Oly Sports

Seattle U’s shellacking of Evergreen tonight reminded me of this article I wrote for the great website The Mid-Majority about the game the two teams played last season at the ShoWare Center. The Redhawks 83 point win further illustrates the growing divide between the once equal teams…

Monday night’s game between the Seattle University Redhawks and NAIA Division II The Evergreen State College Geoducks was an unremarkable, dull basketball game that went pretty much how you would expect it to go. In front of a very small crowd played 20 miles away from campus at the ShoWare Center in Kent because Key Arena wasn’t available, the Redhawks dominated every aspect of the ShoWare College Showcase and the game wasn’t nearly as close as the 77-54 final score indicates. The most remarkable things about the game were Evergreen’s first half shooting woes (14.3% field goal percentage including 0-15 from behind the arc), the pregame meal at Chipotle that didn’t feature any horchata, my daughter’s love of the funhouse style mirrors outside the ShoWare Center and the horrific looking fall that a Redhawks cheerleader took (thankfully she was OK).

But this game between these two programs illustrates the dramatic changes to the Seattle U program in a very short time period. Fourteen years ago when Evergreen – a small college in Olympia, Washington that might very well be the most liberal school in the country – added basketball to their small athletic department, Seattle U was also an NAIA member and were still nicknamed the Chieftains. In their first meeting at a tournament in Tacoma, the program that was once put on the map by Elgin Baylor was knocked off by a team named after an ugly bivalve that was supposed to be the anti-mascot for a school that didn’t believe in competitive athletics.

In fact, in the first five years of Evergreen basketball’s existence, the Geoducks beat Seattle U four out of five times including a 71-59 victory over the newly minted Redhawks in their first season and only season in the NCAA’s Division III. In 2002 the Redhawks moved to Division II and ran off four straight wins over the Geoducks before a very good Evergreen team led by a talented yet undersized guard named Nate Menafee evened the series at five a piece by upsetting a Seattle U team in their first season transitioning to Division I in 2008.

So Evergreen has seen the changes in Seattle U firsthand and was still competitive as recently as three seasons ago. But the game on Monday exposed the differences between a waning NAIA Division II program and an NCAA Division I mid majority program on the rise. Despite their shared competitive history, Monday showed that things will never be the same between these two schools and once Seattle U’s Aaron Broussard – the only player or coach left on either team involved in the 2008 game – graduates after this season, the ties to the recent past will completely be broken.

For Seattle U, the ties to their small time college basketball past can’t be broken quickly enough. In 2009, in advance of their first DI home game, the school named the top 29 players in their DI history and in the process totally discounted the contributions of all their basketball players over the past 28 years. Look at any history of the Seattle U athletic department and you see a gaping hole from 1980 to 2001. The NAIA years are embarrassing to Seattle U, a dark time in the school’s history, and every time they thrash one of their former NAIA equals, another nail is put into that time period’s coffin.

Seattle U welcomes Stanford to Key Arena on Thursday night creating a two game series that perfectly illustrates where they have been and where they aspire to be. Meanwhile, Evergreen heads to Kirkland, Washington on Saturday to open Cascade Conference play against Northwest University. What a difference fourteen years makes.

Men’s basketball

Seattle U 117, Evergreen 34 – Recap from GoSeattleU.com

Lucky Lagerberg hit a bucket three minutes into the contest and another at the 4:50 mark and those were the only two field goals that Evergreen hit in the first half. Seattle U used a 39-1 run between the two field goals to bury the Geoducks, 61-6 in the first half and took home the victory 117-34 in an exhibition game at Key Arena.

The Geoducks shot just 6.2% in the first half and 16.2% for the game, hitting just 10 field goals over 40 minutes. Meanwhile, Seattle U shot 64% in the first half and 60% in the game. Cody Peters led the Geoducks with nine points.

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Evergreen 4, Warner Pacific 1 – Recap from Evergreen athletics

Freshman Willie Spurr scored two goals and senior Kevin Flavin scored the eventual game-winner in Evergreen’s 4-1 win in their first playoff game since 2005 and first home playoff game in program history.

Spurr started the scoring in the 24th minute scoring on a header off a Flavin cross. Warner Pacific evened the score in the 3oth minute when Jameson Jones scored on an open goal after Evergreen keeper Mauricio Sanchez misplayed a ball on the other side of the box. It was Sanchez’s only mistake of the night, making five saves over the course of 90 minutes. The two teams went into halftime tied at 1-1.

Warner Pacific came out of the half as the aggressors but couldn’t put home a goal. In the 60th minute, Flavin received a long pass and dribbled around Knights’ keeper Drew Bonifacio to score the eventual game winner. Willie Spurr duplicated Flavin’s effort for the insurance goal in the 67th minute and Kyle Wiese added another insurance goal in the 80th minute to give the Geoducks the 4-1 victory.

Evergreen moves on to the Cascade Collegiate Conference championship game on Saturday and will face the #1 seed Concordia in Portland at 6:00 PM.

Girl’s soccer

Archbishop Murphy 6, Tumwater 1

Tumwater’s state tournament came to a premature end on Tuesday night with a 6-1 loss to Archbishop Murphy. Despite the higher seed, the T-Birds were big underdogs. The Wildcats won their 20th game of the season with their only loss coming in the district seminfinals, dropping them into a #3 seed and a road matchup with Tumwater. Selesha Harrah scored the T-Birds lone goal in the 76th minute.

Men’s basketball

Washington State 62, Saint Martin’s 50 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
Northwest 96, Evergreen 50 – Recap from Evergreen athletics

Saint Martin’s trailed by two points at halftime and were down by just five points with 5:41 left in the second half, but a 7-0 run put the Washington State up by 12 points and the Cougars held on to knock off the Saints 62-50 in an exhibition game in Pullman. Roger O’Neill scored 13 points for the Saints and Matt Dodson added 11 in the loss. Brock Motum led the Cougs with 21.

Northwest University scored the first 14 points of the game and shot 62% from the floor in their 96-50 victory over Evergreen in a non-conference game in Kirkland on Tuesday night. KJ Hong led the Geoducks with nine points while Travis Wagner added eight. The Eagles Michael Greene scored 22 points and former Saint Martin’s Saint Michael Russo added 19.

Girl’s soccer

Tumwater vs. Archbishop Murphy – Tumwater Stadium – 7:00 PM

The Tumwater girl’s soccer team opens 2A state playoffs against Archbishop Murphy at 7:00 PM at Tumwater Stadium. The T-Birds at 11-7 are the #2 seed out of district IV while the Wildcats are 19-1 and are the #3 seed out of district 1/2.  Archbishop Murphy suffered their first loss of the season, a 2-1 decision to Squalicum in the district playoffs to drop to the third seed.

You can listen to the game live on the Eli Sports Network.

Roller Derby

Gotham 233, Oly Rollers 130

The Oly Rollers cut a 51-0 lead taken by Gotham to open the game and led by as many as ten points in the first half. But Gotham scored the final 24 points of the first half and went on an 86-5 run to close the game to capture their second straight WFTDA championship, knocking off Oly 233-130 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Oly was unable to stop Gotham’s Bonnie Thunders, who scored 178 of their 233 points in 22 jams.

Thunders set the tone for the bout on the very first jam by scoring 20 points as part of a 51-0 run for Gotham. Minutes later, Atomatrix quickly got Oly going with a 29 point jam and the Cosa Nostra Donnas continued to chip away at the Gotham lead until a 19 point jam by Onda Sligh gave Oly their first lead at 70-67. Atomatrix and DeRanged scored the next seven points to give Oly their largets lead at 77-67 but Thunders came back with a 13 point jam to put Gotham back on top. Oly retook the lead at 81-80 but a 24-0 run to close the half put Gotham on top for good.

The Donnas were able to cut the Gotham lead to 14 points, 107-93, in the early minutes of the second half but Thunders once again came up with a 20 point jam followed by Suzy Hotrod’s nine points put Gotham up 136-96. Oly never came within 22 points of Gotham after that and an 86-5 run in the last ten minutes sealed Oly’s second loss in two seasons in the WFTDA championships to Gotham.

Atomatrix paced the Donnas with 60 points on 22 jams while Onda Sligh scored 47 points on 11 jams. DeRanged rounded out the scoring with 23 points.

The loss dropped Oly to 12-1 on the season and gave them second place at nationals for the third season in a row. In four seasons of WFTDA championships eligibility, the Cosa Nostra Donnas have won one championship and placed second three times. In 2009, Oly beat Texas 178-100 to capture their first title. In 2010, they dropped a nail-biter, 147-146 to Rocky Mountain. And last year, Gotham knocked off Oly 140-97.

Roller derby

WFTDA championships
Oly Rollers 218, Minnesota 125 – Recap from Derby News Network
Oly Rollers 224, Texas 127 – Recap from DNN

Atomatrix scored 75 points in 13 jams to lead the Oly Rollers past Minnesota in the quarterfinals of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association championships in Atlanta on Saturday morning. Oly jumped out to a 40-0 lead and never looked back. Minnesota cut the lead to 11 points at 54-43 but the Rollers went on a 72-2 run in the middle of the game and took a 130-49 lead and led by by as many as 113 late in the game. Onda Sligh scored 58 points on nine jams and DeRanged chipped in 40 points on ten jams in the win. Harmony Killerbruise (my new favorite derby name) led the way with 55 points for Minnesota.

In the semifinals, Oly jumped out to a 73-3 lead and never let up en route to a 224-127 win over Texas. Atomatrix continued her dominating performance at nationals scoring 125 points on 15 jams and Onda Sligh added another 82 points.

The Oly Rollers move to 12-0 on the season and advance to their fourth straight WFTDA championship game and will face Gotham in a rematch of the 2011 championship game tomorrow at noon, Olympia time. Gotham scored a 205 point win over Naptown in the semifinals and knocked off Denver 221-120 to reach the finals. Gotham scored a 140-97 over Oly in last year’s championship game to win their second WFTDA title.

High school football

North Thurston 40, Rainier Beach 0
Nathan Hale 19, Shelton 6
Auburn 41, Olympia 38

North Thurston ran past Rainier Beach to advance in the 3A playoffs, while Shelton and Olympia saw their seasons come to an end.

Men’s soccer

Evergreen 1, Northwest 0 – Recap from Evergreen athletics
Seattle Pacific 5, Saint Martin’s 0 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
SPSCC 3, Southwestern Oregon 1

Brady Espinoza scored on a free kick in the 48th minute to lead Evergreen to a 1-0 win over Northwest in their regular season finale. Mauricio Sanchez made two saves in the Geoducks’ shutout. The Geoducks will play in their first playoff game since 2005 and will host their first home playoff game in program history on Tuesday. They will face the #3 seed Warner Pacific at 4:00 PM at the RAC in Lacey.

And SPSCC got goals from Giovanni Torres, Kyle Ballard and Juan Loza to pick up their second win of the season, 3-1 over Southwestern Oregon, in their final game of the season. The Clippers finished 2-10-1 and out of the cellar of the NWAACC South division.

Girl’s soccer

Enumclaw 3, Timberline 0
Bonney Lake 4, North Thurston 0
Auburn 1, Olympia 0
Hockinson 4, Black Hills 2

Rough day on the pitch for local high schools. All four teams, Timberline, North Thurston, Olympia and Black Hills lost their loser-out, winner-to-state games today and ended their season.

College volleyball

MSU Billings 3, Saint Martin’s 1 (25-14, 25-14, 16-25, 25-17) – Recap
Northwest Christian 3, Evergreen 0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-20) – Recap

High school volleyball

Tumwater 3, Capital 0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-15)
North Thurston 3, Enumclaw 2 (25-17, 16-25, 20-25, 25-14, 16-14)
Timberline 3, Kennedy 0 (25-2, 25-11, 25-23)
Timberline 3, North Thurston 2 (20-25, 12-25, 25-11, 25-18, 15-9)
Olympia 3, Rogers 0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-21)
Olympia 3, Gig Harbor 1 (26-24, 21-25, 25-21, 25-16)

Tumwater captured the 2A District IV championship with their third win over Capital this season. Both teams had already qualified for state.

North Thurston qualified for state by knocking off Enumclaw as did Timberline with their straight sets win over Kennedy. But the Blazers got the better of the Rams in yet another epic match between the two teams.

Olympia also qualified for state with their win over Rogers and got the better of Gig Harbor in the seeding game.