upward trend in student involvement throughout the remainder of the year.

Groups Give Back to Community

You think you know everything about student organizations, but you have no idea. We all walk around the Pryz and notice the colorful pieces of paper pinned to the bulletin boards but simply do not take the time to see what they are for.

As Beakon editor, it is important for me to be knowledgeable about activities on campus. Even so, it is more important to understand the organizations that are responsible for these activities. I took the matter into my own hands and held a group discussion for representatives from all of the organizations I could think of. As we all chatted over some pizza, it became very clear to me that these groups want to be known. They want to be understood. What they want us to understand is that they do a lot more than we give them credit for.

One of the words that I kept hearing throughout the interview was service. A great deal of the student organizations are going into D.C. and giving back to the community. Fraternity Alpha Delta Gamma (ADG) plans to go each month to the Armed Forces Retirement Home, has taken part in So Others May Eat (SOME) and will be holding a toy drive in conjunction with Campus Ministry.

A cappella group Redline will be focusing more on community outreach and performing to those at the Armed Forces Retirement Home. They are also working on various projects with Campus Ministry. Sorority Kappa Tau Gamma (KTG) is taking an initiative to increase their aim for community service by making the America Cancer Society their most important project and running a drunk driving course with beer goggles and golf carts on the Basilica Lawn during Alcohol Awareness week.

Another important aspect of student organizations is meeting people off campus that are a part of the same activities. With this in mind, student organizations at the University are also taking steps off campus and interacting with students at other universities around D.C. and across the country. Take Note a cappella group has been networking extensively so that they can make their presence known.

The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) has recently taken on a program called Freedom by Design, which allows students to design buildings and homes specifically for people with special needs. “As an architectural student it’s good to know that you can design that and you can build that,” says AIAS president Irene Jorden. This is the 13^th chapter across the country. Joe St. George, chairman of the College Democrats, has joined a federation with other leaders of college Democrats across D.C., including Georgetown and George Washington University.

This year ADG has been chosen amongst their 13 other chapters to hold their annual conference this spring. Other ADG fellowships from universities will come to the University for this event.

As much as organizations are reaching out, they are reaching back to the University as well. With the creation of the Student Fee Allocation Board (SFAB) and the redesign of the student government through the Student Association General Assembly (SAGA), it is a lot easier for student organizations to be helped. Organizations who need funding for a project or item they may need can present their needs to SFAB, who will decide if it is a good investment. SAGA now represents each class with seven delegates to each class. Each delegate is a liaison for departments across campus, such as Department of Public Safety (DPS), Dean of Students and Program Board. The delegates work on a series of initiatives for the students. SAGA, SFAB and Program Board recently went on a Leadership Retreat together and have decided to hold a “Pirates Cousel” for all of the presidents of the student organizations across campus.

The campus radio station, WCUA, continues to grow with over 50 dj’s and members. The groups is still working towards gaining members with better experience with the equipment, as well as developing ideas for more shows.

The Green Club is showing the campus how to live the cause of conserving water by holding a campus-wide Eco-Water Challenge, where the amount of water used in each residence hall will be measured. “When you’re new, it’s easy to do a lot of things you haven’t done before,” says president Kristen McCarron.

There are new organizations that have been added to the list in the past couple of years. Take Note a cappella has recently been approved to be an official group on campus after a year of struggle. The Green Club was created last year by four people hoping to add an organization that, as McCarron says, “every university has.” Stephen Borthwick, head of Central Committee for the Catholic University Role Playing Fellowship, feels, “We didn’t have a way to organize anyone that take part in [role playing]. There was a demand for it.” Borthwick is working towards making CUARPF an official group so that students can play games like Dungeons and Dragons together.

This may look like a wish list to you, but these events are truely happening. “Please please please come,” says Borthwick. With this page, I hope to explain how important it is for students to understand the organizations that work so hard. These leaders put their hearts and souls into making sure this University satisfies the needs of its students. By getting to know the organizations these needs will certainly be met.

CUA On Tap Audio Slideshow

Student Spotlight: Patrick Redding

Sitting down with Patrick Redding is a lot like hanging out with a buddy at a bar - there’s never a dull moment. Patrick, a sophomore political science major, was raised in New Haven, Conn. by his mother and father, two policemen who are now the chief of police and chief detective, respectively, of his hometown. Today, Patrick’s résumé reads like a laundry list - he’s able to call himself an actor, hockey player, political enthusiast, guitar player and football state champion.

Patrick attended Xavier High School from 2003-2007. During his junior year, he helped his school’s football team win the state championship in 2005. He continued an acting career throughout his high school years, which he had started when he was only five years old. He has been in professional performances of The Secret Garden, and a more recent production of the play Brighton Beach Memoirs. Patrick has since put his career on hold for his studies, but gladly re-enters stage over the summer.

The political junkie loves DC nightlife and he has developed a strong circle of friends at the University. Whether he is watching a Washington Capitols game or hanging out around campus, Patrick can surely be found living the ‘night life’ with his friends until early morning. At the same time, however, Patrick maintains safety above all else. When asked about the recent spike in drinking at the University, Patrick said, “I do understand that [students] have to abide by the laws of the District.” And he strongly encourages others to do the same.

A lifelong hockey player, he is currently part of the University’s club hockey team. “I’ve been playing hockey since I was three years old,” he recalled, saying his whole family and many friends loved the sport, and he naturally took part in it with them.

Rather than follow in his parents’ footsteps as a police officer, Patrick hopes to follow a different career that maintains a similar sense of service once he graduates. Currently, he has not settled on an exact field, but he hopes to work on a state or national level in the years to come.

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