Sports The Lorian May 7, 2015 15

Drews Views

Passing the torch

Drew Brashawasst. sports editor

If youre a regular reader of this column, you probably know Im a Green Bay Packers fan (You also probably display symptoms of a borderline personality disorder, but thats an issue for another time). Ive rooted for the green and gold my whole life, with almost half of it taking place in what we now

know as the Favre Era. I loved Brett Favre. From the time I was

ten years old until my mid-twenties, Favre was virtually the only constant in my life. No matter what happened in the ever-changing, crazy world in which I was growing, No. 4 was always under center for the Pack. But as the years wore on, as Favres whiskers whitened and his cadence gathered more gravel, I began worrying. Anxiety about life-after-Favre crept into my mind and grew stronger with each passing year. How do you replace a legend?

When the inevitable parting between Favre and the Packers finally came, I was crushed. I was almost certain the franchise was headed into another 30-year slump. But as I, and the rest of the world, soon found out, Aaron Rodgers is pretty good, too. Even though Rodgers seems to be the polar opposite of Favre in every way on, and off the field hes achieved the same level of success and accomplishment as his gun-slinging forbearer, and hes become just as beloved by Packers fans.

As you may know, the issue of The Lorian youre presently reading is our final edition of the academic year. More significantly to this section, its the final edition for senior Ryan Graham as sports editor. If youve at all enjoyed reading The Lorians sports section over the past few years, Ryan is probably the reason why. His back-page editorial is a first-stop for many of our readers, and his layout skills are the reason this section bears such a sleek, professional appearance every week. And if you read his piece on Holly Klein in Mondays Telegraph Herald, you know the kid can tell a story, too.

In just a few short weeks, Ryan will graduate from Loras and hand this sections reins over to me.

Ive learned many things while holding the clipboard for Ryan this year. He introduced the phrase grindy white guy into my sports writing lexicon. He taught me that almost anything in the sporting world can be equated with genocide in the right context. He taught me how to strengthen genocide jokes by repeating them in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Now that Im thinking about it, a great deal of the lessons Ive learned from Ryan revolve around genocide. There was something about a style guide, and he mentioned journalistic principles once, but it was mainly genocide. GENOCIDE!!!

Ill carry these valuable lessons with me as I assume the role of sports editor in the fall.

But just as Aaron Rodgers didnt abuse Vicodin or send below-the-belt selfies to sideline reporters while he was making a name for himself, Ive got to do it my own way.

I want to apologize in advance to any of our readers who might be NBA fans. Youll find nothing on the subject in this section next year. While our outstanding coverage of Duhawk basketball will continue, youll have to log on to CoachsRant.com next season for HOT TAKES on the fractured spine Derrick Rose is sure to suffer during a layup drill in October.

Ill also offer advance apologies to any of you who are fans of any Chicago-based, pro-sports clubs and Im aware that about 98% of you fall under that classification. I just plain dont like your teams, and Im not great at disguising it.

Lets see, who else? Cat people, Ill probably write something offensive about them. And vegans. Single moms, maybe. Well see.

photo courtesy of Jim Naprstek | Duhawks.comThe Duhawks fall short of the post-season after splitting their double-header with Coe last Sunday on Senior Day. Senior pitcher Holly Klein (19) won the final start of her impressive Loras career.

Duhawks downed on Senior DayLoras (19-19, 4-10 IIAC) falls just shy of the postseason

by fraNk ferNaNDez | sportswriterGoing into the final conference series

of the season, the Duhawks needed to win both games of the double-header against Coe College to move on to the Iowa Conference tournament. Unfortu-nately, they split the two games and fin-ished the season on the outside looking in.

In the last start of her career, senior Holly Klein surrendered an early solo home run, but held the Kohawks in check for the rest of the game. The Duhawks responded with three runs in the fourth and held on to win, 3-1.

Game 2 brought Coes ace, Arran Weeces, to the circle. The Duhawks had no answer early on as they fell behind 4-0 through three innings. In the fourth, ju-nior Makaila Haase cut the deficit in half with a two-run blast. The Kohawks added another run and held off a late rally to take the second game, 5-3. With the split, the Duhawks finished the season 19-19 with a conference record of 4-10.

We competed well this season and had an opportunity to win every ball game, said head coach Ashley Winter. We plan to use the experience we gained this season to help us develop an expect to win mentality for next season.

With the season coming to a close, the Duhawks will be losing three talented se-niors. Catcher Nora Zerante was a leader behind the plate and finished with one of the strongest seasons of her career, post-ing highs in walks, RBI, slugging per-centage, on-base percentage, and hits.

Utility player Katie Serpico, best known for her bat, finished with 13 career home runs and 105 RBI.

Holly Klein, the ace of the pitching staff, finishes her career with a high of 80 strikeouts, the most for a Duhawk pitch-er since 2010. A significant contributor since her freshman year, Klein finishes her career as a Duhawk with an overall era of 3.84. She pitched 337.3 innings in 90 appearances and finished with a 21-33 record. She yielded 133 walks and struck out 207 batters.

We are losing three very dynamic se-niors in Katie Serpico, Holly Klein and Nora Zerante, Winter said. Since their freshman season, they have made significant contributions on and off the field. Theyre great leaders and teammates that are going to be missed next year.

Despite the loss of the seniors, the Duhawks have a good foun-dation for the future. Sophomore Dani Stromert had her streak of reaching base safely in every game snapped in Game 2 against Coe. She finished this season with a .347 batting average and 44 walks, good for 4th in the nation. Makaila Haase, a junior, led the team with seven home runs and will be looked to as a leader for the pitching staff next season.

A number of first-years also made immediate impacts for the Duhawks. Regan Wolverton was a great table setter, finishing sec-ond on the team in hits (37) and led in stolen bases (12 on 14 at-tempts). Miranda Chapman had a .322 average and tied with Bria

Lenten for most home runs by a first-year with four.

The young Duhawk squad showed a lot of promise this season and will look to build off of this success heading into their 2016 campaign.

Our program will be looking to our upperclassmen to raise the bar, Winter said. (We want) to set expectations ear-ly this summer with off-season workouts and understanding that next season is already underway. Our recruiting class for 2016 is going to add additional ver-satility, speed and depth. We are excited to blend our new recruiting class with our returners.

season statistics

(Final season statistics)

BattingPlayer ............... G h rbi hr slg% ob% avgDanielle Stromert . 38 34 23 4 .602 .575 .347Katie Serpico .........38 38 31 5 .527 .453 .339Miranda Chapman 29 28 19 4 .517 .378 .322Julie Kistner ...........31 31 17 0 .378 .378 .316Regan Wolverton .. 38 37 20 1 .362 .357 .291Savannah Fowler .. 37 26 6 0 .289 .312 .289Nora Zerante .........38 21 11 0 .313 .470 .253Makaila Haase ......38 29 27 7 .471 .321 .244Bria Lenten ...........38 27 32 4 .384 .374 .241Kat Angelini .......... 27 6 7 0 .222 .300 .222Cate Paulsen ..........13 4 3 0 .286 .200 .143Totals ................... 38 287 198 25 .410 .395 .282Opponents ........... 38 306 158 16 .415 .373 .298

PitchingPlayer .......... app-gs ip w-l bb so avg eraHolly Klein .......... 30-19 121.2 10-10 44 57 .286 3.28Makaila Haase .... 20-17 78.2 7-6 36 41 .303 4.09Erin Hosch .............13-1 29.0 2-2 13 16 .269 4.10Emma Corkill ..........7-0 9.1 0-1 6 7 .413 4.50Totals .................. 38 245.2 19-19 102 146 .298 3.82Opponents .......... 38 251.1 19-19 182 168 .282 4.71(From statistics available on Duhawks.com)

womens lacrosse

We over me in year number 3Kutsch, Nelson named All-Conference selections

by Bill Barry | sportswriterThe Duhawks wrapped up their sea-

son last weekend with a loss to Rockhurst College to finish 4-12 overall, and 1-6 in conference play. The young program was well represented in conference rec-ognition, as junior Kaitlyn Kutsch and sophomore Hannah Nelson were named Midwest Womens Lacrosse All-Confer-ence selections.

Kutsch led the Duhawks with 42 goals and seven assists. Kutsch was also among the conference leaders in goals (4th) and draw controls (3rd). Nelsons impressive and balanced two-way attack was worthy enough to be recognized as second team all-conference. Duhawk senior Gina Dacy was also recognized by the conference, be-ing named to the All-Sportsmanship team.

The womens lacrosse team showed overall team improvement and hopes to build on the momentum that they accu-

mulated this season. This year has been our best year yet,

said head coach Emily Goetz. Our focus was developing a more balanced attack and we have been very successful with that.We doubled our number of assists from last year to this year, improved our goals per games, shots per game, overall ground balls, draw controls and wins. Im very proud of the girls this season and look forward to building off of this next year.

The teams captain and All-Conference selection Kutsch also felt the improve-ment within the team.

Some of the highlights of the season were watching everyones success and seeing the team play together the last half of the season, said Kutsch. We also had some really exciting assists which was awesome.

Both coach and captain acknowledged the teams overall improvement\.

The girls are doing a great job of see-ing the game, Goetz said. Theyre able to recognize the development of a play

and know where they need to be to shut down a defender or support a ball carrier. Its exciting to see their game knowledge grow.

Kutsch recognized Coach Goetz as a significant factor of the teams improve-ment.

One factor was the hard work Coach Goetz has put into some new plays and attacking schemes, as well as the work that each of the players has put in to the season, said Kutsch.

The Duhawks hope to carry over the improvement.

Were going to keep working on the as-sist part of our game. It takes a great deal of skill and a good understanding of the game to be able to create an opportuni-ty for an assist and then execute it, said Goetz. It shows they can work as a team and improve each others play which is what we need. Every opportunity we have to make our teammates better and grow our game, is what we need to focus on. Its the we over me.