Points & Prattle (Sept. 17, 2010)

Good morning sportsfans,

Seems like this week just flew by, and I was barely in the office all week, but I’m here now, which means a delicious new serving of Points and Prattle.

Football
I own a shirt from when football was first announced at CSS which reads “Undefeated since 1912.” Of course, we hadn’t played a game yet either, but as of this writing, they need to re-christen those shirts with “Undefeated in 2010.” That 2-0 record looks pretty good, but CSS has a pretty big test ahead of them. The points:

• I said 2-0, but the Saints are actually 3-0 in 2010 including that victory in the Can-Am Bowl against the Canadian All Stars in May.
• Defensive lineman Chas Lemon was named UMAC Player of the Week on Tuesday after a 2.5-sack performance on Saturday with a forced fumble. Congrats Chas!
• CSS had to come from behind to beat Eureka last week, but they did so handily, scoring 28 unanswered points after being down 21-10. Jake Olson led the offense primarily, but Alex Thiry did get the Saints on the board first with a 31-yard-lob to Travis Nehowig.
• The Concordia-Chicago Cougars are led by NAC co-offensive player of the year Mike Marotta, a senior who had 3,000 yards passing and 26 TDs last season. He already has 5 TDs this season.
• Don’t forget that the Saints can be heard on ESPN Radio 560-WEBC with Charlie Johnson on the call.

Men’s Soccer
What to say about the Saints men? They finally broke through and got their goalie a cushioned lead on Tuesday night, but they continued with the nailbiters on the weekend. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts entering tough conference play this weekend. The points:

• Last Saturday, the Saints held on for a road victory over Carleton, 1-0. Rob Johnson had the lone goal. On Tuesday, CSS fell behind early and then exploded for four goals by four different players to down Northland. Cody Sveiven, Greg Doornink, Jermaine Dacres, and Erik Trochimchuk had the honors.
• Goalkeeper Sam Reed finally got a much-deserved break in the waning minutes of that victory over Northland, as freshman Bryan Nyberg saw his first action of the season. He saw no shots on goal in 20 minutes, but his GAA is a pristine 0.00 for his career now.
• Doornink scored his goal on a penalty kick, so CSS is now 1-1 in that category after being simply diseased when it came to free kicks last season.
• The next test for the Saints will be another road trip, taking on Martin Luther and Bethany Lutheran in conference action this week. The Vikings are off to a hot 3-1-0 start while the Knights are at .500 (1-1-0) so far this season.

Volleyball
It’s pretty easy to be a Saints volleyball fan early in this season, as they are off to a 9-2 start with a victory over the then-16th-ranked team in the country (Carleton, last weekend), but have a tough schedule ahead as they are set to face the new 16th-ranked team in St. Olaf tomorrow afternoon. The points:

• With a four-match sweep, the Saints won the Gustavus Classic last week. Paige Hardy and Anna Zyvoloski were each named to the All-Tournament Team, the second time Hardy has earned that honor this season.
• From SID extraordinaire Jesse Robinson, the Saints have not had nine victories in their first 11 games since 1999.
• Along with being named to the all-tournament team, Hardy was named the UMAC Offensive Player of the Week last week. Her setter, Sarah Kurtovich, was also named Setter of the Week. Congrats, ladies!
• Next stop for the Saints: the Holiday Inn-vitational (clever), hosted by St. Benedict. CSS takes on the Blazers, the Wildcats, the Oles, and the Cougars this weekend (that’s host-CSB, St. Catherine, St. Olaf, and Minn.-Morris). CSS is off to the hottest start at 9-2, but the Oles are the only ranked team in the bunch (Hmm…). The Saints will look to continue their hot streak this weekend.

Women’s Soccer
The Saints women finally got off the schneid on Tuesday night, and the offense appears to be rolling on all cylinders as conference play continues this weekend. Congrats to the women on their first victory of the season, and let’s hope there’s more upcoming in the next two days.

• Taylor Cunningham sparked the Saints offense on Tuesday, scoring two goals in the victory to lead the Saints. A pair of Shannons, Carlson and Lee also netted their first collegiate goals in the victory.
• Megan Marolt had her first collegiate goal taken away as it was later ruled an own-goal on Northland, but she’s still got that score in the minds of Saints fans. Hopefully, she can pick up another this weekend.
• Saints goalkeeper Bailey Mahlum again saw her GAA creep lower with the victory, now at 1.50 on the season. If the Saints can keep on the offensive this weekend, perhaps we can see her first shutout of the season and it will take an even bigger drop.
• Like the Saints men, the women’s team will take on Martin Luther and Bethany Lutheran this weekend. Bethany’s women are also off to a hot start at 4-1-0 while the lady Knights have started the season 1-2-0.

Well, that’s all I got for you on this homeless weekend (no home games, get it?). Follow the Saints on the web at csssaints.com tonight and tomorrow, and hopefully, we can have another successful weekend. Thanks for reading.