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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2016
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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SCOREBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
TODAY
Boys Soccer — Class 4A State Play-
off: Seaside at La Grande, 1 p.m.
VOLLEYBALL
Northwest All-League
Player of the Year: Charity Hall, Gas-
ton
Coach of the Year: Melody McCaster,
Gaston
First Team
Charity Hall, Jr., Gaston
Taylor Bassel, Jr., Gaston
Lexi Delgado, Jr., Delphian
Sami Howard, Sr., Columbia C.
Kaitlyn Landwehr, Sr., Knappa
Jahzel Sanchez, So., Faith Bible
Payton Wolf, Sr., Vernonia
Second Team
Julia Clark, Jr., Gaston
Jennifer Cruz-Rodriguez, Jr., City
Christian
Joyce Everett, So., Vernonia
Alleggra Poetter, Jr., Faith Bible
Lauren Siler, So., Nestucca
Luella Taufer, Fr., Delphian
Cat Veliz, Jr., Delphian
Cassidy Whitton, Sr., Vernonia
Honorable Mention
Fernanda Careaga, Sr., Delphian
Delilah Carter, Jr., Columbia C.
Katie Clifford, Sr., Neah-Kah-Nie
Morgan Harral, Jr., Vernonia
Brooke Jordan, So., Gaston
Olivia Leslie, Fr., Nestucca
Jaden Miethe, Jr., Knappa
Alisha Murphy, Sr., Knappa
Kelsey Richardson, Fr., Gaston
Paris Vanderburg, Jr., Knappa
Jordan Walters, Fr., Vernonia
Sportsmanship: Neah-Kah-Nie
Senior caps season
with all-league award
The Daily Astorian
League champion Gaston had
five players named all-league, and
swept the Player and Coach of the
Year awards in Northwest League
volleyball.
The NWL’s all-league team
was announced at the league’s
tournament.
Knappa vol-
leyball coach
Jeff Kaul
stands with
his all-league
players, from
left to right:
Jaden Miethe,
Alisha Mur-
phy, Kaitlyn
Landwehr
and Paris
Vanderburg.
Knappa senior Kaitlyn Landwehr
was a first-team selection, while Log-
ger teammates Jaden Miethe, Alisha
Murphy and Paris Vanderburg were
named honorable mention.
Gaston junior Charity Hall was
selected as the Player of the Year,
and Gaston’s Melody McCaster was
Coach of the Year for the league
champion Greyhounds.
Submitted Photo
WORLD SERIES: GAME 7
‘This is what you want’
SPORTS
IN BRIEF
Warriors 127,
Trail Blazers 104
Associated PRESS
PORTLAND — Stephen
Curry had just five points in the
first half against the Portland Trail
Blazers. He knew the second half
was going to be different from his
first shot.
“You see one go in and that’s all
you really need confidence-wise,”
he said. That first shot? It was a
3-pointer.
Curry finished with 28 points,
23 in the third quarter alone, and
the Golden State Warriors beat the
Trail Blazers 127-104 on Tuesday
night to extend their early season
winning streak to three games.
Ian Clark came off the bench
with a career-high 22 points for
the Warriors, who have rebounded
after a season-opening loss to San
Antonio. Kevin Durant added 20
points and Golden State rested
its starters down the stretch after
leading by as many as 35 points.
Damian Lillard had 31 points
for the Blazers, who fell in five
games to the Warriors in the West-
ern Conference semifinals last
season. Playing the first of a back-
to-back, Portland coach Terry
Stotts also went to his reserves
with eight minutes left.
The Blazers beat the Warriors
137-105 in Portland last Febru-
ary, with Oakland native Lillard
scoring a career-high 51 points
against his hometown team. It was
one of just nine losses for the War-
riors. Lillard averaged 36.5 points
against the Warriors last season.
Lillard scored with 0.3 seconds
left to give the Blazers a 115-113
win at Denver on Saturday. He fin-
ished with 37 points.
UP NEXT
Trail Blazers: Open a three-
game trip against the Suns on
Wednesday night.
Nguyen wins
$8M at World
Series of Poker
Associated Press
Former nail salon owner and
failed professional baccarat player
Qui Nguyen has won the World
Series of Poker Main Event after
the longest heads-up matchup in
tournament history.
The 39-year-old in a raccoon
baseball cap took the top prize of
$8,005,310 and the gold bracelet
on Tuesday night in Las Vegas. He
eliminated San Francisco poker
pro Gordon Vayo on the 364th
hand of the final table.
The native of Vietnam emerged
from a field of 6,737 in the $10,000
No-Limit Hold ‘Em Main Event,
the final and most prestigious in a
series of 69 World Series of Poker
tournaments.
Vayo earned $4,661,228.
AP Photo/Matt Slocum
Chicago Cubs’ Addison Russell celebrates after his grand slam against the Cleveland Indians during the third inning of Game 6 of
the Major League Baseball World Series Tuesday in Cleveland.
But which team will
reverse their curse?
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
LEVELAND — Most fans around the
country can sit back and savor Game 7.
Not so easy for anyone who has spent a
lifetime rooting for the Cubs or Indians.
All those years of hope and heartbreak
collide Wednesday night when Chicago and
Cleveland meet one last time this season to
decide the World Series.
With the Cubs seeking their first champion-
ship since 1908 and the Indians trying to stop
a drought that dates to 1948, the stakes could
hardly be higher.
“No one says Game 3 or 5. This is what you
want,” said shortstop Francisco Lindor, who
leads the Indians with a .364 Series average.
Cleveland ace Corey Kluber pitches against
Kyle Hendricks, the major league ERA leader.
Kluber has a chance to become the first pitcher
to win three World Series starts since Detroit’s
Mickey Lolich in 1968.
“The game has changed,” the 76-year-old
Lolich said Tuesday. “It’s a totally different
game than what we played back in our days. It
just doesn’t happen.”
C
Addison Russell hit a grand slam and tied
a Series record with six RBIs in Chicago’s 9-3
win Tuesday night that forced this captivating
matchup to the limit.
Chicago is trying to become the first club
to overcome a 3-1 Series deficit since the 1985
Kansas City Royals and the first to do it by
winning Games 6 and 7 on the road since the
1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.
Now it’s one night, winner take all.
“It’s a kid’s dream,” Russell said.
Confidence
Even after losing two straight, the Indians
remain confident.
Kluber is 4-1 with a 0.89 ERA in four
postseason starts, starting with 16 consecutive
scoreless innings against Boston in the Divi-
sion Series and Toronto in the AL Champion-
ship Series.
“That’s our guy. That’s our stud,” Cleve-
land second baseman Jason Kipnis said.
A 30-year-old right-hander, Kluber started
on three days’ rest for the first time in his big
league career in Game 4 against the Blue Jays.
He left after five innings with the Indians trail-
ing 2-1 in a 5-1 defeat, then threw 88 pitches
over six innings as Cleveland beat the Cubs
6-0 last Tuesday in the Series opener.
He came back on three days’ rest in Game
4, needing 81 pitches for six innings of
one-run, five-hit ball in a 7-2 win that gave
WORLD SERIES: GAME 7
• Chicago Cubs at Cleveland
• Today, 5 p.m. TV: Fox
• Series tied 3-3
Cleveland a 3-1 lead.
“Obviously, he’s a special guy,” Hendricks
said. “You can just see it, the way he takes to
the mound. He’s always locked in.”
Nine pitchers have won three starts in a
single Series, none since Lolich went 3-0 with
a 1.67 ERA and 21 strikeouts while tossing
three complete games against the St. Louis
Cardinals.
“Good players, good pitchers, can do spe-
cial things. He’s in that category,” Indians
manager Terry Francona said. “It was kind of
an easy decision after talking to him.”
Home-field advantage
The 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner,
Kluber was 18-9 with a 3.14 ERA this sea-
son as Cleveland won the AL Central for the
first time since 2007. His win in the All-Star
Game at San Diego in July gave the American
League home-field advantage in the Series.
“I never connected those dots at that point
in time,” he said.
Already, he is the first pitcher to win
Games 1 and 4 in the Series since Cincinna-
ti’s Jose Rijo in 1990.
Pac-12 coaches: Let’s all get on same page schedule-wise
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Sports Writer
It’s that time of year — the final
stretch — when the Pac-12’s nine-
game conference schedule comes up.
Washington is undefeated, at No.
4 in the AP Top 25 , and at No. 5
in the first College Football Playoff
rankings. The Huskies appear to have
a good shot at one of the four play-
off spots — if all the pieces fall into
place.
Last season, Stanford, with one
loss on the road in the opener against
Northwestern, looked like a possible
contender for one of the four playoff
spots, if only the Cardinal could fin-
ish strong. The Ducks proved to be
spoilers, upsetting the Cardinal 38-36
at Stanford Stadium on Nov. 14.
That sparked discussion about the
league’s nine-game schedule. In the
Power Five conferences, the South-
eastern Conference and the Atlantic
Coast Conference play eight-game
slates. The Big Ten went to nine
games this season.
The nine-game schedule has been
criticized because it’s obviously
more difficult, and there’s less like-
lihood that a team will finish unde-
feated — which therefore lowers
the odds of getting coveted playoff
berths. That challenges a conference
where some key matchups are played
late, impacting visibility.
On the other side, there are those
who say the tougher schedule, paired
with a conference championship, cre-
ates better teams.
“We discuss it every couple of
years, it comes up,” Pac-12 Commis-
sioner Larry Scott said this weekend.
“I think with the new college foot-
ball playoff we were thinking, ‘Is
this the best model? Is there a differ-
ent model?’ But I think we all believe
strength of schedule will be rewarded
by the selection committee if there
are teams with similar records.”
That said, Scott said he’d like to
see the other conferences rise to the
nine-game level.
Across the league, coaches said
they’d just like it to be equal — at
either eight or nine games — across
all conferences.
“If I just give you my own opin-
ion of it, it’s pretty simple for me: All
Power 5 teams should do the exact
same thing. If they don’t, it’s not
fair. That being said, they all don’t.
Because it’s very, very difficult when
you say you’re going to play nine
games within your schedule and then
you’re going to go beat each other up.
But if everybody else is beating each
other up, then I think it’s fine,” Ore-
gon State coach Gary Andersen said.
Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham
agreed: “I don’t lobby for it, but in
my opinion all the Power 5 confer-
ences should play the same amount
of conference games and make it a
level playing field and some stan-
dardization there. Because when you
play a ninth game that gives every-
one in the conference a chance to get
another loss.”
Whittingham took it a step further,
saying that he’d like to see the play-
offs expanded so that all the confer-
ence champions get in.
“To me it doesn’t make any sense
to not have a level playing field and
then not have every champion get in.
It doesn’t make sense to me at all,”
he said.
“If we’re all feeding into a play-
off system let’s just play by the same
rules,” said Stanford coach David
Shaw, who also suggested across-
the-board consistency in non-con-
ference scheduling against lower-tier
teams.