Basketball is for now the only sport going on on the APU campus, but here's what I forgot to get out there in the last week:
Women's Soccer
The season ended in the same spot it did the year before, this time with the 2nd-seeded Cougars on the wrong end of a 2-0 score line in the semifinals against eventual champion Lee University (TN), a school they had defeated in Oregon earlier this fall. The Cougars end the season with a record of 16-3-2, and had four players named to All-NAIA teams, including first team nod for midfielder Markie Gleason.
Volleyball
The Cougars entered the NAIA tournament as the #6 seed and eventually lived up to those expectations, reaching the quarterfinals on the strength of three five-set victories, two in pool play and then a third over Lewis-Clark State (ID) in the first knockout round. The season ended in a straight-sets loss to #1 overall seed Concordia (CA), who ended up as the runner-up to the University of Texas at Brownsville.
Women's Basketball
The Cougars opened the season ranked #1 in the NAIA on the strength of their national championship last year. But the team struggled in the second half of their GSAC opener in Santa Barbara and lost 68-64 to Westmont College last week. Coming home on Saturday, the Cougars took their frustration out on Hope International University, led by Amber Williams, who set a school record for the second time this season by grabbing 22 rebounds in an 89-73 win. The Cougars (5-1, 1-1) are now ranked #3, and have headed out to Kentucky this weekend for a pair of games against ranked opponents, facing #14 Campbellsville on Friday and #25 Lindsey Wilson on Saturday.
Men's Basketball
Last week saw the men take the opposite approach to the women, as the ninth-ranked Cougars put forth their most complete effort of the season in Santa Barbara racking up a 71-50 victory over Westmont before coming home and suffering an embarassing 53-49 loss to Hope International, a school that had won a total of 14 conference games since joining the GSAC in the 1999-2000 school year, and whom Azusa had beaten 28 consecutive times. Expect the 10th-ranked Cougars (6-2, 1-1) to vent mightily in Satuday's road trip to Cal State-San Marcos.
Baseball
No, the season doesn't begin for about another seven weeks, but the Cougars' alumni are making great strides this offseason, as two members of Azusa's 2007 NAIA World Series squad have been placed on 40-man major league rosters. C Stephen Vogt ('07) received that distinction last month, shortly after being named the Tampa Bay Rays 2011 Minor League Player of the Year, while OF Kirk Niewenhuis ('08) was placed on the major league roster of the New York Mets on Tuesday. Vogt was a 12th round draft pick by Tampa in 2007 while Niewenhuis is the highest draft pick in APU history, selected by the Mets in the third round (#100 overall) in the 2008 draft.
Comments