Junior rewrites record books
September 24, 2007 2:19 am by Andrew
I’m not trying to turn this into an Ithaca sports blog, but something else happened on the South Hill this weekend that deserves some coverage. Junior Chelsey Feldman of the women’s soccer team became the program’s all-time leading scorer in the Bombers’ 4-1 win against Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday.
Feldman netted a hat trick in the game, which is a noteworthy accomplishment on its own. The fact that she did it within a seven-minute span is just plain ridiculous. She now has 87 career points in 46 career games. She has 10 goals in seven games this season, and is on pace for well over 20 goals this year, which easily crush the team record of 14 for a season. Her 34 career goals are one shy of the team record. Her 18 assists are six shy of the team record.
I think you get the point. Feldman is without a doubt the finest female soccer player Ithaca has ever seen. It can be argued that she is better than Sandor Szabo ‘66, who holds the majority of the men’s soccer records (80 career goals, 35 goals in a season, 180 career points, 78 points in a season). While Feldman likely won’t approach those eye-popping figures, she will finish her Ithaca career as the record holder in countless categories. After all, she’s only seven games into her junior season. Scary.
Share 
Leave a Comment
Cardinals clearly cream of the crop
September 22, 2007 8:36 pm by Andrew
After watching a good majority of today’s Ithaca-St. John Fisher football game, it was abundantly clear that the Cardinals are just as good, if not better than last year. I was not surprised in the least that Fisher easily handled the Bombers. I was, however, surprised at how easy they made it look.
At this rate, Fisher will go undefeated and again challenge for the National Championship, while Ithaca is in serious jeopardy of snapping their streak of 37-straight winning seasons. They could easily lose to Springfield, Alfred and Cortland, meaning they would finish the year at 5-5.
These are clearly two schools going in two very different directions. Hat Trick will have much more to say about Saturday’s games soon. I just had to write about the ugliness I witnessed earlier today.
Share Leave a Comment
Monday Morning Quarterback
September 17, 2007 6:36 pm by Andrew
This weekend Hat Trick had the opportunity to travel up to Alfred, N.Y. for a little getaway. One thing that become immediately clear to me Saturday afternoon - the Saxons are good this year. Really, really good.
Alfred destroyed St. Lawrence 49-19, one week after blowing past Thiel 34-7. For you math lovers, Alfred has outscored their opponents 83-26. That’s a pretty ridiculous point differential. Skeptics will be quick to point out that the Saxons’ next game comes against reigning co-Empire 8 champion Springfield College.
However, the Pride are coming off a bad 33-30 loss to Montclair State, and don’t appear to have the same magic as last year’s squad. Chris Sharpe is still a beast, but Springfield simply lost too many starters on defense for Sharpe to compensate for. If Alfred does get past Springfield, as I expect them to, they won’t face another tough challenge until their final game of the season at St. John Fisher. At this point in the season, the Empire 8 looks to be a two-team race between Fisher and Alfred, which pretty much no one would have expected three weeks ago.
Some other things I learned this weekend: Read more
Share Leave a Comment
New rankings released for soccer
September 12, 2007 3:24 am by Andrew
It’s pretty late right now and Hat Trick needs some sleep, but I wouldn’t leave you soccer fans hanging. Check out this week’s various polls and post your thoughts. Happy Wednesday.
Share Leave a Comment
Monday Morning Quarterback
September 10, 2007 4:12 pm by Andrew
So it rained this weekend - a lot. There was even an hour-long rain delay in the Ithaca-King’s football game. OK, so the game was technically delayed because of nearby lightning, but seriously, the weather was crazy.
But being stuck inside isn’t always a bad thing. Case in point: Saturday and Sunday were a sports fan’s dream. College football all day on Saturday and the return of NFL Sundays. I spent the majority of my Saturday watching the Ithaca-King’s game on TV, safely away from the rain.
Some thoughts from that game: Knowing that St. John Fisher pounded King’s 49-7 in the opening week, Ithaca should have beat the Monarchs by a lot more than 13 points. I know, I know - a win is a win is a win. But this doesn’t bode well for the Bombers. They welcome Fisher to Butterfield Stadium in two weeks, and if they hope to pull off the upset win, they’d better start taking care of business. They’ll get a good test this coming Saturday in Hartwick, which sports one of the nation’s top offenses, not to mention arguably the top all around player in the country in Lindy Crea.
Click to read my other thoughts and musings from the wild weekend that was: Read more
Share Leave a Comment
The return of Hat Trick - seriously
September 6, 2007 2:35 am by Andrew
So I’m finally back after a rather lengthy hiatus. My apologies. Though, for what’s worth, I did have an interesting and eventful summer. But I’m back and settled in on South Hill, so it’s time to get back to the D-III sports.
If you’re like me, you love September for a range of reasons: coming back to campus, the beginning of fall or, most importantly, the start of the college football season. Last Saturday provided a lot of interesting match ups across the D-III board. Rather than look back on last week’s games, I’ll look ahead to some of this Saturday’s notable match ups.
12th-ranked Christopher Newport at 4th-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor: Any time two top-25 teams face off, you know it’s going to be a competitive game. Christopher Newport defeated Rowan 23-17 in their first game, while Mary Hardin-Baylor’s season begins with this game. Players to watch: Sophomore running back Tunde Ogun (Christopher Newport) and senior running back Jarvis Thrasher (Mary Hardin-Baylor).
18th-ranked Augustana at 24th-ranked Baldwin Wallace: Another match up of top-25 teams, this game figures to be just as close. Augustana is coming off a 65-0 drubbing of MacMurray last Saturday. Baldwin Wallace, like Mary Hardin-Baylor, will be opening their season this Saturday. Players to watch: Senior quarterback Ryan McGinnis (Augustana) and junior wide receiver Matt Lepley (Baldwin Wallace).
Check back on Monday for my thoughts on this weekend’s games in the debut of Hat Trick’s Monday Morning Quarterback.
Share Leave a Comment
So much ado over text messages
June 28, 2007 12:18 am by Andrew
It looks like this will be my last post for a while (technological updates and such, boring stuff really), so I guess it’s only right that I discuss a college sports issue. Though, I had a lot of fun creating my own mock draft and offering up a new book of the month. But Hat Trick is a college sports blogger at heart, so let’s get back in the swing of it, shall we?
A number of months ago, the NCAA put a ban in effect (beginning for next season) on coaches sending text messages to players they are recruiting. There was a lot of questioning at the time, as the average sports fan wondered why this was even necessary. But upon closer examination, the NCAA’s rationale really isn’t that complicated.
Every traditional recruiting tool - visits to the campus and by coaches, recruiting packages, phone calls, etc. - are all limited. Coaches simply can’t invade a recruit’s life and overwhelm them with…well, crap…for lack of a better term. It is also, hypothetically, supposed to even the playing field, and create competition between schools for recruits.
But prior to this ruling, text messages, a relatively new technology in the context of recruiting, were completely unaccounted for. Coaches could literally text recruits as much as they wanted, and receive as many texts as they wanted. But the NCAA said no more.
So why then am I babbling on about this? Well, today I opened up my new ESPN MVP service on my cell phone (quite possibly the coolest gadget thingy ever created) and one of the top headlines read as follows: “TTYL? NCAA to reconsider text messaging ban.” Hmmm, I wondered; why would they do that?
As it turns out, the ban is going to be put into effect on August 1st regardless. The NCAA will have a board of directors meeting on August 9th to decide the fate of the ban. Many schools objected to a ban on texting, saying they would be OK with a restriction on it (just like all other recruiting tactics), but not with an outright ban. Honestly, I would have to say that I agree with the schools on this one.
How can you ban texting but not phone calls? It sets a bad precedent to treat one recruiting strategy differently than others. My hunch is that the board will either rescind the ban completely, or, more likely, amend it so that texts are allowed, but only to a degree.
Share 1 Comment
My first NBA mock draft
June 19, 2007 5:05 pm by Andrew
Yes, I realize this blog is intended to be a Division III sports blog. But I’ve always wanted to be able to post an NBA mock draft online for the public to see, so I’m taking that opportunity now. As a die hard Minnesota Timberwolves fan, this year’s draft (7 p.m. Thursday, June 28) is arguably the most important in the team’s history. The team pretty much sucks, except for Kevin Garnett, who can become a free agent in the very near future. The T’wolves need to add an impact player that can help return the team to the playoffs. And, fortunately, that seems very possible in this year’s deep draft.
So without further ado, here’s my first mock draft. Note: trades are not taken in account and I reserve the right to change any of my picks before 7 p.m. next Thursday. Enjoy. Read more
Share 2 Comments
The future of ticket sales
June 14, 2007 2:06 pm by Andrew
So my Diamondbacks are getting throttled (shout out to College Ave.) by the Yankees for the third day in a row, so I’ve been looking to occupy myself with other activities for the past hour or so. Then I remembered a conversation I had with my academic adviser earlier today.
My adviser, Ellen Staurowsky, also happens to be a sports fanatic. We often spend much of our time discussing games, news, and any other events in the sports world. Today, we chatted about whether or not the Cavaliers would be able to extend the (so far) depressing NBA Finals. I brought up the issue of television ratings - which if you read this blog you know this it’s an issue I take dear to heart - and how the ratings have dropped with each game. I believe I said: “Where are the American sports fans?”
Dr. Staurowsky followed that up with an interesting fact. She said that she had visited cavs.flashseats.com earlier this morning, and found hundreds of tickets for tonight’s game still for sale. There were even pairs - PAIRS - of tickets being sold for a little over $100. That’s cheaper than a lot of regular season games. And this is the NBA Finals. But I was more interested in the actual website than the ticket sales, as they hardly surprised me.
Cavs.flashseats.com is a new innovative website that allows fans to purchase tickets directly online, with no need of an actual paper ticket. From their “About” section:
Flash Seats? paperless ticketing does just that ? it eliminates paper tickets. Fans swipe any form of electronic ID (credit card, driver?s license, etc.) at the gate and then enter the arena. No lost or stolen tickets. It?s really fast!
Besides buying tickets, you can also sell and transfer them on the website. Essentially, as Dr. Staurowsky explained to me, the Cavs are trying to make back some of the money they have traditionally lost to ticket scalpers. What this website is doing is taking scalpers off the streets outside of the arena, and putting them in an online network. And since the website is through the team, they can monitor all sales, transfers, etc.
This seems like a pretty ingenious idea to me, and is one that is surely going to grow in popularity over the next few years. Within the next decade we could see all professional sports teams operating ticket sales this way.
Share Leave a Comment
Bad week to be a Nugget
June 12, 2007 3:22 pm by Andrew
I swear I’m not picking on the Denver Nuggets. The team, or more specifically the players, are just having one hell of a week. J.R. Smith, a young guard in his third season in the NBA, was at the wheel of his 2003 GMC Yukon on Saturday when Smith went through a stop sign and hit another car, causing the Yukon to flip over.
Smith, who was not wearing a seat belt at the time, was actually thrown from the vehicle, but walked away only with scratches and an injured left shoulder. One of his two passengers, 21-year-old Andre Bell, was not as lucky. Bell, who was in a coma from severe head injuries, died Monday night.
As is the case with most car accidents, this incident could have been avoided. The more alarming discovery came today, when the Newark Star Ledger reported Smith had his license suspended five times in a span of less than a year. From the Associated Press story on ESPN.com:
Smith amassed 27 points against his license from April 22, 2005, to Jan. 10, 2006, with eight violations on seven different dates. The violations included five speeding citations. His most recent license suspension came on Feb. 7, 2006.
And though Smith was officially in “good standing,” as far as paying off his fines goes, I find this no less disturbing. I mean, is it even possible to be that bad of a driver? And really, how can you keep getting your license back after that many suspensions?
Feed for Hat Trick