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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 2011)
sportsed@clackamas.edu W ednesday/ Nov. 9, 201.1 The Clackamas P rint 3 Goalkeeper Tori W ilkinson fights for success inspite o f injury By John William Howard Sports Editor Ì Clackamas volleyball huddles after a time out during the third a n d fin a l set last Friday M t. H ood outscored the Cougars2 5 - 1 6 enroute to a 3 -0 win. RIVALRY: Cougar volley ball falls short to rival Mt. Hood Saints ' Continued from Page 1 W hatever hope was left for' a miracle Comeback was ripped away, as the Cougars again dug a hole to start off w hat w ould be the final set. A faint glimm er o f hope appeared when Clackamas scored a few quick points to make it .24-16, but M t. H ood buried the road team and walked off the victors in straight sets, m aking it the second tim e in as many games th at the Cougars had come up em pty against the Saints. “We know we can beat them ,” said sophom ore outside h it ter Taylor Richardson. “It’s a m atter o f who is going to come out strongest in the beginning. Start strong, stay strong, finish strong.” Perhaps they’ll get th at chance when they return to the campus o f M t. H ood C om m unity College on Nov. 17 for the NW AACC volleyball championships, b u t for now they have to focus on another powerhouse opponent in Linn-Benton, who will visit tonight at 7 p.m. “We just need to go. in w ith fire,” said Best. “We need to take [this loss] out on them ... there’s no reason to let up.” Best and freshman Julia Toscano had strong showings for Clackamas, getting eight and seven kills respectively. T he team com bined for only 26 kills to M t. H ood’s 46 and finished w ith a lowly . 130 hitting: percentage. M t. H ood was lead by Devan Belshe, who turned in a stellar performance w ith 19 kills, four-serving aces, and h it .472: w ith only two errors. Upcoming Events •' @ ft* Vollevball physicality.' g *3 Whatever ft? was; 'they fixed it. And Wilkinson fixed it. . From that point on, limp or no limp, Wilkins.on and die Clackamas defense tight ened things up considerably. After each time Lane forwards would near thè goal, Wilkinson- would corral the ball and boot -it back, toward the center o f ,the field. As the game continued, Wilkinson’s pain level seemed to .rise and she could be spotted gin gerly favoring her good knee between attacks. Once the’ final whisde sounded, the injured freshman didri’t hobble over to the bench an d waft to be treated by the team trainer. She. jogged ovér with the rest of the team. Thq only sign, tiiat she was ailing was that instead of cooling down, she sprawled on the ground to remove her brace. Wilkinson’s secréti She had just put it out 'of her mind. * “I just don’t think about it,” said Wilkinson. And you-know what? I’d like to see more athletes like her. All too often, a minor bump or bruise will keep ja player sidélined for far too long.- hhow some^oughnesst • N ot without reason,, of course. If you could hurt yourself worse and threaten the rest o f your season, then okay, sit on the bench. But if you can play through the pain and make a difference for yoùr team, then you should be out on the field. O r court. O r wherever it is you play. Those are the performances that we remember. We remember watching Tiger Woods win at the US Open in 2008 with a torri ligament in his knee and a stress fratture in his tibia. We remember Brandon Roy’s return tim ing the 2010 playoffs against Phoenix. It s those times that you see some body do something extraordinary that stick in yoùr mind. Those memories help us to remember that in whatever were going through we should just stick it out to the e n d .; It’s riot just a game. Its not just a distrac tion from life’s worries. There are lessons to be learned and I just learned another one. Timè/date 6 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 9 Clackamas vs. Linn- Benton CC Jj? Playing against the odds usually tends to make the best stories. We get the most excited about David vs. Goliath, a Cinderella team Or succeeding despite huge setbacks. The Super Bowl mat everyone remembers isn’t the one where thé two best teams scrapped with one . another for 60 minutes, it’s the one where the nobodies came back to win against their powerhouse opponents. It also seems that there is hodiing quite so inspiring as watching a playet struggle with an injury but prevail. •Yès,k Clackamas Community. College lost ite final home soccerm atch to Lane Community CollçgelastWednesday and yès its severi game win streak?has.been snapped bût that wasn’t thé story of the game that audience members will recall..* ? ■ The story o f the game was watching injured. Clackamas goalkeeper Tori W ilkinson.. Some time between the Oct. 22 game at Clark College and the Oct, 25 game agairist Southwest Oregon Community College, Wilkinson acquired an injury to her right knee. At that time, Wilkinson had four shut outs in a row and hadn’t allowed a goal since the end o f September. Coach Szpara declined to comment on the injury iteelf.* “[I’mJ tak ing the Chip Kelly approach,” said Szpara. “I don't really want to talk about injuties.” Duririg the SW OCC game, which Clackamas won in a 6-0 blowout, Wilkinson was being rested to help heal a minor injury heal. W hen the team ran out on to-the field last Wednesday, it was clear that things weren’t completely hack to normal. / The first thing you’d notice Wâs die ugly black brace. If m at didn’t tip yóu off? you might think to Watch the home end o f thé field-when nothing was happening. You’d see Wilkinson jogging across the field after her shin guard that had gone astray. You’d see fi- grimace. You’d definitely seè the pronounced limp after every brush o f action. Wilkinson’s first test tam e early in the match? ; Y . --- . W ' In the 5th minute, Lanes Kenzie Harding lobbed a corner kick across .die face o f the óal to the far post, where Kiki McDonagh eadêd thé ball past Wilkinson and into thè nèt. There wasn’t even time to raise her arms before Lane had scored, putting Clackamas down a goal for the first tim e since losing to top ranked Spokane on Sept 24? Normally when a goal is scored early in a matcji and especially an easy one, it can take the air out o f the game. It happens even in big professional matches. The crowd quiets considerably arid the players get heated with one another. Perhaps it was a lack o f focus or the knowledge that .thè game was meaningless for - Clackamas, as they’ve already clinched the Soudierri Region Championship, Maybe theywerecaught a litde by surprise by Lane’s Women’s Soccer yTime/date...... 7 p.m. Saturday Nov. 12 Playoff Quarterfinals Vs. TBA Cross Country Time/date NWAACC Championships @ Everett CC 11 a.m. Saturday Nov. 12 T? rails End Saloon | i 1320 3: Main S t Oregon City 503-656-3031 ’ ‘ W ednesdays^ «Sundays B lli e ® T h e r a p y with Bae Gordon^ Thursdays _ , NV^ Friday & Saturdays Full Service Blues Bar and Grill , fj: I Voted O regon's B est Blues Venue Cascade Blues Association Ml liL ‘ . X? T G oalkeeper Tori W ilk in so n surveys th e p itc h fr o m h e r g o a l d u in g th e f i n a l h o m e g a m e o f th e regular season a g a in st L a n e C o m m u n ity College o n N ov. 2 .
