The Massachusetts women’s swim and dive team is preparing to face Vermont on Saturday for the Minutewomen’s first home meet of the season.
UMass (2-1) is coming off of a split last weekend, falling 190-105 to a talented team in Army, but defeating Fairfield 195-102 to end the two-day road trip.
“They’re going to be sky high to be at home and not have to deal with the bus trip and the hotel and on the road food,” coach Bob Newcomb said. “It’s definitely a motivational advantage. We don’t have many of these, and because our opportunities at home are limited, they’re very excited to be at home.”
It has been almost a month since Sept. 21, the last time that Vermont (0-1) raced, when it lost by a score of 171.5-128.5 to Northeastern. The Catamounts won six races, led by Emily Murphy’s pair of wins in the one-meter and three-meter dive. Other wins include Maria Kelly in the 1000-yard freestyle, Morgan Montgomery in the 100-yard backstroke, Jenny O’Neil in the 50-yard butterfly and then a 200-yard freestyle relay to finish off the meet including Mina Poppas, Kira Parker, Sophia Smith and Sierra Sexton.
“I feel pretty confident,” Newcomb said. “We want to continue what we’ve been doing. Here’s another opportunity to warm up in a different way. We have this facility, and warm up and warm down races are very different. They were using spinning bikes, jump ropes and walking last week at Fairfield, but now it’s a totally different kind of warm-up and warm-down. So trying to keep them focused and knowing what they have to do between races, to warm down from one and prepare for the next one, that’s really important. Anytime there is a green-colored cap next to them I want them to beat them.”
Bella Snyder, a freshman swimmer for the Minutewomen, won A-10 women’s swimming and diving rookie of the week coming off of a team-leading three wins against Fairfield, with wins in the 800-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle and the 200-meter freestyle. Snyder also had a runner-up performance in the 500-yard freestyle the day before against Army. Snyder now has five total wins on the season heading into the Minutewomen’s fourth meet of the year.
The men’s team (2-1) is on a bye week this week, not having another meet until next week where they host NJIT (3-0) for their home opener.
“We really hit them with a heavy volume week and heavy intensity,” men’s coach Russ Yarworth said. “Doubles on Monday, doubles on Tuesday, only one yesterday, but that’s because they were at a charity event, so they were out late for that. Then they had doubles today and a 5 a.m. Friday, but get a well-deserved weekend off. When you look at back to back meets with the travel, then training this week and the academic stress increasing, the cumulative effect of fatigue is pretty extreme right now. I have to measure it myself, and when I feel tired, I know they’re starting to feel it too.”
The women’s meet will start at 1 p.m. this Saturday at the Joseph R. Rogers Jr. Pool.
Joseph Aliberti can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @JosephAliberti1.
