Sports – Page 64 – The Western Howl

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

Wolves football was stifled on the road by Azusa Pacific University. An improved second half performance didn’t translate to points and Western fell, 8-33.

Early on, three-and-outs became the standard for the Wolves as the powerful defense of 13th ranked APU kept forcing on the punting unit.

Partway through the third quarter, Nick Duckworth replaced starting quarterback Philip Fenumiai. Fenumiai only completed one pass on the day, thrown to running back Torreahno Sweet for no gain.

Duckworth went 11-for-20. Wideout Paul Revis became his most reliable target, including the 70 yard pass that became the Wolves’ only touchdown. Duckworth finished with 165 yards.

“In the first half I noticed we had some favorable matchups, especially with Paul,” Duckworth said. “Looking ahead to Simon we just have to get the ball into our playmakers’ hands. We have a lot of weapons on offense.”

This week the Wolves go north of the border to face Simon Fraser University. Duckworth and Revis lead the Wolves to steamroll over SFU earlier in the year.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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Men’s hoops ranked sixth

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

The GNAC preseason basketball polls have hit, and coaches in the conference don’t see Wolves repeating last year’s success.

The polls rank the men’s team sixth place. The GNAC is comprised of only 11 teams, placing the basketball team in the middle of the pack.

This could be considered a surprise for the team, as it is coming off its most successful year in history.

The 2015-2016 campaign saw the Wolves be crowned GNAC regular seasons champions with a record of 31-4. And, while playoffs are notorious for unseating favorites and crowning underdogs, the Wolves proved themselves best and became GNAC tournament champions too.
Then they won the NCAA west regional bracket.

They advanced all the way to the final four of Division II’s tournament before losing to Augustana. Augustana would later be crowned Division II champs. This lead to being ranked third in the nation by way of bracket, and sixth in the nation in the end-of-season coaches’ poll.

Coming into this season, coaches seem less sure. Sixth out of the 11 that are in the conference is a lot less impressive than sixth out of the 306 schools in NCAA Division II.

The big reason for this is the turnaround of talent. Tanner Omlid is the team’s only returning starter.

Last year was Omlid’s first season with Western, after transferring from Division I Army. A Monmouth native, Omlid came home last year and became the team’s best shooter.

Now beginning his junior year, Omlid has been unanimously voted to the preseason All-GNAC team.

Like Omlid, head coach Jim Shaw was in his first year at Western last year, and also returns this year.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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College football’s biggest tease

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

Big 12 expansion talks flared up and died down in reliable fashion again this year.

Next year the conference plans to add a conference title game.They are willing to do so with their current ten-team structure, rather than upping their number of affiliated schools to 12 or 14.

The concept of a title game came as a way to help Big 12 schools compete with other powerful conferences to get spot in the College Football Playoff. Ten teams might seem too small to demand a championship game, so schools looking to better their own ranking profiles tried to seize an opportunity to climb the conference ladder. big-12-houston-coloruh-edu

At the start of September this year, ESPN reported that BYU, Cincinn
ati, Houston and South Florida lead the dozen candidates. Houston and BYU in particular seemed to be increasingly viable as the time ticked towards announcement.

Bob Bowlsby is the commissioner of the Big 12, and he and his board of directors reportedly never discussed specific teams when they voted on the option of expansion.

Until the 1990s, the conference was known as the Big 8. Adding four powerful Texas schools increased its profile immensely. But in recent years, Texas A&M left for the Southeastern Conference and Nebraska left for the B1G, taking all their rankings value with them. These are only two of the moves that were made in a rash of re-conferencing through the early 2010s. And the Big 12 isn’t out of the woods yet.

The conference plans to announce within the next month whether or not they will split their conference into two divisions. This would help determine which teams play in the championship, in the style of the Pac-12 north and south or the Southeastern Conference west and east.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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Soccer closes season

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

Seniors Hailey Berg and Michaela Rapozo were injured going into the final game of the season, and the final game of their collegiate careers. Both of them started the game then were subbed out after kick off.

The Wolves ultimately fell to Seattle Pacific, losing the final game 0-2.

Two days earlier the Wolves hosted St. Martin’s. In the next to last game of the season, soccer broke the month long winless skid they had been on. Trailing to St. Martin’s at the half, the Wolves came out in the second period determined to rally.

First Dani Payne scored a headed goal from a Taylor Higa corner kick at the 55th minute. Then with time winding down, Sydney Thomas scored the game winning goal at the 89th minute. Dacia Alexander provided the assist with a long pass.

These final two games were played at Central High School’s football field in Independence, where every home game had been played since conditions forced the game against Western Washington off of the Western Soccer Field on Oct. 13.

The final week of the season was the final week of play for nine players. The campaign ended 5-11-1, with four of their five wins coming from play in Monmouth-Independence.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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Volleyball by the numbers

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

2: The number of matches played last week.
0: The number of total sets won.
374: Miles traveled from Monmouth on the road trip.
7: The number of times the Wolves lead against nationally ranked Western Washington.
19: Kills recorded by offensive leader Mariella Vandenkooy over the week.
138: Average Wolves hitting percentage.
36: Digs recorded by defensive leader Christie Colasurdo over the week.
225: Average opponent hitting percentage.
4: Home games left on the season.
2: Length of the at-home winning streak.
3, 5, 8, 10: Dates in November to see Wolves at home.
7: The time each match starts.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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A tale of two halves

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

The Wolves football team fell in their homecoming game on Oct. 22 against Humboldt State, 37-42. Most of these points were scored in an explosive second half.

Quarterback Phillip Fenumiai threw the 68-yard opening score to wideout Paul Revis. The Wolves then tried to carry that momentum into a two-point conversion to open with an eight point lead. This was stopped and after Humboldt scored in the second quarter they took the lead, 6-7.

The teams felt one another out in a defensive slugfest. Western had the advantage going into the half after Revis blocked a Humboldt punt to set the team up for a 27-yard Jacob Bannister field goal.

The 9-7 first half gave no indication to how high scoring the second half would become.

The third quarter saw Fenumiai break out on a 73 yard touchdown run, but was ultimately dominated by Humboldt State. The Lumberjacks put up 5 touchdowns in 15 minutes to surge to a 16-42 lead. Turnovers and effective plays kept the ball in Humboldt’s control and kept them visiting the endzone.

Despite the long odds, the Wolves were not yet out and mounted a fourth quarter comeback. Fenumiai completed 11 of his 22 total completions in the fourth as Western fought to pick up three touchdowns. Trailing 37-42 the team onside kicked but couldn’t get a hold of the ball as the comeback
The Wolves fall to 3-5 on the season with two games left to play.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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Volleyball’s perfect week

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

Wolves volleyball won both matches last week to advance to an 8-11 record overall. They beat St. Martin’s on Oct. 20 and Seattle Pacific on Oct. 22. Both matches were played to four sets that included powerful showings by the Western players.

Against St. Martin’s, outside hitter Mariella Vandenkooy hit for .320, leading her to a career-best 16 kills. Alisha Bettinson continued her impressive ways, where she produced 11 kills and got her season-best 22 digs en route to her tenth double-double on the year.

The fourth match saw St. Martin’s leap out to a 1-5 lead early, but the Wolves rallied and went on to rout their opponents and sealed the fourth and final set at 25-17. This included a dominant 12-2 run.

“We’ve been having a lot of success from a variety of players,” said Bettinson. “I think that’s what is going to help us continue to have success. Also having played every team once already we have a better idea of what to expect from each team the second time round.”

Wolves continued their winning ways to Saturday.

The first two sets saw Western clobber Seattle Pacific with scores of 25-19 and 25-18. Bettinson notched yet another double-double onto her belt, racking up 15 kills and 12 digs while also nailing 2 blocks.

The Wolves look to take this winning streak onto the road. They travel to Washington on Thursday to face national #19 Western Washington, and then visit Canada for a match against Simon Fraser on Saturday.

Contact the author at journalsports@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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Wolves fall to Azusa Pacific University

Men’s hoops ranked sixth

College football’s biggest tease

Soccer closes season

Volleyball by the numbers

A tale of two halves

Volleyball’s perfect week

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