The Highlights

Scores, news and more from Lawrence University Athletics

Lawrence dumps Blueboys to earn MWC Tournament berth

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — The Lawrence University men’s soccer team took control of the game early and went on to a 3-1 Midwest Conference victory at Illinois College on Sunday.

The win clinched a berth in the four-team MWC Tournament for the second consecutive season. Lawrence (7-9-1, 6-2-1 MWC) is the second seed and will play Beloit College on Friday in the semifinals at Carroll University.

The Vikings jumped on Illinois College early when Joe Cullen took a pass from Karl Mayer and scored at the 12:18 mark. Vince Butitta gave Lawrence a 2-0 lead at 27:09 when he scored off a pass from Stephen Exarhos.

The Blueboys trimmed the lead to 2-1 at 43:34, but Lawrence scored just 42 seconds later to take a 3-1 lead into the half. Freshman Oliver Newsom took a pass from his brother, Simon, and scored to restore Lawrence’s two-goal edge.

Freshman goalkeeper Taiju Oki had to make only one save to pick up the win. Lawrence outshot the Blueboys 11-5.

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Vikings clinch MWC Tournament berth with win over Lady Blues

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — Mallory Koula scored a pair of goals, and the Lawrence University women’s soccer team beat Illinois College 3-1 on Sunday to earn a berth in the Midwest Conference Tournament.

Lawrence, the 2010 MWC Tournament champion, will play host St. Norbert College in the semifinals on Friday. The win, coupled with Ripon College’s loss at Grinnell College on Saturday, gave the Vikings the final spot in the tournament.

Lawrence (7-10-1, 5-3-1 MWC) fell behind after giving up a goal in the third minute. The Vikings rebounded quickly when Koula took a pass from Cadence Peckham and scored at the 8:12 mark.

Koula then scored what proved to be the game-winner just 2:56 into the second half to give Lawrence a 2-1 edge. The Vikings added another goal on Ellie Galvin’s penalty kick at 54:13.

Cassie Burke made eight saves to pick up the win for the Vikings.

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Vikings take down Alverno

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Lawrence University volleyball team wrapped up its season on Saturday with a 3-0 nonconference victory over Alverno College at Lake Forest College.

Lawrence defeated the Inferno 25-15, 25-18, 25-16.

Clare Bohrer paced the Vikings with 10 kills, Kayla Storm added eight and Shannon McLain had seven. Brielle Bartes posted a career-high 35 assists, and Kathleen Rowland had 27 digs.

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Beloit edges Vikings

BELOIT, Wis. — The Beloit College football team got a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter and hung on for a 20-14 Midwest Conference win over Lawrence University on Saturday at Strong Stadium.

Running back Terence Steward carried 20 times for 116 yards and scored both of his touchdowns in the second half to pace Beloit (2-7, 2-6 MWC). Quarterback Brian Maughn was 12 of 23 for 174 yards and a touchdown.

Tyler Mazur did a bit of everything for the Vikings (1-8, 1-7). He caught nine passes for 74 yards and ran 11 times for 54 yards and a touchdown. Mazur also completed 1 of 2 passes for 36 yards. Quarterback Luke Barthelmess was 16 of 28 for 136 yards and a touchdown.

Lawrence got on the board first late in the first quarter when Mazur capped a seven-play, 63-yard drive with a touchdown on a fake field goal. Mazur, the holder, took the snap and then sprinted off tackle for the score and a 7-0 Lawrence lead.

Beloit tied it late in the second quarter when Maughn hit Derek Carrier with a 15-yard scoring pass to complete an 11-play, 85-yard drive. Beloit quickly got the ball back with 38 seconds left, but Maughn was intercepted by linebacker Jon Hope.

Hope returned the ball 23 yards to the Beloit 32 with 27 seconds left. Barthelmess hit Jon Bruehl on a deep out route on the next play for a touchdown, and Lawrence led 14-7  at the half.

Beloit tied it on its first possession of the second half when Steward ran 36 yards for a touchdown.

Lawrence drove deep into Beloit territory early in the fourth quarter, but Cody Robel’s 25-yard field goal attempt was wide left. The Bucs then drove 80 yards in 10 plays, with Steward running it in from four yards out, to take a 20-14 lead.

Lawrence didn’t get past the 50 on its final two possessions, and Beloit ran out the clock to secure the win.

Lawrence wraps up its season next Saturday when it travels to Ripon College to renew the oldest college football rivalry in the state of Wisconsin.

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Lawrence swimmers sweep Beloit

The Lawrence University swim teams swept Beloit College in a dual meet on Saturday at Boldt Natatorium.

The Lawrence men won 119-45, and the Lawrence women topped Beloit 114-71.

Peter Brengel (100-yard backstroke, 50 freestyle) and Cameron Gmehlin (100 breaststroke, 200 IM) won a pair of events for the Lawrence men. Taylor Winter (500 freestyle, mixed 1,000 freestyle) won two events for the Lawrence women.

Results

Vikings take MWC cross country title as Stevens wins individual crown

RIPON, Wis. — The Lawrence University men’s cross country team took home all the hardware at the Midwest Conference Championships on Saturday at Ripon College.

The Vikings won the team title for the first time since 1985, and junior Sam Stevens captured the first individual men’s title for Lawrence since 1985.

Lawrence took the team title with 51 points, edging Grinnell College by just two points. The win by Lawrence snapped Grinnell’s 14-year stranglehold on the trophy.

“I’m really happy,” said Lawrence coach Jason Fast, who was named Coach of the Year. “The team worked really hard all year, and they deserve all the credit in the world. They definitely earned it today.”

Fast said they were tracking the results as the runners crossed the line, and he believed his team had won.

“I had a pretty good idea, but you never know,” Fast said. “It was too close to call. I knew unofficially we had won, but we had to sweat it out and wait for the results.”

Stevens led the contingent of five runners to earn all-conference honors (the top 20 finishers are  all-conference) for the Vikings. Stevens won the 8,000-meter race in 25:09.11 to become Lawrence’s first individual champion since Eric Griffin won back-to-back crowns in 1984 and 1985. It also marked the third consecutive year Stevens has been an all-conference performer.

“Sam led wire-to-wire,” Fast said. “That was part of the plan. We needed him to do that and stretch the field out. It worked for us. There was nobody that was going to touch him today.”

Sophomore Curran Carlile and freshman Kyle Dockery finished fifth and sixth, respectively, for the Vikings. Carlile finished in 25:37.79 and Dockery came in at 25:40.04. Sophomore Jamie Brisbois was 19th in 26:23.13, and senior Sam Estrem rounded out the scoring in 20th in 26:29.27.

On the women’s side, senior Emily Muhs earned all-conference honors for the third consecutive season while leading the Vikings to a fifth-place finish.

Lawrence, which finished seventh last season, finished with 166 points. The Vikings edged Beloit (168) and Ripon (169) to finish in the upper half of the conference.

Muhs finished 12th and completed the 6,000-meter course in 22:32.97. Rosie Graber came in 30th, Anna Ratliff was 36th, Maggie Mahaffa was 41st and Cathy Kaye rounded out the scoring in 47th.

Results

Beloit rallies to down Vikings

BELOIT, Wis. — The Beloit College volleyball team rallied from two sets down to defeat Lawrence University 3-2 on Friday night in a Midwest Conference match at Flood Arena.

The Bucs won 19-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-11.

Lawrence scored the final four points of the second set to go up 2-0, but it was Beloit that pulled away late in the third set. Beloit scored three consecutive points to take a 23-20 lead and go on to win that set.

The Bucs rolled in the fourth set and took a 6-1 lead in the final set. Lawrence rallied to trim the lead to two points three different times, including the last at 13-11. Beloit then scored the final two points to win the match.

Leah Kruckman had 16 kills to pace Beloit. Clare Bohrer had 14 kills to lead Lawrence but she also had 17 errors. Emma Kane added 12 kills and Shannon McLain had 11.

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Inside LU Athletics: Vikings taking a run at the title

The Lawrence University men’s cross country team snuck up on the competition a little bit at the 2010 Midwest Conference Championships.

No such luck this year because the Vikings are coming up as fast as a Mack truck in your rear-view mirror.

After finishing sixth at the 2009 conference meet, the Vikings jumped up to second last season and are contenders for the title on Saturday. The meet begins with the women’s race at 11 a.m., and the men run at noon on the course just west of the Ripon College campus.

“I think it puts more pressure on everyone else,” Lawrence coach Jason Fast said. “Last year the other teams didn’t feel that pressure to beat us. Now we’re legitimate contenders. They know we’re going to be up there and have to take us seriously.”

The Vikings return four of their top five men’s runners from a season ago, including all-conference honorees Sam Stevens and Curran Carlile.

Stevens, a junior from Suamico, Wis., finished third last season and is the top returning runner in the league. Stevens is attempting to be the first men’s conference champion from Lawrence since Eric Griffin won back-to-back titles in 1984 and 1985. Carlile grabbed seventh as a freshman in 2010 and has been the Vikings’ No. 2 runner all season.

“Sam’s the top returner and he hasn’t lost to a runner from the Midwest Conference all year,” Fast said. “He would be very disappointed if he didn’t win. We need him to win. I think the team race is going to be a point or two either way. It’s not going to be a landslide victory. Every spot counts.”

The Vikings are looking to wrest the championship trophy away from Grinnell College, which is working on a streak of 14 consecutive league titles.

“It’s going to take a great effort,” Fast said. “You can’t have a lackluster effort and win a championship, especially this year. This will be Grinnell going for 15 in a row and that’s a big deal. I fully expect Grinnell to throw everything at us this weekend and have their best race.”

Fast said the team ran one of its best races of the 2010 season at the MWC Championships. Given the team’s focus on winning the conference title, he believes the same thing can happen on Saturday.

“We’ve been talking about it for a really long time now. We’ve been talking about winning it since the beginning of the season,” Fast said. “As we started to see it progress, it’s taken on a life of its own. They’ve responded really well to it. They were ready to go this last weekend.”

The Lawrence women are also looking to move up after taking seventh in 2010. Leading the way for Lawrence is senior Emily Muhs of Janesville, Wis. Muhs finished seventh last season and earned all-conference honors for the second consecutive season.

“Emily wants to improve. She wants to be top five,” Fast said. “We’d like her to be top five. That would really help us in the team race. A lot of the teams we’re competing with don’t have that low number at the top.

“She’s progressed slowly this year but she is coming along. She generally has her best races of the year at conference.”

Fast also believes sophomore Anna Ratliff and freshman Maggie Mahaffa can reach the top 20 and earn all-conference honors as well.

“They’ve both been racing really well all season,” Fast said of Ratliff and Mahaffa. “They have continuously improved from meet to meet. I think if they can continue that at conference, they will have a shot to be in the top 20.”

Win and they’re in

Both the Lawrence men’s soccer team and volleyball team need a win and they are in their respective four-team conference tournaments.

Men’s soccer travels to Illinois College on Saturday, and a victory would put the Vikings (6-9-1, 5-2-1 MWC) in the MWC Tournament for the second consecutive season. The Vikings have won six of the last seven meetings against the Blueboys, but Lawrence needed overtime to win the match last season.

The volleyball team is looking for its first trip to the MWC Tournament since it went to its current four-team format in 2008.

Lawrence (12-17, 5-2 MWC) plays at Beloit on Friday and then travels to Lake Forest on Saturday. One win gets the Vikings in the tournament, and a pair of victories would assure Lawrence of no worse than the third seed.

Win and help needed

The Lawrence women’s soccer team needs a win in the regular-season finale Illinois College on Saturday and some help to get into the MWC Tournament for the second straight season.

The Vikings are 4-3-1 in the league (6-10-1 overall) and tied with Monmouth and Ripon for the final conference tournament spot. Lawrence, the defending MWC Tournament champion, holds the tiebreaker over Monmouth, but Ripon has the tiebreaker against the Vikings. Ripon does have to travel to Grinnell (5-1-1 MWC) for its final league contest.

History should be on the side of the Vikings, who are 13-0-0 in the series with Illinois College.

Editor’s Note: Inside LU Athletics is a weekly notes package written by Lawrence University Sports Information Director Joe Vanden Acker. It will feature teams and individual players, recap weekly awards or highlights and take a look at what’s ahead for the Vikings.