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Michael Bamberger, a 'Sports Illustrated' writer, spoke at Penn last night. Penn students have told Michael Bamberger that he was lucky to have attended Penn 20 years ago, since today, his SAT scores might be too low for him to be accepted. Regardless, the Sports Illustrated senior writer jokingly maintained that he's at least as smart as the 35 students who came to the Kelly Writers House last night because they, not he, braved the pouring rain just to receive some words of advice from a writer. Bamberger, a 1982 Penn graduate, came to the Writers House as part of the Alumni Writers Series. Bamberger discussed the roots of his budding writing career which began in the office of The Daily Pennsylvanian in 1980 when he wrote an article about students scalping tickets for a Bruce Springsteen concert at the Philadelphia Spectrum. "Read as much as you can, write as much as you can," Bamberger advised students interested in pursuing a career in writing. He appears to have taken his own advice, as his portfolio includes newspaper and magazine articles, sports novels and a play. Before arriving at Sports Illustrated -- where he has been a senior writer since 1995 -- Bamberger wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer for nine years. Spending as much time as possible with the subject of the piece is the best way to capture his or her personality, Bamberger said. He should know: In his career, Bamberger has profiled the likes of baseball superstar Mike Piazza, former Major League Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent and the entire 1999 World Cup-winning United States women's soccer team. He did, however, admit that it can be difficult -- and sometimes even impossible -- to make certain athletes receptive to the idea of being followed by a reporter. Take, for example, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Albert Belle, who is as well known for his clubhouse tirades as for his home run power. Bamberger told a laughing audience of an encounter he once had with the slugger. Belle would not speak to the reporter, leaving Bamberger to write a feature story for Sports Illustrated that used only one quote from the subject himself: "Sports Illustrated can kiss my black ass." "He viewed me as a parasite," Bamberger said. Bamberger went on to field questions ranging from Michael Jordan's relationship with Sports Illustrated in the early 1990s to Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker's controversial remarks made several months ago to the magazine. Bamberger repeatedly stressed that the most important responsibility of the writer and the publication is to the reader. Bamberger admitted problems may arise when a writer has spent time with a subject and develops a personal relationship with the source. The reporter, Bamberger said, must always maintain his or her integrity because that is the most important attribute that a writer can possess. But the discussion did not focus solely on sports. In fact, Bamberger also discussed the art of writing and reporting. After the talk, College sophomore Lenya Bloom called Bamberger's message "excellent." "He did a good job balancing between sports and all interests," Bloom said. College junior Todd Wise introduced Bamberger. "A lot of people in the Penn community are interested in sports," Wise said.
The Quakers beat two ranked teams, but fell to three more on their trip to the West. The five nationally ranked teams that the Penn women's tennis team played over spring break in California and Las Vegas might have all thought they would have no trouble sweeping the unranked Quakers. They were wrong. Penn overcame No. 68 UNLV and No. 44 Illinois State on March 12 and 13, respectively. And even though the Quakers lost handily to Oklahoma State, Fresno State and Stanford, Penn sophomore Carla Dorsey believed these matches were all closer than the scores may make them seem. "Their players aren't better athletes than us," Dorsey said of the killer trio. "But they play their big points a lot better. [On points] where we might get timid, they play it out. They have a lot more experience with big points, and it's the big points that count -- they're what make the scores look lopsided." Penn started out their West Coast matches by beating UNLV, 5-4. Penn captain Elana Gold said the Quakers were especially happy about beating the Rebels since they regularly vie with the best the Western conferences have to offer. The next day, the Quakers took Illinois State, 6-3. Gold's match was especially impressive. After losing the first set, 6-1, and being down 5-1 in the second set, she took the match to the third set and pulled off a win. No. 52 Oklahoma State gave Penn a little more trouble. At No. 6 singles, Penn sophomore Jolene Sloat didn't let the Cowboys' Cameron Stout win a single game, while Penn's Rochelle Raiss took Ashleigh Dolman, 6-1, 6-4. Raiss then teamed up with Penn junior Lenka Beranova to play doubles, and the duo overcame Dolman and Maria Galoustova, 8-4. The Quakers team of sophomore Louani Bascara and Anastasia Pozdniakova was tied at 8-8 before losing the match in a close tiebreaker. The next two schools the Quakers faced -- Fresno State and Stanford -- were probably the toughest teams they will see all season. Penn was unable to take a single match from either school. At No. 1 singles, Pozdniakova took Fresno State's Kandiss Creighton to three sets after falling 6-1 in the first set. Beranova lost her match by a close 7-5, 7-5 margin at No. 2 singles, while Justyna Wojas lost to the Bulldogs' Kelly Ramirez after a 7-5, 6-3 battle. Before heading home, the Quakers faced No. 1 Stanford at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium to challenge some of the top tennis players in the nation. "The whole atmosphere of playing the No. 1 team in the country in their stadium with a huge scoreboard was a little intimidating," Penn coach Michael Dowd said. "But we stepped up and played very well. We played some of the best tennis we played all year." At No. 3 singles, Penn junior Shubha Srinivasan faced Gabriela Lastra -- who is currently ranked No. 68 in the country -- in an intense three-hour battle. Srinivasan took the first set, 7-6, before Lastra came back and finished the match, 6-3, 6-4. "Shubha played an amazing match," Gold said. "[Playing Stanford] was fun, because we had nothing to lose." Doubles was the Quakers' strength in the Stanford match. Raiss and Beranova lost their close match at No. 1 doubles, 8-7, and Bascara and Pozdniakova fell, 8-5. Gold believes that the upcoming Ivy season -- which begins April 1 against Princeton -- almost looks easy after playing at such a high level of competition. "We all got a lot closer [over spring break]," she said. "When it comes down to four-all in an Ivy match and you feel united with your team, you're going to want it that much more for yourself and everyone else." But Dowd emphasized that the team can never get too satisfied with its performance. "We saw the highest level of competition we'll see all year. From here on out, we won't see teams as good as these," he said. "But the Ivy season is in the horizon, and we have to keep pushing."
The regular dual-meet season may be over for the Penn women's fencing team, but for two of the Quakers' top fencers, there is still much left to be accomplished. Freshman epeeist Kim Linton and fellow freshman foilist Lauren Staudinger advanced to the NCAA Championships with strong performances at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Region Championships this past Sunday. Linton, seeded ninth going into the tournament based on her season performance, finished 11th in the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional on Sunday, making her the eighth-best epeeist in the region, based upon the NCAA's weighted rankings system. That result was good enough to make her one of the nine epeeists representing the Mid-Atlantic/South Region at the NCAA Championships this coming weekend at Stanford. Staudinger, who was seeded eighth, finished in seventh place in the region both for the tournament and overall on the season. She will also represent Penn at the NCAAs this weekend. "I'm glad that we have two [fencers] going," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "And the fact that they're freshmen gives them good experience for the future." Three other women also went to regionals, but were unable to qualify for the NCAAs. Sophomore sabre Abby Lifter made it to the final round but was stifled once she got there, finishing in 12th place. Freshman Christina Verigan, who was arguably Penn's top sabre fencer all year, went 1-4 in her pool and was knocked out in the first round, finishing in 19th place. Despite this poor result, Verigan remained optimistic for the future. "I have three more years to go -- I'll make it next year," she said. "Now I'm motivated to work over the summer and train harder in the off-season." Freshman foilist Stacey Wertlieb rounded out the field with a 13th-place finish for the Quakers. Seniors Amy Hozer and captain Heba Abdulla qualified for regionals, but they could not make it to State College, Pa., due to prior commitments. With the absence of these two upperclassmen, the weight was put on the shoulders of Penn's newcomers. Four freshmen and one sophomore represented the Quakers at regionals, forecasting a bright future for the Red and Blue. "I think that next year we will qualify more people for NCAAs," Verigan said. "Next season, I think that we'll be able to carry the team very well and uphold the tradition of high-quality fencing at Penn." Despite Penn's youth and inexperience, Micahnik was still unhappy with his team's results. The fact that the Quakers are only sending two fencers to the NCAAs gives them a handicap on coming away with a high finish at Stanford. Fencing powerhouses Penn State and Princeton are both sending the maximum of six fencers, giving them a sizeable advantage over Penn. "We needed to be a lot better," Micahnik said. "I was expecting much more." Staudinger, who was unhappy with a couple of her own losses, cited an extremely competitive field as the reason for the lack of Penn victories. "I think some more of our fencers deserved to go to NCAAs, but it was a really hard competition," she said. "It was too bad more of us didn't qualify." Nevertheless, Linton and Staudinger, the core of Penn's strong freshman class, will travel across the country and represent the Quakers, hoping to gain valuable experience for their next three years at Penn. "It's a reward for a good season, and it is a good steppingstone for the future," Micahnik said.
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