Page 12 The Behrend Beacon Water polo splashing its way to nationals by Scott Soltis sports editor The Behrend women's water polo team is heading to nationals after accepting an open bid to the tournament. The team had one final monkey to get off its back before the trip to California - Grove City College. Goalie Lauren Packer refused to let a ball enter the goal in the first quarter of play, and received some offensive support. Sarah McGarvey scored two goals in the quarter to give the Lions a 2-0 lead. Each team added a goal in the second quarter to make the s:ore 3-1. Grove City came out of the half smokin' scoring four goals to Behrend's two in the third quarter, to tie the score at 5-5. Just when things were looking bleak for the Lions, and confidence in Packer was shaking, she came through with a ions m 1 1 I i 1 1 , 1I ir PHOTO BY SCOTT SOLTIS/BEHREND BEACON Tony Azzato is quietly having a solid season at the plate batting .368. shut out in the fourth quarter. It was up to the offense to put one in the goal. Behrend scored in the last three minutes to get the go-ahead goal and the win. Early and often scorer McGarvey was very relieved to avenge an earlier loss to Grove City before nationals. "It feels like we should have beat them all along. I don't know what was wrong with us in the beginning," said McGarvey. The team will look for leading regular season scorer Christine Williams to keep up her play and for Packer to build off her 78 percent blocking performance against Grove City. Coach Josh Heynes feels good about the team's chances at the championships. "I think we have a real good shot, we're going to see Grove City again," said Heynes. "We're on a level playing field these teams, but. California water polo is a totally different game." SPORTS Friday, April 25, 2003 Track teams almost to finish line With finals approaching in a week, it can only mean one thing; the coming of summer and the end of yet another sports season here at Behrend. "Our athletes had some outstanding performances so far and we still have a month to go," said coach Dave Cooper. Due to the fact that all of the team's meets this year were invitational, team scores were not kept. But the team has been able to measure the success of its season by the amount of ECAC qualifiers it has along with the many record breakers. The women broke nine Behrend records indoors and five records outdoors this year. "We've been pretty successful," said freshman Laura Packosky. "We've had a lot of athletes qualify for ECACs." Freshman Staci Banaszek qualified in the high jump, jumping 5-2. Sophomore captain Jessica Sarver qualified in the 1500 meters, running 4:46.46, and also in the 5000 meters running 18:20.90. Junior Jessica Knapp also qualified in the 5000 meters with a time of 18:35.3. Rounding out the women's qualifiers is Packosky in the javelin, throwing 112-10. "We did really well this season," said Sarver. "As a team I think we were able to show the Division II schools how good we could do along with the Division 111 schools." As for the men, sophomore Isiah Meek qualified again in the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.85. Junior captain Dave Masilunas also qualified in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.26. Freshman Jason Kuntz qualified in the 100 meters, running 11.16. Freshman Shane Rock will be attending in the triple jump event with a jump of 45'4". Sophomore Mike Barlett in the 800 meters with a time of 1:56.88 qualified along with the 4xloo relay team of Rock, Meek, freshman Matt Beckman, and Kuntz with a time of 44.47. Sophomore Steve Feder qualified in the pole vault with a height of 13-6, along with sophomore Donnie Hackworth at 13-1, and finally sophomore Brad Rank also at 13-1. Along with the nine qualifiers the men broke eight Behrend indoor records and four outdoor records. As far as ECACs are concerned the qualifiers are ready to show what they're made of. "Most people are happy about just qualifying, but we're looking forward to going and having fun," said Sarver. "Last year we had over a dozen By Amy Frizzell Staff writer After two very important conference wins against Laßoche, the baseball team faltered slightly in a loss to Fredonia. On Saturday, the baseball team traveled to La Roche for a conference doubleheader. In the early innings, it looked as though the Lions were going to run up the score and put the game out of reach. They scored seven runs in the first two innings to jump out to a wide lead. They also gathered six more runs in the fifth inning. La Roche tried to stage a comeback by scoring in the final four innings, accumulating ten runs. Behrend hung on for a final score of 13-10 in favor of the Lions. As has been the case lately, the Lions' offense was sparked by outfielder Mitch Reckner, with a double, and second baseman Tony Azzato and first baseman Keith Lepionka, who both hit a home run. The pitching was also stellar for Behrend. Ryan Seyler pitched for five innings with nine hits, six runs, one walk, and an impressive 10 strikeouts. Chris McCartney finished what Seyler started by pitching the final two innings with three hits, four runs and two strikeouts. Seyler Sophomore Isiah Meek will be headiong to ECACs after some blazing 110 hurdle times. javelin throw entries but scored only one point," said Cooper. "This year we'll be sending more athletes but I think we will score a fair number of points with both the men and women." ECACs will be held on May 15 and 16 at MIT in Boston. With all the record breaking and qualifying from the younger members of the team the Lions were able to create a solid building block for next season. "We had a lot of freshmen and new comers to the team this year," said by Kevin Fiorenzo staff writer Scott Soltis, Sports Editor Lauren Packer, Assistant Sports Editor has a 6-2 record with a 3.57 ERA With such stellar play, one would think that Behrend rolled along easily, but that was not the case. Errors once again hampered the Lions. In this one game they gathered an unsightly five errors. "Recently we've been able to hit our way past our errors, but that is not always going to be the case," said Lepionka. "We need to step it up a bit and cut down on physical and mental errors." In the second game, La Roche played a much closer game and the score showed that. In the top of the seventh, they were ahead 3-2. However, the Lions accumulated one run in each of the last two innings to win 4-3 and come away with the doubleheader sweep. "The offense came up big when it counted and our pitching kept us in the game at all times," said Seyler. Lepionka said, "We played excellent Saturday. We knew we had to win two games to clinch home field advantage for the AMCC tournament." BASEBALL Sarver. "They did really well and really contributed to the team." The team will also be making some changes for next year. "Next year we are planning to go on a southern trip during spring break," said Cooper. "That should add some excitement to our schedule." With all the excitement surrounding the track team, next year is looking to be even better. CONTINUED INSIDE ON PAGE 11
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