Category Archives: volleyball
Saturday scoreboard: Geoducks volleyball wins first match in nearly three years
College volleyball
Evergreen 3, Montana Western 1 (25-13, 22-25, 25-17, 25-22)
Angela Spoja picked up her first win as head coach of The Evergreen State College volleyball program with a four set victory over Montana Western in the Geoducks’ final game at the Cascade/Frontier Challenge in Spokane. It was the program’s first win in 52 matches dating back to October 30th, 2010.
Natimia Barker-Doss had 41 assists and 10 digs and Cassidy Watkins and Victoria Love each racked up 15 kills to lead Evergreen to the win.
For more, read the recap from Evergreen athletics. – Link
Friday scoreboard: Saints win crosstown soccer scrimmage
Click any image to go to gallery and see full size photos
Women’s soccer
Saint Martin’s 3, Evergreen 0 (Scrimmage)
College volleyball
Montana State Northern 3, Evergreen 0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-20) – Recap
Thursday scoreboard: Geoducks fight, come up short in volleyball openers
Women’s volleyball
Caroll 3, Evergreen 1 (25-14, 14-25, 25-16, 25-19)
Great Falls 3, Evergreen 0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-23)
The Angela Spoja era at Evergreen opened with a pair of losses in Spokane. The Geoducks are still looking for their first win in over two years. For more, read the recap from Evergreen athletics. – Link
Today (8/17): Geoducks soccer kicks off, volleyball welcomes alumni
The college sports season is upon us and the Evergreen men’s soccer team gets things going today with a 1:00 PM game against Trinity Lutheran at Evergreen Pitch. The Geoducks return two solid senior goalkeepers in Mauricio Sanchez and Colin Harlow, the CCC defensive player of the year Brady Espinoza and the CCC newcomer of the year Willie Spurr and are picked to finish second in the Cascade Conference after making an appearance in the conference championship game last season.
At 5:00 PM, head indoors to the CRC Gymnasium for a new era in Evergreen volleyball when the current squad, headed by new head coach Angela Spoja, takes on the Geoducks alumni in a scrimmage.
For you gearheads, South Sound Speedway features street stocks, mini stocks, stinger 8’s, bumblebees and WMRAs tonight. Qualifying starts at 5:00 PM and racing gets underway at 6:30 PM.
SPSCC signs McGurkin and Tyson; Oly QB’s season in question; Peterson on KGY
Friday news and notes (updated throughout the day)
Brandon McGurkin – Photo courtesy of Aaron Landon
South Puget Sound continues to sign players for the 2013-2014 season. This week coach Aaron Landon announced the signing of Brandon McGurkin, a 6-7 post from Moscow, Idaho and Brian Tyson, a 6-4 wing from Olympic High School in Bremerton. McGurkin helped the Moscow Bears to the state championship game where they fell by just two points to Rigby and Tyson led the Trojans to a 2A Olympic League title.
Tyson was profiled by the Kitsap Sun last season and you can watch him hit a 65 foot game winner against Kingston in December by clicking here.
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The Olympian has the story today about former Capital quarterback Derrick Becker being ruled ineligible having his eligibility questioned to play at Olympia this season. He will have a hearing on Wednesday, August 21st to determine whether or not he will be allowed to play his senior season for the Bears. – Link
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Saint Martin’s new head volleyball coach Kara Peterson appeared on the Bryant and Clark Sports Show on KGY today to talk about the upcoming season and the guys talked a little local football. You can listen to the show above.
Geoducks fall sports underway
The college sports season is getting set to kick off and athletes at The Evergreen State College are hitting campus getting ready for the men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball seasons.
This week the Cascade Collegiate Conference released their preseason polls for the three sports and the Geoducks garnered a second place pick for men’s soccer, a ninth place ranking for women’s soccer and a last place spot for volleyball.
Maurice Sanchez punches one out
The Evergreen men’s soccer team returns the CCC Defensive Player of the Year Brady Espinoza, CCC Newcomer of the Year Willie Spurr and a pair of solid senior goalkeepers in Colin Harlow and Mauricio Sanchez to a team that finished 12-2 in conference play and advanced to the conference finals in 2012. They will have to replace two of their top scorers, Kevin Flavin and Mirza Memic, but will feature forward Jeff Roland, who tallied four goals and two assists last season, and will welcome Aberdeen’s two time 2A Evergreen Conference Most Valuable Player Juan Lopez to the midfield.
The Geoduck men will open their season with a home game against Trinity Lutheran on August 17th at 1:00 PM. They open CCC play on September 17th at home against Warner Pacific and will host defending champ and preseason #1 Concordia on October 1st.
Sophie Krauza
It took 11 games but the Evergreen women’s soccer team won two of their last three games last season to finish 2-11-1. The Geoducks will return four starters from last season including CCC honorable mention midfielder Sophie Krauza, goalkeeper Kaitlin Mackenzie and leading scorer – albeit with just three goals – Rayna Murphy. Capital star Loren Switzer, the 2A EvCo Defensive MVP last season, is one of the team’s top newcomers.
The Geoducks scored just 11 goals in 14 games last season and and are picked to finish ninth in the CCC. The women open their season with a scrimmage at Saint Martin’s on August 23rd.
Angela Spoja
Angela Spoja takes over the reins of the Evergreen volleyball program and will try to get the Geoducks their first win in over two years. During the last two seasons under Greg Spector, they went 0-46 and were never competitive.
Spoja comes to Evergreen with an impressive resume at Tacoma Community College and has brought in a host of transfers to join seniors Meredith Gurr, Brittany Covert and Cassidy Watkins on the court. Natimia Barker-Doss is an outside hitter from Pierce College that earned NWAACC West Region First Team honors last season, Kelsey DeLaGrange is a 2005 graduate of Kelso High School and was outstanding for Mount Hood in their NWAACC championship season – eight years ago – and Capital star Gabriela Vega returns to Olympia after a stint at Pacific University.
They are still picked to finish 10th in the CCC this season but there is a definite sense of optimism surrounding this program for the first time in a long, long time.
Clippers basketball, Geoducks volleyball make head coaching hires
Two days, two new coaches for Olympia area college teams.
On Tuesday, South Puget Sound announced the hiring of Aaron Landon as the Clippers’ head men’s basketball coach. And on Wednesday, Evergreen announced that Angela Spoja was hired to the long vacant position of head volleyball coach.
Aaron Landon comes to the SPSCC from Concordia University in Portland, where he has been an assistant for the past two seasons. The native of Davis, California was responsible for recruiting in California, where he was an assistant coach at Marina High School and assistant at Santa Monica College before moving to Portland. In his time at Concordia, the Cavaliers went 29-30. Landon played basketball at the University of La Verne and Monterey Peninsula College.
Landon’s head coaching duties are combined with a full-time position as an educational planner for SPSCC. He takes over for Curtis Norwood, who resigned after the season, and will have to replace 56 points from departing sophomores on a team that went just 4-21 last season and given the fluid nature of community college rosters from year to year, he will probably have to bring in a whole new team.
This is Landon’s first head coaching job, but he is a young guy that has some experience recruiting in the Northwest in his time at Concordia and has contacts in California that could help him land some out of state talent that seems to be the key to success in the NWAACC these days.
Meanwhile, at Evergreen, Angela Spoja is one of the most accomplished coaches the Geoducks have hired in a very long time. Spoja spent eight seasons at Tacoma Community College where she was named NWAACC coach of the year three times and went undefeated in 2007 and 2010. She also oversees operations for the South Sound Volleyball Club in Tacoma.
Spoja has a tough job ahead of her trying to turn around a moribund program that went 0-46 over the last two seasons under Greg Spector and Geoduck volleyball has gone just 44-203 since 2001. Can Spoja make Evergreen attractive to volleyball players? For a variety of reasons, volleyball just isn’t a good fit as a sport for Evergreen but I think her experience in the community college ranks will help her draw more local transfers to the program and could yield some good players from the NWAACC. She also has strong roots in the local volleyball scene and will have better success recruiting in local high schools.
The Geoducks’ volleyball season starts in just a few months on September 6th.
Saints, Geoducks looking for new volleyball coaches
Saint Martin’s announced today that Phil Ibarra has stepped down as head volleyball coach. Ibarra spent eight seasons at the helm and posted a 28-169 record. Ibarra’s best stretch at SMU came over the last two seasons. In 2011 the Saints posted a 7-18 overall mark, the most wins since the school joined the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and this season the Saints went 6-18. But over his tenure, Saint Martin’s finished last in the GNAC five times.
Earlier this month, Evergreen announced that Greg Spector resigned after two winless seasons as head volleyball coach. Spector went 0-46 in his time as a Geoduck.
College volleyball in Olympia has been dreadful for a very long time. Since 2001, Evergreen and Saint Martin’s are a combined 96-455. Saint Martin’s holds a slight edge in winning percentage during that time period at .206 (52-252) while Evergreen sits at .178 (44-203).
Meanwhile, since 2001, the eight Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater high schools have combined to go to the state tournament 39 times with two state championships and two second place finishes. Not sure if that means anything or not but I thought I would throw it out there.
Saturday scoreboard: Cougars advance to semis, Rams fall; O’Neill’s career night leads Saints
High school football
Capital 46, Burlington-Edison 19
University 23, North Thurston 7
Kai Van Sickle scored another five touchdowns today and Capital easily moved into the semifinals next week at the Tacoma Dome with a 46-19 win over Burlington-Edison at Ingersoll Stadium.
After jumping out to a 15-3 lead in the first quarter, the Cougars surrendered a touchdown and a field goal and the Tigers trailed by just two points, 15-13. But Capital ran off 31 unanswered points from that point before Burlington-Edison scored in garbage time.
Capital will face Lynden in the semifinals at the Tacoma Dome next Saturday.
The road finally caught up to North Thurston today with a 23-13 quarterfinals loss to University in Spokane.
The Rams fell behind 21-0 before a Mo Manning seven yard run got them on the board in the third quarter. Brandon Belisario scored a three yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter to cut the Titans’ lead to ten but it was too little, too late and North Thurston’s season ends at 9-3.
Men’s basketball
Saint Martin’s 61, Notre Dame de Namur 45 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
Roger O’Neill scored a career high 24 points and Rei Jensen chipped in 10 points to lead Saint Martin’s to a 61-45 win over Notre Dame de Namur in Monmouth, Oregon at the WOU Phoenix Inn Shootout. The Saints held the Argos to just 28.6% shooting in the game and no Argo scored in double digits.
Women’s basketball
UPS 72, Evergreen 65 – Recap from Evergreen athletics
Danielle Swain scored 20 points and pulled down 12 rebounds and Evergreen held a 61-60 lead with 4:02 left to play in the game. But UPS outscored the Geoducks 12-5 down the stretch to take home a 72-65 win at Memorial Fieldhouse in Tacoma.
College volleyball
Western Oregon 3, Saint Martin’s 0 (26-24, 25-22, 25-14) – Box score
Today (11/17): Cougars host Tigers in quarterfinals; Senior night for Saints
The state quarterfinals continue tonight with two local teams on each side of the state. The first and closest game takes place at Ingersoll Stadium where Capital plays host to Burlington-Edison at 4:00 PM.
Both teams run the ball very well, especially Capital’s Kai Van Sickle who rushed for 350 yards and six touchdowns in last week’s 45-27 win over Lakewood. But not to be outdone, the Tigers rushed for 395 yards as a team including Tyler Morrison’s 211 yards in a 35-21 win over Orting. Burlington-Edison lost three games this season falling to Ferndale (lost to Bellevue last week), Sehome (4-6 on the season) and Lynden (still alive), all on their home field. Capital is 9-2 on the season with losses to two teams still alive in the playoffs, Bellarmine and Tumwater.
ScoreCzar is predicting that Capital will win the contest 30-11. The game can be heard online on Mount Vernon’s KAPS website or 660 AM if you are in Skagit County.
Across the state, the North Thurston Rams travel are forced to travel east again to take on University Prep in Spokane at 5:00 PM. The Rams are 9-2 on the season and are coming off a 35-23 win over Kennewick in Kennewick last Saturday. They take on the 7-4 Titans who started the season at just 2-4 but have won five straight including a surprising 34-6 victory over O’Dea last week.
ScoreCzar expects North Thurston to win 26-11. I have not found a broadcast for the game yet but you can follow The Olympian’s Meg Wochnick on Twitter for updates.
Finally, the Saint Martin’s volleyball team plays their final match of the season when they take on Western Oregon at Marcus Pavilion. The Saints (3-14 GNAC, 6-17 overall) will honor two seniors, Teilissa Tua and Katy Ferguson, playing their last match in a Saint Martin’s uniform.
Game time is scheduled for 7:00 PM.
Oly Sports 