The Mount Holyoke Basketball team closed out their regular season with a bang, beating NEWMAC foe Wheaton College at home last Saturday. It was the team’s third straight win and fourth in their last five contests. While Wheaton prevailed in a matchup earlier in the season, Mount Holyoke refused to let their opponents spoil Senior Day and exploded for nine points in the waning minutes to come out on top with a final score of 66-62.

On Feb. 6 Lydia Bowers ’12 earned the Lyons their third award of the season, as the team’s second-ever New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Swimmer of the Week. The Swim team captain is currently only half a second off of the College’s 200 freestyle record, and is hoping to break it at this weekend’s NEWMAC Championships.

Mount Holyoke’s athletic training staff is no longer restricted to treating only varsity athletes. Starting this semester, the Athletics Department is piloting a new program that offers club sport athletes access to athletic training services on a limited basis. The services will be provided on a drop-in basis Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. During these hours, in-season club sport athletes can access the athletic training room in Kendall to get an athletic trainer’s evaluation of an injury that occurred in any practice or game.

The Mount Holyoke Basketball team played Coast Guard on Saturday, Feb. 11 in a very close game. Mount Holyoke came out with a win of 59-57 with the help of Amber Legare ’15, who had a career-best of 21 points and four blocked shots. Also contributing to the win was Kate Karraker ’15 who also had a career-best 11 points. In the first period, Coast Guard had the lead 18-10.

To the surprise and joy of many, a Junior Varsity (JV) Soccer team was created two years ago. According to both Head Soccer Coach Kanae Haneishi and Associate Director of Athletics Lori Hendricks, they took the initiative to start a JV Soccer team because there was a lot of interest in soccer and they wanted to provide opportunities for people who were interested in playing.

Super Bowl XLVI was a game filled with endless excitement, anxiety and impatience as everyone was waiting to see who the winner would be. As a Patriots fan, I was hoping the Patriots would win but, given the diversity of Mount Holyoke, I was also surrounded by Giants fans with opposing fantasies. As I was used to watching and rooting for the Patriots when everyone else was doing the same back home, it was strange to hear people around me shout with joy when the Giants made a first down or when a pass by the Patriots was incomplete.

Timothy Richard Tebow has turned himself into a verb. Plenty of professional football players do signature moves to celebrate a successful sack, touchdown or interception. Some jump around like a gorilla, fist-pump into the air or even do a little moonwalk, but Tim Tebow gets down on one knee, touches a curled fist to his forehead and says a prayer, even as everyone around him jumps like a maniac.

The Mount Holyoke Squash Team, ranked 13th in the nation according to the College Squash Association (CSA) rankings, secured their sixth consecutive Seven Sisters Championship last Saturday. Playing their final match against Vassar College, which is ranked 24th, the Lyons swept the tournament hosts 9-0 to clinch the championship title.

Besides being one of the biggest national sports events of the year, this Super
Bowl features a premier regional matchup – New York vs. New England, so the
local bars are sure to be high energy (and probably packed with Pats fans).

Coming off of two consecutive wins against Wheaton College and Simmons College in mid-January, the Mount Holyoke Swimming and Diving team turned in another strong performance in the Seven Sisters Championship held at Smith on Jan. 21 and 22. The Lyons racked up 637 points en route to a third place finish in the five team competition. The Championship title went to Wellesley for the fifteenth straight year. Vassar came in second place, while Smith and Bryn Mawr finished fourth and fifth, respectively.