Sports

THE TARTAN WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2011

WOMENS BASKETBALL:
Radford Women outscore Eastern Mennonite University by 58 points Page 8

TARTAN SCOREBOARD SCOREBOARD

Mens Soccer falls in quarterfinals of Big South Tournament, looks to rebuild team for next season
Highlanders are defeated via penalty kicks after fighting tooth and nail with Liberty University for 110 minutes, Coach Reeves and the rest of the team look to build on 2011 successes
AJ NEUHARTH-KEUSCH
aneuharthkeus@radford.edu
on Wednesday, Nov. 2 in a crucial Big South match up. LU nabbed the victory 3-0. Needless to say, the Highs were looking for revenge when they met in the tournament. We were more focused and prepared for the second one, sophomore midelder Luis Grande said. The game on Thursday, Nov. 10 looked nothing like their rst matchup. It was a defensively strong battle that went back and forth, with little offensive action and a vast amount of solid defensive tackles and stops. Only a total of three shots on goal were recorded throughout the game. A key opportunity came to RU in the 84th minute in which Grande sent a pass through the LU defense to freshman forward Dario Redondo, who couldnt manage to put the shot in the back of the net past Flames goalkeeper Scott Sutarik. At the end of regulation, the score remained 0-0. In Division I Mens soccer, two 10-minute halves are added if a tie occurs after 90 minutes. For these two motivated and strong teams, an extra 20 minutes wasnt enough. After 110 brutal, exhausting minutes, the score was still notched at 0-0. The game advanced to the most exciting situation in soccer: a penalty shootout. In a penalty shootout, each team must pick players to alternate

Mens Basketball
W Delaware W Shenandoah L Penn State Big South: 0-0 Overall: 2-1 (Wednesday, Nov. 16, 7:30) --Central Penn College (Saturday, Nov. 19, 8:00) --@ Long Island 58-54 79-50 46-62

Radford University Mens Soccer went through an up and down journey this season, often following huge successes with crushing defeats. However, a 9-8-2 record was to be expected in a competitive conference like the Big South, which was so competitive that the seventh seed in the tournament (Winthrop) was one win away from the third seed (Campbell). On Thursday, Nov. 10, the fth seeded Highs took on the fourth seeded Liberty University Flames in the opening round. The two teams met previously

See Soccer, 9

Womens Basketball
W EMU Big South: 0-0 Overall: 1-0 (Wednesday, Nov. 16, 5:00) --Winston-Salem State (Saturday, Nov. 19, 3:00) -- USC Upstate 100-42

Mens Soccer
L Liberty W Winthrop L Liberty Big South: 4-4-1 Overall: 9-8-2 (Season Complete) 0-3 3-1 0-0 (4-5 PK)

Volleyball
W Campbell W UNC Asheville W Gardner-Webb Big South: 9-5 Overall: 15-14-0 (Thursday, Nov. 17, 7:30) -- @ High Point (Friday, Nov. 18, 7:00) -- @ Big South Semifinals 3-2 3-2 3-1

Notes of Worth

COURTNEY EARLL | The Tartan

Freshman guard RJ Price takes on Blue Hens guard Khalid Lewis. Price ended the game, which was his first night in a Highlander uniform, with 13 points and six rebounds.

PETER MASON
Courtesy of RU Athletics

pdmason@radford.edu
Maybe it was just the jitters of opening day, or junior guard Blake Smith sitting out due to a sprained ankle, but whatever it was, Radford University Mens Basketball opened up their season with a 58-54 nail-biter win on

Two players on the Radford University Womens Volleyball team received Big South weekly awards on Nov. 14. Freshman outside hitter Rachel Wiechecki was named Player of the Week and freshman libero Rachel Brummitt was named Defensive Player of the Week. During their 2-0 weekend, Wiechecki recorded 34 kills and 31 digs. Brummitt recorded 52 digs. The Highs have won their past four games, finishing the regular season with a 15-14 overall record and a 9-5 Big South record.

Friday, Nov. 11. Radford struggled to control the game. First of all, defensively, I think we really locked in as a team, said freshman guard R.J. Price. And we defended them real well, offensively we had some dry spells, we probably could have gotten some better shots, but overall

See Mens, 9

RU Volleyball locks up #3 seed in Big South Tournament, finishes season with 4-game win streak
HALEY SHOTWELL
hshotwell@radford.edu
The Radford Womens Volleyball team started off its two road games with a win against University of North Carolina at Asheville on Friday, Nov. 11. The Highlanders earned the win in a close 3-2 match. Defense was the key to this match and RU was led by two freshmen in the digs category. Freshmen libero Rachel Brummitt led both teams with 26 digs and freshmen outside hitter Rachel Wiecheckis earned a career high of 22 digs. Radford struggled in the first game, falling 25-20 after making costly errors. However, the Highs regained composure in the second game. The team started out slow and gave up the first three points of the match, but was able to turn the tables and tie the score at 4-4. The game remained close, with nine tie scores throughout game two, but RU ended the second game on an 8-4 run and evened the series at 1-1. Wiechecki had five of her 15 kills in the second game, with two of them coming late in the game to give RU a push to pull out a close game. The third game, like the previous two, remained close throughout the entire contest. The score was tied 11 times and the lead changed seven times. Things looked bad for Radford when the team got down 20-16, but a five-point push gave RU the lead for a short time. Coming out of the timeout, the Bulldogs pounded the ball and scored the last three points of the game to gain a 2-1 advantage over the Highs. The Highlanders started strong in the fourth game and jumped out to an early 10-7 lead. At one point, Radford had a commanding five point lead (19-14) and continued to play well, winning the fourth game 25-21. By forcing game number five in the match, the Highlanders set a new school record by forcing 11 game fives in matches this year. The Highs continued their strong play by grabbing a 3-0 lead early in game five. Radford won the final game on three straight kills.

See Volleyball, 8

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

The amount of wins Radford University Womens Volleyball had in the Big South this season, which is the most theyve achieved in conference since 2001. At the end of October, the Highs sat at 5-5 in the conference. They turned things around in the first half of November recording four straight wins and the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Big South Tournament.

JON HUFF | The Tartan

Freshman outside hitter Rachel Wiecheki leads the team in kills with 290, and is second on the team in digs with 247.