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.