Kate Denniston, Volleyball
The volleyball team has jumped out to a 5-0 start this fall, putting together a perfect 4-0 record at this weekend's Brandeis Invitational. Senior tri-captain Kate Denniston played an integral role in the Jumbos' success all weekend long, finishing her weekend by being named to the All-Tournament team.
Denniston helped lead the Jumbos to four straight 3-0 victories over the weekend, posting 21 kills during the four contests, including a stellar nine-kill performance against the Williams Ephs on Saturday. Friday's match against Rhode Island College also featured exciting play from Denniston, as she threw down seven kills and no errors.
Denniston's recipe for her early success has been her relatively error-free play. Through the team's first five contests, she has posted only one error to 25 total kills.
Nick Welch, Cross-Country
In Saturday's Jumbo Invitational cross country meet, junior co-captain Nick Welch stole the show by winning the 5,000-meter race in impressive form. The only runner to register a time under 17 minutes, Welch finished the course with a time of 16:44.58, 25 seconds ahead of his closest competitor.
Welch's four teammates followed suit with impressive runs themselves, including a second-place 17:09.69 run from junior Ryan Lena and a third-place 17:13.27 effort from sophomore Jeff Ragazzini. In fact, the Jumbos captured all five of the race's top spots, earning a perfect score of 15.
In the 8k portion of the meet, however, the Jumbos did not fare as well. Finishing seventh out of 10 teams, Tufts lacked the firepower it brought to the 5k race, its highest finisher being senior co-captain Dave Tilton, who finished 22nd with a time of 28:39.83.
Next up for Welch and the Jumbos is Saturday's UMass Dartmouth Invitational, where they hope to improve upon last year's efforts. Tufts took home a seventh-place finish out of 31 teams in 2007.
