WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | PAGE 7
VOLLEYBALL
Volleyball beats IUPUI, wins twice at Pittsburgh PETER BROWN
PBROWN1@BUTLER.EDU STAFF REPORTER
The Butler volleyball team used an unconventional line-up to grind out a 3-2 win against Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis last night. The Bulldogs were without a starter and other players were playing out of position, but they used 19 team blocks to bring home the win. Sophomore Erica Stahl led the team with nine blocks, while junior Claire Randich finished with seven blocks. Junior Maggie Harbison finished with a match-high 21 kills. Junior Morgan Peterson led with 53 assists and sophomore Brooke Ruffolo had 17 digs for the Bulldogs. The team finished the weekend 2-1 at the Pittsburgh Panther Invitational. Butler (4-2) opened the tournament with a 3-0 sweep of Howard. The Bulldogs dominated Howard University in its first match, winning 25-13, 25-22 and 25-14. Junior Maggie Harbison led the way with seven kills, while sophomore Belle Obert and senior Rachel Barber, both had six kills.
Leading the Bulldogs in digs was junior Morgan Peterson with six. Sophomore Kelly Kyle and Barber also contributed with five digs apiece. Bulter continued its dominance by defeating Coastal Carolina (0-5) 3-2 on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs started the match down 16-10 in the first set. Butler tried to rally but fell short as the Chanticleers closed out the set 2522. However, Butler quickly recovered and controlled the second set. The score was 14-0 before Coastal Carolina scored its first point. Butler went on to win the set 258. The Bulldogs won the third set by a score of 25-17 to take a 2-1 advantage. The Chanticleers would recover in the fourth set and win by a score of 25-23, setting up a winner-takesall fifth set. Butler reversed its play in the first set, dominating the beginning stages of the fifth. With the Bulldogs up 7-1, the Chanticleers would not go away. Coastal Carolina rallied and made the score 9-7, but Butler pulled away and ended up winning
the set and match 15-12 and 3-2, respectively. Pittsburgh (4-2) swept the Bulldogs 3-0 in the last match of the weekend. In the first set, Butler lost in a close 25-17 battle. The second set was summarized by the Bulldogs’ inability to hold leads. Butler had leads of 11-7, 15-10 and 23-18, but Pittsburgh was able to claw its way back each time. Butler ended up losing the set 2624 to find itself in a 2-0 hole. In the third set, the teams traded points throughout. In the latter part of the set, the Bulldogs were able to stave off several match points. In the end, the Panthers were too much and won the set 28-26 to complete the sweep. Leading the Bulldogs was Kyle with 13 digs, Barber with 12 kills and junior Claire Randich with four blocks. Peterson also added six digs and Harbison contributed 10 kills, with both being elected to the AllTournament Team. The Bulldogs will host Western Illinois, Stephen F. Austin and Indiana in the Butler Classic starting Friday. Additional reporting by Marissa Johnson.
Collegian file photo
Junior middle back Claire Randich tips the ball over the net during a match last season at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
BUTLER AT IUPUI, SEPT. 4 TEAM Butler IUPUI
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The Butler women’s cross country team placed second at the Illini Challenge last Friday while the men finished fourth. It was the season— opening meet for both teams. The women were led by freshman Olivia Pratt, who won the women’s fourkilometer race with a time of 14:18. Competing in her first-ever collegiate race, Pratt said that she was looking forward to wearing a
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Men’s soccer readies for weekend matches
Women place second at Illini Challenge Butler uniform for the first time. “I was really glad to go out there and run a really good time for me,” Pratt said. “I was excited to put a Butler uniform on and start my college running career.” Loyola won the women’s competition with 38 points, and the Bulldogs finished the meet with a 49-point outing that was good enough for second in the eight-team field. The second Bulldog to cross the line was senior Kaitlyn Love who finished in fifth place with a time of 14:55. Fellow senior
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MEN’S SOCCER
CROSS COUNTRY
AUSTIN MONTEITH AMONTEIT@BUTLER.EDU ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
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Lauren McKillop rounded out the topten finishers with a time of 15:11. Host Illinois won the men’s competition, with 26 points. The Butler men were led by sophomore Kodi Mullins, who placed 11th in the men’s sixkilometer race with a time of 19:04. Junior Billy Klimczak finished 19th with a time of 19:35. The teams are back in action at the Indiana Intercollegiate Meet in Terre Haute on Sept. 14.
MARISSA JOHNSON MKJOHNSO@BUTLER.EDU SPORTS EDITOR
Photo by Heather Iwinski
Junior Justin Sass takes the ball down the pitch in an Aug. 28 match vs. IUPUI.
The Butler men’s soccer team will continue its three-game homestand when it takes on Northern Kentucky Friday. The Bulldogs (1-03) got their first win on Aug. 28, beating cross-town foe Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis 2-0. Northern Kentucky is a NCAA Division I team for the first time this season. It is a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Norse are 0-4 on the season with losses to Green Bay, Milwaukee, Radford and High Point.
Opponents have outscored NKU 10-1 this season. Last year, as a Division II program, the Norse finished the season with a 14-5 record. They advanced to the Midwest Regional Championship game for the fourth time in five years. Butler has played NKU twice in its history. The first time was in 1989, and the second in 1990. The Bulldogs won both matchups, 2-0 and 3-0, respectively. Sept. 7 vs. Northern Kentucky at 7 p.m. Sept. 9 vs Central Arkansas at 1 p.m.
COLUMN
OVERTIME | Crowded schedule could hurt Butler Butler needs to be careful with scheduling multiple sporting events in close succession. This Saturday, Butler’s football team will be taking part in its first game under lights since the early-1940s. This is an important step for Butler from an athletic standpoint. With the university’s jump to the Atlantic 10 Conference last summer, school officials would probably like to prove that they can host athletic events under a variety of circumstances (despite the fact the football team will not be part of the A-10). Saturday’s game could help the flexibility of the football team’s scheduling in the future as well. However, moving some football games and, before them, some men’s and women’s soccer matches to an under-the-lights setting could also pose a potential problem for the university. Butler attempted its first athletic tripleheader last September. The football team and both soccer squads had contests in the Butler Bowl on the same day. The triple-header was likely a new and, at times, exhausting expeience for some members of Butler’s athletics department. Running one athletic event in a given day requires a number of different operations and
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COLIN LIKAS
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Friday, Sept. 7 • Volleyball—Butler Classic, starts 11 a.m. • Men’s soccer—Butler vs. Northern Kentucky, 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8 • Football—Butler vs. Franklin, 6 p.m. • Volleyball—Butler Classic, starts 6 p.m.
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With no rest for the weary, Butler also has the following schedule assembled for Saturday, Sept. 29: • •
activities to take place in very short amounts of time. Doing those same activities three times over the course of eight to 10 hours would likely be draining. Accordingly, the athletics department has not scheduled three events in the Bowl on a single day this academic year. However, two separate weekends this month will see a great amount of athletic activity in short periods of time. The first of these is this weekend, and that schedule reads as follows:
Sunday, Sept. 9 Men’s soccer—Butler Arkansas, 1 p.m.
Football—Butler vs. Dayton, 1 p.m. Women’s soccer—Butler vs. Saint Louis, 7 p.m. Volleyball—Butler vs. Duquesne, 7 p.m.
It is great that Butler is finding opportunities for fans to take in multiple sporting events in a given day, but I see two major issues with this sort of scheduling. The first lies in overextending and straining the athletics department staff. I cannot speak for those within the department. I cannot say those individuals were exhausted at the conclusion of the tripleheader last year, that they were unable to rise from their respective beds the next morning. One might think that taking care of the operations and behind-the-scenes work for three athletic events in a single day— especially with one being the school’s first athletic contest under lighting since World War II—might be a bit stressful, though. So this year, the staff gets to run that gauntlet twice in four weeks. It may prove to be even more difficult this time around. Some teams have contests scheduled over each other.
Starting the finale of volleyball’s Butler Classic and the first night football game in more than 70 years at the same time cannot possibly benefit an athletics department staff that will have dealt with earlier volleyball and men’s soccer action less than 24 hours prior. Slotting the women’s soccer and volleyball teams into the same starting time just hours after the conclusion of a football game is potentially problematic as well. And then there are the fans that, on the surface, benefit from receiving the opportunity to view multiple sporting events in a given day. There is clearly an issue with attendance at Butler’s fall athletic events. Figures are not high, and the stands of the Bowl and Hinkle Fieldhouse are nowhere near full during such events. That is why it is difficult for me to understand how scheduling events on top of each other will fix this. Fans cannot be in two places at the same time. Also, if a day is filled with events, the casual observer will probably only attend the first on the list. It is simply overwhelming to attend three athletic contests in one day. Overwhelming is the key word in this discussion. If stacked scheduling is some sort of initiation into the A-10, the Butler community will have to live with being overwhelmed. Otherwise, the school should realize that it might be taking on more than it can handle.