October, 1990 — LION’S EYE — Soccer Team Still Faces Two More Tough Opponents Delco’s Men’s Soccer Team finishes up their 1990 season this week with games against Widener’s J.V. and PSU York. Both could be tough contests. The team’s current 2-9 record reflects its young make-up. ‘Basically, it’s all freshmen,” said Coach Alan Miller, “ex- cept for Co-captains John Constantine and Pat Guer, and sophomore Steve Benz. We had expected four other players from last year’s team to return, but injuries, moves, and illness kept them from coming out. So this is basical- ly a building year after last season’s Conference Championship. Next year, though, we should have a lot going for us.” This season has not been an easy one. High points were the wins over Ursinus’ Ve Lady Despite a demanding schedule of games and a small roster of players, the Women’s Volleyball Team came away with an outstanding 12-9 winning season this fall. According to Coach Robert Saba, the beginning and the end The Lady Lions Volleyball team: (front row) Kelly Blair, Sherry Richards, Laura SHAN oy i Hi J.V. and PSU Wilkes Barre. But frustration marked five of the team’s losses, which were by fewer than two goals. “And we've out-shot every team we've played,” added Coach Miller. “We've had fairly steady offensive play all season.” Currently four freshman players share the top scoring record this season of two goals each: Steve Bidoli (Interboro), Jeff DeSantis (O’Hara), Marty Meenan (O’Hara), and Joe Zay (Avon Grove). Perhaps the biggest excitement in a somewhat slow season for Coach Miller came two weeks ago when he and his wife welcomed their second child, James Benjamin. Congratulations, Coach! Aka “i i} The Delco Lions in action and at rest. Craig Sweeney, Steve Bidoli, Dan O'Hara, Jeff DeSantis, Kevin Ong, James Kirk, Vang Pastris, Bernie Stromberg, Chuck Compton, Paul McLaughlin, Marty Meenan, Steve Benz, Joe Zay, Mark Gambol, Ryan Kuss, Co-captains John Constantine and Pat Greer, and Coach Alan Miller. Photos by: DAVID RHOADES Lions Post Winning Season of the season producea the best games. “We started the season out well with two wins, even though we had started practicing a week later than usual, but then we went into a slump in the middle “of the season. At the end, though, we a Bradley, Tricia Konrad. (Back row) Mary Varano, Denita Wright, Gretchen Gat- chel, Anne Marie Stanley, Kassy Glein, Coach Robert Saba, and Dove Tempesta. Photo by: DAVID RHOADES had a string of six wins. We really started pulling together.” Contributing strongly to those wins were freshman middle blocker and hitter Kassy Gleim, “a really good athlete and outstanding all-around player,” second middle hitter Anne Marie Stanley, ‘‘a very, very good athlete who played well for us,” and sophomore Denita Wright, ‘‘an outstanding physical talent, especially in jumping and reaching.” Also impacting on the winning season were team members Laura Bradley, Kel- ly Blair, Gretchen Gatchel, Tricia Konrad, Sherry Richards, Adele Rompetra, Dove Tempesta, and Mary Varano. The tough schedule kept the Lady Lions from winning the number of games they could have. With three games to play each week, “we ended up playing more matches than we had prac- tices,” noted Coach Saba. The schedule was hard in other ways too. “The first eight matches were away,” explained Saba. ‘‘Only five games were at home the whole season. And that hurt us because the travel time was tiring. Sometimes we would get back late one evening and have another match at 3 o'clock the next afternoon. And four of the matches were over 300 miles away, so we often left Delco without our full team since some players couldn't miss classes or had assignments due and couldn't spare that much time away.” The toughest opponent was PSU Schuylkill from the Commonwealth Campus Conference. ‘‘They were awesome,”’ said Saba. They were a step above any other team we played. With a 16-0 record, they were crushing people left and right.” Delco also played in the Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Con- ference against teams from DCCC, Bucks County CC, Philadelphia CC, and Lehigh CC. It was a grueling schedule. Looking ahead to next year, Coach Saba is optimistic. “A lot of the players will be returning, including half of our current starting team, so it should be a good year. The schedule should be more bearable too.” : On Coach Saba’s wish list for next year is more support from the fans. “Often at the few home games we had, there’d be more fans for the visiting team than for us. That takes away a lot of the fun of game. We don’t want to just play for ourselves.” He would also like a manager and a scorer. They will be needed next season because the team expects it to be even wt Ts mw lo a a
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