Sports The Lorian April 16, 2015 6

womens lacrosse

New faces, same goalsLoras (4-9, 1-4 MWLC) drops three straight with three remaining

by Bill Barry | sportswriterThe womens lacrosse team returned to

play this weekend with back-to-back games against Midwest Conference opponents Beloit College and Illinois Tech. On Saturday, the Beloit Bucs defeated the Duhawks after run-ning away from a one-one tie early in the first half. Beloit finished the first half with nine unanswered goals, putting the game nearly out of reach. After the Duhawks struck early in the second half with a goal by Junior Kait-lyn Kutsch, Beloit finished off the victory 13-4.

Kutsch had two goals on the day. Also scor-ing for Loras were sophomore Anna Schwal-be and first-year Haley Sundquist. New faces like Schwalbe and Sundquist have emerged for the Duhawks throughout this season. The emergence of young players has allowed the Duhawks to lead a more balanced attack.

Having new faces on the team has been great for us, said Kutsch. Our roles have changed in a good way. We have some great new talent that allows us to put them in a po-sition to succeed and make a difference on the field. It has also allowed us to spread out our attack and expand our options.

The new contributing members have demonstrated that the future is bright for the fresh program.

Every year teams shift because of a num-ber of circumstances, one of them being new members, said Head Coach Emily Goetz. Our team is no different than any other in terms of this, but at the end of the day, we are Duhawks and we do what is necessary for the team. If that means roles change, then we adjust and become the best we can be in our new role.

The Duhawks followed their performance with a late comeback on Sunday, but came up short in a 9-8 loss to Illinois Tech. Kutsch once again led Loras in scoring, pouring in five goals. First-year goalie Ashley McGee had 11 saves in the loss, posting a .550 save percentage.

In order to finish the season strong, the Du-hawks hope to emphasize a few things to turn these slow starts into victories.

Coach Goetz has worked hard and done a fantastic job to improve our defensive and attacking schemes, and we need to emphasize these schemes, said Kutsch We also need to work to emphasize each others strengths. If we can do this, we hope to pull out a few more wins this season.

The Duhawks are headed into the final stretch of the season with three games re-maining on the schedule. We will be look-ing to emphasize stick skills in these last two weeks including dodging techniques, said Coach Goetz. Along with that, we will be threading a lot of soft skills in practice such as heart, attitude and effort.

Loras will hope to bring these intangibles Sat. April 18 when they face off against Aurora in a conference matchup at 2 p.m. in the Rock Bowl.

Duhawks leading the chase The mens and womens track-and-field teams continue to improve times in March and April

by Matthew Marter | sportswriterLast Saturday, seniors Matthew Kane,

Ryan Sheeran, and Adam Varnas as well as sophomore Ben Hedges participat-ed in a rather unique steeplechase at the UW-Platteville Invite. Sophomore Emily Day competed in this event on the wom-

ens side. Though it usually takes place at the beginning of the meet, at this meet, the 3,000-meter steeplechase went off around sunset. But that didnt stop the Duhawks, as they all improved upon their times from the week before.

Sheeran, who has All-Conference hon-ors from last years outdoor Iowa Confer-ence meet, finished the day with a time of 10:09.06. He, along with Varnas, went two and three in the event this weekend.

I felt awesome during the race, Sheer-an said. Each barrier was going down one at a time, next thing I knew it I was coming up to the last water jump and telling my-self to just sprint.

My goal for the outdoor season is to crack the Loras Top 10 list in the steeple-chase, he added. I hope to be in the top at the [Iowa] Conference meet in May.

In Saturdays race, he pulled ahead of teammate Adam Varnas, but in the mid-dle, he began to fall off.

Varny definitely helped me on the laps that he (set pace), Sheeran said. I watched his jumps over the barriers, and he looked smooth. I kept telling myself to do that., to jump these like Varny.

Varnas, Kane, and Hedges finished with a 10:13.26, 10:27.49, and 10:30.40, respec-tively. In the womens event, Day finished with a time of 12:10.31, earning a top-three finish at the meet.

In the other events, the Duhawks com-peted against some of the toughest compe-tition in the NCAA Division III. The meet this past weekend was hailed as the Meet of the Week due to the top caliber teams that participated there, such as Wiscon-sin-La Crosse, Whitewater, Oshkosh, and Eau Claire. There was some conference competition, with Wartburg competing

there as well. Regardless, some Duhawks soared to top times in their events.

On the mens side, the nationally ranked 4x400-meter relay team took first place running a time of 3:16.87, which is not their fastest time of the season. Soph-omore Brandon Gradoville lead off the re-lay followed by senior Josh Goerdt, junior Stedman Foster, and senior Zac Gassman. They will look to race the 4x400-relay at the Drake Relays in a few weeks.

Goerdt also took second place overall in the 400-meter dash, running a time of 48.88, which ranks him at 20th in Divi-sion III. After taking a year of eligibility off due to injuries, it appears that Goerdt has come back and hit the ground running as the outdoor season approaches its final month.

Frey is continuing to drop times in the 800-meter run. This week, he took sec-ond place in the 800, running a time of 1:52.64. This pushes him into 10th in the division, and it also marks the fastest he has run an 800 since the Outdoors Nation-al meet last year.

The performers of the meet this week are sophomore Nathan Kimbrell, first-year Andy Reed, and first-year Emily Ney. Kim-brell shattered his personal record in the 800 this weekend, running a 1:57.93. Reed set personal records in the javelin throw with a distance of 42.79 meters. Ney ran a 1:01.38 in the 400 meter dash, which is her personal record and the second fastest 400 time currently on the womens team. She also ran on the fifth place 4x400-me-ter relay, which posted a season-best time of 3:59.04.

The Duhawks will compete at the Uni-versity of Dubuque Invite this weekend.

Seniors Ryan Sheeran and

Adam Varnas hit the water

during the 3000-meter

steeplechase at last

weekends UW-Platteville

Invitational. The duo

finished mere seconds apart,

as Sheeran took second and Varnas took third in

the event. photo by

Matthew Marter

Since We Last Spoke ...Knox Open

The mens and womens track & field teams got their spring season underway at the Knox Open. For the women, Senior Emily Sotelo took first in

the 400-meter hurdles and sophomore Amy Gladis took first in the pole vault. First place finishers on the mens side included junior Stedman Foster

in the 400, junior Zach Frey in the 800, Keontae Neely in the triple jump, Nathan Maiers in the ham-mer throw and the 4x400 relay team of sophomore

Brandon Gradoville, seniors Kyle Ward and Zac Gassman, and Foster. Of the 13 teams competing, the men finished first overall while the women took

second.Central Invite

A week later at the Central Invite, the Duhawks continued their success, as the men took first while the women finished third. Winners for the women

were, junior Bri Cook in the 5,000, sophomore Emily Day in the 3,000 steeplechase, and Gladis

once again in the pole vault. Relay winners for the women included the 4x100 team of junior Brittnee Powers, sophomores Alexis Hanson and Elizabeth

Brandenburg, and first-year Alyssa Simon; the 4x400 team consisted of Powers, senior Mercedez Kennedy, first-year Emily Ney and Hanson. Individ-ual winners on the mens side included Frey in the 800 and first-year Mason Tope in the 5,000.Win-ning relays for the men included the 4x100 team

of Ward, Gradoville, Gassman and Foster, and the 4x400 team of Foster, Gassman, Gradoville and

senior Josh Goerdt.

Mens volleyball team establishing identityFamily, hard work at heart of new programs culture

by Drew Brashaw | asst. sports editorHead Coach Jeremy Thornburg charged

his freshly-minted mens volleyball team with a unique task at the outset of its inaugural season: to build the new programs identity.

These guys have had to create a culture, he said. Its not something you create over-night. Thats a challenge that you dont really think about when you begin a new program. I always remind them, What do you want Lor-as College mens volleyball to be about? What do you want people to remember?

When asked to characterize the culture of his program after one season, Thornburg didnt need to think long about his words. Family is definitely the first thing that comes

to mind, Thornburg said. They care about each other and they put each other first, which is awesome. Also, hard work is very im-portant, and I think theyre learning that its not going to come easy, that every day weve got to work hard to get where we want. Those are the two firm basics of our program.

Along with the daunting task of building a new program and a new culture from scratch, youth and inexperience have provided addi-tional challenges for the Duhawks in 2015. Not only was the program in its first year, but an overwhelming majority of its players were, too. Dont expect Thornburg to use his teams youth as an excuse, though.

I firmly believe and Ive told the team this that the game doesnt know your age, Thornburg said. It doesnt matter if youre a freshman or a senior; volleyballs volleyball, and it doesnt change. This year was tough

for us, but it was probably the best learning experience these kids couldve had. Theyve all been through the fire now.

Through the fire, indeed. The Duhawks fin-ished their first season with an overall record of 3-20, including a 2-10 mark in the ultracompet-itive Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League.

We were competitive with all the teams that were in the conference tournament this year, Thornburg said. So weve shown that were able to do it. Now its just a matter of finishing the job every match. The foundation of hard work is there, Thornburg continued, I hope that hard work pays off with what they want. They want results, they want wins, and Im ex-pecting a lot more of those a year from now.

But wins and losses arent the only measure of success in athletics, especially when work-ing to get a brand-new program off the ground. Thornburg points to some off-the-court indi-

cations that his program is off to the right kind of start: People come up to me and say You have a great group of guys. When theyre at a game, theyre noticed. Theyre cheering for their team and supporting one another. Those are things that are super important to me, and theyre things you cant really teach. Thats just them and what they do. Thats the kind of stuff I notice more than anything.

Coach Thornburg isnt the only one whos noticed the strides his young players have made in their first season. First-year Jimmy Combs was named to the MCVLs All-Confer-ence second team on Tuesday. Combs didnt miss a set all year for the Duhawks, tallying 128 kills, 13 solo blocks, and 21 service aces. This is a huge honor for Jimmy and our program, Thornburg said. Im excited for the future for Jimmy and our program, and I am already looking forward to the 2016 MCVL season.

mens volleyball