SAINT MARY”S COLLEGE BELLES
Location: Notre Dame, IN
Division: NCAA Division 3
Conference Affiliation: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Major sports: basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball
Site: http://www3.saintmarys.edu/athletics
Comment: Get it? The Bells Of Saint Mary’s becomes “The Belles Of Saint Mary’s” for this female institution’s sports teams, just as it became The Bells Of Saint Berwyn in a memorable Son Of Svengoolie comedy sketch. This school should Continue reading
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If You Feed Them, They Will Come – Cumberland Bulldogs Director of Athletics Ron Pavan has announced that tailgating and free food will be available for the Bulldog faithful for the football season opener this Thursday, September 2nd in Clarksville ,TN (insert your own “Last Train” joke here) against the Austin-Peay Governors. If you’ve never witnessed an Austin-Peay sporting event the team’s fans love to chant “Let’s go Peay! Let’s go Peay!” with the proverbial smile on their lips and a song in their hearts. Anyway, the food tent for CU fans will be at Eighth and Marion Streets just east of Governors Stadium. Food will be served from 4-5:30 PM.
Opening Volley – The Franklin and Marshall Diplomats volleyball team has been picked in the preseason poll to win the Centennial Conference this year. The entire starting rotation from last year’s 23-6 team returns. “Little” Pam Horner and Nicole “Mighty Mo” Morano, both All-Conference players last season, will lead the Diplomats as they try for their fifth Centennial Conference title since the year 2000. Franklin and Marshall open their season this Friday, Sept 3rd against the Dickinson Red Devils.
Queen Bees Turn In A Royal Performance – Speaking of volleyball the Saint Ambrose University Queen Bees went 3-1 at the Saint Ambrose Early Bird Tournament in Davenport, IA. The ladies defeated Benedictine-Springfield 3-0 by scores of 25-13, 25-14 and 25-14. Their loss came at the hands of the Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars by scores of 25-22, 25-18, 22-25 and 25-16. Amy Royer of St Ambrose made the All-Tournament team!
Cougar Tales – Staying on volleyball for a moment, the Sioux Falls Cougars went 3-1 at the 16th Annual Red Raider Classic, hosted by the Northwestern (IA) College Red Raiders this past weekend. On day 1 of the tourney the ladies defeated the Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats by scores of 25-21, 25-17, 22-25 and 25-23. They then took down the MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers by scores of 25-18, 22-25, 25-23 and 25-21. On day two they split, sweeping the Graceland Yellowjackets by scores of 25-21, 25-17 and 25-22, but losing to the Oklahoma Baptist Bison after going the distance 25-20, 13-25, 21-25, 25-23 and 13-15. The Cougars’ overall record is now 5-3, with the Waldorf Warriors coming up on Wednesday, September 1st.
Saint Xavier Women’s Basketball Lands Star Recruit – Maloree Johnson, a senior point guard at Rockford Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford, IL. “I’m proud to become a student at Saint Xavier University, ” Johnson said, “because it is such a great school and I’m also excited to be a part of such a successful basketball program.” The SXU Cougars women’s basketball team went 31-2 last season and won the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles. In the NAIA tournament back in March they made it all the way to the Elite Eight for the first time in the program’s 10 year history.
Don’t Forget To Vote – Polls close on September 12th for my latest Top 20 contest. To vote for your favorite among The 20 Coolest Helmets In NCAA Division 3 e-mail me at Thtcom15@aol.com . To review the list of 20 candidates click here: https://glitternight.com/2010/08/23/the-20-coolest-football-helmets-in-ncaa-division-3/
Taylor Trojans Volleyball Off To 4-0 Start – The 10th-ranked Taylor Trojans went 4-0 at the aforementioned Red Raider Classic, with 3 of their wins coming over other Top 25 teams! The Trojans dominated at the net this past weekend with a .350 hitting percentage and recorded 47 team blocks in the 4 matches combined. Rachel Kizer and Kelsey Pritchard led Taylor with 7 kills apiece against the Bellevue Bruins alone. The ladies will next host their own tournament, the 8-team Trojan Challenge this Friday and Saturday. Their opening opponent in the tournament will be yet another Top 25 team (Head Coach Brittany Smith needs to have a serious talk with whoever does her team’s scheduling) in the Shawnee State Bears.
Some Baltimore Love For Blue Jays Football – Johns Hopkins Blue Jays Head Football Coach Jim Margraff will be a guest tonight on WBAL’s Sportsline with Brett Holander at 8:15PM (Moved from its previous time slot of 8:14 and 36 seconds) on 1090 AM. You can tune in or catch it live on the internet at http://www.wbal.com/ Plus the Baltimore Sun ran a full-length preview of the JHU 2010 football team today and you can read it at : http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/football/bs-sp-hopkins-football-0830-20100830,0,5433561.story
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Well, the first night of NAIA football is in the books. Division 3 gets going next week for those of you wondering. Let’s recap last night’s action:
ST XAVIER COUGARS 49 over Bethel (TN) Wildcats 32. In a game that was tight until the 4th quarter, Cougars QB Anthony “Crop-Man” Kropp had a great game but Mike Maher set an SXU record for completion yards and TD receptions!
BEMIDJI STATE BEAVERS 24 over Minot State Beavers 7. Minot State got bashed in the 12th Annual Beaver Bash, but they were up against a D2 team in Bemidji State. For newbies to lower division sports just as 1A football teams schedule 1AA teams (I feel like such a rebel for continuing to say 1A and 1AA) it goes all the way down. 1AA teams often schedule Div 2 teams for their opening game and D2 teams often schedule D3 or NAIA teams for theirs.
DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS 25 over Rocky Mountain Battlin’ Bears 21. In what was the closest final score of the night the Blue Hawks defense kept the Battlin’ Bears from scoring long enough for a Holland to Herr screen pass to put Dickinson State ahead for good.
CONCORD MOUNTAIN LIONS 72 over Southern Virginia Knights 21. Okay, I know Concord is D2 but still, for SVU this is the ultimate “just burn the game tape and move on” situation. I’m sure the Knights faithful would like as little said about this game as possible so let’s just move on ourselves.
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For Lindenwood, Volleyball Season Comes In Like A Lion – The Lady Lions of Lindenwood University will be starting their season tomorrow in the Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions Tournament. The ladies will try to clip the wings of the Concordia (CA) Eagles at 11AM Pacific Time, then at 8pm PT will be saying to the William Jessup team, “Warrioooors! Come out and pla-aaaaay!” (Bad movie fans will get it). On Saturday the 28th the Lady Lions will take on the host school Point Loma Nazarene at 1pm PT and will finish up at 5pm PT against the Cal Baptist Lancers (insert your own “boil” joke here).
Jenny Schneider Takes Over – No, it’s not the title of another sitcom starring Jenna Elfman. This bit is about the University of Sioux Falls elevating Jenny “Dwayne” Schneider to be the Head Coach for both their men’s and women’s golf teams. Schneider had been serving as the assistant coach for the golf teams’ spring season earlier this year. Among the tournaments Head Coach Schneider never missed due to sleeping in (rimshot) are the Women’s Western, Trans National, College Players Tour, and the LPGA Qualifying School.
The Sun’ll Come Out, Tamara – Tamara Gonzalez, a women’s hoops star at Cumberland University, recently played for her native country on the Paraguay Senior National Team. Gonzalez averaged 24 minutes a game and started all four games in the South American Championships in Santiago, Chile. Paraguay went 2-2 in the tournament.
USC’s Loss Is Concordia’s Gain – Former Villanova and Duke forward Taylor King will be playing basketball for the NAIA’s Concordia (CA) Eagles instead of the USC Trojans this season. The 6-foot-6, 230 pound native of Huntington Beach, CA averaged 7.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 32 games last year for Villanova, which reached the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. You can’t help but wonder if it’s a big relief to King that he won’t have to risk running into the increasingly slimey Lane Kiffin on the USC campus.
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Forget all this preaseason NFL stuff, if you’re hungry for games that matter the NAIA has you covered this Thursday night with 5 games and 3 of the NAIA Top 25 in action! For a composite schedule of all the games scheduled from August 26th through September 11th click here: http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/2010CompositeSchedule.html
And for a look at tomorrow night’s matchups just read on:
SAINT XAVIER COUGARS (#4)
VERSUS
BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS
MINOT STATE BEAVERS (#14)
VERSUS
BEMIDJI STATE BEAVERS
DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS (#18)
VERSUS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BATTLING BEARS
GEORGETOWN (KY) TIGERS
VERSUS
HANOVER INDIANA PANTHERS
SOUTHERN VIRGINIA KNIGHTS
VERSUS
CONCORD MOUNTAIN LIONS
DON’T MISS ACTUAL, HONEST-TO-GOD FOOTBALL GAMES THAT MATTER
Football helmets courtesy of The Helmet Project at: http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/
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When it comes to NAIA volleyball, it’s been the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds’ world and everyone else is just part of the dig-counters. The Sunbirds are coming off a perfect 38-0 season which found the ladies winning a 3rd straight national championship. They also went undefeated at home for the 7th straight season and won their 10th straight Golden State Athletic Conference title. Needless to say they are starting this season ranked number 1.
Having won 110 of their last 112 matches, the Sunbirds volleyball team felt up to the challenge of seeing if I could conduct a lucid interview for once. When I offered to meet the ladies for a face-to-face interview to get the inside story on their team’s phenomenal run, Head Coach Dennis Janzen gave the okay, despite my ice-breaking joke in which I told him I really loved watching reruns of him in The Fugitive and Harry O. Janzen just rolled his eyes. (Maybe he was just peeved that I didn’t mention Richard Diamond episodes) (DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING IS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE BITS WHERE I PRETEND TO ACTUALLY BE INTERVIEWING THE PEOPLE COVERED IN THE ARTICLE…ALSO NO VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS WERE HARMED DURING THE WRITING OF THIS BLOG POST)
I asked senior All-American Lisa “Worth More Than A” Shilling how she and her teammates deal with the non-stop pressure of the streak they are on and she replied:
“It’s there in the back of your mind, but it ‘s only what you make of it.”
She also stated the common thread running through the last 3 national championship teams has been the close-knit team chemistry. Shilling, along with Libero Mariah Mandelbaum, is trying to complete her Fresno Pacific career without ever having experienced a season-ending loss. Volleyball newcomers can find out all they need to know about the Libero position by going here: http://www.strength-and-power-for-volleyball.com/volleyball-rules-libero.html
I told Mandelbaum I once wrote a libretto about a Libero who was a Libra and she asked Coach Janzen if she could go. For a quick round-up of the other Sunbirds volleyball players who, if there’s any justice, will soon have a major motion picture made about them, here you go:
Martina Gregusova, the NAIA Tournament MVP last year. She led the Sunbirds with 444 kills last season (And left nearly 500 opponents seriously wounded. I’m kidding!).
Keke Wang, an All-American at two positions. She will play middle blocker and opposite. (As opposed to playing Dan Blocker and similar)
Wang teams with the aforementioned Lisa Shilling to form one of the best middle blocker duos in the sport. Shilling was 2nd Team All American last year and is described by FPU as one of the driving forces behind the team’s success.
Mariah Mandelbaum, comfortable in her role as a “shortstop of volleyball” AKA Libero, led the Golden State Athletic Conference in digs last season.
Sophomores Erica Adachi and Emily Carroll return as the team’s primary setters. This Titanic Twosome combined for 1,482 assists in 2009.
Newcomers to the squad include Kathleen Anderson, Jessica Berg, Karah Mitchell and Brittany Sumpter.
The Sunbirds return the bulk of their 2009 title team but lose two players, including Tiffany Marinos, who has joined the team’s coaching staff. Coach Janzen, proving that for coaches the glass is always half-empty, said the team has a long way to go to get where they need to be and added this vintage example of coachspeak:
“We want to be better defensively. This program defensively has a higher standard than most. We have got to push defensive intensity.”
Do you get the feeling that a perfectionist coach like Dennis Janzen wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat over the 2 games his team has lost out of their last 112?
And the Sunbirds play in the GSAC, which may well be the best volleyball conference in the NAIA, boasting 4 of the nation’s Top 5 teams at the end of last season. Think about that as you absorb this next stat: FPU has won 52 straight against conference opponents.
The Sunbirds have got their eyes on history and if they can win their 4th straight NAIA volleyball title they will stand at the top of the sport along with the only 2 other teams to accomplish that task: the 1981-1984 Hawaii-Hilo Vulcans (Team motto: Live Long And Prosper) and the 1994-1997 BYU-Hawaii Seasiders (Team motto: Our Team’s Nickname Doesn’t Lend Itself Easily To Lame Jokes By Bloggers…That motto may sound a bit unwieldy but it looks great on a T-shirt.) There’s no doubt about it, Fresno Pacific University is to volleyball what UConn is to women’s hoops.
For streaming video of Coach Janzen and I singing the Fresno Pacific fight song click here: http://fpuathletics.com/
For another tongue-in-cheek yet informative NAIA volleyball story click here: https://glitternight.com/2010/07/23/multiple-choice-quiz-on-sioux-falls-volleyball-programs-recent-honor/
Balladeer’s Blog is not affiliated with or operated by the NAIA or the NCAA or any of their member institutions.
© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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