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
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‘ . 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 .