MSU TIMEOUT
Name: Sesley Graves Sport: Volleyball Position: Middle Blocker Number: 4 Major: Psychology, Spanish Hometown: Wichita Falls, TX 1. Do you have any nicknames? “I don’t really have any. I sometimes go by my middle name, Simone.” 2. What is your toughest class? Why? “Psychological Statistics, because it involves relating math to pshchology and that’s kinda tough.” 3. What is your favorite song right now? Why? “Glory by Kanye West, because I like Kanye’s confidence and he’s political. He raps about things that matter.”
Sports
BOBBY MORRIS STAFF REPORTER The MSU men’s soccer team will play in the Elite Eight for the third time in the 12 years they’ve been a part of NCAA Division II. The Mustangs’ heart-breaking 10 loss to West Texas last week gave the Buffs a share of the Southwest Soccer Conference championship and granted Canyon, Texas, to be the host for the regional tournament. The Mustangs were determined to play another game in front of their home fans though. This was their motivation. In their first regional game last Thursday against Metro State, MSU came out blazing, leaving Metro State in an insurmountable 3-0 hole. That was just in the first 13 minutes of play. Daniel Brown’s free kick was converted by midfielder Obed Becerra in the third minute of the match, and from there, the Mustangs didn’t look back. Later, in the 10th minute, Robert Swann converted a penalty kick to put MSU up 2-0. Then Brown struck again, this time knocking in an easy breakaway goal himself in the 13th minute. “We had four shots on goal early and scored three of them to put the other team in the hole,” said MSU
Coach Doug Elder. “It was great to get off to a good start.” To add insult to injury, Metro State’s Brad Gorham took down Kyle Kmiec in the box in the 29th minute and was ejected. Kmiec capitalized on the opportunity, putting MSU up 4-0 on the following penalty kick. Metro State tried to climb out of the deficit playing the rest of the game a man down. Needless to say, MSU took care of business, eventually extending their first half lead to 6-0. Danny Kastelic, Eddie Lett and Jeremy Elder all got in the mix, scoring goals for MSU, before allowing Metro State to put one on the board in the 83rd minute. MSU claimed the 8-1 victory and turned their attention squarely to the home team. In order to move on, the Mustangs would have to beat West Texas A&M on their home turf. On Saturday MSU pieced together another dominating performance against the Buffs. Playing stellar defense and relying on timely saves from goalkeeper Jeremy Turner, they would eventually grind out a tremendous victory, 1-0. Tyler Murphy took the ball down the right wing before finding Ahmad Ihmeidan for a 1-timer in the seventh minute of the match. WTAMU had some good looks at goals in the second half, but MSU
6. Who is your favorite athlete? Why? “My mom, Alice Taylor. She played basketball for MSU in the 80s. I get happy when I see successful minorites and she’s my hero. Plus she was a badass when she played here.”
9. What are your plans for Thanksgiving? What are you thankful for? “I’m going to Dallas to spend time with my mom. I’m thankful for family and just being blessed. It sounds corny but so many other people have it worse.” 10. Where do you see yourself in ten years? “Living in Austin with two kids, a nice house and a good job.”
The Wichitan seeks
Sports Writers for Spring 2008 please call (940)397-4705 *must be MSU student
PATRICK JOHNSTON | THE WICHITAN MSU’s Krissa Johnson, left, reaches for the ball and tries to get it over two Dallas Baptist defenders in a match earlier this season at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
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PATRICK JOHNSTON | THE WICHITAN MSU’s Brannon Calvert, 17, and Jeremy Elder, 3, leave the ground to get a ball against West Texas A&M goalie Shane Taylor, 0, and players Freddy Montes, 4, and Kenneth Christensen, 6, while Ahmad Ihmeidan, 10,on Nov. 4 at The MSU Soccer Field. MSU lost 1-0 but have been on a roll since.
MSU Soccer Field. Midwestern will play host to Sonoma State University (California) in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight this Saturday at 7 p.m. “We’re excited to stay home,” Elder said. “We’ll be able to play an
Elite Eight game on our home field. We are looking forward to playing in front of a packed house.” The winner of the match will advance to NCAA Division II semifinals at the City of Orange Beach Sportsplex in Alabama.
Entering the Lone Star Conference tournament, MSU was looking to solidify their ranking and show the NCAA selection committee that they belonged in the annual tournament. It’s tough to do that when you lose your first game though. The third-seeded Mustangs came out strong against the sixth-seeded Aggies of Cameron University, taking the first game of the match, 3025. A tough second game loss added to a dominating 7-0 run by Cameron late in the third game sealed Midwestern’s fate; 30-25, 30-28, 30-20. The Mustangs fell to 27-5 on the season, and had to wait to see if the selection committee would grant them a pass despite their disappointing defeat. Their school-record season could have been without a post-season game if the committee didn’t choose to invite them. The seniors of the squad led the way in the tight match.
Outside hitter Krissa Johnson chipped in 15 kills as Rachel Gilmore contributed eight digs to go along with three kills of her own. After falling in the first game, the Aggies rallied to steal the second game from MSU. Trailing 27-28, Cameron scored three straight points to give them the game, 30-28. From that point on MSU seemingly tightened up, and didn’t put up much of a fight in the final game as Cameron pulled off a 11-1 streak to win the match, 30-20. Whitney Maxwell played a good match, putting up 13 kills and hitting with a team-high .550 attack percentage. Setter Allison Schreiber also played a stellar all-around match despite the loss, notching 50 assists to go along with 10 digs and five kills. So, all the Mustangs could do was sit, wait, and hope that their magnificent regular season would be enough to propel them into their first ever NCAA Division II Tournament. MSU received news early on Monday that they would be invited to its
first NCAA Division II Tournament in program history. They were given a berth into the Southwest Regional tournament at the Health and Sports Center in Kearney, Neb. MSU will fittingly open up the tournament against archrival West Texas A&M. They will attempt to avenge the 3-game sweep dealt to the them by the Lady Buffs on Oct. 25th. The game is set to begin at 2:30pm on Friday. “We played awful at the LSC tournament.” MSU Coach Venera Flores-Stafford said. “We’ll get a chance to redeem ourselves in the national tournament. I am really happy for the seniors because you never want to finish your career with that kind of loss.” Gilmore was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District 6 third team last Thursday. The early childhood major, from Arlington, Texas, has competed in every one of the Mustangs’ 32 matches this season, averaging .96 kills and 2.15 digs per match.
for Carr’s choice to come to MSU. “I love the people here.” “This was a challenge,…a chance to do something I’ve never done before.”
Carr thought a move from Division I to Division II wouldn’t be too bad either. “I wanted to get back close to coaches and athletes,…D1 really
didn’t give me that privilege.” Carr says he thinks the way things are being done here is fine, but he plans to improve the women’s sports program, improve community involvement, both financially and physically, and increase attendance to sports events.
held them to only eight shots for the afternoon. MSU did what they had to do to regain home-field advantage. Following other regional action, the Mustangs got what they wanted: a another chance to play at The
Lady Mustangs trot on to regionals BOBBY MORRIS STAFF REPORTER
5. Why did you choose MSU? “It is close to home and cheaper. I like the smallness of the campus and I knew a lot of people coming here.”
8. What is your favorite movie? Why? “Pulp Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson is hilarious and Uma Thurman is cool. She’s like 6’0”. Shout-out to all my tall people!”
Nov. 14, 2007
Mustangs still alive
4. What is a non-athletic talent you have? “I like to sing. I sing at Bethleham Missionary Baptist Church. I’m pretty good.”
7. If you could play another sport in college, what would you play? “Basketball. I got skills.”
THE WICHITAN
Carr travels long road to Midwestern, set to drive MSU in right direction NICHOL PHILLIP FOR THE WICHITAN Have you met Charlie Carr? Carr comes to MSU from Florida State University, where he served as Assistant Athletic Director for 13 years. Carr is our new Athletic Director here at MSU. Carr obtained his bachelor’s degree in history from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then spent two and a half years playing minor league baseball for the New York Mets. He then decided to go back to
UNC to gain his master’s degree in education. Carr said a chance to be a graduate assistant and an assistant coach for the football team were his motivations for going back to college. Carr was in the process of moving when MSU got its hands on him. The University of Arizona had offered him a position of Assistant Athletic Director, which he had accepted. Carr’s plans quickly changed when he heard of position opening at MSU. “It just felt right,” Carr said. There are a multitude of reasons
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