Kevin Fiorenzo, Co-Sports Editor
Am Frizzell Co-S I orts Editor
On Deck
Behrend
Athletic
Events
Saturday
Women's Volleyball vs.
Penn State Altoona
@ AMCC Championships
@Frostburgh University
Cross Country
@AMCC Championships
@ Lake Erie
TB D
Men's Water Polo
CWPA-Bucknell
TBD
Women'•s Soccer vs.
Frostburg
Noon
Men's Soccer vs. Frostburg
2.:30 p.m.
Sunday
Men's Water Polo
@ CWPA-Bucknell
2:30 p.m.
Tuesday
Women's Soccer
@ AMCC Championships
Wednesday
Men's Soccer
@ AMCC Championships
Friday
Women's Soccer
@ AMCC Championships
Swimming & Diving
@ Buffalo State
6 p.m.
Club
Schedule
Saturday
Hockey vs.
University of Pittsburgh D-II
@ JMC Ice Arena
2:15 p.m.
Sunday
Hockey @
Edinboro University
1:15 p.m.
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
Face
2003 World
by Ray Immekus
staff writer
Critics of this year's World Se
ries will state the obvious as to
why it was a "dud." The teams
played in the third lowest rated se
ries of all time. It featured the
New York Yankees and their ma
levolent owner; the most hated
man in baseball and possibly all
of sports, George Steinbrenner.
Most importantly, the hopes and
expectations of a Boston versus
Chicago series proved false, and
with its demise went many of this
country's baseball fans.
I, however, could not have been
more pleased with this year's Fall
Classic.
Although I myself was one of
the millions hoping for the Red
Sox and Cubs to overcome their
respective curses and face each
other in the World Series, I did not
stop watching when neither of
these teams made it. I have no re
grets about this decision now, I
believe this series treated me with
everything I could hope for in the
culmination of any baseball sea
son.
The Game 1 victory by the Mar
lins gave hope to not only myself,
but every other anti-Yankee, that
Florida could overcome the star
studded New York team. A quick
response, a la two 6-I victories by
the Yankees, added suspense and
much anticipation for Game four,
which had the potential to be a
gem. And a gem it was. This
matchup was the final start for
Roger Clemens, a future Hall of
Kamer, who pitched six solid in
nings and gave his team the op
portunity to win.
The game winning homerun in
the 12th inning by Marlins' short
stop Alex Gonzalez brought an end
to the most memorable game of
the series, the type of game that
Volleyball seeded second going into AMCCs
Melts
by Adam Manam)
imatiMw
With 25 games under their belts, the men's water
polo team will look to consummate its season this
weekend at the CIVPA tournament at Bracknell . The
CWPA is the last stop the Lions will make this sea
son, after traveling to Princeton and John Hopkins
the two prelims weekends.
The CWPA is the Masters of men's water polo
and will conclude the Lions 'season. Since it is the
culmination of all previcara preparations, the tour.
nament will either end theaeason with an exclama
tion point or a question mark
To begin the tournament, the Lions will,
off against two heavyweights in their own bracket:
Quince and the Princeton lifters. The Lions have
previously encountered both teams and lost con
vincingly.
Most notably is the five game winning streak the
Gannon Knights boast over the Lions. Gannon has
outscored the Lions 83 to 13 in five previous
matches, and the closest the Lions have come to
SPORTS
Friday, October 31, 2003
every baseball fan lives to see.
Game 5 was not without excite
ment. The Yankees nearly over
came a four run Marlins' lead in
the bottom of the ninth, but
Florida held on.
When Josh Beckett finished his
complete game shutout in Game 6,
and the Marlins celebrated in the
middle of Yankee Stadium as thou
sands of fans sat in disbelief, a
smile slowly formed on my face.
To see Steinbrenner lose in his
own stldium to a team with one
third the payroll of his Yankees,
made the previous five months of
waiting for a new champion all
worth it.
The Marlins have already begun
to prepare for a title defense with
the signing of manager Jack
McKeon to a one-year extension,
but some changes will have to be
made. Since the Marlins only
have a yearly payroll of around
$52 million, some members of this
year's championship team will not
likely return. If the Marlins chose
to re-sign catcher Pudge
Rodriguez, who will most likely
warrant a $4O-$5O million multi
year deal, free agents such as Mike
Lowell, Derrek Lee and Mark
Redman may be too expensive for
Florida.
This is the sad truth of baseball.
Teams like the Marlins and last
year's Angels are able to put to
gether a championship-caliber
team one year and have a 100 loss
season the next. Steinbrenner will
piss and moan for a few
months,release players and fire
coaches but will get busy buying
his way to what is sure to be an
other title run.
He will steal other teams' star
players with lucrative, enormous
contracts that only the Yankees can
afford. But that's what makes it
so sweet when the Yankees lose.
After they won consecutive games against Pitt-
Greensburg and Molloy, the women's volleyball team
suffered three straight losses to end their regular season
on a down note.
On Oct. 24, the Lady Lions traveled to Pitt-
Greensburg for their final conference game of the
season. The teams had previously met on Oct. 3 with
Behrend winning 3-0. This encounter would be no
different as Behrend came away with another 3-0
victory.
The squad's next stop was at the Waynesburg Quad
on Saturday. The Lady Lions played three games there.
They came away with one victory and two losses.
Their first game was against Molloy and the Lady
Lions routed them by a 3-0 final score. This would
prove to be the team's final victory of the regular
season.
Behrend next went up against Waynesburg. This
would be the teams' first meeting of the season and did
Water Polo teaM embarks on CWPA%
Off
Series:
by Kevin Fiorenzo
sports editor
cledtaming t h an is a 13-2 loss.
If history is itself and the Tigers and Knights
prove to be too nsuctfarjhe Lions, the team will
face another two-loss team In a crossover game.
"We are most likely going to see Grove City at
the southern championship. That crossover game
is going to be the biggest game of the year," said
heatcoach Joe Tristan.. "If we win that game we
are kolas to play for the ninth place game, against
whoever that may be,"
In three of the previous meetings this season,
Grove City has edged out wins by a margin of three
points oil less.
"We love irnpmved so much in our same over
the season," said ftushman Justin Ryder. 'The first
time we played (Greve City) they beat us by like
10, and than it was like by 3 or less the rest of the
times."
The Lions will look to take advantage of a weak
ened Grove City team, whose best player is ex
pected to be out of the lineup this weekend, due to
injury.
Combining the opportune injury and the Lions
FLA vs. NY
by Greg Smith
contributing writer
As I sat back and enjoyed my
self as my beloved New York Yan
kees cruised to a 6-1 victory over
the Florida Marlins in Game 3 of
the 2003 World Series, I felt like
nothing could stop the Bronx
Bombers from their 27th World
Championship.
Apparently, the Marlins didn't
get the message.
Some poor hitting and execu
tion, a bad pitch and an untimely
injury later, the Yanks' 2-1 series
lead turned into the now hated
Marlins' second World Champion
ship.
So what went wrong? The
Bombers are down 3-1 in the ninth
of Game 4 when a seemingly mi
raculous two-out, full-count triple
by pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra
plates the tying runs for the Yanks.
Aaron Boone strikes out with
the bases loaded and one out in the
11th and Jeff Weaver surrenders a
walk-off home run to Alex
Gonzalez.
In Game 5, Mike Lowell's flare
single dropped into center field in
the fifth inning, giving the Mar
lins a 6-1 lead. A five-hit perfor
mance against Josh Beckett in
Game 6 and the Series was over.
The Bombers caught some bad
breaks, but ultimately dug their
own grave. And their catastrophic
offense breakdown in Games 5
and 6 prevented them from any
kind of a comeback.
The World Series loss seems to
hang a dark cloud over a Yankees
off-season that was already going
to be turbulent enough. The Yan
kees have already fired hitting
coach Rick Down; Derek Jeter
(shoulder) and Jason Giambi
(knee) look like they both need
off-season surgery and coaches
Don Zimmer and Mel Stottlemyre
not go well for Behrend. Waynesburg came away with
a resounding 3-0 victory.
The Lady Lions' final game of the Waynesburg Quad
was against Fairmont State. The Behrend squad was
once again unable to come away with a victory, but
fared slightly better than in their previous game. They
lost by a final of 3-1.
The team's final regular season game was an away
game at Fredonia on Tuesday. The team was hopeful
that it could go into AMCCs with a victory, but they
were denied. They lost another tough game by a score
of 3-0.
The Lady Lions now go into the AMCC tournament
today with a 17-16 record overall, 8-4 in the AMCC.
They are the No. 2 seeds and will face the N 0.3 team
from Penn State Altoona. The two teams split their
two previous matchups this season. Altoona won the
first game, 3-0, and Behrend won the second, 3-1.
If the Lady Lions play the way they did the second
time around against Altoona, it seems likely that they
will have a very successful tournament.
Tristan will not *dement any new *themes
for the tournament but will look to coma the
mistakes the team made in previous tournaments.
"As for our training regiment, it is going to be
based off what we did in the interregional and at
Hopkins," said Tristan. "When we get to
Southerns we will already know what our mis
takes are and are going to have fixed them."
The Behrend Beacon
are both reportedly not returning
to the team for 7'104.
With the retitcment of Roger
Clemens and the Yanks unlikely
to pick up David Wells' $6 mil
lion option for 2004, the team
needs to retool its pitching staff.
I believe the off-season move that
the Yankees HAVE to make is re
signing potential free agent Andy
Pettitte.
With Mike Mussina, Jose
Contreras and possibly John
Lieber, who is coming off of sur
gery, as other possible returning
starters, the Bombers would love
to add Montreal's Javier Vazquez
to fill another spot in the rotation.
The Yanks should try to deal for a
couple middle relievers as well.
For years the Pinstripes needed
someone to fill their giant hole in
left field. This year they found
that someone in Hideki Matsui.
Now their hole is in right field.
The Yanks could make a run at
Expos superstar Vladimir
Guerrero to take on their right
field role.
There has been talk of an
Alfonso Soriano/Nick Johnson for
Guerrero/Vazquez deal, but it
seems unlikely to me that the
Yanks would give up on young
talent like first baseman Johnson,
especially with Giambi deteriorat
ing into a permanent DH role. As
for Soriano, his World Series
numbers were far less than stel
lar, but it's hard to ignore his 38
regular season home runs from the
leadoff spot.
Right now, many questions
about the off-season remain. The
important thing for the team is that
manager Joe Torre is still at the
helm. With some added pitching
and a couple new solid bats in the
lineup in 'O4, the Yankees will
once again be ready to make a run
at the World Series.
recent impmvements, the team feels it is only a
matter of time before they beat Grove City.
The CWPA tournament will feature 12 differ
ent teams, in four separate brackets. Afterusa
first two games of pool play, the crossover game
matches teams with two losses together from
separate brackets. Due to the tournament struc
ture the crossover game will either propel the
Lions into contention fora ninth place fsh, or
bump them down to contend for eleventh place.
Ryder feels the tournament will provide the
team with the "big game" experience it has lacked
in the past, as well as an opportunity to capture
some key wins to conclude the season.
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