Kauffman leads Musketeers at A-10 Meet
Tyler Grote Sports Writer
Dani Meiners
Sophomore Tommy “Hollywood” Kauffman set a new school record in the eight kilometer distance with his time of 24:38 at the Atlantic 10 Championship, earning him a spot on the Atlantic 10 All-Conference team.
The weather doesn’t matter; rain or shine, if Xavier’s cross country team is competing, you’re going to see the prescription shades on sophomore runner Tommy “Hollywood” Kauffmann.
Kauffman has been a standout all season for the Xavier Musketeer Cross Country team, winning the Queen City Invitational and the Hawai’i Pacific Invitional.
Kauffman continued his success this past weekend, when Xavier competed in the Atlantic 10 Championships held in Charlotte, North Carolina, setting a new school record when he finished the 8k run in 24:38, placing 14th overall in the event.
This earned Kauffman a spot on the Atlantic 10 Men’s Cross Country All-Conference Team.
Collectively, the men finished eighth overall in the A-10 Championships, concluding their record at 75-24 on the season.
Kauffman was not the only outstanding finisher on the men’s side.
Senior Clinton Womack, finished 24th overall, in a performance that coach Steve Nester called, “his strongest race ever.”
Senior Luke Beuerlein placed 34th, while freshman Keith Albrektson and sophomore Tyler Fry accounted for the final scores for Xavier as they finished 58th and 75th respectively.
The women provided a fourth place finish of their own, earning their second best finish in Atlantic 10 Championship history.
The women were led by senior All-Conference Team member Becky Clark, who finished with a time of 18:17, earning her seventh place.
Becky Clark is no stranger to success, as she has been the first Musketeer to cross the finish line in four of six events this season.
Clark was recently named to the 2007-08 Atlantic 10 Commissioners Honor Roll.
She was followed by sophomore Christina Schneider, who finished 16th overall, with a time of 18:44.
The Cincinnati McAuley High School graduate has finished with four of Xavier’s 10 fastest 5K times.
Coach Steve Nester said that he “was very pleased with how our women competed today.”
“They beat many quality teams who, in some cases, really pounded us earlier in the season. It just goes to show it’s not how fast you run, but when you run fast,” Nester said. “Our women ran their best team race today when it counted despite being seeded seventh.”
The Musketeers are not finished yet. They are currently preparing to compete in the NCAA Regional Championships in West Lafayette, Ind., on the campus of Purdue University.
The race is set to begin at noon on Saturday, Nov. 15.
Volleyball drops three straight in A-10
Scott Mueller
Asst. Sports Editor
After winning their first seven straight Atlantic 10 contests, the Xavier University volleyball team has now dropped three in a row.
It was a rough week for the Musketeers, as they lost in matches to Dayton and Rhode Island.
Last Thursday, Oct. 30, the Musketeers looked to bounce back from their first A-10 loss to Saint Louis with a win over rival Dayton.
However, the Flyers had other plans, and swept the match 3-0.
In the first set, Dayton got off to a quick start, seizing a 12-8 lead before Xavier took advantage of a 9-3 run to take the lead to 17-15.
Dayton would come back and tie the score at 17, before going on to take the first set 25-22.
The second set featured a fast start by Xavier, with a 6-1 run to open. Xavier was unable to close out the set, as Dayton would eventually tie the score at 19.
The Musketeers responded with three straight points to take the lead 22-19, but the Flyers would storm back and win the set, 25-23, taking a dominating 2-0 lead in the match.
With Xavier only down one at 22-21, Dayton followed a timeout with a 3-1 run to end the match 3-0. A bright spot for the Musketeers was junior Kelly Ruth, who once again posted a double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs.
On Saturday, Nov. 1, the Musketeers traveled to Rhode Island to take on the
Rams, whom they had beaten on Oct. 18 3-1 at the Cintas Center.
Unfortunately, this meeting would, not go the Muskies’ way.
The first set was close with 11 ties and seven lead changes. Neither team lead by more than three throughout the set. With Rhode Island holding set point at 24-23, the Rams committed a serving error to ensure the set would go into extra points.
But the set would not go far into extra points, as the Rams would win the next two to take the set, 26-24.
In the second set, Xavier never led, and dropped the second set 25-20. The third set looked like it was going to be competitive with both teams trading points.
However, the Rams were about to go on a huge run. With the score tied at 13, Rhode Island went on a 12-2 run to close out the set, 25-15, and the match, 3-0.
Xavier actually recorded more digs and kills than Rhode Island, 38-31 and 42-37, respectively. Unfortunately, the Rams were able to limit the amount of errors they made and came away with the win.
Junior Hillary Otte lead the Musketeers in kills with 12 and junior Laureen Kaminsky added 10. Ruth came up short of a double-double, recording 9 kills and 8 digs.
This weekend Xavier (14-11, 7-3 A-10) will play three matches, two against A-10 foes they have already lost to. On Friday, Nov. 7 they will play at Dayton, where they will look to avenge their loss.
Xavier will be at home for the next two matches when they take on Duquesne on Saturday, Nov. 8 and No. 21 Saint Louis University on Sunday, Nov. 9.
XU lands power forward for 2010
Doug Tifft
Sports Editor
As the 2008-09 men’s basketball season is set to start, head coach Sean Miller and his Musketeer program received good news on Sunday afternoon with regard to the future of the program.
Jordan Latham, a 6’8” power forward out of Baltimore City College High in Baltimore, Md., verbally committed to attend Xavier during his unofficial visit to campus on Sunday.
The commitment of Latham, a four star recruit who Rivals.com ranks as the 44th best player in the class of 2010, is the first Xavier has received in the 2010 class.
While Latham remains relatively unknown among major recruiting circles due to his youth, he was receiving some attention from Oregon State, Richmond, Texas, Virginia Tech, Penn State and Maryland due to his height, athleticism and scoring ability inside of the paint.
Despite his growing list of suitors, Latham decided to end his recruitment early upon his visit to campus in large part because of the atmosphere and the openings the Musketeers will have in the frontcourt in 2010 after the departures of Derrick Brown and Jason Love.
“With a small-school setting and having the opportunity to come in and play a lot as a freshman, and maybe even start, Xavier was the best fit for me,” Latham said. “I was thinking about waiting until the summer before senior year [to choose a school], but as I looked around, there was no other school I wanted to go to other than Xavier.”
The commitment of Latham is another step forward for Xavier in the national college basketball landscape, displaying the ability to recruit top players effectively outside of their immediate geographic area.
Latham is the second recruit from outside of the Midwest to commit to Xavier in the past month, following 2009 small forward Kevin Parrom, from New York City. Both recruits were brought in with the aid of Xavier Assistant Coach Emmanuel (Book) Richardson, who is in his second year at Xavier.
World Series fails to deliver drama
Scott Mueller
Asst. Sports Editor
When Brad Lidge of the Philadelphia Phillies recorded the last out of game 5 of the 2008 World Series, the Fall Classic came to an unmemorable end for the fifth straight year.
Obviously, if you happen to be from one of the cities that was fortunate enough to win the World Series, you don’t think it was forgettable. So if you’re a Red Sox, White Sox, Cardinals or Phillies fan, go crazy (I am from St. Louis, and the 2006 World Series was incredible).
The World Series is supposed to be the crowning moment of the entire season. This is where the best display of baseball is supposed to take place. However, there is now a new trend in post-season baseball; the best baseball is played in the League Championship Series.
In 2004, who could forget the Red Sox coming back to beat the Yankees? It was the only time in the history of baseball that a team won a series after trailing 3-0. The 2004 ALCS was a great series, the 2004 WS, not so much. The Red Sox swept the Cardinals in four games. There was no drama or even contest. One team just dominated the other.
The 2005 NLCS provided baseball fans with one of the greatest home runs in postseason history when Albert Pujols hit a mammoth shot off of Brad Lidge. Lidge had to go through two painful years of redefining himself to get back to All-Star form. The Astros would end up winning the NLCS, and then get run over by the White Sox in a four game sweep. Again unmemorable.
The Mets-Cardinals 2006 NLCS was absolutely incredible. Any time a series goes to game 7, it’s going to be good, but this one was great. The Cardinals’ Scott Rolen hit what appeared to be a go-ahead home run, but out of nowhere Endy Chavez robbed the homerun in one of the best catches in post-season history. The momentum completely belonged to the Mets. A few innings later Yadier Molina responded with a homerun that capped off a great series of events and an incredible game 7.
What made the series great was the back and forth action; either team could have won. There hasn’t been a feature like that in the World Series for quite a while. The 2006 World Series between the Cardinals and the Tigers, even though it went five games instead of four, was just as one sided as the previous two, and unremarkable.
In the 2007 and 2008 ALCS the Red Sox showed that they will never go down without a fight. In 2007, the Cleveland Indians held a 3-1 lead and were on the verge of advancing, but the Red Sox stormed back to take the series.
In game five of the 2008 ALCS, the Red Sox orchestrated one of the best single game comebacks in postseason history to force a game seven.
However, the drama ended with the ALCS both years, as the Red Sox swept the Rockies in 2007, and the 2008 World Series will be remembered more for the controversial rain delay than any great display of baseball.
Even though the LCS’s have been fantastic of late, the World Series have been bland and forgettable. This year’s World Series set a new record low for TV ratings, breaking the record set just two years earlier.
In some ways it makes sense that the LCSs provide for better baseball. The teams are more familiar with each other. They have played each other at least six times in the regular season, often more with division rivals frequently meeting in the LCS. Furthermore, some teams appear to want to just get to the World Series, and once they do, get burned out and are non-competitive in the series.
Now that baseball fans will have to wait five months for spring training games to start again, and hot-stove talk is the only thing they can cling to, it is not too early to start hoping for a World Series game seven next year.
Soccer drops pair of games
On Friday, Oct. 31 the Musketeers fell 2-1 at the hands of the St. Josephs Hawks in Philadelphia, Pa.
Xavier got a boost from Jeffrey Lyman, who scored early in the match (14:04) off an assist from Jimmy Cummings on a short cross.
The Hawks, however, countered with two second half goals from Colin Baker, the game winner, with only 30 seconds remaining.
On Sunday, the Muskies battled the Temple Owls, who set the tone early with a first minute goal on its way to routing the Musketeers by a 4-1 margin.
Xavier’s lone goal came in the 58th minute when Tommy Clines took a pass from Kennedy Nakwa and put it past Temple goalkeeper Bret Mollon for the score.
The Musketeers will play their last regular season match of the year when they face off at home against conference rival Dayton on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m.
Matthews shines at UK tournament
Senior Doug Matthews was the only Musketeer partcipant in the Charles Fluitt Invitational, hosted by University of Kentucky, which marked the end of the fall season for the Xavier men’s tennis team.
Matthews won his consolation match against Bryan Schwartz of Tennessee in three sets. The third and deciding set Matthews won in convincing fashion, taking the set 6-1.
Xavier will not play again until Jan. 9, when they take on Florida Atlantic, starting the dual meet portion of their season.
Women's soccer wraps up season
The Xavier University women’s soccer team finished their season on Sunday with a loss to Fordam, 3-1. The loss dropped Xavier’s record to 1-16-2, and 0-9-2 in A-10 play.
Xavier’s only goal came from senior Maggie O’Neal, her first of the season, appropriately enough on Senior Day. O’Neal was assisted by fellow senior Sara Doutt.
Xavier honored, thanked and said good bye to six seniors on the last day of the season: Christine Chuck, Sara Doutt, Susan Loeffler, Maggie O’Neal, Sara Schmidt, and Melissa Zimmerman.
The leading goal scorer for the Musketeers this season was freshman Jessica Brooks, so the future looks brighter for the Muskies. Brooks scored almost half of the team’s goals (5 of 11).
Xavier will not partcipate in this year’s A-10 Championship, as only the top six teams compete in the tournament. The field for the tournament consists of Charlotte, Dayton, Fordham, Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure, and Duquense.
