The men’s basketball season will be underway next week as they square off at home against non-conference opponent Wheaton College. Wheaton got the best of Loras last year in a 79-63 victory but will be facing a much improved Duhawk team this season.

The Duhawks got off to a slow start at the beginning of last year’s season, which was detrimental to their playoff chances. Things eventually began to click with the the second half of the season, but the hole was a bit too deep.

In their last six conference games last season, the Duhawks went 5-1 to make a push for a playoff spot but found themselves on the outside looking in after a four-team tie break scenario denied them a spot. They finished the season on the heels of a three-game win streak.

This year, the Duhawks will be led by five seniors: Brian Gaughan, Jordan Harrelson, Zack Peterson, Tim Kelly and Dan Pawelski. Pawelski finished last season as the team leader in points and rebounds averaging 11.8 points per game and 7.5 rebounds and received second-team all-conference honors for his play.

Head coach Greg Gorton expects “great leadership” out of these five men, and they have all been elected captains. Kelly and Harrelson also return as two-year starters, and are no strangers to putting up big stats.

IIAC Competition looks to be tough this year. The team everyone hopes to beat this year will be Luther who took home the conference championship last season. The Duhawks were 1-1 against Luther last season.

“Our expectations are a conference championship only,” said Gorton. “We learned a lot about ourselves a year ago and have most of the team back. We have the talent to beat any team in our league.”

The women’s basketball team will be returning all players from their conference championship run a year ago where they came within three points of advancing to the title game after falling to the #1 seed and eventual champions, Coe College.

The Duhawks finished the regular season with a 14-11 record overall and an impressive 10-6 record in the conference and ended the season with a five game win streak.

The lone senior on the team is Lindsey LaBadie, who led the team last season in points, rebounds and steals on her way to receiving first-team all-conference honors.

Along with LaBadie, the Duhawks return a strong class of juniors who all made huge impacts last season: Brit Kent (2^nd team all-conference), Melissa Herrmann, Niki Rivera, Brittney Cato, Rachel Kerchefske, and Kelly Rogowski, along with Katie Wheeler who returns from knee surgery after a strong freshman campaign.

The advantage of returning all starters from last year’s team should bode well for Loras.

“Game experience is something you cannot replace and returning our entire roster with the addition of a very talented freshman class will be an asset on game day,” said coach Justin Heinzen.

Coach Heinzen calls the conference championship, “an achievable goal” especially after last season’s’ late run.

“Our league should once again be one of the top conferences in NCAA DIII with Simpson, Coe, and Wartburg being picked as the top tier of our league,” said Heinzen. “But we know we can compete with any of those teams.”

The team’s motto last year was to take it one game at a time. With a developed sense of familiarity and talent, expect the Duhawks to make a strong push for a conference title this season.

by Jeff Schmidt

The opening match of the Iowa Conference Tournament began with a lot of volleys going back-and-forth between the No. 4-seeded Duhawks and No. 5-seeded Central Dutch, but in the end the Dutch were able to sweep Loras in three sets.

The first set provided many opportunities to go either way but the final few points were extremely hard fought, with the Duhawks diving and spiking in a valiant effort to stave off the surging Dutch.

After taking a convincing lead in the next set, the Duhawks courageously battled back to even the score late in the second set, eventually gaining the lead at 20-19.

The last few points turned out to produce another nail-biter, with both teams gaining the lead several times. In the end, the Dutch persevered once more, despite a great effort from the Duhawks and a frenzied home crowd.

Utilizing their momentum from the previous two sets, the Dutch once again took an early lead over the Duhawks. And once again Loras rallied to come within 2 of the leading Dutch.

Unfortunately, that was the closest the Duhawks would come in the 3rd and final set of the night.

The juniors on the team, Cassie Crabill, Regan Riley, and Kenzie Goedken led the team in kills with 8, 7, and 6, respectively. While the seniors, who dressed up for the final time, Julie Rogers and Kaity Frost, contributed with 28 assists by Rogers and 5 kills and 11 digs by Frost.

Loras could not muster enough to hold back the powerhouse Dutch losing 25-23 in the first two sets and 25-15 in the final set.

While they ended up getting swept for the night, the team and coach Teresa Kehe took a lot away from the loss.

“We needed to start putting it out there in every game; you know, playing every point like it matters. And I think that we don’t do that at times,” said Kehe. “I think that everybody wants to be here, but I don’t think that they understand that internal drive that it takes.”

After a disappointing loss in the conference tournament opener, that closes the door on the Loras season. However, Kehe was able to look at the season as a whole and sum it up.

“It was kind of two-fold,” she said. “It was disappointing; I thought we could’ve had a much better record. I don’t think we went into our weekend tournaments playing at full potential,

“I thought we brought more of our game during the week, which was great for conference play,” she continued. “However, the weekend games prepare you for conference play. We had one of the toughest weekend schedules of anybody in the region.”

With only three seniors leaving the team due to graduation the team should look strong going into next season with the experience that many of the current juniors have had as they filter it down to the other players on their team.

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.

Following a 19-17 loss to Cornell College, it would not be appropriate to say the season has been getting easier for coach Paul Mierkiewicz as he comes down to the final two games of his first season as Loras coach.

Loras, after starting the season 1-1, dropped its sixth straight game to bring its record to 1-7 on the season, tarnishing in sophomore quarterback Sean Brennan’s first college start.

“We did not execute well enough early on,” said coach Mierkiewicz. “We just ran out of time in the end. It’s easy to focus in on how the last couple of minutes went, but we left a lot of points out there in the first half.”

Brennan, starting in place of injured senior Vaughn Gesing, was able to get the ball out fast. He completed 50 percent of his passes going 12-24 through the air for 261 yards. He threw for two touchdowns and one interception, while only getting sacked twice.

“Sean did some nice things. Cornell gave us some looks in the secondary that we were able to exploit,” said Mierkiewicz. “There are always a couple you want back. Vaughn is a week-to-week thing, but he will not be suited up this weekend against Wartburg which will be tough with it being senior day, so we will continue to go with Sean and work out a strong game plan for him.”

In the second half, Loras was able to strike at the end of the third quarter to bring the score back within three points. Junior Billy Kass was able to net 20 yards on four straight running plays that were then capped off on the next play with a 29-yard throw to receiver Gavin Kaiser for a touchdown.

The Duhawks scored their final points with just over two minutes left to play in the game when Brennan completed four straight passes, one to Nate Even and three, including the 37-yard touchdown, to Kaiser.

Wilker trotted on to try the on-side kick, but to no avail, as Cornell recovered the ball to preserve their 19-17 victory.

With Brennan still feeling out the college-game play, it is nice to have a senior receiver in Gavin Kaiser who was on the receiving end of eight passes and the two touchdowns thrown by Brennan for a total of 154 yards.

“Vaughn is experienced and can play the position as good as anyone in the conference, so that aspect hurts us,” said Kaiser. “However, I, along with the team, have been very impressed by Sean’s commitment, dedication, and leadership. These are qualities that are important to have as a quarterback, and he has done a great job in possessing these qualities.”

This weekend against Wartburg College will mark Loras’ final home game of the season, as well Senior Day to recognize the last time the seniors will get to dress up in front of their fans at the Rock Bowl.

Gavin Kaiser gave his perspective as his final chapter as a Duhawk prepares to come to a close.

“To sum up the four seasons here at Loras, I would say that we have been through a lot, but we have had a lot of fun in the process.  We went through a coaching change; we had some successes on the field while also having less successful seasons, so we have been through a lot. This season, record-wise, was obviously something that this group of seniors did not expect. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we enjoy the game and our teammates.”

The Loras Duhawks and Washington University Bears met each other on the Rock Bowl Sunday afternoon in a pivotal match up on the national scene.  Two of NSCAA’s top ten teams meeting, meant that senior day for the Duhawks would not be easy.

From the very first whistle, the Bears tried to keep possession away from the attacking Duhawks.  With a string of solid passes it was two minutes until the Duhawks would see their first touch.

The anticipated match-up did not disappoint. Within six minutes of the start, the Duhawks got their first shot on the Bears.  Brad Joiner, coming off an injury that kept him from the last match, was able to get a shot off but Washington’s keeper, Jonathan Jebson, was not troubled.

The Duhawks kept up the pressure, getting shots from Van Den Bergh, Cavers, and St. George, but none would find the back of the net.

“I felt we came out pretty hard. This was a game of two very good teams, but two different styles. I felt that both teams played really well, and Dubs’ save at the end was real clutch,” said sophomore Kevin Cavers.

Loras was not the only one to find opportunities, though, as Washington had maybe the best chance of the half, when Peter Jebson fired a one-touch shot into the top corner.  Nate Dubois came to the rescue though, diving and tipping the ball over the crossbar to keep it knotted at zero.

It stayed that way going into the half.  The Duhawk seniors (Nate Dubois, Kyle Quillin, Camilo Garces, Malcolm Calbert, Chris Comstock, Donald St. George, Colin Pekovitch, Dan Miller, and Coach Jon “Maddog” Hartley) were recognized during this time, and they entered the second half with hopes of getting a W on their senior day.

The second half began with more opportunities on both sides.  The first real quality chance came from the Bears in the 53rd minute: Zach Query hit a laser off the Duhawks left post which rebounded to a waiting Dylan Roman.  Roman hit the bouncing ball wide and the Duhawk fans exhaled.

From there, the game evened out and although each offense looked dangerous at times, defense prevailed and solid chances were hard to come by.

Perhaps the most exciting point of the game came in the 85th minute when a penalty was called for the Bears, and Patrick McLean and Dubois must square off.

“When it came down to it, I knew I had to make the save. My team needed me right then, and I was able to come through in the clutch,” said senior goalkeeper, Nate DuBois.

McLean’s shot brought back memories of last year’s NCAA tournament game, and the weak shot was caught by Dubois.  The Duhawks responded with one of the loudest cheers of the year, and momentum began to swing in the Duhawks’ favor.

Loras had several chances before the end, most notably a shot that went over from Van Den Bergh.  Tim found himself about ten yards out, but the bouncing ball was too difficult to get a solid foot on it.

Regular time then finished up in a goal-less draw and the two teams headed to golden goal overtime.

In overtime the Duhawks started the chances off; Van Den Bergh, receiving the ball on the left side of the field sent a nice ball into the back post for Kevin Cavers.  Cavers managed to get a head on the ball, but his shot sailed over.

Donald St. George also made an attempt in the first OT, but the hard shot was sent directly into Jebson’s stomach.

The second OT swung towards Wash U’s favor.  The Bears created some dangerous chances getting into the attack.  Their attack attracted most of the Duhawks’ attention as the only Duhawk opportunity was the last of the game. Cavers’ corner sailed over everyone and time expired.

An exciting match up between two of the nation’s top teams ended, 0-0.  Neither team walked away from the game feeling necessarily good or bad about the contest, but each probably feeling they should have gotten the W.

by Jeff Schmidt

The volleyball team’s season is not finished just yet.

After struggling through many tournaments this season the Duhawks’ regular season schedule came to a close on Wednesday night against Cornell College.

Before the match against Coe College on Oct. 19, Loras honored seniors Kaity Frost, Julie Rogers, and Kelsey Smith for their contributions to the team over their four seasons as a Duhawk.

Each Duhawk has had their own unique role on the team, logging over 500 kills, 1,200 digs, and 3,300 assists combined.

“Senior night and our ‘Think Pink’ game were terrific ways to end the year on our home court,” said Frost. “We took what we knew about each team and worked as hard as we could to use that against them. Unfortunately we couldn’t come out with a win on senior night, but it was a hard fought, exciting game to end the year.”

During that ‘Think Pink’ night earlier this season, the game ended in a victory for the Duhawks over Central College, which secured a spot in the Iowa Conference tournament beginning Nov. 1.

While not doing as well as they had hoped last weekend in the UW-LaCrosse tournament – winning one out of the four matches – Loras is preparing to compete against fellow IIAC teams come November.

“We did secure our spot for the IIAC conference tournament, so we will be playing the first round on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

We are unsure of who our opponent is and where it will be played as of now,” said Frost.

That opponent will become known after Friday night’s matches between Luther and Cornell Colleges.

Regardless of the opponent, the Duhawks will be sure to be prepared for their competition as they set out to prove that they are even better than their record.

“I think the best way to sum up the season is that it was a very learning-experienced season,” said junior Kenzie Goedken. “It may not have turned out how the team would have liked, but it’s not over until that conference tournament and I think with the talent we have on the team we have to utilize that and we can definitely make winning the conference tournament an option.”

Regardless of how the end of the season turns out, the players that make up the team have a strong bond that senior Frost appreciates more than ever now that she is close to ending her collegiate athletic career.

“As far as my overall experience from freshman year to now, I’m so happy that this is the group of girls I get to be with for my senior year.  We are all so close and so goofy that it makes for a really fun year!”

The Duhawks may still be trying to find their identity on the football field under their new regime, but entering a bye week this week, the one main thing the team sorely needs is overall roster health.

Loras headed to Luther College this past weekend and came out on the wrong end of a 20-13 game, which gave Loras a record of 1-4 overall and 0-3 in the Iowa Conference. Luther is 1-4 overall with a 1-1 record in the conference.

“Saturday was frustrating. I don’t think we got beat by a better team Saturday. It was a good game overall, our players and coaches worked so hard to prepare for the game,” said Coach Paul Mierkiewicz. “But just because you work hard does not always mean it is going to translate to on the field.”

The game started out the same like the rest: sloppy. Luther received the ball after a botched punt by Loras and decided to go for it on 4th down. However, the Loras defense stood tall behind another strong performance by senior Zach Myers.

The offense had their turn, but quickly  turned the ball over on a fumble by receiver-turned-running back Billy Kass, which helped Luther get on the board first with a field goal.

“Real good defense again by our team, we are searching for an identity because in the first two games we put up a lot of offense, but struggled on defense,” said Mierkiewicz. “Now these past two weeks we have played great defense and struggled on offense. With the week off we get to look back at the way we are doing things, take a deep breath, and make sure we are executing the way we want.”

Senior Zach Myers improved on last week’s career best performance of 13 total tackles with 14 this week.

David Zoeckler tied with Myers with 14 total tackles and five solo. Junior Dan Badovinac and senior Eric Meyer each recovered fumbles, and juniors Kyle Kirchoff and Brandon Ronan teamed up to split Loras’ one sack of Luther’s Chris Reynolds.

Kass made up for his fumble early in the game by taking a 17-yard run into the endzone on Loras’ second offensive drive following the fumble.

The drive lasted eight plays for 53 yards, with all eight plays involving Kass running the ball until he found the end zone.

Coming out of halftime, tied at 6-6, Luther wasted no time breaking the tie on the first second half possession with a healthy mix of run and pass plays. They picked up four first downs along the way to the end zone, collecting 69 yards on the 12-play drive.

Loras would tie it up one more time in the third quarter on an 8-yard pass from senior Vaughn Gesing to fullback Kyle Bergquist before the eventual game winning touchdown by Luther in the 4th quarter.

Junior Billy Kass was the central focus of the Loras offense this past week rushing 32 times for a net gain of 119 yards, Kass is second in the conference in rushing with 521 yards on 126 attempts averaging 4.4 yards a carry.

Despite the positives of the running game, the team’s other playmaker, Vaughn Gesing, struggled throughout the game working through a separated shoulder he suffered homecoming weekend against Simpson.

“He did not practice at all last week due to the separated shoulder on the throwing arm, but he gutted it out, he is a courageous man,” said Mierkiewicz. “I think it hampered him and led to his timing being off. The ball was sailing on him and that made some passes go too high making things difficult during the game.”

Gesing completed 5-for-21 passes for 36 yards and two interceptions to go with his touchdown pass.

With half the season in the books, a bye week could not come at a better time for the Duhawks.

Mierkiewicz hopes the team can take advantage of the week by getting healthy, since the team has been going hard at it for almost seven weeks straight, dating back to training camp.

Loras will look to work on the offense, defense, and special teams this week to prepare a gameplan for when Central comes to the Rock Bowl on Oct. 15.

It is never easy working from the bottom to the top, but the Duhawks find themselves in an unwanted position coming off of a 21-3 homecoming loss to Simpson College.

Following the team’s second straight loss, Loras now is 0-2 in the Iowa Conference, and 1-3 overall.

“It was a frustrating day, especially when you’re the one calling plays on offense,” said Coach Paul Mierkiewicz. “It was just a frustrating day, but we will get through it.”

Despite the frustrations on the offensive side of the ball, the defense played a well-rounded game, spotlighted by the performance of senior linebacker Zach Myers.

“I thought the defensive coaches came up with a great plan, and our kids were aggressive, and that’s what you want to be defensively,” said Mierkiewicz. “I thought we held things in check. Simpson is a very good offensive team, and Zach Myers played tenaciously throughout the game, flying all over the field, which was part of the design of what we wanted to get done.”

Myers had 10 solo tackles, four tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble on the day, making him a special mention on the Iowa Conference “performers of the week” list.

“It feels good to get recognized by the IIAC for having a good game and that is a direct result of my coaches and teammates helping to put me in the right positions to make a play,” said Myers.

Offensively, Loras dominated the time of possession during the first quarter after it forced Simpson out after a four-minute, 10-play drive. Although Simpson’s punt pinned Loras at its own 1-yard line, the Duhawks  responded with a 10-minute, 18-play, 87-yard drive that it capped with a 27-yard field goal from junior Tyler Wilker.

Simpson had the ball to begin the second quarter, but Loras shut them down after seven plays. From there, Loras began to struggle against the Simpson defense. The Duhawks managed just 12 plays over the course of three possessions in the second quarter. Two of those possessions were three-and-outs that gained only three yards.

“The Simpson defense really stuck their safeties well into the linebacker box. That really posed problems for us,” said Mierkiewicz. “They did some nice things with coverage and were able to double up on some plays. When we get that pressure from safeties, it leads us to use our play-action plays, and we were not able to hit on all cylinders with a lot of that.”

Coming out of halftime trailing 7-3, the Loras offense still could not get it rolling. It ran the ball twice, then suffered a sack, and again had to punt.

“Defensively, I think we were great all day, and I would give us a high grade,” said Mierkiewicz. “Offensively, the first drive we executed well, but after that it seemed like we did not have 11 guys on the same page most of the second, third and fourth quarters.”

The numbers for some of the Loras playmakers were telling. Junior running back Billy Kass was held to 46 yards on 21 carries. Quarterback Vaughn Gesing completed 10-of-23 passes for just 90 yards, and he also had three interceptions. Gavin Kaiser led the receivers with four catches for 35 yards.

The defense did its part to keep Loras in the game in the third quarter as it held Simpson to just 4 yards on six plays.

But Gesing got sacked on first down, and that was followed by a fumble by junior running back Ryan Baez, giving the Storm the ball deep in Loras territory.

“Turnovers make it tough and are never things you want to see in the game,” said Mierkiewicz. “But the turnovers have come at bad times this season, and we just are not doing a good job of taking care of the ball on the offensive side.”

With Simpson deep in Loras’ territory, Storm quarterback Taylor Nelson threw a pass into the end zone that ended with an impressive one-handed grab by receiver Taylor Rogers. The Storm outgained the Duhawks 317-to-165 in total offense.

Loras saw a glimpse of hope when Zach Myers forced the ball out of running back Michael Chia’s arms on the Loras’ 2-yard line, but a deep pass on first down by Gesing resulted in an interception returned to the Loras 1-yard line. A quarterback-keeper by the Storm put an end to the scoring at 21-3.

“I think our defense played our best game of the year, and I feel we built a lot of confidence. With that being said, we still have a lot of room to improve,” said Myers.

Mierkiewicz mentioned that the focus in practice this week would be to go back to the basics for the offense and to figure some things out that have not been working for them. The Duhawks will hit the road this weekend with a visit to Luther College.

After starting 3-1 in conference, the Duhawks were ready to continue their great play in the IIAC, but instead were engulfed by the Simpson Storm this past weekend in the doubleheader.

Coach Ashley Rogers has stated in the past that getting off to a strong start in the conference was key for the team, and it looked good with a 2-0 start, but Loras sat with a 3-3 record in the IIAC going into yesterday’s games against the University of Dubuque.

The Duhawks looked ready to continue their good performance against Simpson, the Storm presented a tough challenge for the Duhawks, as they stand undefeated in the Iowa Conference.

At first-look it seems that the Duhawks were simply outplayed by the Storm in the first game, but mistakes in the field attributed to the Duhawks hurting themselves.

The Storm rained down runs, posting an intimidating 9 runs on the scoreboard, but five errors committed by the Loras fielders led to 7 unearned runs in the game.

Simpson’s pitching was nothing short of fantastic as its hurlers surrendered just one hit and one unearned run to Loras.

“There were a lot of little mistakes during the first game,” said Klein. “But I think the team learned from it and we will bounce back and be a stronger team from it.”

The second game would come down to the wire for the Duhawks as they would leave runners in scoring position, losing the game 4-2.

The pitching for the game again kept the Duhawks fooled at the plate, but some players like sophomore Shelby Perkins, who went 2-3, found some success.

“We connected well hitting the ball, but we just couldn’t find the holes in the defense,” said Perkins. “The pitcher’s off-speed pitches also threw us off a little.”

Loras collected one run from senior Sara Palczynski on her third home run of the season, and then back-to-back singles by Perkins and Beth Miller gave the Duhawks their second run, before ending the rally on a groundout to the shortstop with runners on second and third.

Palczynski’s homer came with no one on base, however, and the Storm won, 4-2, to keep the team undefeated in the conference.

“Things never seem to go as planned. That is why we continue to take things one game at a time and focus on the present,” said Rogers. “When you look back or look ahead, you miss the opportunity that is right in front of you.”