This past weekend, the volleyball team hosted the Oberlin Invitational Tournament in Philips gym. The teams participating included John Carroll University, Chatham University, and Haverford College — where my younger sister Téa attends and also plays volleyball. The Oberlin vs. Haverford game marked the first time my sister and I have ever played competitive volleyball against each other; her team won. When I was younger, I was a competitive figure skater, but the sport grew extremely isolating. I knew I wanted to experience playing a team sport in high school, so I started playing volleyball...
Minor League Baseball joined the Major League Baseball Players Association after the MLB voluntarily accepted its union earlier this month. While the formal unionization took less than a month, players have put forth efforts to increase pay and improve working conditions for decades. Since its inception in 1968, the MLBPA has unionized major league players, and now minor league players will be entitled to the same protections. The effort to unionize started on Aug. 28, 2022, when MiLB representatives and the MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark started communicating with one another. MiLB organized...
A new football season has arrived and with that, an acknowledgement that athletes face considerable scrutiny nowadays. Football, baseball, soccer, basketball — these sports and many others put their players on a pedestal, only for them to be torn down by millions of fans if they fail to match the hype. This begs the question: if athletes live up to their expectations on the field, what immunity does this give them to stay accountable for off-the-field issues? For the NFL in particular, recent cases have illustrated that stardom affords you a relative level of immunity from accountability....
On Sept. 2, Serena Williams' 27-year tennis career most likely came to a close in a loss to Ajla Tomljanović at the third round of the US Open in the most watched tennis match in ESPN's history. Williams, who announced her "evolution" from tennis in an essay for Vogue, did not give a specific date for when she would be stepping away from the court but nonetheless has received countless tributes after the game, including an unprecedented on-court postgame interview. The world has watched Williams grow from a kid training under her sister's shadow in Compton, California, to one of the most...
On April 3, during a double-header against the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN, members of Oberlin’s softball team were confronted with racial slurs from the opposing team. In the wake of the incident, Oberlin will no longer play against Rose-Hulman in non-conference competitions. Still, the students who faced the racial abuse say they have felt unsupported by the College. In the course of the double-header, fourth-year V Dagnino, third-year Lalli Lopez, and second-year Mia Brito, all athletes of color, were referred to as “monkeys” by Rose-Hulman players, who also...
With hopes of facilitating a love of sports among girls, Oberlin College Athletics held the eighth annual “Play Like A Girl” event May 15. The event, which was held virtually for the past two years, brings together coaches and players from women’s teams to mentor girls aged 5–12. Director of Football Operations and Running Backs Coach Roseanna Smith participated in this year’s in-person “Play Like A Girl” event alongside members of the women’s basketball, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, track and field, cross country, softball, volleyball, and field hockey teams. “I...
Just three weeks after Serena Williams, tennis’s greatest female athlete, retired, a fellow tennis legend followed suit. On Sept. 23, Roger Federer, the Swiss maestro who has captivated audiences for decades, played his final match at the Laver Cup in doubles alongside one of his most formidable rivals, Rafael Nadal. It seemed fitting for Federer and Nadal to share the court to close Federer’s career considering their storied rivalry. Over the course of 18 years, they played 40 matches against each other including 24 finals — nine of which took place at one of the four major Grand Slam tournaments. Along...
Last weekend, Oberlin College hosted its 22nd annual Force Freedom Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Both of Oberlin’s teams, the women’s and trans Preying Manti and the Flying Horsecows, participated in the action. To begin the day, the Flying Horsecows were divided randomly into two smaller teams, X and Y, for the tournament. Team X chose the name Mercedes-Benz UNIMOG while Team Y chose to call themselves the Battle of the Sandwich. Both teams faced the same opponents, though in a different order. The Horsecows and the Manti lost 11 seniors last year, leaving many holes for first-years and...
Imagine Naomi Osaka hitting the ball once and walking off the court, or Tom Brady throwing a football to a teammate and leaving with no explanation. This is exactly what happened in the chess world recently, creating its largest scandal in years. On Sept. 5, 31-year-old Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, MO after losing a game against 19-year-old Hans Niemann, giving up the chance to win $100,000. According to the International Chess Federation, Carlsen has held the highest chess ranking for the past 11 years. He is known for his unbeaten streaks —...
Invented in 1965, pickleball is a relatively young sport. For most of its 57 years of existence it was rather niche, but its popularity has recently skyrocketed. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of players has grown by over 40 percent, and within the last six years, there has been a 650-percent surge. Pickleball originated in Bainbridge Island, Washington, located west of Seattle. Joel Pritchard and his friends, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, were about to play badminton with their children while on vacation but couldn’t find enough rackets to play with. Rather than...
Although not officially recognized by the NCAA, club sports can get pretty rigorous and competitive. There has been a history of Division III athletes participating in club sports during the offseason at Oberlin College, and no matter the varying levels of ability among the players, these teams focus on having fun with the sport while training intensely. The oldest club sport on campus is the Fencing Club, the Flaming Blades. Newcomers who want to learn how to fence can join FenceCo, an ExCo that introduces them to the exhilarating sport. More experienced fencers can join the Flaming Blades...
In 80 minutes of action, the longest game of the season so far, field hockey won in a hard fought shootout against Transylvania University last Sunday. After a goalless double...
Third-year Leander Herman is a dual-sport athlete on both the lacrosse and football teams who still finds time to participate in ultimate Frisbee on campus. A Computer Science...
After missing multiple seasons due to injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic, fourth-year midfielder Jon Schafer is finally playing his first full season of soccer, leading as...
While most first-years were adjusting to classes and attending meetings with their Peer Advising Leaders at the beginning of the school year, Miguel Siwady was swimming at...
Last Saturday, first-year Elly Scheer scored the field hockey team’s first goal of the season, helping it win an overtime game against Nazareth College on Oberlin’s very...
College fourth-year Zoë Martin del Campo and College third-years John Elrod and Zoe Kuzbari are the current sports editors for the Review. I sat down with them in the Review’s...
College fourth-year and defender Matt Huang has been playing lacrosse for 16 years. At Oberlin, he was part of the squad that made it to the North Coast Athletic Conference...