Sports – Page 28 – The Western Howl

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

Coming back from a very short fall season of only two games, the women’s rugby team hoped to start the new term off right with an exhibition match against Oregon State University on Jan. 12.

Western’s squad was short a few players but due to the large roster of the Beavers, some Beavers donned the red and black to field a complete team. With a full 15 player lineup taking the field for both sides, the game was set to start.

The Wolves’s roster is packed with young players, and many were stepping onto the pitch for one of their first games. This lack of experience started to show when Oregon State began with a strong offensive drive. Within a minute of kick off, the Beavers were on the board. After giving up a try early, the Wolves hoped to fight back.

Another quick break away by the Beavers brought them within ten yards of the goal line. However, the Wolves showed some promise by making an impressive goal line stand. Keeping Oregon State away from a score highlighted the potential of the younger players. But moments later, the Wolves surrendered another score.

Despite this match being a non-competitive match, the hard hitting nature of the sport took a toll on the players. Injuries riddled both teams, causing players to need to constantly switch between teams. The injuries kept piling up throughout the match, eventually resulting in the need to play 14 on 14 due to the lack of healthy players.

At the end of the match Western had been able to score twice but gave up a slew of points. While on paper the Wolves lost, the experience gained was very valuable to the young team. Being able to get back on the field for only their third official match hopes to prove positive for the future.

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

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Western Women’s basketball stumbles to undefeated Northwest Nazarene

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

An undefeated and sixth ranked Northwest Nazarene University stood as the last opponent for the Wolves Women’s basketball before school came back in session for Winter Term. Since the beginning of break, Western had won two of the last three matches but the Nighthawks were a mighty opponent. Northwest Nazarene had won their last three matches by an average of 23 points.

In the first quarter, the Wolves looked up to the task against the Nighthawks. The relentless home court defense halted any attempt of an offensive run of more than just a couple of points. This flurry of defense was complemented by barrage of precise shooting. The unranked Wolves managed to find a multiple-score lead at the end of the first quarter.

Western’s women fought to hold this lead but after a three minute tug of war, the visitors showed why they are top ranked. The Nighthawks started firing on all cylinders to climb their way to a nine-point lead over Western. Their offense put up 16 points while their defense smothered the Wolves, giving up only a tight seven points.

After the half, the Wolves were in desperate need of something to slow the offensive momentum of Northwest Nazarene. Unfortunately for Western, the hopes of finding their way back into the game quickly grew to a much bigger task than they were ready for. Rebounds and steals by the Nighthawks helped extend their lead to 13 before the Wolves took a timeout to slow the momentum.

Halfway through the third the Wolves huddled together, looking for anyway to fight their way back into the game. Shortly after the timeout, Western saw a glimmer of hope. Back and forth steals between the teams followed with a couple of good layups for Western shrank the Wolves deficit to only nine before taking another team timeout.

Building off this small run, Western hoped to mount a comeback. The process of chipping away at the Nighthawks lead continued with a good three-pointer and a block for the Wolves. These brought the women to only eight points down. But another late quarter run smothered any hopes of a Wolves third quarter comeback.

The fourth quarter showcased a tremendous offensive effort by the Nighthawks. With a comfortable 16-point lead over the Wolves, all hopes of a comeback seemed like a longshot. Although the Wolves never stopped fighting, they never saw Northwest Nazarene’s lead shrink to less than 14 points. With only seconds left, the Wolves sank back to back free throws. The final score settled at 90-70.

Western heads up to British Columbia for their next match against in-conference opponents Simon Fraser University. While the Wolves have seen a slow start to their season up to this point, having four wins to their six losses, the next match with the Clan looks to be a big one for the Wolves. The 6-5 Clan sits directly above the Wolves in the GNAC rankings.

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

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Winter break sports recap

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

Dec.10 Western Men’s Rugby ranked 30 Nationally

After being named the Co-Champions of the Northwest Conference, Western Men’s Rugby obtains the national ranking of 30. This is the first time in program history they have been nationally ranked.

Dec.10 Women’s basketball cruises past Northwest Christian University 79-62

Dec.14 Bo Highburger of Western Football named a finalist for the Cliff Harris Award

Senior economics major Bo Highburger was named a finalist for the award that recognizes defensive players achievements from schools in the NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, and NAIA. Highburger was one of two GNAC players to receive this honor after a record-breaking senior season for the Wolves.

Dec.14 Men’s basketball comfortably beats Hawaii University at Hilo 80-69

Dec.16 Men’s basketball continues streak in Hawaii against Emmanuel College 76-64

Dec.17 Men’s basketball member Riley Hawken named as GNAC Player of the Week

Junior business major Riley Hawken earned the title after his double double against Emmanuel College.

Dec.17 Men’s basketball team named as GNAC Team of the week

The Men’s basketball team earns the honor of GNAC Team of the week after they continue on a five game win streak in Hawaii.

Dec.17 Men’s basketball falls to #7 ranked University of California San Diego 73-63

Dec.18 Women’s Soccer names a new head coach for upcoming season

After a subpar season finishing at 5-9-3 the Women’s Soccer team named Kacey Bingham as the new head coach. Bingham has a total of 12 years experience as a collegiate head coach. She has a overall record of 219 wins, 53 losses and 13 ties at the head coach position.

Dec.18 Men’s basketball finale against Dallas Baptist University in Hawaii cancelled

The head coaches of Western and Dallas Baptist University mutually agreed to cancel their match scheduled for Dec.18. This cancellation was due to a medical emergency from the match prior to Western and Dallas Baptist’s game.

Dec.19 Women’s basketball earns big win over Notre Dame de Namur 79-60

Dec.19 Volleyball hires a new head coach for the upcoming season

After their sixth consecutive losing season, the Wolves’s volleyball program hired new head coach Stacy Metro. Metro is stepping up from coaching at the high school level to take the helm of Western’s program. She has 19 years of experience including several years as the assistant coach at the University of Oregon.

Dec.29 Men’s basketball massacres Portland Bible College 129-33

Jan. 3 Women’s basketball falls at home to Central Washington University 65-78

Jan. 3 Men’s basketball loses close match in Alaska to Alaska Anchorage 57-61

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

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Wolves Men’s Basketball bounce back against Nanooks

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

With a break full of up and down games, the Wolves were in need of another win to help climb the GNAC rankings. After a narrow loss to Alaska Anchorage University in the days leading up to their match with Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 5, the Wolves hoped to end their trip up north with a win. The Nanooks had recently edged out Alaska Fairbanks in one of their previous games, showing the Wolves that this match shouldn’t be a walk in the park.

Right out of the gates, the Wolves established dominance over the Nanooks. Western quickly soared to a staggering double digit lead before Alaska Fairbanks scored a single point. Western’s offense had hit their stride before the Nanook’s defense had a chance to adjust. Just four short minutes into the game, the Wolves jumped to a 15 point lead.

While the Wolves started to run away with the game since the first whistle, Alaska Fairbanks didn’t just roll over. Halfway into the first half the immense lead owned by the Wolves had been cut to only seven. This may have looked like the beginning of a comeback, but minutes later showed it was anything but.

The Monmouth men’s lead never dipped that low for the rest of the half. Precision shooting resulted in another run for the Wolves midway through the half. With a 20 point lead, the Nanooks offense finally woke up and started fighting back. But another run took the lead back to 20 before settling at 18 at the end of the half.

The second half showed no signs of Western’s offensive momentum slowing. While Alaska Fairbanks was finally starting to establish an offensive presence, any hope of a comeback seemed squashed by the unrelenting offense of the Wolves. Western stretched their lead to massive 23 points. At the end of the match Western finished on top 97-80, never having trailed.

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

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Flag football phenom

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

Another year, another west coast region victory. For the second consecutive year Western fielded a sort of “Intramural All Star Team” to compete in the flag football western regional tournament held by the National Intramural-Recreation Sports Association. A group of seniors with a handful of juniors made their way to Arizona State University to defend their title of region champions from the previous year.

The 2018 team, headed by senior business major Matthew Cornish, had a large schedule ahead of them as they arrived in Tempe, Arizona.

Their first match of the day was against Dixie State University. After a hard fought match, the Wolves surcame to a six point loss. But the tournament was far from over. Game after game the Wolves obliterated their opponents. Several of the games were ended due to a mercy rule being called.

“(Our offense) played excellent. We had a three quarterback system… Nobody knew how to play defense against us,” said Cornish.

Paired with the Wolves’s high scoring offense was a fearsome defense.

“Our defense played great. We had…Andrew Valladares nominated to defensive MVP after the tournament, as well as Cody Chimienti nominated to Offensive (honors),” Cornish added.

Because of the Wolves’s dominance in the tournament, they won a bid to compete in the National Championship tournament in Florida. However, due to funding issues and the short turnaround time, the Wolves likely will not be able to travel to compete.

“I would have liked to have seen how we played this year… There’s a couple of guys who are disappointed (we can’t go). But a lot of guys are happy to end the season with a win,” mentioned Cornish.

Overall, Cornish and the team stayed very humble, even after winning the western regional tournament.

“I want to make sure to thank The Health and Wellness Center because this wouldn’t have been possible without them. They were a big help for us, as well as the school because funding-wise we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” said Cornish.

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

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Cross Country competes in National Championship

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

After being named to All GNAC honors, two seniors, Justin Nading and Tyler Jones took their running talents to Pittsburgh, PA for the NCAA DII National Championships on Dec. 1.

Nading and Jones were the only Wolves to earn the bid into competing and hoped for a solid finish.

The trail was overtaken by a plague of bad weather leading up to the tournament. But nevertheless, the Wolves pushed forward.

After a brutal run in cold and rainy conditions, Jones had found himself finishing the 10,000 meter course in 60th place with a time of 33:56.8. Nading came in at a respectable 109th with a final time of 34:42.0.

Out of the GNAC runners in the race, Jones finished 5th and Nading in 11th.

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

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Wolves take on Vikings in Monmouth

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

In their first major test of the season, the Wolves faced off at home with the 15th ranked Western Washington Vikings on Dec. 1. Coming into the match, Western had picked up an easy win against conference opponent Simon Fraser in the previous night. After the double digit home win, Western hoped to keep up their momentum with their next conference match.

Western Washington wasted no time jumping to a quick six point lead over the Wolves with back to back three pointers. But despite this early showing, the Wolves retook the lead and held a tight lead for the majority of the half.

As the seconds dwindled down in the first, the Wolves and Vikings continued to trade blows. With the game staying within a single score, the Wolves clung to the lead before a quick flurry of offense paved the way for Western to take a nine-point lead.

A strong push by the Wolves out of the gates in the second half helped Western reach a double digit lead early in the second, but this lead was soon swept away. Western Washington fought back to tie and eventually overtook the Wolves for the lead. With only a few minutes left in the half, the lead was traded back and forth before the buzzer sounded to a 70-70 tie.

This tight game play continued into overtime. Western jumped to a quick lead but the Vikings were never too far behind. This narrow lead stuck until only seven seconds were left on the clock. After a foul by the Wolves, Western Washington sank back to back free throws to tie the game back up at 80-80.

Neither team seemed to give an inch to each other in the second overtime period. The Vikings took the lead over the Wolves with less than two minutes left in the game, but this was the last lead they would see. One last offense push from the Wolves helped seal a win for Western at home.

The final score was 96-88 and the double overtime shootout came to a close with another Wolves win.

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

Western Oregon University’s Land Acknowledgement
Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR is located within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (Kalapuya etc. Treaty), Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.

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WOU prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by WOU.

Western’s women are back on the rugby pitch

Western Women’s basketball stumbles to undefeated Northwest Nazarene

Winter break sports recap

Wolves Men’s Basketball bounce back against Nanooks

Flag football phenom

Cross Country competes in National Championship

Wolves take on Vikings in Monmouth

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