By Zack Peñalva, Sports Editor
Cross Country Teams Send Two to Nationals
Nov. 5 – Both the men and women’s teams ended their season with second place finishes at the River States Conference Championship Meet last Saturday. The races featured some high finishes from Eagles runners, but the spotlight has to fall on seniors Caleb Woodard and Katy Falkenberg, who both ran well enough to qualify for the NAIA National Championship meet. Woodard’s time of 27:58.3 was good enough for 10th overall and a nomination to the All-Conference second team.
Falkenberg finished first overall in the women’s bracket, punching the ticket to her fourth Nationals Meet. Since breaking her career record by nearly a minute early this season, she looks set for her highest finish yet on the national level.
Women’s Soccer Advances to Semifinals on Penalties
Nov. 5 – With the game between the Eagles and West Virginia Tech deadlocked at 1-1 after 110 minutes of play, it took penalty kicks to decide who would advance to the next round of the conference tournament. “We practiced penalty kicks all week because we felt it had a real good chance it would come to that,” said head coach Brooke Lincoln. The practice was well worth it, as the Eagles proved to be the much more composed team. Tech missed three penalties, sailing two shots over the bar and hitting one directly at junior goalkeeper Brooke Perkins. Sophomore Meredith Brumfield, senior Toria Howard, and junior Mia Wiersema each made their shots from the spot to secure and Eagles win.
Men’s Soccer Easily Moves on to Conference Semifinals
Nov. 5 – When one player scores five goals, things are looking good. Freshman Noah Welch did just that for the Eagles against Brescia, scoring a brace in the first half and adding on three more goals in the second on the way to a 6-2 win in the River States Conference quarterfinals. Now with 16 goals on the season, Welch leads the Eagles in scoring as they look ahead to their next game: a difficult draw against Rio Grande, ranked third in the NAIA. After losing to Rio 5-1 back on Oct. 29, head coach Ben Andrews says his team will have no fear going into what could potentially be their final game of the season. “We’re ready for Wednesday. We want another chance at Rio.”