Toledo women soccer takes championship

Its about time.

After finishing runner up the last two years, the Toledo Rockets have finally broken through again and has won the 2011 Championship; their,and a record, forth league title. They beat Western Michigan 1-0 Sunday afternoon.

Toledo entered the tournament as the number one seed after beating 10 of 11 MAC opponents during the regular season. The only time they failed to clinch victory was against Akron, who managed to draw the eventual champion.

In the Championship contest, the Rockets held an outstanding 14 to 4 shot advantage, and played on offense for most of the match. Western Michigan was held with limited chances and few that had a chance at scoring.

However, head coach Brad Evans knew that getting the winning goal was not going to be an easy task.

"We talk a lot about wanting the tense moment, you can't win a championship running away. It's not going to happen" Evans said.

Toledo picked up the game winning goal off the foot of MAC player of the year Rachel MacLeod who capitalized in the 69th minuet. That was enough for Toledo's goal keeper Vicki Traven and her defense who was able to keep the Broncos scoreless.

It was not an easy run to the championship. In fact, Toledo started the season 0-2-1 before getting their first win.

"All credit to our players for finding a way and sticking to the game plan" Evans said.

The Toledo Rockets will now hit the road and play Marquette in the first round. They finished the regular season with a 14-6-2 record.

Photo taken from utrockets.com (here)

Akron stunned, home streak ends.

The University of Akron men's soccer team fell at home Wednesday night to the Michigan State Spartans zero to one. The loss, which stunned the packed crowd, was Akron's first home defeat in 48 matches, which was a NCAA record and spans almost four years. The game did not end without controversy either.

Akron won a 17 to five shot advantage and played on the attack for most of the match. Receiving opportunities from just about everywhere on the pitch, Akron appeared to be just moments away from breaking through. The greatest example was in the 29th minuet when Akron Midfielder Will Trapp fired a shot that bounced off the crossbar and went directly down and onto the pitch.

Regardless of the shot advantage, Zips head soccer coach Caleb Porter was still not happy with his team after the game.

"You get out of this game what you put in." Porter said, "...we didn't put in what we need to, to win a game like this."

The match remained scoreless until Michigan State capitalized on their best chance of the night. Rubin Bega found the back of the net when a perfectly passed ball found him in the box. The 86th minuet goal could of all but crippled the Zips, but with the support of a full house, Akron was able to muster two more chances.

The first shot had little chance of scoring, the second some say did. After receiving a corner, Akron's Matt Digilis found the ball played into the area and perfectly time his header. The ball shot off his head and to a knee of a Michigan State defender. From behind the net, it appeared that the defender had clearly drifted into the goal area, and while many Akron Zips player celebrated, the head official declared it saved. That was the last chance Akron had.

Because of the loss, which Porter described as embarrassing, Akron falls to 12-3-3 and will likely have to travel to a couple places during the up coming NCAA tournament.

Photo from Gozips.com

Blog Relaunch

Hello everyone,

You may have noticed that the site has been down... for about two months. That was simply because I have become the MAC beat writer at Foxsportsohio.com. That is also why you see some of my post have titles like "la;skdjfl;asdf". Those are simply my football previews that I moved to FoxSportsOhio.com.

I have decided to relaunch this site, while I work over there, because I feel that I want to write many more things than Fox Sports simply can allow. I want to write about volleyball, soccer and the sort but Fox Sports is more about football/basketball.

So I will be doing both! Simple as that. You should make an effort to view my work at both places...in my opinion!

Enjoy the ride (again).

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.

http://www.muredhawks.com/sports/w-soccer/recaps/081211aaa.html

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.

http://www.wmubroncos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4600&ATCLID=205242713

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.

http://ballstatesports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205242636&DB_OEM_ID=14200

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.

http://ballstatesports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=62159&SPID=6786&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=14200&ATCLID=205242732

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

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.

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