10 E::E;EE GRAEME PORT sports@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, September13,2011 Cross country running strong after losing seniors t ‘52" .3_ *3 "- I By Melanie Koto STAFF WRITER This year, the Scarlet Hawks Cross Country team is welcoming a lot of new faces. The team graduated five seniors in 2010, but welcomes twelve new members to the team for the Fall 2011 season. The team has already competed in an invitational one on the 3rd of September, where the Men’s team finished 7th out of 16, and the Women’s team finished 4th out of 12. Freshman Abby Iahn gave a strong performance for the Lady Hawks, finishing in 3rd place overall (15:30) in the 4-km race. The Ladies also saw three other top performances by Courtney Rouse, Maddy Jen- sen and Kira Vincent. For the Men’s 6-km race, senior Wes Villalobos finished 34th (21:01) to score for the team. When asked what his outlook for the team is, Coach Kopinski commented, “We al- ways aim for the top 2 in conference. Last year we finished 5th for both men and women, but we are in arguably the 2nd or 3rd toughest conference in the nation, so we will just aim to be as competitive as pos- sible.” In terms of training, Coach Kopin- ski maintains the same strategy, “Train hard, get used to racing tired, and leave it out on the course. No regrets.” The team will be competing again in Libertyville, IL on the 24th of September. Images courtesy of Illinois Tech Athletics Women's volleyball wins first conference of season By Kayla Heller TECHNEWS WRITER The Illinois Tech Volleyball team (5-8, 1-0) picked up its first conference win of the season on Tuesday September 6 as they de- feated Trinity International in four sets (25-23, 24-26, 25-17, 25-23). Sophomore Kate Kendall, one dig shy of a double-double, lead the Hawks with 12 kills and nine digs. Senior Kayla Heller chipped in 11 kills, and junior Mariska Van- denbergh added 9 of her own. Freshman Shea Manley recorded a career-high five aces in the victory. Sophomore libero Brittany Mead registered her seventh match in a row of dou- ble-digit digs, finishing with 16 for the match. “Anytime you can win a conference match, especially on the road, it makes you feel good,” commented Head Coach Jacqui Gatt af- ter the match. “We’ve been making great prog- ress, but we still have a long way to go.” The Hawks then traveled to Livonia, MI to play in Madonna University’s 2011 Ju- lie Martin Memorial Tournament. The Hawks _—_-._'—__—__—_ Image courtesy of Illinois Tech Athletics Athlete Spotlight Sam Wistanley Name: Sam Winstanley Year: Senior Major: Business Administration Sport: Men’s Soccer. Position: Goalkeeper. Favorite thing about your sport: “Being part of a winning team and the camara- derie it brings.” What you like best about the fans at your games: “It’s nice to see people from the IIT community come and support the guys.” Favorite thing to do on Campus: “Use the computers in the MT CC to visit my favorite website: www.robert-rixer-doing- things.tumblr.com” opened up their day with a sweep of Rochester College (25-11, 25-22, 25-17) on Friday after- noon (Sept 9). Heller led the Hawks with nine kills to go along with a .467 attack percentage, three service aces and a block. Manley chipped in with a career-high seven kills, while junior Re- becca Bograd led all players with 31 assists in the victory. Mead registered a game high of 14 digs. In the next game, IIT faced one of its toughest opponents on the year, with the team falling in three to host (Nationally Ranked #19) Madonna University (15-25, 13-15, 19- 25). MU out-hit IIT .330 to .055. Hell- er and Manley led the Hawks with five kills apiece, with Heller also contributing two ser- vice aces. The Lady Hawks wrapped up the weekend by dropping both matches on Satur- day (Sept 10). Despite a 13-kill performance from Heller, IIT saw 18 tie scores and six lead changes but could not stop Daemen College, as the team fell 21-25, 17-25, 24-26. Bograd dished out 28 assists while Mead tallied a match-high 17 kills. IIT then fell to Walsh University (21- 25, 18-25, 19-25) during their second match of the day. The Hawks were led by Vanden- bergh, who registered six kills and three blocks in the defeat. Bograd posted 23 helpers and digs while Mead and sophomore Roma Mirutenko collected 11, and 10 digs respectively For her efforts, Rebecca Bograd was named to the 2011 IMM All-Tournament team, after finishing the weekend with 103 assists, 17 digs, four blocks and three service aces. Illinois Tech is on the road once again on Tuesday (Sept 13) against cross-town conference rival Robert Morris University The match up between the two teams will take place at Attack Athletics at 7:00 PM.