Friday, August 12, 2011

Friday MAC Results

Four exhibition games where played yesterday, three of them being women's soccer matches and the other a continuation of Ball State's Canada tour.

The Miami RedHawks women's soccer team scrimmaged Wright State, they played to a tie 2-2 and decided to settle it with PK's. Miami was able to pull out the victory there convincely 4-1.

Western Michigan women's team was also on the pitch. They faced Valparaiso and also finished in a 2-2 tie. Apparently they led 1-0 and 2-1 before the Crusaders fought their way back. Unlike Miami and Wright State, they decided to just call it a draw.

Ball State had a couple of teams in action. Their wome's soccer team was the third team on the pitch, and unlike the others faced a BCS school in Cincinnati. And also unlike the others, they beat them in regulation. 1-0 over the Bearcats.

And finally the Ball State men's team continued their Canadian tour with a win over Trinity Western. Though it was a little closer than the last time, 114-71.

According to my records, none of the MAC schools have lost this year. If you include the Canada tour the conference is 6-0-1.

Akron Shreds Sheridan


The Akron Zips basketball team has a lot of familiar faces in the starting lineup, though a third of them did not start last year. The Zips have built a program that trains their young

The starting lineup for the Zips consisted of one senior (Brett McClanhan), two juniors (Zeke Marshall and Quincy Diggs) , and a sophomore (Alex Abreu) and freshman (Nick Harney) each. Though almost all of the roster got in on the action yesterday and put up pretty good stats in the process.

Non-starters Chauncey Gilliam, Josh Egner, Blake Justice and Adedeji Ibitayo all accumulated ten points or more in the 112-59 rout over Sheridan. Though the Zips did start a little slow, they were able to pull it together and get the big win.

Next up for the Zips is the University of Quebec.

Read a recap of the game here


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ball State Conquers Quest University


The Ball State men basketball team dominated Quest last night. Though the Kermodes where able to keep it close for much of the first half.

At the tip the Cardinals took the ball and scored but that did not stop Quest from coming back and eventually take a 18-15 lead. Though the Cardinals did go into the first break leading, the Kermodes stormed out to a 23-20 lead in the second quarter (they played four 10 minuet quarters).

But it was runs that pushed Ball State to the 104-61 victory. In the third State started with a 20-5 run that put the game pretty much out of reach leading 65-38. If it was not over then it was certainly over when they made another run, this time 12-0 and the score 88-50. Ball State would not let up and continued to pour on their surprising offense.

In other news, check out the photo of Quest's gym. People think that MAC arenas are not up to par. I am sure it is good for their school and I am not making fun of it, just comparing what US basketball has to our northern neighbors.

BSU will continue their trip tomorrow when they face Trinity. I expect much of the same as Ball State are heavy favorites.

*Photo from ballstatesports.com...You can read a full recap on their site as well.


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Monday, August 8, 2011

Northern Illinois Receives Votes in Preseason Poll


4 points, tied for 45th in the country. The Northern Illinois Huskies are one of the favorites to win the MAC championship, and to play in a competitive bowl. Anytime a team in a mid-major conference can break into the rankings it is great, for it to be a preseason shows that many coaches respect what Northern Illinois is doing and how they are building their program.


Check back here soon as I will have a complete preview of the 2011 Huskies!

Central Michigan University Football Preview 2011


After looking at a top team we now go back to the bottom. What a drop off Central Michigan took last year dropping from 12-2 to 3-9. Its tough to lose both your quarterback AND your head coach to another city...Cincinnati (my hometown). Of course one went to the Bengals, the other to the Bearcats. Anyway.

Central Michigan looks to rebound, and quite frankly they may not have enough talent. Scouts.com Kyle Warber in an interview pointed to a lack of recruiting talent as a sign of things to come. Though that does not mean the cupboard is completely empty. The offensive line can still be looked as a semi-strong point of the team and the secondary certainly has what it takes to keep the team in the game. And if you take a look at the game instead of the stats, you would find that Central Michigan came close to being a top tire team once again last year.

the Chippewas where always fighting. One game that pops up into my mind was the Northwestern game where they found themselves with a sizable forth quarter deficit against a team that prides on being mentally tough. Quarterback Ryan Radcliff almost was able to push his team back and steal the victory. That is just one of many times the Chippewas fell just short.

Radcliff owns a 56 PPPR, I am really sold on the guy I just need him to preform on the field. His rating can sky rocket if he shows his potential this season and leads CMU to their rightful place a top the MAC standings.

So, what I am seeing is this year could very well be year number two of 'worst to first' in the Mid American Conference. Radcliff has to be more mature with the ball, and he can not let turnovers get the best of him. Most articles you read point to that being the major downfall of the team last year, which makes since because any turnover kills a team, three or four helps bury the grave.

My prediction of the Chippewas will be optimistic, I say they go 6-2 in the MAC and have a very good chance at going to Detroit.

As all ways check back daily for more season previews.



Sunday, August 7, 2011

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Akron Women's Soccer Dominates Cleveland State


The University of Akron women's soccer team played in their first exhibition match today against Cleveland State. The Akron women, who finished last year with a .500 MAC record and seventh overall, have some expectations this year as they return many players from last years squad and add some much needed pieces.

Cleveland State, though apart of the Horizon league, really does have a good women's soccer team. They went 9-8-2 last year and finished third in the Horizon. But Akron made them look bad.

Scoring first just over 11 minuets into the match, Akron was not nearly finished. Rachel Phillips picked up her second assist when she passed to Karina Atkinson who put away the second goal of the game. The first was off the foot of Junior Katie Wise.

The scrimmage consisted of three thirty minuet periods. Akron was able to score three times in the last one to make it a blow out. Ashley Hughes contributed two to cap off the 4-0 win for the Zips.

Akron women's soccer team will play at Duquesne this coming Saturday.

I hope to follow all of the women soccer preseason action as it leads right into the regular season.

*Picture taken from GoZips.com, read a complete RECAP HERE

Saturday, August 6, 2011

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Men's Basketball Teams Prepare for International Play


Every four years teams are allowed to go abroad and play in places that the team would normally not go. Some bigger schools find themselves going to New Zealand or enjoying it down under in Australia. Sometimes you just have to settle with going to Canada like what Ball State and Akron will be doing in just several days.

Ball State, who finished the season 19-13 (10-6) and in forth in the MAC last year, is scheduled to start their foreign trip on August 10th against Quest University, located near Vancouver. It is safe to say that home court advantage will not be in the Cardinals favor being close to 2446 miles away from campus. After the contest, BSU will go to Trinity August 12th and then to Vancouver Island on the 14th. In between those games, Ball State will take on Victoria Select on the 13th.

Though the teams will take the court on similar days, they do not play the same opponents. Akron faces teams located on the other side of Canada near Montreal and Ottawa. On the 11th they take on Sheridan College. On the 13th it is Quebec University. The Zips will then play a double header on Saturday against Champlain Alumni and McGill University then round up the foreign trip on the 16th with a final game vs. Carleton.

This is a great opportunity to find out how some of the top teams last year are after loosing key seniors last season. Though the teams that they will be competing against are not seen as too prestigious, it does not mean we should not follow these two in their journey.

Be sure to check back here as I will have updates on their progress.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Welcome to Pack The MAC


Hello and thank you for joining the Pack. My name is Parker Perry and I go to the University of Akron. I realize that there are some really good sites out there that follow MAC sports but I don't think you are going to find anything like what I am about to bring you.

My goal for this blog is to pack as much MAC sporting news into it. I don't care if it is football, volleyball, women's tennis, soccer, anything MAC sports related I will have for you.

The object is to post at least one well thought out message every single day from today, to the end of the MAC season sometime around June of 2012.

Like I said before, anything is fair game. I like to consider myself a MAC guru of sorts, meaning that I am not like the typical fan that follows only the major sports. I am one who knows who won the women's soccer tournament (Central Michigan) to Women's tennis (Akron). I am really looking forward to sharing all the insight and getting to know all of you.

Though I am a Zip, and I do love my Zips, I will be as unbiased as possible. I will try to keep a hard line of professionalism on this site.

I invite you to follow this blog and to comment on each and every article that I post. It would be a lot fun to interact with my readers than to just have a one way conversation.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, it is much appreciated.

Parker Perry

*By the way, I understand that I do not have Temple listed as one of the tabs, I had to make sacrifices due to only being able to make ten tabs. I had to eliminate them from this but I still will have articles about them be assured. That is also the reason why all of the Michigan schools are grouped together.