With the women’s ice hockey team opening its season at home on Friday against Yale, the Back Page gives you an opportunity to meet co-captain Kate Buesser, the team’s scoring leader as well as an All-ECAC and All-Ivy first team selection. In this exclusive interview, Buesser reveals her pre-game routine that includes Celine Dion, her embarrassing fall during practice, why she considers herself like Yale, and her love for a Patriots player. Every week, The Full-Court Press will give you the sort of personal scoop that you’re not likely to hear at a typical press conference.
Name: Kate Buesser
Year: 2011
Stats: In three seasons, Buesser has played in all of her team’s 99 games, scoring 28 goals and 38 assists. Last season, Buesser played in 33 games, racking up 16 goals, 24 assists and 119 shots, all team highs.
Now, to the questions!
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Harvard’s used to being at the top of plenty of lists, and every once in a while so are its athletes. And with a series of impressive performances the past few weeks, Gino Gordon has become one of those athletes.
Gordon, the COOP Athlete of the Week and Ivy League co-Offensive Player of Week, is ranked number two in the nation in yards-per-carry (7.8). That mark is also far and above the highest in the Ivy League, followed in second by fellow Crimson running back Treavor Scales (6.4 ypc), who is also ranked 10th nationally.
Gordon’s stats were boosted by his play in this weekend’s 45-28 win over Princeton. He rushed for a career-high 204 yards on 20 carries and a 26-yard touchdown. Gordon also had four receptions off returning quarterbacks Andrew Hatch and Collier Winters.
Gordon has run for no less than 100 yards in each of Harvard’s last four games to jump to fourth on the Crimson’s all-time list with 2,295 career yards.
Harvard athletes often excel at balancing success on and off the playing field—yet very few do it quite as well as women’s soccer co-captain Katherine Sheeleigh.
On account of such success, Sheeleigh has been selected as one of 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award for collegiate women’s soccer. The award, given to one senior each year, was created to honor student-athletes who “exemplify the four Cs—community, classroom, character, and competition.”
Sheeleigh has certainly excelled at her sport, being named to the All-Ivy first team and National Soccer Coaches Association of America all-region team three times each.
Perhaps even more remarkably, Sheeleigh has also made a difference in local and international communities where she has spent time as a volunteer physical therapy aide in the summer and an intern for the Ministry of Education, helping to tailor programs for high school students in the Marshall Islands during last J-term.
But what really makes Sheeleigh stand out, even among fellow Lowe’s finalists, is the series of obstacles she has overcome to get where she is. As many athletes know, it’s difficult to come back from two serious injuries during a college career. But what’s even more difficult is being diagnosed with cerebral palsy and having no movement in one half of your body.
Yet that’s exactly what happened to Sheeleigh as an infant, and now–thanks to huge amounts of perseverance and seven years of physical therapy–she is one of the nation’s most elite, and well-rounded, collegiate women’s soccer players.
To vote for Sheeleigh for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award click here: http://www.seniorclassaward.com/athletes/katherine_sheeleigh/
Ballots close November 14th.
A last-minute goal stripped the Harvard women’s hockey team from an outright win in an exhibition game against McGill Saturday afternoon. The goal, netted by freshman Katia Clement-Heydra, forced the Crimson into an overtime period, after leading the entire third period, 2-1. Ninth-ranked Harvard hosted the Martlets in a preseason exhibition game last season as well, then coming away with a dominant 4-1 win.
But yesterday, McGill struck first, recording a goal with just under seven minutes remaining in the first period. The score came from senior Cathy Chartrand and remained unanswered until Crimson senior Katharine Chute put one between the pipes 15 minutes into the second period. The goal was the first of a pair for Chute, who notched another score for Harvard less than three minutes later.
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Women’s crew is not the only Radcliffe team with an important weekend coming up. The Radcliffe rugby club enters the first round of the playoffs tomorrow, taking on the University of Vermont. A win in Vermont will assure the team a spot at the New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) Championships next weekend at the University of New Hampshire.
The Black and White is coming off of an exciting win over Bowdoin last weekend, a close victory that played an important role in seeding for the playoffs. Radcliffe (4-1) has had a successful season thus far, notching wins against the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, Northeastern, and Bowdoin, and recording only one loss against Boston University at the beginning of October. Since its beginnings in 1982, the Black and White has reached nationals twice, in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Beginning this weekend, Radcliffe looks to continue the winning tradition.
