million spent in the past year on research expenditures. While the classi cations have

Athletics bans spectators, games postponed

By Sasha Skarboviychuk

editor

As of Jan. 7, no spectators will be allowed at games. e previous policy was a negative test from 72 hours prior, to attend a game at the Gosman Sports and Convocation center, according to the Brandeis Judges website. e policy for attending the Gosman Sports and Convocation center for members of the Brandeis community remains: all attendees must have a green passport to enter the facility. Individuals that have tested positive for the coronavirus in the last 90 days and are exempt from testing must provide proof of the date of their illness. Masks are required for all visitors of Gosman.

Brandeis ranked 50th in the initial Lear eld Directors’ Cup, according to the website. Brandeis’ points came from two sports: women’s cross country and women’s soccer. ese are mid-season rankings, which are uno cial. is makes Brandeis 10th in New England. O cial rankings will be released in the spring, once all seasons are complete. e women’s cross country team placed 20th in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which earned Brandeis 54 points. While the women’s soccer team, which got to the second round of the NCAA tournament, got 50 points. Points are awarded based on the way the school nishes in the NCAA competitions. e Cup was created by USA Today and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

Due to a high volume of positive tests, the Dec. 30 men’s basketball game against Union College was canceled, according to the Judges website. Additionally, the men’s game against Bates that was supposed to take place on Jan. 3 was postponed to Feb. 16. e games against New York University on Jan. 8, against Carnegie Mellon on Jan. 14 and Case Western Reserve University on Jan. 16 were postponed as well. e next scheduled home game for the men is against Emory on Feb. 4. On the women’s side, their Dec. 31 game against Gordon was also canceled. eir Jan. 3 game against Clark was postponed; no makeup date has been announced.

Additional changes to policies can be found on the Judges’ website.

Women’s basketball plays close games

By Justin Leung

editor

Before going on winter break, the Brandeis women’s basketball team played two games at home against Bridgewater State University and Eastern Nazarene College. e rst game was against Bridgewater St. on Dec. 2. e Judges had very even scores throughout the team in the rst quarter, as no player had over three points. Guard Tathiana Pierre ’23 had three points with ve di erent Brandeis players having two. Both teams shot below 30 percent from the eld, resulting in 28 combined points in the rst quarter between the two teams. e Judges’ shooting inconsistencies continued into the second quarter as the team only made three of 12 shots. Senior guard Camilia Casanueva ’22 had four points all from the freethrow line. Guard Emma Reavis ’23 and rst-year forward Mollie Obar ’25 had three points. e third quarter saw both teams be much more e cient shooting as Bridgewater St. had 24 points and Brandeis had 23 points. Sophomore guard Selenya Gonzalez ’24 came o the bench and scored nine points. Reavis and Casanueva added four and three points in the quarter. Going into the nal quarter of the game, Brandeis was down by eight points. To make the comeback, they proceeded to hit ve 3-pointers within the quarter. Obar had 11 points in the quarter while making 3-pointers. Forward Caitlin Gresko ’25 also came alive in the quarter with six points. Brandeis was down one point in the nal minute, but the team could not get any shot to fall and ultimately, they lost the game 73-74.

In the game against Eastern Nazarene, the Judges took the lead quickly in the rst quarter and then never looked back. Casanueva and forward Kerry Tanke ’22 had six points in the quarter, while Gresko led the team in rebounds with four. In the second quarter, Casanueva and Tanke again had six points to lead the team. Reavis distributed the ball well with three assists. During the nal two quarters, the Judges were outscored, however, their lead built up in the rst two quarters was too much for Eastern Nazarene to overcome. e nal score of the game was 66-51, giving Brandeis a big win. Tanke nished the game with 18 points and Casanueva added 13. Gresko had an all-around good game with six points, 10 rebounds and two steals.

A month later the Judges faced o against New York University (NYU). e two teams went back and forth for three quarters. Tanke started the rst quarter well with seven points and two rebounds. Every player in the starting lineup scored. Casanueva had three points and two assists. e starting lineup continued to play well as Gresko and Reavis both had ve points in the quarter. Tanke had another seven points and four rebounds.

Both teams were inconsistent in the third quarter on o ense. e two teams combined to score just 26 points. In spite of this, Tanke still scored six points. Going into the fourth quarter, Brandeis was winning 56-53. e NYU offense proceeded to go on a strong run and outscore Brandeis 23-12 in the nal quarter. is led to a Brandeis loss of 68-76. ree Brandeis players nished the game with double-digit points. Tanke had 20, Reavis had 13 and Casanueva had 12. Tanke led the team in rebounds with eight, while Casanueva led the team in assists with six. e Brandeis women’s basketball team will play against Carnegie Mellon on Jan. 14, 2022.

Editor’s note: Francesca Marchese is a sta writer for e Brandeis Hoot and did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.

Brandeis swim & dive place seventh

By Sasha Skarboviychuk

editor

e Judges competed at the Gompei Invitational at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Sunday, Dec. 5. ey earned 3,400 points during the three-day competition. Two new school records were set in one event by the women.

Chloe Gonzalez ’25 set Brandeis’ record with a time of 53.46 in the 100-yard freestyle, however, in the next heat, Ema Rennie ’23 broke Gonzalez’s record with a time of 53.41. Rennie also placed eighth. In the 400-yard freestyle relay event, Gonzalez, Rennie, Bailey Gold ’23 and Monica Iizuka ’24 placed h, while also setting a new school record with a time of 3:37. In the 200-yard butter y, Gold placed second with a time of 2:07.42. In the 200-yard backstroke, Iizuka placed ninth with a time of 2:11.33. On the entire team, 13 events quali ed for individual nals. e men’s team also had 13 events that quali ed for individual nals. Sam Dienstag ’24 won the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:44.82; the second-place swimmer was over 30 seconds behind. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Dienstag, Benton Ferebee ’22, Brendon Lu ’22 and Dylan Levy ’24 nished ninth, with a time of 3:12.16. In the 50-yard breaststroke, Seth Shin ’24 placed fourth with a time of 27.61. Andrew Ngo ’25 placed eighth in the 100-yard individual medley, with a time of 54.56, while Tal Spector ’25 nished the 200-yard butter y with a time of 1:58.90, placing 10th. e swimmers are back in the pool on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 1:00 p.m. ey will compete against Bridgewater State and Keene State.

PHOTO BY SASHA SKARBOVIYCHUK/THE HOOT

Men’s basketball wins four straight games

By Justin Leung

editor

Before winter break, the Brandeis men’s basketball team played four games in the month of December. On Dec. 3, the team played in the New England Big Four Challenge against Babson College.

In the rst half, both teams were very even, as the score was 30-25. Guard Colin Sawyer (GRAD) led the team in scoring with 12 points. Forward Chandler Jones ’22 came o the bench and added eight points and three rebounds. Both teams had inconsistent shooting as Babson shot 37.9 percent from the eld, while Brandeis shot just 33.3 percent. e key di erence came from the Judges’ 3-point shooting as Brandeis had four more 3-pointers in the rst half. e second half started with just a ve-point lead from Brandeis. Both teams saw increased shooting e ciency, and this resulted in 40 points from Babson in the second half and 42 from Brandeis. is led to a 72-65 win for the Judges in the New England Big Four Challenge opener. e second-half scoring for Brandeis was led by guard Dylan Lien ’23 as he added 11 points and three assists in the half. Overall, the Judges beat Babson in all aspects of the game. Brandeis outrebounded them by eight and had nine more free throw attempts.

On Dec. 4, the Judges faced o against Tu s University in a quintuple overtime championship game. Both teams had limited scoring within the rst half as the Judges had 25 points and Tu s had 21. Sawyer led the team in scoring with six. Forward Nolan Hagerty ’22 led the team in rebounds with ve. e team had eight more rebounds than Tu s in the rst half.

Going into the second half of the championship game, the Judges looked to maintain their fourpoint lead. With three seconds remaining, Tu s tied the game to move to overtime. Sawyer and Hagerty led the team in scoring with 12 and 11, respectively. Jones had six points o the bench in the half. However, the team shot just 35.5 percent from the eld. e game was locked for four consecutive overtime periods. is led the teams to remain tied going into their h overtime period. In the h overtime, Brandeis went right a er Tu s and attempted to get to the freethrow line as much as possible. Forward Toby Harris ’25 accomplished this as he had eight points in the period with ve of them coming from the free-throw line. e team overall had 11 points in the overtime period just from the free-throw line. Overall, the game ended with a score of 108-102.

On Dec. 7 the Judges faced Lasell University. e Judges took the lead quickly in the rst half and did not look back. Brandeis took 43 points compared to Lasell’s 23. Sawyer and Harris had 10 points in the half with Hagerty adding six points and six rebounds. Overall, the team shot 58.6 percent from the eld. In the second half, the Judges continue to push their lead. ey shot well overall 50 percent from the eld and 50 percent from the 3-point line. Harris had another 10 points in the rst half. Guard Austin Clamage (GRAD) had six points a er coming o the bench while not missing a single shot. e nal score of the game was 88-44 in favor of Brandeis.

In the team’s nal game before going on winter break, the Judges faced o against Colby College. e rst half saw both teams’ neck and neck as the score was 30-29 with Brandeis leading by one point. Jones led the team in scoring with eight and was followed by sophomore Ryan Power ’24 who had seven points. e second half saw the lead slip away from Brandeis as the team was down by seven points with three minutes in the game. However, the Judges made a strong comeback within the last three minutes. Jones nished the comeback with a clutch free throw with three seconds remaining to take a one-point lead. Colby College would not get another shot o leading to a nal score of 69-68.

Since that game, the team has not played another game due to the games being postponed.