RGV Capsules: UTB-TSC plays host to RRAC volleyball tournament for first time
The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College begins its traditional run for postseason success at 7 p.m. Friday when the Scorpions begin play in the Red River Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament at Manuel Garza B. Gymnasium.
The Scorpions are the tournament's No. 1 seed and will play in a semifinal against the winner of the 1 p.m. first-round game between Texas Wesleyan University and Southwestern Assemblies of God University.
The other semifinal will pit the tournament's No. 2 seed Wiley College against the winner of the 11 a.m. first-round game between Our Lady of the Lake University and University of St. Thomas.
Friday's semifinal winners will meet at 2 p.m. Saturday for the tournament championship.
UTB-TSC (24-2) for the year, is ranked No. 2 in the final NAIA coaches top 25 poll of the regular season. The final poll of the year will be released Sunday.
The tournament champion will advance to the NAIA women's volleyball national championship tournament. The top 12 ranked teams will receive a bye from the opening round matches Nov. 19 and advance directly to the site of the nationals Nov. 29-Dec. 3 in Sioux City, Iowa.
UTB-TSC is the two-time defending conference champion. The Scorpions reached the national tournament quarterfinals in 2009 and the semifinals in 2010.
The Scorpions have ridden an outstanding season from All-America candidate Ana Guerra, who ranks in the third nationally in attack percentage and blocks. Setter Amber Brooks is No. 1 nationally in service aces per game with a 0.7 average.
Scorpions take majority of volleyball all-conference awards
University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College middle blocker Ana Guerra was named Red River Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Year at the banquet preceding the RRAC volleyball tournament Thursday at UTB-TSC.
Guerra, a 6-1 sophomore from Sao Paolo, Brazil, is ranked third nationally in attack percentage and blocks per set. She was named player of the year and front row player of the year in balloting by conference coaches.
UTB-TSC also took four other special awards. Amber Brooks was named setter of the year, Paula Barros was named defensive specialist of the year, Vanja Joksic was named freshman of the year and Todd Lowery was named coach of the year.
UTB-TSC went 24-2 during the regular season and is ranked No. 2 in the last NAIA coaches top 25 poll of the regular season. The Scorpions went 9-0 in the RRAC regular season and are seeded first in the RRAC Tournament.
The only special award the Scorpions did not win was the newcomer of the year award, won by Magda Santos of Wiley College, the No. 2 seed in the tournament.
UTB-TSC also placed six players on the RRAC all-conference first team.
Barros, Brooks, Guerra, Joksic, Danica Markovic and Katharina Nobel were all named to the first team. Guerra and Markovic were repeat first-team selections after earning the honors as freshmen in 2010.
No Scorpions were named to the second team. Yenifer Calcano and Michelle Marques were on the honorable mention list.
Each conference team had two recipients of the champions of character award. Markovic and Lauren Berletch earned it for the Scorpions.
-- UTB-TSC Services
Men's Soccer
Scorpions know they will be challenged for fifth straight title
Winning two straight championships is not easy. Three is tougher. Four is even harder. Five would be the toughest thing to do.
The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, which has won the Red River Athletic Conference championship every year in which it has competed, begins play in the RRAC men's soccer tournament at 3 p.m. Friday in Cedar Hill against University of St. Thomas.
And Dan Balaguero knows that the Scorpions, who will have big targets on their backs, will have to work extra hard to try to obtain a fifth straight crown. The Scorpions did not win the RRAC regular season crown for the first time, despite a solid season with a 12-4-2 record.
"I was not so much satisfied with the results but happy with the way we have responded after a tough start," Balaguero said. "We have played and trained very well over the last month so hopefully we are peaking at the right moment."
UTB-TSC comes into the tournament as the No. 2 seed, and UST is the No. 3 seed. In the other tournament semifinal, top-seeded Huston-Tillotson University meets fourth-seeded Our Lady of the Lake University at 1 p.m.
Huston-Tillotson handed UTB-TSC its first conference loss in the five years the Scorpions have been playing soccer. The Rams knocked off the Scorpions 3-1 in Austin Oct. 13. The Scorpions also tied Texas Wesleyan University during conference play.
Balaguero knows a fifth title would be the hardest.
"We have to focus and give our best effort, and if we do those two things we will be fine," Balaguero said. "It will be a very difficult tournament to win, any of the four teams can win. All the games between the four teams have been very close. We have a lot of respect for St. Thomas and know they will be a very tough team to beat."
The Scorpions played St. Thomas twice during the regular season and won both. They edged UST 2-1 Sept. 16 in Houston and shut them out 2-0 on Sept. 22 in Brownsville.
The winner of Friday's semifinals play at 1 p.m. Saturday for the conference championship.
The tournament champion advances to the opening round of the NAIA men's soccer national championships Nov. 19. UTB-TSC has reached the opening round three straight years, but that very distant on Balaguero's mind now.
"For now our only focus is on St. Thomas," Balaguero said. "If we are able to get by them, we will be in for another big challenge on Saturday."
-- UTB-TSC Services
Scorpions play in RRAC women's soccer semifinals Friday
The best season in the history of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College women's soccer will not be termed a success without a certain plaque.
The Scorpions, who have won 13 straight games and posted a 15-2-1 record during the regular season, open play in the Red River Athletic Conference women's soccer tournament semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Bacone College (Okla.).
UTB-TSC won the RRAC regular season title with a 9-0 record and is the top-seeded team in the tournament. The Scorpions shut out seven of the nine conference opponents, and registered 11 shutouts during the regular season.
Offensively, the Scorpions broke a school record with 72 goals, an average of 4.0 goals per game that is fourth best in the NAIA. The 11 shutouts is eighth best nationally. But despite all the gaudy numbers, a more important goal remains - an RRAC conference championship.
UTB-TSC needs to get by Bacone on Friday to play in the championship game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against the winner of the 5 p.m. semifinal between Our Lady of the Lake University and Northwood University.
The conference tournament champion gets an automatic berth in the NAIA national women's soccer championship tournament. The winner will play in an opening round game Nov. 19 at a location yet to be determined.
The first step for the Scorpions is to get by Bacone, the tournament's sixth seed. Bacone played a defensive-minded game against third-seeded Texas Wesleyan University in a first-round game last week in Fort Worth, and finished 110 minutes of regulation play with TWU in a 1-1 tie. Because a winner had to advance to the next round, the game went into penalty kicks. Bacone outlasted TWU 4-2, pulling off a major upset.
Bacone was 6-8-2 in the regular season and checks into Saturday's game with a 7-8-2 mark.
The two teams met Oct. 8 in Brownsville in RRAC play and the Scorpions cruised to an 11-0 victory, their largest scoring output of the season.
Laura Luis led the Scorpions in scoring with 12 goals in only eight games. Samantha Garcia scored 11 goals, Isadora Freitas 10, Verena Wonsikowski eight, and Linette Cuvillier and Helen Wagstaff seven each. Leah Russell led the team with 10 assists.
Goalkeeper Jessica Hamer, who has shared playing time with Maider Espana and Amanda Fulton, is ranked seventh nationally in goals allowed per game with a 0.47 average.
-- UTB-TSC Services
Hockey
Marshall thriving despite “roller coaster”
HIDALGO — For a guy who’s spent an equal amount of time with two teams, Killer Bees captain David Marshall isn’t off to a bad start this season.
Marshall has already been called up and sent down twice by San Antonio. He’s played four games for the Rampage and scored once. With the 3-4-0 Bees, who host Arizona tonight and Saturday, he’s played in four games and has two goals and two assists.
In his first game back from his second San Antonio stint, a 3-1 loss to Allen on Wednesday, Marshall was the Bees’ best player. He scored their lone goal and played in all situations.
Marshall called his up-and-down season a “mental roller coaster” but understands that’s part of hockey. What’s also a part of hockey for him this season is the captaincy and being one of the Bees’ most important players.
“It is a good confidence booster. It’s good to have people believe in you,” Marshall said. “In San Antonio, coaches believed in me. In Florida… or I wouldn’t be in this organization. I take it with a grain of salt. You’ve got to work hard and at the end of the day you get positive things to happen.”
RYCROFT RETURNS: Now with Arizona, former Bees forward Daymen Rycroft’s return to State Farm Arena ice could be delayed by something that happened two nights ago against the Bucks.
On Wednesday in Laredo, he was elbowed without the puck in open ice by the Bucks’ Todd Griffith. The elbow led to a major, secondary game misconduct and game misconduct for Griffith and a total of 59 penalty minutes after fights and other infractions.
If Rycroft does play tonight, he’ll be visiting a franchise different than the one he left in the summer of 2010. Since then, the owner, general manager and coach have all changed.
There also won’t be any Sean Gillam, a former teammate of Rycroft in his first Bees stint and then an assistant coach for his second.
“I think that’s one of the biggest things. He’s been here since Day 1,” Rycroft said. “He spent a lot of time in this organization. It’s weird not to see him behind that bench. He’s been a mainstay and staple of hockey here in the Valley.”
Rycroft was traded to the Colorado Eagles after the 2009-2010 season and signed with Arizona as a free agent this offseason.
CAN’T GET WORSE: Tonight’s game is the first of 11 between the Killer Bees and Arizona (2-4-2) this season. Other than Laredo, the Sundogs are the opponent the Bees face the most.
To make the playoffs this season, beating Arizona more than the Bees did last year is a must.
In eight games last season, the Bees beat Arizona only once and earned three of a possible 16 points and were outscored 37-22. The Sundogs also beat the Bees in the teams’ last four games and all five times at State Farm Arena.
Other than its games against the Bees, Arizona wasn’t exactly a powerhouse. The Sundogs went 25-31-10 and finished seventh in the Berry Conference.
Brian Sandalow covers the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via email at bsandalow@themonitor.com.
Other College News
Broncs kick off regular season at Miami
MIAMI, Florida - The University of Texas-Pan American women’s basketball team will begin the regular season Friday when they visit South Florida for a match against No. 7 Miami Hurricanes at the BankUnited Center. The game is scheduled to start at 12 p.m.
The Broncs defeated Texas A&M-Kingsville last Friday in an exhibition game that took place in the UTPA Field House. That day, UTPA led during the entire game, and although the Javelinas made attempts to catch up to the Broncs, they couldn’t close the score gap by more than five points.
UTPA made 41.5 percent of field goals, 33 percent of 3-pointers and 67 percent of free throws, and Adanna Opara was the leading scorer with 17 points and nine rebounds. Bianca Torre scored 14 points, six of which were from the three-point line. Keandra Goodson scored nine points and grabbed three rebounds in what was her first game at UTPA.
The Hurricanes also began the season winning an exhibition game. Miami defeated Barry University 96-44 on Monday. The Hurricanes ended the game with a 50-25 edge on the glass and a 40-12 scoring edge in the paint.
In total, five players registered in double figures for the Hurricanes (Shenise Johnson, Riquna Williams, Stefanie Yderstrom, Shawnice Wilson and Morgan Stroman), and every player on the Hurricanes roster recorded at least one point in the victory.
After facing the Hurricanes, the Broncs return to the UTPA Field House to play Paul Quinn College at 7 p.m. Nov. 14 and Texas State at 12 p.m. Nov. 18.
-- UTPA Services
Kruger gives to Broncs athletic fund
EDINBURG - University of Texas-Pan American Athletic Director Chris King announced Wednesday a gift of $20,000 to the Bronc Athletic Fund made by former men’s basketball coach Lon Kruger and his wife, Barbara.
Since his coaching tenure at UTPA, coach Kruger and his wife have donated more than $90,000 in support of UTPA Athletics and the Broncs student-athletes.
Kruger began his collegiate head coaching career by guiding the Broncs for four seasons, from 1982-1986. During this time, his teams compiled a record of 52-59, which included a stellar record of 20-8 in his final season in the Rio Grande Valley. This was the program’s first 20-win season since 1977.
“Barb and I loved our four years living in the Valley,” Kruger said. “We appreciate the opportunity to continue our partnership with the Broncs Athletic programs.”
Following UTPA, Kruger made coaching stops at Kansas State, Florida, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and UNLV. He was named coach at Oklahoma this past April and is beginning his first season with the Sooners. Kruger also spent three seasons as the coach of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association.
Overall, in 25 years as a college coach, Kruger has a record of 479-304. His teams have reached the postseason 17 times, including 13 NCAA tournament appearances and a trip to the Final Four in 1994 with Florida. His teams have reached the 20-win mark on 12 occasions.
“Lon Kruger is remembered fondly for his success coaching at UTPA and his name is prominently mentioned in every discussion about the tradition and history of Bronc Basketball,” King said. “It is truly remarkable for a man of his considerable achievements to give back so generously to a school that will always proudly remember his coaching service. Twenty-five years later, Coach Kruger and Barbara are still having an impact on the lives of our Bronc student-athletes.”
Born on Aug. 19, 1952, Kruger graduated from Kansas State in 1975 with a degree in business and earned his master's degree in physical education from Pittsburg State in 1977.
He and Barbara have two children: daughter Angie, who is a medical school graduate from the University of Florida and recently moved to Henderson to join Arthur Herpolsheimer, MD, practicing obstetrics and gynecology, and son Kevin, who graduated from Arizona State University and played at UNLV for his senior season, starting at point guard in 2006-07 for his father's squad. Since college Kevin has played professionally for several organizations including the NBA Development League's Utah Flash and for teams overseas.
The Bronc Athletic Fund enables individuals and businesses to financially support UTPA Athletics and have an impact on the success of the Broncs. Gifts to the BAF go directly to support the Broncs student-athletes by providing athletic scholarships and increased resources to their sport programs.
-- UTPA Services
