Tag Archives: volleyball

October 7, 2010 · 12:06 am

PALM BEACH ATLANTIC SAILFISH RETURN TO THEIR WINNING WAYS

 

Courtesy of Palm Beach Atlantic Sports Information. The parenthetical remarks are purely my fault.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.- With sophomore Mariela Quesada (Official Balladeer’s Blog nickname “The Q”) leading the way with 18 kills, the Palm Beach Atlantic University volleyball team shook off a recent two match losing streak on Tuesday evening by handing St. Thomas University a 3-0 loss at the Rubin Arena. Despite battling team-wide injuries the Fish managed to earn solid victories over the Bobcats to drop STU to 10-3 on the season and interrupt their recent seven match winning streak.

After starting the season 11-0, the Fish were tripped up their previous two matches with losses versus Lynn University (The Fighting Knights, to distinguish them from all those Pacifist Knights out there) at home (3-0) and a heartbreaking loss of 3-2 versus Florida Tech (The Panthers. I’m trying to talk them into changing their name to The Pink Panthers but no luck so far.)in Melbourne (Florida, not Australia, as I learned after arriving Down Under to cover the game) last week. Tuesday evening would be a different opponent and a different outcome as PBA (Palm Beach Atlantic, NOT the Professional Bowler’s Association) dominated with 25-13, 25-21, and 25-13 victories to cruise to their 12th win.

Quesada (“The Q”) and the Fish (The Sailfish) came out firing in game one as the 5’9″ outside-hitter produced eight kills (and left several seriously wounded) in the team’s first set while also mixing in as a setting option in games two and three.

Hitting .378 for the match, Quesada led the Sailfish hitting efforts with her 18 kills (In honor of Quesada’s nickname they should call them “Quills” when she gets them) while also adding in 10 digs for yet another double-double. As a team, Palm Beach Atlantic finished with a .344 team hitting percentage while four players hit at least .333.

Senior Jennifer (“Eldritch”) Eldridge produced six kills as did freshman Paige (“The Rage”)  Mitchell and junior (“Jumping”) Janeen McCormick. Mitchell and McCormick also produced well on the block as Mitchell led the team with four block assists and McCormick chipped in with a solo block and block assist.

(“J-Way” herself) Jessica Way (I was going to call her Jessica “Curds And” Way but thought better of it.) managed 33 assists in the win while also adding in four kills on four attempts for a perfect hitting percentage. Allie Warren (Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname: “The Lethal Libero”) produced 15 digs to lead the way defensively while Eldridge and Quesada joined Warren with double-digit totals in digs with 10 digs each. (But did any of them remember to “Call before you” dig?)

The Bobcats were led on the night by Betina Schmidt who came away with a team-high 11 kills. The Brazil native managed a .219 hitting percentage but had only two teammates with at least four kills. STU connected for a .030 team hitting percentage but were held to negative hitting percentages in set one and three. (Courtesy of that potent Sailfish defense! I’ll say it even though their release is too modest to!)

PBA (This time it DOES mean the Professional Bowlers Association, oddly enough) will have the next few days off from game action while they prepare to host the Pepsi Bash at the Beach Tournament on Friday and Saturday, October 8-9 at the Rubin Arena.

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September 17, 2010 · 3:07 pm

QUICK TAKES: FRIDAY STYLE

“Getcher Popcorn Ready” Dept – In the NAIA 6 of the 23 remaining undefeated football teams square off against each other this Saturday (Week 4 for NAIA football) – the # 2 Lindenwood Lions host the #8 Missouri Valley Vikings, the 7th-ranked Ottawa (KS) Braves travel to the 9-th ranked  McPherson Bulldogs and the #11 Saint Francis (IN) Cougars host the #17 St Ambrose Fighting Bees. Like the cliche says, “Someone’s 0 will go!”

Volleyball Warriors: Taken By Force – The Lewis-Clark State Warriors volleyball team, ranked 11th in the latest NAIA poll, breezed past the Montana Tech Orediggers in a sweep by scores of 25-20, 25-17 and 25-9. The Warriors are now 12-1 and a perfect 3-0 in Frontier Conference play. The majority of the team’s kills came from 3 players: “Killin'” Kelli Tikker had 11 and hit .458; “The District Attorney” herself, Deddiy Alaimaleata had 10 kills and hit .400 and Nicole “The Gray Seal” Graybeal had 8 kills and a .467 mark. The next game for the Warriors is tomorrow against the Montana Western Bulldogs. To benefit the YWCA, anyone who brings 2 items of canned food gets in free.

Triumph Of The Tritons – UC-San Diego, cool team name, The Tritons, has been ranked the number 1 Division 2 institution in the country in the NCSA’s Collegiate Power Rankings. Not only that, but they were ranked # 23 overall, in a system that evaluates a college or university‘s student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength and athletic prowess. If you’re wondering they placed 6th in my list of NCAA Division 2’s 20 Coolest-Named College Sports Teams.

The Legend Of Brassy Braden Continues – Sioux Falls Cougars football kicker Braden Wieking (official Balladeer’s Blog nickname: Brassy Braden) was named the NAIA’s National Special Teams Player Of The Week. In the Cougars’ win last Saturday over the Midland Lutheran Warriors The Brassy One had 3 field goals, all from 40 yards or more, plus 4 extra points. Wieking holds the national record for consecutive PAT’s at 109 and also handled kickoffs and punts in Saturday’s game. The Fred Mitchell Award people have no doubt taken note. 

Don’t Mess With The Q – Mariela “The Q” Quesada, of the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish volleyball team, was named the National Christian College Athletic Association Player Of The Week. The Q turned in an outstanding performance at the Cedarville University Invitational Tournament and was even named Tournament MVP with 51 kills, 16 digs, 6 blocks and 6 service aces. Mariela is a native of San Jose, Costa Rica.   

Diplomats Immune To Green Terror – Yes, it’s an incredibly lame play on the expression “diplomatic immunity” to headline this bit on the Franklin and Marshall Diplomats women’s field hockey team. The Diplomats won 4-0 over Centennial Conference rivals the McDaniel Green Terror. F&M goalkeeper Sarah Dileo picked up her 4th win of the season. “Blastin'” Becky Willert scored the 1st 2 goals of the game by the 24th minute. Valerie “Sweet” Sauers made it 3-0 and the final goal of the game came from “Lady O” herself, Eileen O’Reilly, who also assisted on the 2 Willert goals. O’Reilly (who got the final goal off a pass from Diana Aulisa) has been having a stellar season so far and will be the subject of an upcoming interview here at Balladeer’s Blog.

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September 16, 2010 · 6:57 pm

OPENING VOLLEY: SEPTEMBER 16TH

The Indiana University Southeast Grenadiers volleyball team has won their last 3 games in a row, and hope to be in position to turn this season around. They are now 4-7 after recently defeating the Kentucky Wesleyan Cougars 3-1 and the Midway College Eagles in straight sets 3-0. The ladies will now begin conference play at the St Louis College Of Pharmacy Eutectics and the Berea Mountaineers this Saturday. Their next home stand will be Sept 24th against the Rose Hulman Fightin’ Engineers.

                                                     Amanda Allen, a junior middle-blocker for the Concordia (Chicago) Cougars volleyball team was named the Northern Athletics Conference Student Athlete Of The Week for volleyball. She led the Cougars with  team-highs of .368 kill percentage, 5 solo blocks and 12 block assists. Amanda had double-digit kills in 3 matches last week with 11 (and a .588 attack percentage) against the North Park Vikings. 

The UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs had their 2nd 3-game sweep against the Salem State Vikings this past Tuesday by scores of 25-10,25-19 and 25-18. The Ladies’ Head Coach Steve DeRossi had this to say: “We dug well and we served well, although we weren’t as dominant as we were last weekend. Everybody got into the match (Jimmy Durante: Volleyball Coach) and we worked a couple of things with different combinations that could help us down the road.” The ladies are now 8-0 and resume play tonight at home against the Pine Manor Gators.

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September 14, 2010 · 12:04 am

THE PRIDE OF GREENSBORO: COACH JEAN LOJKO NOTCHES HER 600TH WIN

 Jean Lojko, Athletics Director and Head Volleyball Coach for the Greensboro Pride in NCAA Division 3, just recorded her 600th win by leading the Pride in a victory over the Guilford Quakers. Perhaps appropriately, this milestone came on a sweep by scores of 26-24, 25-16 and 25-19. Lojko is in her 29th year as women’s volleyball coach at Greensboro. She’s kind of volleyball’s answer to Joe Paterno, if JoePa still sounded coherent. Lojko has coached Greensboro volleyball to 8 conference titles and 4 National Championships. Not only is Coach Lojko also the new Athletics Director at Greensboro but she’s a sports Renaissance Woman, having also coached the Pride’s basketball and tennis teams on the women’s side. I was on hand to congratulate Coach Lojko (DISCLAIMER: I’M ONCE AGAIN JOKING) and got this quote from her: “That was a great win and an amazing comeback to win Set One after trailing 15-5. It’s extra special to get the win against a very good Guilford team. I think my team played with extra enthusiasm in order to get the victory for me.” I held Coach Lojko’s watch for her to spare it from the celebratory sports drink soaking she got from her students. Jean good-naturedly told her players that they would never do that to her again, prompting one of them to reply “Oh, we’ll do it at 1,000!”

And needless to say, Balladeer’s Blog will be there to cover it.

To read 600 reasons why Chuck Norris is scared to death of Jean Lojko click here: http://www.greensborocollegesports.com/index.aspx

 

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September 9, 2010 · 1:36 am

THE FRESNO PACIFIC SUNBIRDS REMAIN AT THE TOP OF THE VOLLEYBALL WORLD

The Fresno Pacific University Sunbirds volleyball team is 8-0 and is at the top of the NAIA poll for the 36th straight week. The ladies received all 23 1st place votes and had 653 votes total. Half of the Sunbirds’ 8 wins came at the Asics-Crowne Plaza Labor Day Tournament in Irvine, CA. Fresno Pacific is performing phenomenally, with only 1 team this  season, the 13th ranked Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Eagles , having avoided a 3-set sweep against the defending champs. The Eagles took the game to a full 5 sets before succumbing to the Sunbird juggernaut. (Am I the only one who wonders why no college sports teams are called the Juggernauts? Explain. Can’t you picture teams succumbing to them? Cite specific examples.)

The 2nd and 3rd spots in the poll are also held by Golden State Athletic  Conference teams, the Concordia (CA) Eagles and the Cal Baptist Lancers, cementing the GSAC’s name for being to college volleyball what the SEC is to college football. The Lee Flames and the Northwestern (IA) Red Raiders round out the NAIA Top 5.

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September 1, 2010 · 10:29 pm

QUICK TAKES: HUMP-DAY STYLE

DIPLOMACY OR THE MILITARY OPTION? – The Washington and Lee Generals football team travels to the Franklin and Marshall Diplomats for their 11th gridiron matchup. This is the rubber game of the match since the series is tied up at 5 games apiece. The Generals haven’t beaten the Diplomats in Lancaster since 1963. If W&L manages a victory their Head Coach Frank Miriello will tie his mentor Gary Fallon as the winningest coach in program history. And that is some history since Washington and Lee began playing football in 1873. Miriello looks to lead his troops back to the D3 playoffs for the first time since 2006. 

Lady Lions Upset Sea Lions – The Lindenwood Lady Lions volleyball team went 2-2 at the Point Loma Nazarene Tournament, with one of their wins coming against the host team, the 14th-ranked Sea Lions of Point Loma Nazarene. Lindenwood swept PLNU 25-16, 25-20 and 25-19 for this season’s first win over a ranked team. “Killin'” Krista Yoder had a match-high 16 kills and hit .560, Kelsey “Special K” Kennedy had 6 kills and Ellen “The Hellion” Fandry recorded 14 putaways and 10 digs for her first double-double of the season. Alexandria “Fightin’ Alexa” Malam posted 22 assists and Kelsey “Digs” Biggs had 20. Alyssa “Snow” Showers contributed with 14 digs while Patricia “Peaches And” Erb had 10 and Katie “K-Dub” Weber had a team-high 3 blocks.

How Offensive Can You Get? Mike “M Squared” Maher, senior wide receiver for the Saint Xavier Cougars (my campaign to get them to change their name to the Saint Xavier Cougats still hasn’t borne fruit) has been named the Victory Sports Network NAIA Offensive Player Of The Week. In the Cougars’ 49-32 road win over the Bethel (TN) Wildcats Maher had 12 catches for 214 yards and 4 touchdowns for the 4th-ranked SXU team. 

Don’t Get So Defensive – Hanna “The Sparkler” Sparks, goalie for the Cumberland University women’s soccer team, has been named the Defensive Player Of The Week by the TranSouth Conference after making 16 saves in a pair of matches for the Bulldogs. Up next for Sparks and her teammates are the Georgetown (KY) Tigers this Saturday at 2Pm…And in another Bulldogs story Cumberland’s Football Coaches Show with host Tommy Bryan and Head Coach Dewayne “Hey HEY Hey” Alexander returns tonight. The show will run from Sept 1st through Nov 10th, with time out for meals and bathroom breaks of course. The show is on 98.9 FM or on-line at mms://realaudio.cumberland.edu/CU 

D’OH!-klahoma – The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma Drovers men’s soccer team had a 5-nil lead yesterday on the Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College Saints (Insert your own Free Willy joke here) when the game was called on account of lightning! No rescheduling has been announced yet.

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August 31, 2010 · 12:39 am

TODAY’S COOL-NAMED SPORTS TEAM – ST MARY’S COLLEGE

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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August 30, 2010 · 2:33 pm

QUICK TAKES: ROUNDUP STYLE

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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August 24, 2010 · 11:54 pm

“CAN NOTHING STOP THESE WOMEN?” THE NAIA VOLLEYBALL WORLD WONDERS

gregusova kill

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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August 23, 2010 · 12:18 am

QUICK TAKES FOUR; READERS NOTHING

Danny Glover Had Mel Gibson, Joe Glover Has Clay Ryan  – Joe Glover, Interim Athletic Director for the Indiana University Southeast Grenadiers, has made his first hire, Clay Ryan, who was named Interim Sports Information Specialist. Wouldn’t Clay Ryan, P.I. be a great name for a TV show? Anyway, I had my interim staff assistant Coco contact my interim researcher Theo to see what he could find out about Clay Ryan. Turns out he was part of Grenadier basketball teams that won 3 straight conference titles (2008-2010), made 3 straight trips to the NAIA National Basketball Tournament and made a record-breaking appearance in the NAIA’s Elite Eight before falling to the Bellevue (NE) Bruins. Ryan said he hopes to move on to coaching some day if the whole private eye thing doesn’t work out.

A Honey Of An Award – The Saint Ambrose University Fighting Bees men’s golf team recently earned All-Academic Team Honors from the Golf Coaches Association of America. To make the list a team must have a cumulative team GPA of at least 3.0. There’s no doubt about it; I’ll bet Fighting Bees golfers would be smart enough to know a bunker from a dirt pile, or at least smart enough to read a tournament’s rules sheet.

Volleyball Warriors – The Lewis-Clark State Warriors volleyball team starts the season ranked at number 15 in the Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches Top 25 Poll. “I think it’s a great starting place,” said LCSC head coach Jen Greeny, who is in her 4th season with the team. “Hopefully we can play well during the preseason, show that we’re a tough team, and move from there.” If you were wondering the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds are ranked number one in that poll.

From The Panthers To The Cougars – The Saint Xavier Cougars football coach Mike “You Can’t Spell Feminist Without” Feminis got a huge boost for his defense  recently. Colin Luczynski, a 6-2, 245 pound defensive lineman transferred from the Eastern Illinois Panthers squad to Saint Xavier for his final year of eligibility. Years ago Luczynski played high school football with several SXU Cougars, including quarterback Anthony “Crop-Man Of The Super Six” Kropp. For the senses-shattering origin of Kropp’s superhero persona click here: https://glitternight.com/2010/07/22/saint-xavier-cougars-quarterback-anthony-kropp-joins-new-superhero-team/

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