Published since 1915 by the students
of Xavier University
Published since 1915 by the students
of Xavier University
John LaFollette
Sports Editor
The Xavier women’s soccer team won the annual crosstown shootout against the University of Cincinnati Bearcats on Sunday night with an early overtime goal by senior Angie Scarlato. The hard-fought win was the Musketeers’ first of the season, as well as Cincinnati’s first loss.
The game-winner came in the third minute of overtime, after Scarlato was awarded a penalty kick. She nailed it, ending a dramatic and tightly contested match.
“It was extremely emotional because it was against UC,” sophomore forward Sara Doutt said. “Our senior Scarlato stepped up.”
Though the match went into overtime, both teams had plenty of opportunities to win in regulation. The Musketeers finished with 22 shots, including 14 on goal, compared to Cincinnati’s 20 shots, with 11 coming on goal.
This is the second consecutive year that Xavier has won the crosstown shootout, and the second consecutive year it has been decided in overtime. The only other time Xavier won back-to-back matches against the rival Bearcats was in the 1990 and 1991 seasons.
Freshman goalkeeper Kelly Farrell recorded her first career shutout in the match, racking up 11 saves. Cincinnati goalkeeper Andrea Kaminski finished with 13 saves, but missed the shot that counted. The Musketeers improved their record to 1-3-0, while Cincinnati fell to 2-1-1.
The women’s soccer team takes the field next against the Ohio University Bobcats at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Xavier Soccer Complex.
Aaron Armbruster
Contributing Writer
In the finale of the First Annual Marriott Kingsgate Xavier Challenge, the men’s soccer team simply could not find the back of the net.
Xavier suffered its first shutout of the season, falling to the Western Illinois Leathernecks by a score of 2-0. The Musketeers’ record slipped to 1-2-0, while Western Illinois improved to 3-1-0 on the season.
Although Xavier finished with a 17-6 shot advantage for the match, the Leathernecks took advantage of two opportunities, whereas the Musketeers did not.
Senior striker Matt Wieclaw scored the match’s first goal in the 59th minute. Despite playing defensively for the final 20 minutes, freshman Martin Browne scored a goal from a counterattack in the 87th minute.
The Musketeers had plenty of scoring opportunities in the second half, but could not connect. In the 50th minute, senior Joel Gunnarson had a shot from right of goal deflected out. Soon after, junior Jon Enders had a header graze the crossbar and miss.
Sophomore Tommy Clines also had a goal scoring chance in the 74th minute, but his shot was wide right.
The first half was evenly played with solid defensive efforts from both teams. Leatherneck freshman goalkeeper Stephen Paterson, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, had four saves for WIU, and senior goalkeeper Liam Curran had two saves and several sliding stops for the Musketeers.
The men are back in action Friday against the Gonzaga University Bulldogs in the Oregon State Invitational before returning home for a match against Butler University at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at the Xavier Soccer Complex.
John LaFollette
Sports Editor
Due to limited space on this venerated publication’s sports page, this week’s edition of the Spectator must be slightly abbreviated. Although space may be limited, intrepid sports enthusiast, the scope of the Spectator’s insight is not. Let’s get going.
Zinedine Zidane’s unsportsmanlike conduct during this past summer’s World Cup has again reared its ugly, uh, head. On Tuesday, word finally came from Italy’s Marco Materazzi, the recipient of a vicious blow to the chest by Zidane’s shiny skull about the comments that warranted the infamous headbutt. Materazzi said that after he tugged on Zidane’s jersey toward the end of July’s championship match, Zidane told him he could have his shirt after the game. Materazzi in turn replied that he “would prefer [Zidane’s] sister.”
To Materazzi, and to the Spectator, Zidane’s reaction seems a little disproportionate. Like Zidane, the Spectator’s unpaid intern Jason has a sister, and does not react kindly when the Spectator makes reference to her, Materazzi style. But even Jason knows that a headbutt isn’t the right response, especially when the team you captain is tied with Italy in the closing minutes of the World Cup final. Keep it together, man!
Speaking of keeping it together, the Louisville Cardinals will have a tough time keeping together their hopes of a BCS bid this season after losing star running back and former Heisman Trophy candidate Michael Bush to a broken leg. Bush was tackled awkwardly in the Cardinals’ Sunday night win over rival Kentucky, and snapped both his tibia and fibula in an injury that’s as gruesome to watch as they come.
The 6’3”, 250-lb. Bush nobly returned to Louisville for his senior season instead of making the jump to the NFL primarily because he wanted to help his team. Instead, he is recovering after surgery early Monday morning and wondering whether his college football days are over. Bush could still red-shirt this season and return for a fifth year of eligibility next year, but this injury is a major blow to Louisville’s dreams of its first-ever BCS bid.
The coming week features several enticing sporting events for your viewing pleasure, and the Spectator would like to draw your attention to two in particular.
On Saturday night, Ohio State travels to Austin, Texas, for a No.1 vs. No. 2 showdown in a rematch against Texas. Top-ranked Ohio State will have to answer the many questions about its neophyte defense, and will have to do so against one of the country’s top offenses.
Terrell Owens will make his Cowboy debut on Sunday, returning from a series of hamstring injuries that have kept him out of most of the preseason. It’s fitting then, that he’ll be playing on the same field where he made a triumphant return in the Eagles’ 2005 Super Bowl loss, having suffered a broken ankle just seven weeks prior. He caught nine balls for 122 yards in that game, so the Spectator will definitely be tuning in on Sunday.
The Xavier University men’s and women’s cross country teams opened the 2006 season with seventh and third place finishes, respectively, at the Flyer 5K Challenge held at Indian Riffle Park in Kettering, Ohio. Junior Ben Milroy led Xavier’s men’s side turning in an eighth place finish with a time of 15:42. Senior Kelly Sraj’s second place time of 18:39 set the pace for the Xavier women’s squad.
The men’s team, led by Milroy, totaled 146 points. The Musketeers’ No. 2 finisher was junior Luke Beuerlein in a time of 16:00 followed by junior Tony Matheus at 16:35.
The women’s team totaled 54 points as Sraj was joined on the top-10 list by freshman Danielle Meiners who finished in fifth place with a time of 18:48. Junior Amanda Brown, sophomore Becky Clark and freshman Bethany Moore made top-20 finishes.
Xavier will compete next in the Xavier Invitational at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Voice of America Park in West Chester, Ohio.
Volleyball falls to 3-4 overall
On the final day of the Florida International Tournament, Xavier University went 0-2 after playing host FIU and Oral Roberts. XU was beaten in four games by the Golden Panthers and ORU in each match. Xavier now stands at 3-4 overall.
In their first match, Xavier battled with FIU but was unable to come away with the victory. XU dropped the match by scores of 26-30, 31-29, 14-30 and 27-30.
Senior Danielle Skrajewski led the way with her 38th career double-double. Senior Astyn Bjorklund and junior Jill Quayle were the other two players to notch at least 10 kills. Defensively, Xavier was led by freshman Megan Hellman’s 13 digs. Junior Jenni Horvath ended the first match with 53 assists.
In the second match of the afternoon, the Musketeers dueled with Oral Roberts before falling by scores of 27-30, 30-27, 23-30 and 19-30.
Freshman Hillary Otte led the Xavier offensive with 15 kills. Quayle added 13 kills, while freshman Kelly Ruth recorded her first career double-double. Horvath finished with 55 assists.
Next, the Musketeers will travel to Las Vegas to take on Cal, Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and UNLV in a tournament hosted by UNLV.
Correction
The Carolina Panthers did not, in fact, win the 2004 Super Bowl, as was reported in the August 30th edition of The Spectator. The Super Bowl was won by the New England Patriots in that year. The Spectator has sternly disciplined his unpaid intern for supplying him with bad information, but faults only himself for allowing such a blatant oversight to see print.