Monthly Archive for September, 2008

Or pretty close to it at least.

This past weekend–where to begin?

How about volleyball knocking off the #6 ranked Columbia Cougars at the Bellevue tournament and then coming within an eyelash of beating #7 Bellevue on their home floor a mere 90 minutes later. This precocious bunch has made a believer out of me. Now we get into the conference schedule full force beginning with a match against Morningside in Sioux City tomorrow night. It will take a great effort to knock the Mustangs off. It’s a big week indeed with matches this weekend against Nebraska Wesleyan and Doane at home. Curious to find out if any of the Dordt players earned conference athlete of the week honors for their efforts last week. Kendra Potgeter is certainly a viable candidate and Dorinda Hibma had good numbers at the libero position.

Football? I thought the Defenders showed improvement on defense and coach John Heavner agreed in his post-game comments on Saturday. By the same token he was disappointed with the offense’s play. Not crisp. Too many penalties. This one really swung around in the final two minutes of the first half. Dordt trailed 14-0 and Wesleyan got ten up in the last moments to go up 24-0 at half. At Hastings this weekend.

Women’s soccer continues to roll. Won their sixth in a row and are now 4-0 in the GPAC through one-third of the season. Have to play the big dogs yet, but, a 4-0 start is nothing to take for granted in this league. Kate Du Mez continues to climb in the goals scored and assists charts with a fine start to the season. As an aside, a surprise over the weekend with Dakota Wesleyan knocking off Hastings in women’s play.

Not such a great trip for the men to Concordia on Saturday. Their third one-goal loss in a row. They keep working, but the margin for error is so thin. Defense has been playing pretty well to this point.

Jen Kempers won yet another race on Saturday. Got pushed pretty hard by an unattached runner, but managed to prevail, going under 18:00 at the Dakota State Invite in Madison, South Dakota. Women placed first overall with Tami Wieringa taking eighth overall. October is a time for rest and recovery as the team tries to fine tune it’s performance for the GPAC championship in November. A week off this week, run October 11 and 25 and then it’s title time in the GPAC on November 8. Men’s top finisher was Brent Van Schepen with a 16th place finish and the men were 3rd overall.

As I work on some notes, a few tidbits for you….

The win by the Defender volleyballers over Columbia–first win in school history over the Cougars in seven tries (by my count) since 1998. Lots of meetings in national tournaments.

The win by Bellevue was the first by the Bruins over a Dordt College volleyball team in ten tries. I was surprised at how lopsided this series was/is.

Tom Van Den Bosch is closing in on 400 career volleyball coaching wins at Dordt College. Entered the season with 376. Now has credit for 395. Also went over 1100 career wins in both high school and college earlier this season.

Finally, the schedule for audio webcasts of Blades hockey games is noted on the Blades schedule page. Should be able to handle all of the home games. Thanks to Dave Schenk–Dordt soccer coach who also works with me in the sports information office and Piet Westerbeek, a volunteer who is a Dordt grad for taking on this project.

Should have the meet the team link up for hockey later this week………

Just a few notes before leaving.

Busy weekend of athletics for Dordt College teams. Football team had a rough day in Sioux City, soccer teams split with Doane, volleyball swept Midland Lutheran, cross country teams ran on the course where the NAIA national meet is held.

Here we go.

First, football. I know of no way to describe the first few minutes of the Morningside game other than to say the roof caved in. 42 first quarter points and 62 in the first half. But, you know what? This rookie team picked themselves up and played with some pride in the second half, and against a team that was putting freshmen, sophomores and juniors on the field in the second half, outplayed ‘em. I know, the game was out of reach, but the offense moved the ball into the Morningside red zone on a couple occasions and didn’t allow the Mustangs reserve unit to move the ball. Give them time. Remember, Morningside is in the upper tier of the entire NAIA. I think coach Heavner said it best when quoted in the Sioux City Journal. “Forty of the sixty players on the bus were freshmen. Next year none of them can be freshmen.”

Cross country–women ran exceptionally well on Saturday at Wisconsin-Parkside. Jen Kempers finished third. Ran the course thirty seconds faster than last year. At Madison, South Dakota this Saturday.

Soccer women got a win, men took an overtime loss in the conference to Doane. Men hung around and had a chance despite getting significantly outshot. Women got a goal and an assist from Kate Du Mez on the way to a 3-1 win. Next up, Mount Marty on Tuesday and Concordia on Saturday.

Volleyball rolled to a 3-0 win over Midland Lutheran. Have now won nine matches in a row by 3-0 counts. Don’t get used to those kind of results. Extremely tough matches on the road this week against Briar Cliff on Wednesday, Columbia (@ Bellevue) on Saturday and then they face the host Bellevue Bruins in the last match of the tournament on Saturday night. Columbia and Bellevue are both in the top-ten in the NAIA.

Golf team is playing today and Tuesday before a significant layoff before hosting their annual invite on Saturday, October 11. Wash up the clubs and put them away after that.

Hello from a damp, misty Forest City, Iowa and Bolstorff Field. It’s maybe even a little more than mist. I’ll call it rain. Teams are warming up and we’re about 45 minutes from gametime.

Congrats to Coach Dave Schenk and the soccer team on his first double win as Dordt soccer coach. Women dominated York yesterday by firing off over 40 shots while limiting York to 0 shots. Yes, that’s a ZERO. Men got a goal in the first half and another in the second half and seem to be showing improvement on the offensive end with more chances than they had in their first two games. Out of the frying pan and into the fire now with GPAC action on Wednesday against Dakota Wesleyan and Doane on Saturday–both at home.

Volleyball team is running through the Hastings Tournament like a buzz saw–three wins so far by 3-0 counts and none have really been close to this point.

Cross Country has the day off.

Well, time to get back to work…..hopefully we can talk about a win later.

The title was originally Monday morning musings. Obviously I needed to adjust that…didn’t get it done this morning.

Football opened an era at Dordt with the first ever varsity game. Played Northwestern and lost 42-0. Estimates of 3500 fans or so braved cool and damp conditions (for early September at least–October we’ll think it was great weather).

Team played hard but was outsized by a veteran Northwestern team that has been through the rigors of a GPAC season. Experience does play a factor and I thought Dordt’s team tired in the second half when Northwestern starting sustaining drives and Dordt’s offense was unable to stay on the field and keep the defense off the field for a break.

The sun rises again and the men were in working out this afternoon. Mood is good, at least to me, they’ll try it again this Saturday. That’s the beauty of athletics–especially early in the season, there’s always the next game to get ready for. Have begun my preliminary work on prepping for Waldorf…the preview will go up Thursday or Friday.

By the way, pictures from the game are posted at http://www.dordt.edu/gallery2/main.php also, estimates are we had over 1200 page views for the webcast of the event on Saturday. By far our biggest webcast event ever!

Volleyball played well against Concordia (California), the #3 ranked team in the NAIA Friday, but were unable to sustain a 2-1 lead in sets in falling 3-2. Coach Van Den Bosch commented that he likes the defense is playing off the net. Beat Kansas Wesleyan and Midamerica Nazarene in a couple lopsided affairs on Saturday to close the weekend.

We’ll broadcast the volleyball match against Dakota Wesleyan tomorrow night. Also available on a webcast at www.dordt.edu/athletics

Cross country women won their first meet in a long time. Have to go back to October 19, 2002 for the last time the Dordt women’s team claimed a team title ata meet. Led by Jen Kempers first place finish. A lull in the schedule now until September 20th’s trip to Wisconsin-Parkside.

Soccer doesn’t play again till this Friday when they host York in a non-conference doubleheader.

Now, off to enjoy a quiet evening at home and maybe watch some Monday night football……………

A few notes from the past week. The soccer teams were involved in a pair of tight games with Briar Cliff on Wednesday. The women had to go to double overtime to win. Looked like it was going to be a 0-0 tie before the two teams scored a goal each in the final two minutes. Noelle Kreykes had a header for Dordt’s first goal and Briar Cliff scored a goal with about :30 left. Kate Du Mez was finally able to crack one in with about 1:30 left in the second overtime to end it.

The Defender men, not so fortunate. Gave up a pair of goals then cut it to 2-1 on a pk by Siam Grobler. Couldn’t break through to tie it at the end.

Thanks to students Sam Wetselaar and Matt Chesla for taking on the play by play chores of the soccer games for internet webcasts.

Golf had a pair of meets. Team shot well at Orange City with five players breaking 80. Highlight from yesterday at Storm Lake was Jordan Janz’s runner-up finish. GPAC qualifier #1 Saturday at Mitchell, South Dakota.

Volleyball plays in the third classic in as many weekends, this time at Omaha, Nebraska. Play #3 Concordia on Friday night and then play Kansas Wesleyan and Midamerica Nazarene on Saturday.

Cross Country is in Mitchell today. Meet two of the season. Coach Van Dyke scheduled meets every week for this first stretch and then the teams will take on an every other weekend schedule in October.

Finally, football opener Saturday. Overflow crowd expected. Northwestern seating on east, Dordt on the west. Chair and blanket seating beyond each end zone with Northwestern on the north end and Dordt on the south. This day seemed a long time away with this adventure began, now we’re 36 hours out. The journey continues………..

The two teams will be playing for something called the Presidents’ Trophy and will be taken home by the winner on Saturday here’s a picture of the prize already dubbed The Tractor