One week after placing second in the race for the Cayuga Cup, a race which some players saw as a huge momentum boost, the SU women’s rowing team took Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia course hoping to reclaim the Orange Challenge Cup on Saturday.

The Orange did not follow up on the performance from the previous week. The women took third in the varsity eighth race, a decline from their previous results, as Northeastern and Penn both beat the SU varsity eight, by 7.5 and 6.7 seconds, respectively.

Outside of the second varsity four, the rest of the Orange’s boats followed with mediocre performances, with SU taking third overall.

The team won the second varsity four race, but had to settle for two third-place finishes and three second-place finishes. Northeastern won the cup for the second year in a row and eighth time in the last 12 years.

‘If we had been a little closer, I would feel much better,’ SU head coach Kris Sanford said. ‘But we were definitely better this week than we were last week.’

One of the better spots of the team was the second varsity four, which provided the team with its first win in a race in the spring portion of the season. The second varsity four finished 3.1 seconds ahead of Penn.

‘We tried to concentrate on working together as a boat,’ senior Theresa Alessio said. ‘I feel that it is always good to get that first win and build confidence. It will help us get more confidence for the next race.’

Sanford also liked what she saw out of the second varsity eight and novice eight. She said that those two boats competed in closer races that were side-by-side and only ended up losing by a little. The second varsity eight finished 5.7 seconds behind Penn while the novice eight was 0.8 behind the Quakers.

‘It’s good knowing that in situations where there is not a big distance, your athletes can handle that pressure,’ Sanford said.

With the rest of the boats – and the varsity eight especially – more emphasis was placed on what could be taken from the loss, despite the third-place finish.

Sanford said she thinks the team’s confidence may have been broken during the race, because the boat did not take the advantages the Penn course presented. She said the team may not have mentally handled the course as well as they could have.

‘I think the varsity eight boat can definitely rebound and learn because it’s easy enough to see and how we need to move forward,’ Sanford said.

Senior Erin Cunningham, a coxswain, said the effort of the varsity eight boat was there, but the result did not reflect it. The team started behind and was never able to catch up to a head-to-head race like Cunningham hoped.

Cunningham said the varsity eight stepped outside its comfort zone and its performance may have affected it but is something the rowers can use for future races.

‘We raced at about 35 strokes per minute on average the body of the race,’ Cunningham said. ‘It was harder to maintain and to keep rhythm. We can hope we can try to build on that and be more efficient. Efficiency is something that will really make a difference.’

To make a difference, though, the boat needs to start performing to its potential. Sophomore Katie Lynch said the boat is not performing half as well as it could, but has time to fix the problems.

Cunningham, though, stills holds optimism about what the varsity eight can accomplish – when they work together.

‘We know we are in shape and know we are physically ready for the race,’ Cunningham said. ‘You can either regress or push forward. We always push forward. Our biggest challenge is being able to be efficient and to move together as a boat. If we can do that, I think you’ll be seeing great things from us.’

Published on April 10, 2007 at 12:00 pm