At the Dad Vail Regatta, Cabrini women’s rowing is preparing for one final race

As the Cabrini women’s rowing team prepares for their final race at the Dad Vail Regatta on Saturday, it won’t just mark the last race of the season, but their last race as a team.

The university will close its doors in June after being sold to Villanova. The women’s Division II/Division III varsity four Final 2 will mark the final race for the school. The Cavaliers finished sixth in their semifinal on Friday with a time of 10 minutes, 2.79 seconds after posting a 9:45.55 in their morning time trial.

The agreement with Villanova was announced in June and finalized in November, leaving the Cavaliers aware of the end as they entered the season.

But head coach Tim Hagan said the school community and his team have taken it in stride.

“The whole vibe on campus has been actually pretty positive, which is good,” Hagan said. “Everybody’s dealt with it the best that they can, and it has been a pleasure to coach them this year.”

But it hasn’t always been easy for Cabrini to navigate its next steps. Last season, the women’s rowing team rostered nine. The Cavaliers began this year with seven. By the time the season started, they were down to five, just enough to run a boat.

“It definitely hurt at first, and once we figured out what we had and what we were doing it, we kind of took it from there,” Hagan said.

They’ve competed this season with rowers like freshman Michayla Amalfitano, who made the decision to stay through the school’s final year.

“This team was a family coming in, and day one, like from our first practice in the fall to now, we’ve grown as a family,” Amalfitano said. “We’ve pretty much been through thick and thin together.”

Senior coxswain Evelyn Sperry said there were benefits to the small numbers, especially since it’s always been “a very small close-knit team.”

“Normal teams do lineup switching all the time,” Sperry said. “They’re trying to figure out what boat is going to be the fastest. With us, we always knew what the lineup was going to be. We always knew what we need to work on because there is consistency. We all showed up every day. We all tried our hardest. We all put the work in and make the season happen because if one of us chose not to [compete], we wouldn’t have a season. So I am very grateful for everyone that did take the time and make the commitment to continue rowing this year.”

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Hagan said there was an accountability that came with it because there were no reinforcements in numbers. Instead, he said they were all focused on what was important.

“At times, I think when you’re the middle of the season or middle of your athletic career you think, ‘Oh, I got time to do this and that,’” Hagan said. “We don’t have that. There’s not next year. So I think everybody took that to heart and came ready to practice every day.”

Now, their focus is on the 9:44 a.m. race Saturday on the Cooper River, as Hagan emphasized in the team’s post-semifinal talk.

“Focus on the things we’ve practiced every day and we’ve been talking about and have that perfect row out in the racecourse and finish on a strong note,” Hagan said. “They’ve been positive all year, and, hopefully, the finality of it all it doesn’t hit them till after they crossed the finish line.”

Following their race, the men’s varsity eight grand final will begin at approximately 5 p.m. and feature four Philly schools, St. Joseph’s, La Salle, Drexel, and Temple, along with Western Ontario and Rutgers.