Sports in brief

Men earn hockey playoff bye, women stun Clarkson

The No. 8 Harvard men’s hockey team ousted the Clarkson Knights, 2-1, at Bright Hockey Center on Feb. 25 to secure the Crimson a first-round bye in the ECAC Hockey League playoffs. On the road, the Harvard women edged the Knights, 3-2, in sudden death OT following senior Jennifer Raimondi‘s goal with :01 seconds remaining.

The women will host a best-of-three series against No. 10 Clarkson starting Friday (March 3) at 7 p.m. The men, meanwhile, play host to the ECAC quarterfinal playoff series March 10-12. The Crimson’s challenger has yet to be announced. Visit http://www.gocrimson.com for updates.

Fencing rattles competition at IFA champs

For the second straight year, Harvard fencing captured first place at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) championships, held Feb. 25-26 in Philadelphia. Highlighted by a strong performance in the saber (taking 27 of 30 matches), the men totaled 71 points in the first day of competition. The following day, the women’s squad were paced by foilists Chloe Stinetorf ’06 and Anne Austin ’06 (who both finished 11-0), and Emily Cross ’08 (10-1) on their way to winning an impressive 85 out of 99 total bouts. Together the Crimson squads captured 156 bouts out of a possible 189 to better second-place Penn by 21 points.

Next up, Harvard plays hosts to the NCAA Northeast Regional on Sunday (March 5).

– Compiled by Andrew Brooks