After finishing their regular season at 14-2-3, the men’s soccer team is primed and ready for their postseason.

“We had a few slip-ups this year, but I think those help us prepare for the postseason,” said sophomore midfielder Kevin Cavers.

Loras closed their regular season by taking its frustrations out against an undermanned and overpowered Cornell squad. The men put a number on the scoreboard so crooked, that the scoreboard was barely hanging on after the 13 goals were scored.

They know, however, that those days are as good as gone. Now every team they face will know what is at stake, and if they have a slip up, their season may very well be over.

“The postseason is where the good teams are filtered out by the great teams. What we have worked for in the regular season doesn’t mean anything unless we do some great things in the postseason,” said senior captain and goalkeeper Nate DuBois.

Everyone would like to look forward to the NCAA Tournament, but the Duhawks know they have some work to do before they can celebrate anything. After a tie to Central and a loss to Luther, to guarantee an NCAA Tournament berth, Loras must be sure to win the Conference Tournament Championship.

“We know that every game from now on will be hard, so we have to come out with our best in order to keep going forward,” said sophomore forward Alejandro Cosmopolis. “We have to be ready to play 120’ but will always be looking to finish it in 90’.”

Can Loras return to the Final Four like the teams of 2007 and 2008? Only time will tell, but from the kind of season they have had, this team has all the makings of a National Championship contender.

The Duhawk softball season came to an abrupt end this past weekend in the Iowa Conference tournament. Coach Ashley Rogers says she will take a lot from this season, even though the Duhawks sported a sub-.500 record.

“Overall, I thought we had a good season,” said coach Ashley Rogers. “Each year we are getting more and more competitive within the Iowa Conference.”

Senior Kelsey Techlin player her last season in style, breaking the Loras single-season stolen base record of 23.

Sophomore Kelly Klein also was another key player for the Duhawks, posting eight wins on the mound and also crushing clutch home runs. The season is over, but the future looks bright is players like Klein continue their success.

In the first game of the tournament against Simpson, the story of the game was told with the top of Loras’ batting order. The first three hitters for Loras accounted for three of the Duhawks’ four runs. Loras took the victory in this game, 4-2.

The elation of victory was short-lived, however, as Loras lost the next two games by a combined score of 15-1. After a fast start, the Duhawks seemed to lose steam as they ran into the number-one ranked team in the tournament, Luther College, in their second game.

The Norse proved to be too much for Loras. Luther’s Lexy Determan propelled her team to victory as she has done all season. Determan added another win to her resume, totaling 20 on the season, with only two losses on the end. Determan dominated the Duhawks, striking out 11.

Loras barely got a breather before they took on the Rams of Cornell. Going into the game it seemed Loras was the favorite, seeded No. 5 in the Iowa Conference against Cornell’s sixth-place ranking, but the rankings proved to be irrelevant.

Again, the Duhawk offense seemed out of synch as the Rams held them to one run, and really kept the Duhawk bats at bay.

All-in-all it has been a great season for the Duhawks they seem ready for next year already. Coach Rogers is already looking ahead.

“Next season our goal will be the same: improve each day. We saw a lot of great improvements this year, and we want to continue that trend,” said Rogers. “The 2012 season is already underway and we need to start preparing for it now in the off-season.”

 

Senior Danielle McNally and the men’s 4×200 relay team claimed titles this past weekend at the Iowa Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships.

McNally is already qualified to compete in the national championship meet in two throwing categories, the weight-throw and shot put. At the Iowa Conference indoor championship, McNally won first place in the weight-throw competition with a throw of 53-2.25.

The men’s 4×200 relay team also came away from the championship meet with a first place finish. The team is made up of junior Ryan Seymour, sophomore Sean Lewis, first-year John Kawka and senior Austin Arthofer.

The Duhawks entered the weekend meet with the goals of a second place finish for the women and a third-place finish for the men.  Both teams finished fourth overall, but Coach Bob Schultz was pleased with numerous individual performances.

“We came up a little short for both teams,” said coach Bob Schultz. “But for the most part many of our athletes competed well.”

Other athletes who gained all-IIAC consideration this past weekend include the 4×400 meter relay team composed of first-year Josh Goerdt, Seymour, Lewis and Kawka. On the individual side, all-conference qualifiers include senior Laura Rieger in the 800 and the mile run, Tim Derr in the 55-meter hurdles, Goerdt in the 400-meter dash, junior Bridget McQuillan in the pole vault, and sophomore Caitlin Groeper in the high jump.

Over the next two weekends, some of the Duhawks will compete in a couple of “last-chance meets,” hoping to post performances that enable them to qualify for the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships.

All the athletes also will begin preparations for the outdoor season. Schultz hopes each athlete will continue to improve as the season progresses.

“The teams have the outdoor season rapidly approaching.” Schultz said, “We need to take March and use it to get in better shape and improve our fitness to get ready for the outdoor season. I know and I think our kids know that we are a much better team and can do even better come the outdoor season.”

The team looks ready to begin the outdoor season, given their success thus far.

Personal records were the highlight of the weekend for numerous members of the men’s and women’s track-and-field teams — they were being broken like they were going out of style.

On Saturday, the track teams competed at the University of Dubuque in their final meet before the Iowa Conference Indoor Championships this weekend in Pella.

No team scores were held for the UD meet, but that didn’t stop several Duhawks from shining brightly. Senior Laura Rieger not only won the 400-meter dash, but she broke the facility record with a blazing time of 59.13.

Meanwhile, sophomore Caitline Groeper placed second in the high jump.

Most impressive of all might have been senior Danielle McNally, who won the weight-throw competition and was the runner up in the shot put. In addition, McNally has qualified to compete in both events at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in March.

On the men’s side, sophomore Sean Lewis finished the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.28, which places him among the top-10 all-time best times in the event for Loras.

Coach Bob Schultz previously has lauded a “great of a group of freshmen and transfers who have been a tremendous addition to the team,” and it was seen first-hand this past weekend. First-years Josh Goerdt and John Kawka both added personal indoor bests as they crossed the line together, separated by three-hundreds of a second apart for third and fourth places, respectively, in the 400-meter dash. Both runners finishing the race under 51 seconds.

For some teams, setting personal records would be a sufficient performance, but some Duhawks still weren’t satisfied and took aim at some of Loras’ all-time school records.

Junior Ryan Seymour and sophomore Tim Derr broke into the top three for school indoor records. Seymour achieved his feat with a time of 22.78 in the 200-meter dash. Derr broke into the school record books with a 55-meter dash clocking of 7.90 seconds.

“The team looks focused and excited to do well at the conference meet,” said senior long-distance runner Dain Leytem. “The whole team seems ready and raring to compete.”

The meet serves as a momentum- builder for the Duhawks, who hope to post their best times yet at the conference indoor meet. In the meantime, the onset of the outdoor season also looms in the background.

Schultz said the men’s team has set a goal to finish third at the conference meet, while the women are slightly more ambitious, eyeing a goal of second place.

Follow the Track and Field team on Duhawks.com

Not only can Duhawks fly, but they can hit the water as well.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are primed for the last couple of regular-season meets.

The team has not swam competitively since the end of January, when they posted back-to-back victories rather easily: a 108-71 win against Beloit and a 105-37 victory over Morningside.

Coach Doug Colin has been allowing his team to rest, which he thinks helps the athletes hone in on the right mind-set for this weekend, when both the Iowa Conference Championships and the Liberal Arts Swimming and Diving Championships take place.

“We’re down to the ‘tapering’ portion of the season,” said Colin. “Just putting the finishing touches on our starts, turns, finishes, relay exchanges and pace work. Lots of rest.”

Colin said he is eager to see his swimmers apply everything they have learned throughout the season and to compete as a team. But, yes, he also has some expectations for some individual athletes.

He expects top finishes from junior Andy Pape, sophomore Ricky Lukacs, sophomore Ryan Momberger and senior Steve Ball on the men’s team. On the women’s side, he expects top performances out of junior Alex Proctor and senior Kenzie Murray.

In the Liberal Arts Swimming & Diving Championships Colin believes Lindenwood University will be the team to beat, and Loras have their sights on hopefully taking down the Lions.

In the Iowa Conference Championships, Luther once again appears to be a formidable foe. Last year, both the men’s and women’s teams finished as the runner-up to Luther in the conference showdown, so there should be additional motivation for the swimmers to knock off Luther.

The Duhawks have had a total of six swimmers gain “performer of the week” honors during the season, but Colin expects all of the swimmers to perform at their best this weekend.

He also said leadership always is a huge factor in these end-of-season meets, and this seems to play right into the hands of the Duhawks.

“Our seniors have set a tone of hard work and expectations,” said Colin. “I think our first-year team members, for the most part, have bought into this attitude.”

Follow the results from these swim meets and more Duhawk sports information on Duhawks.com

Loras - It was a dreary day, and the temperature felt more like the end of November than the beginning of October.

The Duhawks’ latest opponent,

Wartburg, made sure the day stayed dreary for the Duhawks, beating Loras convincingly, 8-1.

The lone win came from the No. 2  doubles team of juniors Alisha Espey and Breann Billiet.

In what was supposed to be the second part of a doubleheader against Cornell, Mother Nature intervened. The rain drove the players inside and postponed the match until Wednesday.

Nonetheless, even with the loss to Wartburg, all indications point to the women making their first Iowa Conference Team Tournament since 2004.

Loras now sits in fifth place in the conference with two league matches left. The Duhawks need to beat either the University of Dubuque or Cornell this week to avoid any sort of tiebreaker situation. So, the team’s season-long goal of reaching the conference tournament is well within its grasp.

To the seniors on the team — Lindsay Dunkirk, Brenda Beckers, Kady Homewood, and Christie Runde — such an  achievement would be particularly special.

The final brackets have now been released and the Duhawks are slated to play Wartburg College tonight in Iowa City at the IIAC team championship.