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j^overnber 18,2004
The Blue Banner
Pages
Sports
hlleyball team finishes regular season fourth in BSC
by Michael Davis
Staff Reporter
The UNCA women’s volleyball team lost to
Ujjthrop Nov. 5. The Bulldogs also played High
Joint and Radford University at the Justice Center
Ijov 9 and 11 and won both matches on the home
curt.
IIU L.
Senior Rory Kelly finished her last regular season
lome game with (the Radford) match, and her team-
lates voted her Most Improved Player in the spring,
cording to head coach Julie Torbett.
“I am really excited they won because that guaran-
ks that we host the first round of the tournament
ere,” said UNCA Athletic Director Janet Cone.
B Vfhat a great way for Rory to go out, the crowd was
3 behind her. She played a great match, and of course
lose (Butler) got her 1,000th dig, and that was pretty
resome too. We’re hosting the Big South, and we’re
lad we’re in it.
“The friendships are definitely the best thing. I have
jme along way in my volleyball career and as a per-
>n, and it has really challenged me,” said Kelly. “I
ppreciate the coaches and the time they spent with
le. It is amazing to play in Division I. There are some
Lbulous fans.”
Buder, an outside hitter on the team, tore her ACL
fin the last game of her freshman year, and spent her
jphomore year working her way back.
“I busted my butt to get back in time for the sea-
on. I got back in three months when it usually takes
jeople six to eight months,” said Butler. “I really
ranted to play, and I am proud that I am out here
laying.”
The team presented Butler with a Golden Shovel
her the match for reaching her 1,000th dig.
“I actually did not know it was going to happen,”
aid Butler. “Coach came up to me and said, ‘Rose, I
leed you to get one more dig.’ I said okay, I will. I
lid not know what was going on. I had no idea. When
hey announced it I was really surprised. It’s awesome
lecause defense is the heart of the game, and I am
eally proud of that.”
Winthrop moved closer to achieving an unblem-
shed regular season in the BSC with a 3-0 victory
[ver UNCA. Jayna Baker led the Eagles with her best
^rformance of the season.
After a 3-2 win in their earlier meeting at UNCA,
■:u
■ y.
ANGIE FESPERMAN/staff photographer
Junior Kristi Havens and freshman Ashley Wrightenberry block the ball.
the Eagles jumped on the Bulldogs from the outset
and took an early 11-1 lead in game one and never
looked back en route to a 30-18 win. Winthrop fol
lowed that with a 30-16 win in the second game be
fore closing out UNCA 30-25 in game three.
Talia Ogle led the Bulldogs with 10 kills, while But
ler recorded the team’s best attack percentage at .217
with seven kills and two errors in 23 swings.
After dropping the opening game, UNCA rallied
back to take the next three games all by two points to
defeat High Point, 3-1.
High Point used a pair of hig runs to take the open
ing game 30-21. The Bulldogs led the second game
12-5 and 24-16 before the Panthers went on an 11-0
run behind the serving of Lindsey Pickens, who had
19 kills and 12 digs in the match.
High Point led 27-24, but UNCA answered the
run with five-straight points off Elif Unlu’s serve giv
ing the Bulldogs back the lead at 28-27. A kill by
Allison Lambert gave UNCA game point, and a High
Point return error evened the match at a game apiece.
High Point jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the fourth
game as Jamie Kaufman ran off nine-straight points
from the service line. UNCA battled back to tie the
game at 16. A kill by Ogle gave the Bulldogs match
point at 30-29, and on the ensuing rally, Amanda
Wiles found open court to end the match and give
UNCA the 3-1 victory.
Unlu led the Bulldogs with 15 kills and 20 digs,
while Ogle recorded 12 kills and 19 digs. Lambert
added 13 kills, while Butler and Megan Murphy
added 18 and 16 digs, respectively.
The 30-18, 30-21, 30-16 victory over Radford as-
sures the Bulldogs (8-5 BSC, 19-15 overall) no worse
than a fourth seed in the Big South tournament.
Unlu paced UNCA with a match-high 10 kills.
Wiles and Ogle each had eight, and Kelly contrib
uted seven kills on Senior Night. Butler became the
12th player in Bulldog’s history to record 1,000 ca
reer digs, picking up number 1,000 in game three.
She had a match-high 15 digs giving her 1,003 for
her career. Wiles and Ogle had 13 and 12 digs re
spectively for the Bulldogs.
UNCA hit over .300 in games one and three, fin
ishing with a .254 team attack percentage while
Radford hit .067 on the night. The Bulldogs had 11
service aces, four coming from Krysti Havens.
“Our number one goal was to be in the top four
for the tournament, and we did that tonight, said
Torbett. “By winning the match on Saturday night
we could get second. We are in a three-way tie for
second right now. Anything can happen in the tour
nament. We feel confident that, if we have to play
Winthrop, we are going to give them a good match.
We have worked really hard and I think they are prob
ably 12 of the classiest college women that you could
have the opportunity to work with.”
The crowd gave the Bulldogs a standing ovation
after their win against Radford and honored Kelly
and Butler with applause.
“I think having a crowd like this, having home-
court advantage is definitely key, said assistant coach
Frederico Sanos. “The crowd has been very support
ive tonight. I think if we start publicizing that we will
be playing at home on Tuesday night, we will get even
more support. That is what these girls need. Hope
fully we can come through on Tuesday as well.”
BSC
Overall
School
WL
W L
Winthrop
14 0
29 2
Coastal
9 5
20 9
BSC
9 5
16 11
UNCA
8 6
19 17
Liberty
7 7
12 18
Hi^ Point
5 9
17 18
CSU
4 10
11 16
Radford
0 14
3 25
Men s and women’s basketball down Mars Hill
m
by Sarah Ingle
Staff Reporter
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Both the men’s and women’s bas-
retball teams took victories in the
Nov. 6 exhibition games against
lars Hill.
The men’s team defeated Mars
ill 77-69 in overtime.
“We played together, and we
ilayed hard,” said head coach Eddie
liedenbach. “We did have an OK
hot selection. In fact it was pretty
;ood, but not what it needs to be
rom a standpoint of letting players
;et better shots.”
Oliver Holmes scored 15 points,
Iteven Rush scored 17 and Bryan
IcCullough added 16 points in the
jame.
“It was a great win for us against
lars Hill,” said forward Chad
ohn, junior economics major.
They are a very good Division II
team and we were playing without
irne key players. The fan support
las great, and I really think they
helped us put them away in over-
ime.”
The team is facing one of the same
'toblems it did in last year’s season,
iccording to Biedenbach.
“A thing that was a major prob-
em last year, and has been this year,
>as been injuries,” said Biedenbach.
1 expected to have all of those in
jured guys back but we had those
‘juries occur again. I am very hope-
'1 that this season will come to-
jether and we will have those guys
'lay at a high level again.
‘The five guys that I am count
's on that are healthy are Mohn,
dimes, McCullough, C.J. Walker
'd Omar Collington.”
Mars Hill had nine of their shots
blocked by sophomore center
^^alker.
“Tlje highlight of the game had
[0 be all of the blocked shots made
'y Walker,” said Mohn. “He put on
1 show, and the crowd loved it.”
MAGGIE WEST/staff photographer
Senior guard/forward Andrea Clapp tries to get open for a pass in
the womens basketball team exhibition game against Mars Hill.
Biedenbach talked about what the
team has been working on in prac
tice.
“We work on team organization
and plays,” said Biedenbach. “We are
trying to get the team together and
we continue to work on our skills
but it has been difficult because we
have not had 10 healthy guys to prac
tice against each other.
“We are behind, not only in con
dition, but in execution workability,
so it is not where we need to be. We
will get better all year long.
Mohn talked about what the team
needs to work on so they can do even
better than last year’s season.
“I would say that the team needs
to work primarily on rebounding
and defensive pressure,” said Mohn.
“We also need to get all of our in
jured players healthy again.”
Their next game will be against
Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas Nov.
19
The women’s team defeated Mars
Hill, 68-59.
“I liked our full court pressure de
fense and our ability to get out and
get some easy transition baskets,”
said head coach Betsy Blose.
Kristal Hood scored 15 points.
“I think that we did well in this
game,” said Hood, junior manage
ment major. “We still have a lot to
improve on but it will come.
Andrea Clapp and Amanda Elder
each scored 10 points, while Velinda
Vuncannon added 13 points.
“I thought that we had good in
dividual play from Vuncannon and
Hood,” said Blose. “They set our
tone defensively and were able to get
out and score in transition, and I
thought that Clapp played well.
“Elder responded well for her first
game in a new role. I thought that
Lindsey Roche came off the bench
and gave us a spark. We need for
players to come off the bench and
help us.”
Hood talked about what the team
worked on in practice.
“All we focus, stress and do in
practice is defense and rebounding,”
said Hood.
Blose compared this basketball
season to last years season.
“We are in a whole new role this
year,” said Blose. “Last year we were
the underdog and we were able to
sneak up on people. Now we are in
more of a hunted role, and it will be
interesting and challenging to see
how we will respond to our new
role.”
This year’s team is “already bet
ter” than last years team, according
to Hood.
“All we need to do is get a better
feeling for each other and people’s
strengths,” said Hood.
Blose thinks that the team will be
very competitive this season.
“We have a lot to learn, and we
have a lot of returning players and
we are counting on our guard play
more than ever,” said Blose. Our
experience is at that position and we
have good depth there. We have
some returning players who are be
ing asked to step up and play more
of a role this year.”
Opinion
continuedfrom puge 4
Chris Bosh (second year in the league)
are averaging 14.3 points per game.
Second in scoring is a strange place
for a guy that has led his team in scor
ing since he was a rookie on Toronto’s
1998-99 squad.
That is six consecutive Raptor’s
scoring titles, and at the age of 27,
no one would have predicted that
Carter would be slowing down so
soon. After all, wasn’t Carter supposed
to be the next Air Jordan? Michael
certainly wasn’t slowing down at the
age of 27, and averaged 30 points per
game when he was 33 years old.
Vince used his NBA off-season to
voice his desire to play for a competi
tive team and attempted to get traded.
So, with Carter’s production at an all-
time low, why is he still in a purple
and red uniform?
He does not want to be in Canada
anymore, and the team is 4-3 with
limited effort and output from Carter.
Isn’t it time for the Raptors to get
what they can for his waning talent?
He is fourth on their team in min
utes and is shooting a career-low, 38.1
percent. The Raptors need to cut their
losses and begin to develop or recruit
a new “franchise player” to take them
to the next level and compete for post
season hardware.
Playing with all the talent in the
world, but with no heart or effort;
Vince Carter is more of a liability for
Ibronto than they seem to realize.
I’m shocked that the Raptors’
rookie coach, Sam Mitchell allowed
Carter to participate in team warm
ups with head phones in his ears.
He only isolates himself further
from the rest of his teammates by
zoning his team out as they run
simple drills and shoot baskets dur
ing the warm-up before the opening
tip.
Carter looks more like a 40 year-
old has-been with an attitude rather
than a four-time NBA all-star.
Mitchell cannot continue to tol
erate the lack of effort and the indif
ferent attitude that will certainly
make for a divided team and a ten
sion-filled locker room.
If he is willing to do whatever it
takes then he will certainly be keep
ing his eyes and ears open for pos
sible trade arrangements to send
Carter south.
Soccer
continuedfrom page 4
UNCA defeated Coastal earl ier
in the season, but the “sleeping gi
ants” were ahle to come back it
and take the win in the end, ac
cording to Cornish. Despite this,
the Bulldogs are confident that
they played well.
“They’re a nationally ranked
powerhouse, and we were able to
almost pull it off,” said Pereira.
Coastal went on to defeat top-
seeded Birmingham-Southern
University 4-0, winning the Big
South Conference Tournament
for the second time in the past two
years. Next, they will take on
Duke University in the NCAA
Men’s Soccer Tournament.
UNCA didn’t quite go home
empty-handed, though. Yelverton
made First-Team All-Conference,
while John Chapuis earned a spot
on the Big South Academic All-'
Conference Team. Pereira and Joe
Srebalus made the All-Tournament
Team, and Pereira also made the
Freshman All-Conference Team
with teammate Daniel Bandoly.
“It was very nice to get that
award,” said Pereira. “I was a little
surprised, but I appreciate that the
other coaches saw that I’ve been
playing well all year.”
The Bulldogs finished their sea
son 3-4-0 in confernce and 6-9-2
overall. Pereira, Barrett Locke and
Jordan Holthouser all won Big
South Conference Choice Hotels
Player of the Week awards this fall.
il':.