Points & Prattle (Oct. 15, 2010)

Good morning sportsfans,

After a short hiatus for the sake of… being way too busy, Points & Prattle returns to the Voice of the Saints blog! My apologies to anyone who was looking forward to it (Mom?), and I’ll do my best to be more diligent about getting these blogs to you weekly. So, without further ado…

Cross Country
The Saints men and women both ran well in Iowa last week at the Wartburg Invite. This week, they’ll be competing at two meets – half of the team at the Brooks Invitational hosted by the University of Wis.-Oshkosh while the other goes to St. Bonifacius for the Crown Invitational. Now, the points:

• While we were out, Jessie Lovering won the Northland Invite. We never got a chance to properly congratulate here, so congrats, Jessie! She also paced the Saints with a top-10 finish at last week’s Wartburg Invite.
• On the men’s side, Nick Mangan has paced the men for two straight weeks, finishing third at Northland and 12th at Wartburg.
• This week will be the first time that the Saints will score as a team at the Brooks Invitational. Last season, they had six runners run four personal bests and two season-bests at the race. All in a days work…

Football
Saints football stumbled at home for the first time this season last week, but they were tripped up by a powerful Greenville squad, who remain undefeated in the UMAC with the victory. This week, the Saints are on a bye, so there’s not much to say, but let’s do a little house-cleaning from the past two weeks:

• Defensive end Chas Lemon was named to the D3Football.com Team of the Week for Week 5, making five tackles including one TFL and a batted pass. He also made an athletic tip-ball interception which he returned for a program-record 55 yards.
• Alex Thiry and Justin Trautmiller were named UMAC Players of the Week last week. Thiry was 20-26 for 265 yards while throwing four TDs while Trautmiller collected a program-record three interceptions against Crown.
• Next week, the Saints return to action against Minn.-Morris in Cougar country. The Cougars stumbled against Martin Luther last week, but will get a chance to rebound before they face the Saints, taking on Northwestern this week.

Men’s Soccer
It was a roller coaster of emotions for the Saints’ men last weekend, beginning Friday with breaking six offensive program records and ending Sunday with a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to the nationally-ranked University of Wis.-Oshkosh. Here’s the points:

• Cody Sveiven was named UMAC Player of the Week, and rightfully so. He scored 10 points last Friday against Northland, including four assists. Both are program records.
• His accomplishments somehow overshadowed Jermaine Dacres’ five-minute, 57-second natural hat trick, the seventh-fastest in NCAA history, and (obviously) the fastest in program history.
• Altogether, the Saints scored 13 goals in the win, as well as 20 assists, for 46 points. All of those statistics are also program records.
• Sunday, the Saints were forced to play a man-down for 30 minutes after a pair of yellow cards sent a player to the showers early, but played outstanding against a nationally-ranked Wis.-Oshkosh team. I’d argue that the Saints are beyond moral victories at this point, but at the very least, they definitely gained the Titans’ respect in that game.

Volleyball
I had the opportunity to watch last Friday’s volleyball match with Northwestern as a fan, and I must say, the Burns Wellness Commons was pumped up to see the Saints down the dreaded Eagles, and in three sets! The Saints are still at home this weekend, so be sure to head out to the BWC for more action tonight and tomorrow.

• After sweeping the UMAC awards for several straight weeks, the Saints volleyball team has gone a couple weeks without an honor from the conference, and I say: what gives? They just earned two sweeps last weekend, and they’re undefeated in the UMAC… But I’m just saying.
• CSS has not been undefeated through seven conference games since the 1999 season, when they were 8-0. They will look to match that tonight and extend it on Saturday.
• CSS will play Minn.-Morris this evening, and take on Presentation and Wis.-Oshkosh tomorrow afternoon. The CSS Saints are a combined 34-2 all-time against their conference opponents this weekend, including a perfect 19-0 against Presentation. It will be no cake walk, but the Saints definitely have a couple of victories within their grasp.

Women’s Hockey
We’re just 21 days from the start of the CSS women’s hockey season, and the Saints held their first tryout/practice this morning. You can see a photo gallery here.

Women’s Soccer
Since I didn’t link to it in the men’s section, the Saints men and women will both be on the road this weekend against Morris and Presentation (I’m noticing a theme here…), and may lock themselves into a high seed in the UMAC tournament with a pair of victories this weekend. It won’t be easy, but there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic.

• The Saints goalkeepers Bailey Mahlum (four) and Molly Bergmann (two) have shutout opponents for six straight contests, including last week’s 3-0 defeat of Northland College.
• The youth movement continues a-rolling as the Saints have eight first- or second-year players leading the team in scoring this season, none moreso than Shannon Carlson, who leads the team with 15 points via six goals and three assists. Right behind her are Rainee Eby (5 G, 3 A, 13 pts), and Taylor Cunningham (5 G, 1 A, 11 pts).
• The Saints will return home on Tuesday for a game against Augsburg.

Well, that’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.