March 30, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's women's rowing team continued its strong efforts in the early part of the season with back-to-back days of racing, at the Murphy Cup on Saturday and a tri-meet on Sunday.

At the Murphy Cup, the Hawks advanced all eights to the Grand Finals in a large, competitive field. The Varsity 8 and Freshman Eight each finished the day with silver medal performances while the Second Varsity Eight raced a barnburner to finish fourth in a photo-finish with Navy.

The Varsity 8 advanced easily through the heat and rowed a strong final. The Hawks took the lead over Bucknell 700 meters in, but relinquished it soon after the 1000-meter mark to never regain it, finishing three seconds behind the Bison.

"We were disappointed with our finish. We were in a position to win in the final 30-40 strokes, but we didn't make our move," said coach Gerry Quinlan. "We never said to ourselves during the 6:41 'let's win'. The season has been great so far but we just need to spend more time on race tactics."

On Sunday, the Hawks took on UConn and Dayton again on the Schuylkill River. The Varsity Eight won impressively as did the Varsity Four, taking control of the race and dictating the speed. The Freshman Eight and Second Varsity Eight each finished second to UConn. "We looked a little sluggish having raced twice on Saturday, but the effort was there in all four races," said Quinlan.

Full Results are available on www.row2k.com.

The Hawks will travel west for next weekend's San Diego Crew Classic, on Saturday and Sunday.