April 21, 2006 - Sports

A look back at the year in Pioneer sports 2005-2006
Soccer player leads sweep up in Habitat for Humanity project
by Hunter Franks

Clichés in sports run rampant. “Sports create all around good people.” “Sports build character on and off the field.” “Sports teach you to give 110%.” All of these clichés hold true when in comes to Nicole Greenberg (‘08), sweeper for the Lewis & Clark women’s soccer team.

“Nicole is an all-around impressive person,” said Women’s Soccer Head Coach Lisa Unsworth. Greenberg also played an integral role in the Pioneers season, becoming one of the team’s most valuable players in the last month of the season.

“We couldn’t have made it through the season without her,” said Unsworth. Greenberg also possesses maturity and leadership that stand out. “You wouldn’t guess she is a sophomore. You would think she is out there in the working world,” said Unsworth.

Last week, Nicole went out into the world, not to work, but to volunteer. She led a group of women’s soccer players to a downtown Habitat for Humanity housing complex.

Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide nonprofit organization which helps build houses for families in need. The complex in downtown Portland consists of twelve two-story houses. The group spent about four hours painting the interior walls of one of the houses.

The project first started up when Unsworth told her team that she would like to do some form of community service. Greenberg immediately took charge of the project.

“The nine sophomores on the team are all outstanding people, so for Nicole to rise up and lead that group is impressive,” said Unsworth.

Greenberg quickly contacted the LC Activities Office and they helped set up a time to volunteer at the Habitat complex.

“Nicole does a great job of firing people up, getting them on board and following through,” said Unsworth. The group not only followed through, but they enjoyed volunteering.

“It was a lot of fun and we hope to keep doing it,” said Greenberg

She pointed out that volunteering only takes a few hours and lets people give back to the community.

“It also allows us to make a connection with people who aren’t similar to us in class status,” she said, demonstrating that the soccer team doesn’t mind being a little unoriginal.
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Football will return to full conference action next season under new coach Chris Sulages.

Team of the Year: Women’s Crew
 The women’s varsity eight and the overall women’s team are currently ranked #1 in the Pacific region and #9 nationally. First year coach Sam Parker came over from UPS and has instantly turned the LC program into the best in the west. The Pios should be making a trip to the National Championships in New Jersey at the end of May.

Male Athlete of the Year: Ryan Wells (’06), Basketball
 Wells led the Pios in scoring with 14 points a game and was named second team all Northwest Conference. This was the first time in Wells career that he has been named all conference. He was top 15 in the nation in made three pointers and broke the school record for most three point attempts. He finished his career by scoring 33 points in a win at PLU.

Female Athletes of the Year: Carla McHattie (’06) and Tamma Carleton (’09), Cross Country
 McHattie and Carleton led the Pioneer women’s cross country team to a second place conference finish and a fourth place finish in the west region. McHattie became the first Pioneer woman to win the conference cross country championship. Carleton became the first Pioneer since 1988 to qualify for the NCAA championships by finishing fifth in the West Regionals. She placed in the top ten among female freshman runners at nationals.

Ironmen of the Year: Steve Bianchi (’07) and Scott Moyer (’08), Football and Track and Field
 Bianchi and Moyer participated in both football and track and field this year. A defensive back on the football team, Bianchi has made a name for himself on the track where he has won titles in the long jump, high jump, and triple jump while also competing in sprints. Moyer has joined Bianchi in sprinting for the track team, but made his mark in the fall quarterbacking the Pios. He was named NWC Player of the Week for his 293 yards and four touchdown effort against Colorado College.

Ironwomen of the Year: Jessika Morales (’06) and Liz Nguyen (’07), Volleyball and Tennis
 Morales and Nguyen have been teammates in both the fall and spring seasons. During the fall both girls were members of the improved volleyball squad, providing veteran leadership to a young squad. In the spring they have teamed up on the tennis court as the #1 doubles squad. In singles competition each girl has posted an 8-9 record, which is the team’s best.

Games of the Year:

LC 6 Linfield 5, Baseball
 The dramatic opening game victory over defending conference champion Linfield propelled the Pios to a series victory over the Wildcats. In the fifth inning a Greg Williams (’07) solo homer gave the Pios a 4-1 lead, but the Wildcats answered with one in the sixth and two in the seventh to tie the game at 4. In the top of the ninth with two outs Linfield hit a solo homerun to give them a 5-4 to lead, but the Pios would not be done. In the bottom of the ninth the Pios capitalized on Linfield miscues to load the bases for Williams, who delivered by launching a ball off the fence for a game winning double. Jordan Smiley (’08) pitched the final eight innings to pick up the win.

LC 3 PLU 2, Volleyball
 On October 19 the Pios defeat PLU for the first time in 14 years. After dropping the first two games to the Lutes, the young Pioneers would not give in. In game 3 the Pios took the lead 24-23 on a Sara Kettler (’08) kill and did not look back winning 30-25. In game 4 it was Audrey Dilling (’06), who went on to be second team All Conference, who delivered the winning kill giving the Pios a 31-29 win. With all the momentum in their corner the Pios cruised to a 15-9 victory in game five snapping a 27 game losing streak to the Lutes.

LC 94 PLU 92 (OT), Men’s Basketball
 Thomas Tillery’s (‘08) layup with four seconds left gave the Pios a thrilling overtime victory over PLU. The Pios erased a 12 point second half deficit behind the hot shooting of Ryan Wells, who had 26 points including eight three-pointers. Down by six with a minute left Wells and David Berggren (’09) connected on back to back threes to send the game into overtime where the Tillery layup would ultimately end it. Tillery finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Comeback Athlete of the Year: Nathalie Matson (’06), Softball
 After throwing only one inning all of last season due to injuries, Matson has rebounded to be the ace of the softball team. Matson leads the team in almost every possible pitching statistic including three wins and a 4.90ERA. The highlight of the season being a series sweep against George Fox in which Matson was the winning pitcher in three out of the four games.

Male Freshman of the Year: Luke Wheeler, Tennis
 In Wheeler’s first season as a Pio he has picked up 10 of the teams 31 match wins playing out of the #2 slot. Besides going 10-10 in singles, Wheeler has teamed up with Toshi Goda (’08) as the #1 doubles team. This past week Wheeler went 2-1 in singles and 1-1 in doubles including a victory against Willamette.

Female Freshmen of the Year: Lindsay Nixon and Koy Collier, Swimming
Nixon and Collier both earned NWC swimmer of the week honors over the course of the season. Both were also part of the 200 free relay team that set a new school record. Nixon also broke the school record in the 200 IM and 400 IM, winning the conference championship in both events. Collier set a record of her own, breaking the old school mark in the 200 free.

Coach of the Year: Juli Fulks, Women’s Basketball
 The Pios had their best season since 1994 going 8-8 in conference. The women were a conference contender for the first time in years despite having no seniors on the squad. The eight conference wins were a seven game improvement from a season ago. The Pios defeated every conference opponent except for one, including victories over eventual playoff teams PLU and UPS.

High Point of the Year: Crew beats UPS not once, but twice
 At the NCRC Invitational with choppy waters, the Pios women’s varsity eight defeated the then-sixth ranked UPS. A week later they proved that it was no fluke. In a dual meet in Tacoma the Pios won over UPS once again. The back to back victories over top 10 ranked Loggers signaled that LC crew has arrived on a national scale.

Low Point of the Year: Cancellation of the football season
 The worst moment in Pioneer athletics this season came off the playing field. The decision to cancel the conference season brought a black cloud over the entire athletic program. Since the decision, President Hochstettler has announced that the program will be retained and has hired new coach Chris Sulages to oversee the program. The Pios will play a full nine game schedule next season and have been hard at work preparing for the fall.

Club Sport of the Year: Ultimate Frisbee
 2006 was a banner year for both the men’s and women’s frisbee teams. Over spring break the women finished third in the Easterns Tournament in North Carolina, including a victory over nationally ranked Wake Forest. The men went 5-1 in the competitive Stanford tournament and advanced all the way to the finals in the Sectional tournament in California.

Performances of the Year:

Brandon Zerr-Smith (’07), Football
 In the final home game for the Pios, Zerr-Smith had a career day catching 14 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown. Zerr-Smith sat out the first game of the year against Occidental, so the home game against Colorado College was his first of the season. If he had any rust, it sure didn’t show. After the Pios got down 21-3 in the second quarter the fleet footed receiver took over. He shook off a bad shoulder to lead the Pio comeback as they ultimately pulled within three late in the game. Although the Pios lost the game 38-35 Zerr-Smith’s heroic effort stood out for anyone in attendance.

Crystal Castle (’08), Basketball
 After leading the Pios to victories over Linfield and PLU, Castle was named NWC player of the week. On the Friday of that week against the Wildcats, Castle had 23 points and 13 rebounds to give the Pios their first win over Linfield since 1999. Castle picked up where she left off scoring 16 points while pulling down 10 boards in a victory over eventual conference champion PLU. The victory over the Lutes was the Pios first since 1995. Castle would be named second team All Conference.

Nora Germano (’08), Soccer
 Germano was named NWC defensive player of the week after posting back to back shutouts against Linfield and Pacific. The Pios would settle for a scoreless tie against the Wildcats before defeating the Boxers 1-0. In 200 minutes of play Germano yielded no goals. She posted seven shutouts over the course of the year and was a big contributor to the Pios 5 conference victories after going winless a season ago.
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Ping pong proves it’s more than just a game

by Craig Gilden

Two weekends ago five members of the ping pong club competed in the National Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, quite an accomplishment for club’s inaugural year. Ed Levy (’09), Jenni Barnes (’09), Jenny Bard (’09), Emily Quayle (’08), and Daniel Sloan (’09) represented Lewis & Clark against competitors from across the country.

All of the players except for Levy had qualified for the tournament by placing in the top five of the Boise State tournament in February. Levy qualified earlier in the year with a good performance at the Portland State tournament.

The tournament spanned two days with each player getting a chance to see how they matched up against the best the players from across the country. Inexperience proved the undoing of the squad as the four freshman and a sophomore struggled against more seasoned teams.

The highlight for the team was Levy, who won a national championship in the Paralympics portion of the tournament. Levy not only won every match he played, but he also won every game, as he dominated all of his opponents.

Bard and Sloan also had strong outings winning some games in the consolation bracket.

Overall the club will use the experience of nationals as preparation for the coming years.

“It was an enlightening experience,” said Barnes. “We had a great time, and represented Lewis & Clark well. We did a lot of networking and everyone’s game has improved a lot.”

The rapidly growing club lists getting back to the tournament as a team, instead of just individually, a main goal for the upcoming season. The team welcomes anyone and everyone to come out and join them, “We’re always looking for more people,” said Barnes. “We would really like to take a girls team to nationals next year, and having more girls to play against would make a better team,” she said.

“We are a rapidly growing club which provides an outlet for recreation and social activity among students and faculty,” said Levy.

“The club has been in existence less than a year and we have approximately thirty members, have been on multiple trips, qualified four people for the collegiate nationals in Texas and one person won a title,” he said, affirming that the ping pong club has a future at LC.
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