IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Haas: Head men’s golf coach Jerry Haas talks about his expectations for the season, the new practice facility and the best player he has ever played with. Page B2.
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{ UPCOMING GAMES } FOOTBALL: 9/12 v. Stanford 9/19 v. Elon 9/26 @ Boston College WOMEN’S SOCCER: 9/11 v. Penn State 9/13 @ Connecticut 9/19 @ UAB
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FIELD HOCKEY: 9/12 @ Duke 9/13 v. Indiana 9/20 v. Davidson MEN’S SOCCER: 9/13 @ Clemson 9/18 v. Virginia 9/23 v. Elon CROSS COUNTRY: 9/18 Tenn. Invite 9/26 Wake Forest Invite 10/02 Lehigh Paul Short MEN’S GOLF: 9/11 Carpet Classic 9/12 Carpet Classic 9/13 Carpet Classic
WOMEN’S GOLF: 9/10 Topy Cup 9/14 Lady Falcon Invite 9/15 Lady Falcon Invite
{ NATIONAL STAGE } Danica Patrick to explore the realm of NASCAR According to a source close to Danica Patrick, the auto racing driver will “all but certainly” be in NASCAR in 2010, but she will not give up Indy car racing. The current plan is for Patrick to run a significant number of Nationwide races, with additional seat time in Trucks and ARCA cars. It is thought she will be mentored by Tony Stewart. It is likely that Patrick’s first stock race will be the ARCA event at Daytona during Speedweeks next February. With her win in the 2008 Indy Japan 300, the 27-year-old Wisconsin native became the first woman to win an Indy car race. In the 2009 Indianapolis 500 Patrick placed third, which was both a personal best for her at the track and the highest finish by a woman in the event’s history.
Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black
Junior wide receiver Devon Brown is brought down by two Baylor defenders. Brown had one catch for 32 yards and eight carries for a team-leading 46 yards for an offense that sputtered in the opening game of the season. By Joe Maugeri | Staff writer
Wake Forest Baylor
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Many questions about the Deacon football team were raised in the preseason leading up to the start of their 2009 campaign. How would the Deacon defense respond to losing its two biggest
playmakers, Aaron Curry and Alphonso Smith? How would an offensive unit returning 10 starters perform? Would the Deacons continue their recent habit of forcing big turnovers en route to another winning season? These questions still remained unanswered, but if the Deacons learned one thing from their 24-21 loss to the Baylor Bears on Saturday, Sept. 5 at BB&T Field, it’s
that you can’t turn the ball over four times and expect to beat a good football team. As soon as the ball was kicked off, an experienced Baylor squad wasted no time in going to work against a green Demon Deacon defense. It took the Bears only 3:50 to march 80 yards and score its first touchdown of the affair off of an eight yard pass from sophomore
Lady Deacs still rollin’
Dun-nuh-nuh, dun-nuh-nuh! Freshman Sean Randolph’s first collegiate goal was certainly a special one as his diving header cracked SportCenter’s Top 10 plays while also propelling the No. 3 Men’s Soccer team to a 2-1 victory over No. 7 Indiana University. “The whole play, in my mind, was pretty much in slow motion. I remember focusing on the ball to the point it hit my head, to the point it went through the keepers legs, and especially to the point when I saw the ball rattle the back netting of the goal. After the ball hit, everything else became blurry. The excitement of actually scoring in a collegiate match filled me making me just instantaneously sprint over
See M. Soccer, Page B3
See Pressbox, Page B3
the birthday former Deac Arnold Palmer is celebrating today
current rank of the Demon Deacon field hockey team
{ DEAC OF THE WEEK }
With an impressive header goal in a men’s soccer game versus Indiana, freshman forward/midfielder Sean Randolph was ranked sixth on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays for Sept. 6. With the game tied in the 72nd minute, Randolph’s Randolph diving header for six yards led the Demon Deacons to a 2-1 win over Indiana. The memorable goal was the first of the Chino Hills, Calif., native’s college career.
Michael Crouse/Old Gold & Black
Senior defender Bess Harrington checks a Loyola forward in a match earlier this season. The Deacon defense has given up two goals in six matches this season. By Gary Pasqualicchio | Staff writer
Wake Forest East Carolina
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The National Soccer Coaches Association of America did not have the Wake Forest Lady Deacons ranked in their preseason Top 25. After six games, 19 goals, and most importantly, six wins, the NSCAA has admitted their mistake. The now eighth ranked Lady
Deacs picked up shutout wins over Kentucky and East Carolina last week to improve to 6-0 for the first time since 2002 and only the third time in program history. Heading out on a seven hour bus ride to Lexington, Ky. to face a dangerous Wildcat squad was made all the more difficult for Wake Forest who was without suspended senior Kaley Fountain. Fountain, the team’s leading scorer, had just been starting to get in a groove at her new position on the frontline
when she received a questionable red card against Loyola (Md.) on Aug. 30. A pair of very familiar Lady Deac seniors stepped up in Fountain’s absence: Sarah Winslow and Allie Sadow. Winslow, a Wilson, N.C. native who had 13 points last season, played a beautiful cross to Sadow in the 24th minute. Sadow, last year’s second leading goal-scorer, ended her season-long
See W. Soccer, Page B4
Deacs tie Irish, defeat Hoosiers By Alex Leopold | Staff writer
Wake Forest Indiana
{ SPORTS WORDS } In the halls of the NCAA headquarters hang 12 quotes that represent the association. Over the next 12 weeks we will print those quotes here.
“Our future will not be determined by chance, but rather by the choices we make today, and in the days and weeks ahead.” ~ Bill Richardson Tufts Class of 1970 Baseball
The changing landscape of U.S. sports For as long as I can remember, football, baseball and basketball have dominated the American sports scene. Seemingly every young kid involved in athletics wants to be the next Michael Jordan, Albert Pujols or Adrian Peterson. With that being said, is it possible that more and more American youths want to be like Andy Roddick or Landon Donovan? Don’t look now, but soccer and tennis are making comebacks in the awareness of both our nation’s athletes and sports fans. The soccer surge in America was supposed to have already happened. It was supposed to be led David Beckham, the English soccer megastar who signed with Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007. Beckham and his $250 million contract were featured all over SportsCenter and plastered on the cover of Sports Illustrated. His jersey sales topped those of Lebron James and Kobe Bryant. Beckham was hailed the savior of both American interest in soccer and the floundering MLS. But, as we have seen many times throughout history, the hype had no substance. Beckham has failed to change America’s perception of the MLS and has been ineffective for the Galaxy, recently being blasted by team captain and true superstar Donovan for being a bad teammate. No, Beckham was simply not as interested in spreading soccer’s influence in the world’s most powerful nation as he was in collecting his massive pay check. Soccer would go on relatively unnoticed in the national spotlight until late June of this year. That’s when the international Confederation’s Cup was played. And when the U.S. National Team stole the show. Taking their place in a strong field of eight nations, the U.S. squad pulled off the most improbable run by any team in the tournament’s 12-year history. The Americans dropped their first two games in Group B by a combined 6-1 score. Nothing to see here, just the U.S. again being schooled by the world in a sport it doesn’t take seriously enough. In order to advance to the semifinal round, the U.S. needed to beat Egypt by three goals and for Brazil to beat Italy by a three-spot or more. The impossible played out as scripted (or not) and the U.S. moved on. The Americans would go on to avenge an earlier tournament loss and pull a shocking 2-0 upset of Spain to reach the finals. There they blew a golden opportunity (and a 2-0 halftime lead), falling to Brazil 3-2 to finish second, the United States best finish in ConFed Cup history.
preseason rank of the women’s golf team according to World Golf
rank of the men’s soccer team in the latest Soccer America Top 25
See Baylor, Page B2
By Gary Pasqualicchio | Staff writer
{ BY THE NUMBERS }
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quarterback Robert Griffin III to senior receiver David Gettis. The quick score put the Deacons on their heels, and they were unable to recover. On the ensuing kickoff, sophomore kick returner Junior Petit-Jean put the Deacons in excellent field position,
Andrea Kensy/Old Gold & Black
Junior defender Ike Opara skies for a header against William & Mary Sept. 1 in a 1-0 win.
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PRESS BOX
FROM THE
VOLLEYBALL: 9/11 @ Georgia S. 9/12 v. Auburn 9/12 v. Coastal Carolina