Weekend athletics wrap-up

October 21, 2009
By Michael Omenazu
Staff Reporter

Women’s Volleyball

In their first year of competition in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and within a week of their first win, the UIS Women’s Volleyball team participated in a tournament that had GLVC teams play against the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The GLIAC is an upper Midwest Division II conference with teams from Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The 2009 Asics Volleyball Crossover tournament is the largest NCAA volleyball tournament in the country.

This year was the second ever that the two Midwest conferences faced each other. Last time, the GLIAC won 27-12. In a closer contest this season, they successfully defended their title edging out the GLVC 24-21. 

UIS, a new member to the GLVC, split their matches as they were swept by  Ashland (25-13, 25-16, 25-21) and beat Tiffin in four games (25-17, 17-25, 28-26, 25-19).

The Lady Prariestars were led by outside hitter Courtnee Brown and outside hitter/right side hitter Kelly Wajda with strong play from sophomores Carrie Gerberding and Cayla Baggerly.

Brown followed her 13-kill performance against Ashland with 17 more and 10 digs against Tiffin. Wajda had 10 digs in the first match and added 11 kills and 18 more digs to the stat sheet in the second. Gerberding totaled 69 assists and Baggerly finished the contest against Tiffin with 10 kills and 17 digs.

UIS returns home to face Illinois College at TRAC on October 21 at 7 p.m. before heading out for a key four match road trip against conference opponents.

Soccer

Both Men’s and Women’s soccer team struggles continue as both fell to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 3-0.

Men’s

The Men’s squad extended its winless streak to thirteen after their match against UW-Parkside, which the Rangers scored twice in the first half and once again in the second.
The NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Committee recently released its regional rankings. Then at 6-3-2, UW-Parkside came in as fifth best along with four other GLVC teams making the list. 
The Rangers demonstrated the reasoning behind their ranking. Johnson Thao pushed an unassisted goal past the UIS defense at the 16:48 mark. Minutes later, Kinkade Lo tallied his first goal of the day (23:20). He added another, the final of the game, at the 61:53 mark.
UIS countered with contributions from multiple players, including two shots from senior midfielders Doellman and J.T. Nankervis with Michael Waldo, Ryne Torricelli, Juan Perez matching their offensive output.

Women’s

UW-Parkside scored early into the game as Crystal Chalery finished Cassie Glodowski’s assist for a goal (5:36). UIS finished the half by holding their opponent scoreless for the remainder of the period.

Pete Kowall, UIS Head Coach said, “We got off to a slow start.”

In the second half, UW-Parkside remained aggressive, adding 10 shots to the eight in the first and totaling eight corner kicks while UIS failed to register one.

The Rangers also reopened the scoring on multiple team efforts. Meredith Novak and Caitlin Moon worked together to assist Kristen Benson on a goal at the 58:28 mark. They finished by adding another goal from Becky Zirlin, assisted by Meredith Novak and Shannon Becker.

The team’s consistent play from Goalkeeper Kelli Kubal and MF Casey Thorpe continued.  Thorpe had two shots and Kubal had nine saves, compared to UW-Parkside’s two. 

Kowall added, “We did a better job of defending as the match went on and did a nice job of creating some restarts but we have to finish those.”