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The Clackamas P rint sportsed@clackamas.edu Wednesday, Nov. 16/2011 Cougars improve with tournament in sight By John William Howard Sports Editor lastWednesday. Clackamas lost the match, but gained momentum fa r the upcoming championships. T hey say that in order to be the best, you have to play the best. Unfortunately for the Clackamas volleyball team, the best happens to be written all over their schedule, with the- Southern Region again boasting two representatives in the top eight NW AACC coaches poll. Clackamas has faced seven o f the teams that finished the season at the top o f the rankings. T h e Cougars (29-17, 6-4 South) dropped their final match against fifth ranked Linn-Benton (29-3, 9-1 South) by a score of 21-25, 25-21, 25-20, 18-25, 6-15 last Wednesday night at hom e in die Randall Hall gymnasium. Sophomore outside hitter Taylor Richardson lit up the scoreboard with 19 kills on a staggering 70 attacks against a Linn-Benton defense that is the best in the entire league in opponent hitting percentage with .097. “Shes our go to [player]. [We’ve got to] give credit to Linn-Benton for hav ing great defense,” said Head Coach Kathie Woods. “I thought Taylor still had a really good game tonight She really brought it ana I was real thrilled. A nd against a good defense like t h a t ... I think that’s good.” Richardson was also proud o f her performance, which was a big turn around compared to the last game at M t. H ood where she had only two kills and committed four errors. : “For me personally, if feels awe- sorne,” said Richardson. “I struggled a lot last game and to end m y home career here on that high note. Going into NW AACCs [championships] with that kind o f m om entum [is] great and it gives me nice confidence, especially against someone like Linn-Benton. They’re ranked pretty high in our league and to know that I could bust out those stats against them is a good feeling.” j W hat turned out to be a hard fought match almost wasn’t; the start was eerily similar to last week’s beat down at M t. H oed, with Linn-Benton’s high pow ered offense jum ping out to a big lead in the first game and causing the parents, friends and family that had crowded the gym for the last time to begin to worry. However, Clackamas bounced back with a rally o f their own and fought all the way back before losing the first set to the Linn-Benton Roadrunners, who lead' the league in kills per game with- 12.84. The m omentum from the first set’s rally carried over and the Cougars raced out to win their best set o f the match, getting 12 kills and hitting a match high . 116 en route to a 25-20win to evert the match at one set a piece. As the third set began, it seemed as though Linn-Benton’s life had left them. They committed several offoeir nine serving errors in quick succession and soon found themselves down 18-12 with the prospect o f going down 2-1. . At that point, the m om entum shift ed. T he Roadrunners lost the third set but came all the way back and fell just 25-21, forcing Clackamas to hang on ,for dear life just to survive; Linn-Benton continued their push and took the last two sets 18-25 and a lightning quick 6-15 to end Clackamas’ regular season. Woods was as pleased as a coach Can be after a loss, remaining positive and light hearted; even congratulating and applauding her players for the fight they showed. “ W ere always talking about our pas sion and our will ... you have to remember that Linn-Benton is ranked pretty high. They’ve d o n e really well and we’ve been [out o f the rankings],” said Woods, who pointed out that even though they didn’t get the win, they showed that they could compete. “We’ve played Spokane in five, weve played M t. H ood in five and we’ve now played Linn-Benton in five and those three games are what I think we should be doing the whole time.” Woods, along with the players don’t see the game as a loss but a momen tum boost going in to this weekend’s NW AACC tournam ent in Gresham. “It gives you m om entum in a way that you kndw you can p lay that cali ber,” said Richardson. “T nat’s probably one; o f the best games we’ve played all year and to know that were peaking at the correct time [is great]. T hat’s the m om entum that were taking, it’s know ing ‘hey, we can play like this all the time if we want to.’ W ere taking that confidence [and] that knowledge and moving into NWAACCs w ith it.” Having the week off after foe regu lar season finale will hopefully give a few injured Cougars time to heal and get back oh foe court, namely fresh m an Brittany Bevens and sophomore Shauna Salopek, both o f w hom play foe middle blocker position. Woods gave Bevens fo e, best chance o f returning before foe tournament. “Its definitely hard [to. sit on foe sidelines],” said Bevens, who switched positions, in foe middle o f the season. “T he past three weeks Ive been playing middle [blocker]. T hat’s m y starting position and I’ve been training just solely on middle. N ow three weeks kind o f go down foe drain over an injury that happened in two seconds.” W ith foe injury to her ankle, Bevens role turned from starter to cheerleader, where she now watches foe game from the sidelines and offers help and advice for foe players on foe court. She also said that watching is a great learning tool for when she finally does make her return. Clackamas will begin bracket play Thursday, Nov. 17 at 9 a m . vs. Tacoma Com m unity Coll e g e . D ep ending-on- foe outcome o f foe first game, they will either play Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. or Friday morning at 10 a m . Visit www.TheClackamasPrint.com to keep an eye on the bracket as the tournament unfolds. SOCCER: Quarterfinal victory ensures berth in NWAACC final four foe sudden, that changed. W ith just seconds remaining As w ith foe beginning o f in double- overtime, Cougars foe second half, foe attacks on Jasmin Garcia sent a cross from oals increased. Green River foe right and found foe head ad several opportunities for o f sophom ore Yasmina Coto. game ending goals bu t each W ith a seemingly simple flick, tim e they passed by foe last line C oto redirected the ball toward o f foe Cougar defenders and foe goal and G ator goalkeeper took a direct shot at foe goal Cassy Duschel, w ho reached they were foiled. To foe Gators up and hit foe ball in an effort dismay, there stood Clackamas to send it over the bar and Goalkeeper Tori W ilkinson, bobbled foe ball for a few eter calm, cool and ready to pounce nal seconds before it slipped on foe ball if it came anywhere past her and into foe goal. near her goal. T im e and again C O U G A R S WIN!! T he whole she spoiled foe hopes o f Green stadium erupted in a thunder River, all foe while playing on ous applause. “It feels good, it feels real an injured right knee. T he clock again ticked down good,” said Coto. “It’s really to zero and it was announced exciting.” T he goal and foe win pro that foe game would go into double sudden victory over pelled foe Cougars to the tim e, w ith penalty kicks loom NW AACC semifinals, where ing if foe game remained score they will take on Peninsula less. A t this point foe crowd C om m unity College at 1 p.m. m ust have been certain they on Nov. 19 at Starfire Stadium w ould be seeing penalty kicks in Tukwila, Wash. “W e are since it had been scoreless for going to train harder,” said foe entirety o f regular tim e and Coto. C oto isn’t foe only one who overtime. Both teams battled hard for is anticipating more training. several long minutes, when foe C orn’s older sister M iriam , head official paused foe d o ck who was on foe 2005 and to keep tim e himself. T he score 2007 title teams and is a cur was still 0-0 after 108 m inutes rent assistant coach also sees o f play and then 109. All o f fois need. Continued from Page 1 g “We have practices all next week and were going to take in what we saw this game and basically prepare all next week and see what we can do on Saturday,” said M iriam Coto, w ho was taking the tim e to enjoy the excitem ent before focusing on w hat is ahead. “It feels great. We did it last year and we came back this year and did it again. W e played w hat we could play and went into overtime. I know our girls were tired but they still pulled through and they wanted to get foe win. T hey gave it their all.” It was- truly a epic battle to foe very last second in which each team surely shed blood, sweat and tears, be that tears o f joy or sadness. Still, such a battle can end w ith only one victor and " this tim e around foe Cougars came out o n top. In the words o f Janine Szpara, Cougars head coach, “We fought and we continued to fight.” It was their unrem it ting defense and m ental tough ness that saw them through to foe victory, the semifinals and their next step toward the N W A A C C W om en’s Soccer C ham pionship tide. iAf Green River Gators. Both teams were tied 0-0 u ntil the 109th minute when Yasmina Coto’s header broke the stalemate.
