Tag: division 3

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News

Baseball Team Strikes Out at Inaugural Game on New Field

After two years of constant travel, the Houghton baseball team finally got a chance to play on their own field Friday, March 21, against the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford. The field, part of the new Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex, was finished in 2013 and was designed with many elements that should help the team gain an advantage over their competition.

In previous seasons, the team played their home games at Bolivar Richburg High School, about an hour away. Assistant coach Ignacio Villalobos thought the field would draw a crowd larger than just the few loyal fans that drove to home games last season.

Baseball_1“Hopefully they can get some more people out and we’ll have a home crowd which will be really cool for the team to play with,” he said. “The guys will enjoy playing at home.”

Both the team’s familiarity with the field due to practice and the fact that it is their home field is expected to be in favor of the Highlanders as the current season goes on.

Another aspect of the field that will give the Highlanders an edge on other teams would be its construction material. The field is made of turf, or artificial grass. One of the benefits of such material is immunity from weather conditions, especially rain, that often affect grass fields and cause games to be called off due to poor field conditions.

According to Michael Kerr, team captain, the field will also give the team a competitive advantage because turf allows for the game to be played at a much quicker pace. That, he says, will allow them to play to their strengths as a team. Kerr also thinks that the field will help the baseball program grow.

“The field will give future players a state-of-the-art playing surface and an awesome atmosphere to play at,” he said. “As the team grows and expands, I think Houghton can become one of the better baseball programs in the Empire 8 and Division III.”

Skip Lord, Executive Director of Athletics, thinks the current team has a promising season ahead of them. “They have exceeded my expectations as a young team,” he said. “They’ve worked really hard and are performing solid on the field.”

Both Villalobos and Lord are expecting to be middle of the pack in the Empire 8. Both men expect a few more wins than the team had in previous seasons, and Lord is hopeful that the team will be able to qualify for top playoffs for Christian schools.

Villalobos thinks the team has built a lot, not only in skills and abilities, but in size as well. One of the most helpful things for the team this season has been that they have twenty-nine players compared to the seventeen they had the first season. Kerr also thinks the team has played well together so far, but that in order to have a successful season they will need to compete at a high level.

Unfortunately, despite all these factors the baseball team was not able to win their match and lost to Pitt-Bradford with a score of 7-0.

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Sports

Women’s Soccer Team Gears Up for Fall Season

The women’s soccer team has begun their second transitional year into NCAA Empire 8. This marks Coach David Lewis’s 22nd year coaching the lady Highlanders. Houghton alum, Katie Philips has returned as the team’s assistant coach along with Kevin Austin training the keepers.

Last year, the team was composed of 36 players. This high number was due in part to the termination of the JV soccer program. This year, the roster number remains high, but has dropped to 31. There are few overnight games this year, meaning that the whole team will travel for most of the games.

Womens_Soccer“I definitely think [having a couple less players] contributes to [doing better] because that is when we play as a team,” said junior Katherine Tomlinson, “It is a lot easier to be a team when there are less of us.”

“I like this year’s team chemistry. Not that last year’s was bad or anything, it is just really good this year,” said Lewis, “The overall team depth, the strength as we go deep into our line-up, is very good. It has improved.”

Coach Lewis highlighted senior captains, Alyssa Figueroa and Erin Miller’s play this season. The third captain, senior Amanda Zacchigna, has been injured from the start of the season, but is anticipated to contribute defensively with her recovery.

“Our bench was not as strong [last year], but our freshmen have come in and stepped it up. Our eleven seniors are holding their own on the field and giving us those wins,” said Tomlinson, “We are possessing well as a team and just working better as a team overall this season.”

“As a captain it is our job to…make sure the team is bonded on and off the field and also to continue pushing ourselves. Right now we are 3-0 and doing well, but we cannot afford to slack off,” said Miller, “So we have to maintain focus and also have fun on the field; not just be all serious all the time.”

Overall the team has a record of 4-0-0 thus far. Junior Danielle Lyndsley leads the team in total goals scored at three, while junior Stephany Ellison has the most points, shots, and assists, totaling seven, twenty-nine, and three, respectively. Senior Atalie Fite has also contributed to the attack statistics as she has stepped into the forward position this season.

Figueroa and sophomore Sarah Gabriele are noted for their defensive contribution to the team. Opposing teams have not scored against the Houghton women due to the women’s strong defense and sophomore Shawna Sprout and senior Michelle Mahoney playing in goal.

“Obviously we are still not eligible for qualifications for Empire 8, but we still want to compete with the top teams in the conference and finish with the top bracket,” said Lewis, “We want to finish with them as if it did count. We would also like to qualify for the national Christian tournament and…make a good run.”

“A goal, without a doubt, especially being a senior, is to go further than we ever have in nationals. I would love to win it,” said Miller, “Our next goal is to just continue going hard and winning each game. I would love to go undefeated this year.”

Categories
Sports

New Tennis Coach Selected

Next fall, yet another sport will be introduced to the athletic department at Houghton: tennis. Coach Charlie Ellis will lead both the men’s and women’s teams.

Courtesy of atheletics.houghton.edu
Courtesy of atheletics.houghton.edu

Ellis has over 30 years of experience within the tennis world. He began learning what he could at a young age until he joined the tennis program at the University of Georgia. Ellis was ranked eighth in college tennis and then went on to be first in the state of Georgia, earning a World ATP top-300 ranking. From there Ellis went on to coach and then settled into the field of club management, where he has stayed for over 20 years.

The nationwide search to find Houghton’s first tennis coach was extensive and competitive, in hopes of finding a near perfect fit to Houghton’s athletic program. Athletic Director, Harold Lord, said that Ellis was ideal for this position. Lord believes that Ellis will be a “quality member to the department, campus, and community”.

Up to this point Ellis has developed numerous tennis programs for all ages and skill levels ranging anywhere from toddlers to elite adult players. He also spent time as the general manager for Sportime Fitness in Schenectady, NY where he taught lessons to over 100 players. In addition, Ellis founded Fair Play Tennis, a company dedicated to helping young athletes create individual plans to enjoy and succeed at playing the game of tennis.

Ellis approaches this new opportunity with three principles in mind. He begins with the foundation of a faith based team with players who “show a godly respect for one another.” His next principle is that each athlete will have a particular group of people who will be devoted to promoting and maintaining his or her academics. Lastly, Ellis wants the team to “enjoy the journey of getting better at tennis.”

As Ellis looks forward to the upcoming season, he is eager to be working at a college level again. He said he wants to “get as many people involved and interested as possible in embracing the game of tennis.”

Lord said that the addition of tennis will hopefully create a different atmosphere on campus, spurring students to play recreationally. He said that, “tennis is an intercollegiate sport that will last a lifetime.”

As a result of the integration of NCAA tennis into the athletic program at Houghton, the first season will have an abbreviated schedule. The season is also split, with the women’s team beginning with their Empire 8 conference meets in the fall while the men’s team participates in non-conference events. The teams will then switch in the spring.

Each team will consist of approximately 12 to 15 individuals who will play both singles and doubles matches. The season will conclude in the spring with the NCAA National Championship.

Bethany Chesebro, freshman, began playing tennis sophomore year in high school. She chose Houghton knowing that there were plans to form a tennis team. Chesebro said she is excited “about being part of a team and being challenged at a more competitive level.”