SPORTS
March 31, 2014
It was a successful, but far from flawless road trip as the Clan braved the desert heat to play three out-of-conference games down in Arizona. The trip started with a hardfought, nighttime battle in Tucson against the #14 Arizona Wildcats. The Wildcats struck first, putting the Clan behind early for the third game in a row. But after the initial blow, the Clan came back and led for the rest of the game. The Wildcats nearly matched the Clan goal for goal, but were always one step behind. Four Clan players scored multiple points led by Ward Spencer with four (two goals, two assists). Goaltender Darren Zwack stood tall between the pipes, stopping 15 of 22 shots in the Clan’s 8–7 win. The Clan then made their way to Glendale to take on the #1 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. SFU matched the Devils early but couldn’t stand the searing temperatures as the home team shut the door on the Clan, holding the high-scoring squad to just five goals on the day.
The Sun Devil’s own highpowered offence, led by junior Dan Davis (seven goals) and senior Logan Quinn (two goals, four assists), picked the Clan defence apart, out shooting them 53–32 over 60 minutes, routing the Clan 18-5. After the thumping from the day before, the Clan came back to Glendale with a vengeance to take on the unranked Illinois Fighting Illini in a neutral site game. From the first whistle it was all Clan, all the time, with leading scorer Kirkby continuing his dominant season with four goals and two assists. Spencer (two goals, three assists) and Sam Clare (two goals, two assists) also had big nights. The offence kept the Illini goaltender busy, ripping 30 shots on net. Backing up the high-powered offence was a stout Clan defence, a complete 180-degree flip from the day before, holding the Illini to just seven shots on the game, with both Zwack and Jeremy Lasher splitting time in net, allowing only two goals apiece to make the final score 11–4 in favour of the Clan. With these results the Clan improve their record to 5-0 in the conference and 9-2 on the season, remaining at #10 in the rankings for another week. The Clan tone it down for the rest of the season with just one game a week until playoffs. Their next home game will be on April 5 against 0–8 Portland State on Terry Fox Field.
The Clan men’s golf team continues to climb leaderboards ahead of April’s championship season. Last week the men travelled south for the California Baptist Invitational where, after a very strong opening round that saw them take the lead, they finished in second place at tournament’s end. The SFU squad posted a
team score of 875, only three strokes behind the winners and Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) rivals, Western Washington University. Senior captain Mike Belle led the team through the threeround event, finishing in a tie for 10th position with rounds of 71-70-75 for a tournament total of 216. Belle’s was not the only quality performance, as four of the five men finished in the top 30 of the 96-player field. Following his captain was John Mlikotic who finished in a tie for 14th with a total of 218 strokes and rounds of 70-7375. Bret Thompson followed
in 24th place after faltering in the latter rounds of the tournament. The sophomore’s opening round of 67 was five strokes below par, but he couldn’t hang on, adding 77 and 78 in rounds two and three. Freshman Kevin Vigna finished in a tie for 29th place with scores of 78-72-73, improving significantly over the second two rounds and only one stroke behind Thompson. Their tournament totals were 222 and 223 respectively. Rounding out the Clan side was freshman Craig Titterington, appearing in his first collegiate tournament where he opened with a very respectable
round of 74. He stumbled in the later part of the tournament with rounds of 77-83, posting a three-round score of 234. The Clan men have one final
tournament before they head to the GNAC Championships in mid-April.
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Boasting three of the top-10 scoring averages in the conference in Belle, Thompson and Vigna, the Clan have an excellent chance to win the title. Sitting at 19th in the NCAA Division II rankings, the Clan also hold the second best team scoring average in the GNAC with 298.6, just behind Montana State Billings with 298.1. The men will be looking to advance to the West Region Championships for the first time since joining the NCAA in 2010, a chance they narrowly missed in 2013, when the Clan finished third at the conference event.