CSR (Women's Hoops Falls at Hope/Men's Hoops Nipped by Olivet/Split Swim Squads Compete at Olivet & Albion)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR FEB. 5, 2011
 
Women's Hoops Falls at Hope;
Men's Basketball Nipped by Olivet;
Split Swim Squads Compete at Olivet & Albion
 
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
 
By Sports Information Student Assistant Andrew Knot
 
HOLLAND - The Hope women’s basketball team handed Calvin its first league
defeat of the year, defeating Calvin 70-48 in front of more than 3,400 fans at
Hope’s DeVos Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon. With the win, Hope (20-1 overall,
11-1 MIAA) moves within a half-game of Calvin (18-3 overall, 12-1 MIAA) with
Hope having played one less league game than Calvin.
 
The Knights opened the game strong. Senior Jill Thomas connected on a three
to open the game. Calvin eventually fell behind by six points, but cut the
lead shortly before half. With three minutes left in the half, Hope exploded
to a 10-0 run, led by some hot shooting and ball-handling from Hope’s Liz
Ellis.
 
Calvin entered halftime trailing by 14 points.
 
With a tall task before them, the Knights came out of halftime strong, scoring
seven straight points, including two lay-ins from Calvin’s Ally Wolffis. But
the Dutch remained poised, and had an answer for Calvin’s offensive spurt.
Hope then went on another big run, and its stifling defense held Calvin
scoreless for seven minutes.
 
Calvin got some late offense from some of the reserves, but the game was far
out of reach by that point.
 
Ellis led all scorers with a career high 16 points. Calvin’s Carissa Verkaik
contributed a team-leading 11 points and eight rebounds for the Knights.The
loss stands as a startling contrast from when the rivals met in Grand Rapids,
when Calvin stunned then top-ranked Hope 56-55.
 
“We didn’t come into this game with the same confidence this time,” said
Verkaik.
 
The Knights also gave credit to the Flying Dutch who entered the game ranked
third in Division III Coaches’ Top 25 poll and fourth in the d3hoops.com Top 25
poll. Calvin entered the day ranked 20th in both polls.
 
“All the credit goes to Hope. They were great today,” said Calvin junior guard
Jill Thomas. “We will go back to practice on Monday and start working hard
again.”
 
The Knights committed 34 turnovers in the loss with Hope scoring 38 points off
of Calvin’s turnovers. Saturday’s game marked the 100th meeting of the two
teams since 1966. Calvin leads the all-time series 62-38. Saturday’s game also
marked the 92nd game for the Hope women’s basketball team at DeVos Fieldhouse.
The Flying Dutch are now 91-1 at DeVos Fieldhouse all-time with their only loss
coming to Calvin in January of 2007.
 
OTHER MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES SATURDAY
 
Albion 56, Alma 55
Saint Mary's 68, Trine 57
Kalamazoo 58, Adrian 54
 
MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-5-11
 
Calvin 12-1
Hope 11-1
Albion 9-3
Saint Mary's 8-5
Olivet 5-7
Trine 5-8
Adrian 4-9
Kalamazoo 2-10
Alma 0-12
 
MEN'S BASKETBALL
 
By Sports Information Student Assistant Derek Neice
 
With the season winding down and each game becoming more and more meaningful,
Calvin suffered another tough loss on the road against a good Olivet team in a
71-69 thriller. After a tied score at halftime, a huge 14-0 run by Olivet’s
Michael McClary, who finished the game with 29 points, placed the Comets ahead
by double-digits. Sophomore Tom Snikkers led the Knights with 19 points and 10
rebounds while senior Danny Rodts also poured in 18 points to go with 10 boards
but Calvin was unable to hit key shots down the stretch in the second half to
complete a comeback.
 
The loss pushes Calvin’s league record to 6-4, and Olivet also improves to 6-4
to move into a second place tie along with Albion and Calvin in the MIAA
standings.
 
“We didn’t have the investment, the energy, the enthusiasm and the incredible
desire that it takes to be successful at the college level,” said Calvin coach
Kevin Vande Streek afterward. “When we do play hard and with enthusiasm and
invest all we have to offer, we are a very good basketball team. To get that
consistency is the real challenge and we haven’t been able to find it so far.”
 
The first half went back and forth for both teams with neither getting much
momentum except for a couple of runs by both sides. Olivet led by six late in
the half but a 9-0 run for the Knights regained the lead for a short while
before both teams headed to the locker room at halftime knotted at 36-36.
 
In the second half Calvin immediately started out well with a quick 6-0 run to
take command, but Olivet quickly got back into it. With the Knights still
leading 44-41, McClary then took the game over for a stretch of time that
included 7 straight hits from Olivet’s all-time leading scorer and a 14-0 run
to give the Comets a commanding lead at 55-44.
 
McClary now is Olivet’s all-time leading scorer as well as the top single
season scorer for the Comets cementing a stellar career for him in his time at
Olivet.
 
“Michael [McClary] is a really good player, there’s no question about that,”
Vande Streek said of Olivet’s big man. “He’s a very good scorer, and when you
rebound you give him two shots, and he’s way too good to give him two shots
every possession and that’s kind of what happened.”
 
But the Knights were resilient and used another 9-0 to cut the lead back to
two. With about eight minutes to go, Olivet led by three and Calvin had
chances to score and retake the lead. But Olivet managed to tack on more
points to their lead.
 
With about a minute left in the game it looked like all hope was lost for
Calvin as Olivet still led 67-61, but Snikkers got to the free throw line,
connected on his first attempt, and then got his own rebound off a missed
second attempt and layed it in for an overall three point play to bring the
Knights within three.
 
Calvin made a stop on the other end and got possession back, but on an ensuing
inbound pass from Olivet’s baseline, Calvin was called for a five-second
violation. That error would prove fatal as the Comets then got an easy lay-up
to go up by five. Rodts would hit a clutch three with six seconds to go, but a
subsequent foul saw Olivet sink both free throws to go back up by a comfortable
four points, and a lay-up on the buzzer brought the score within two as Olivet
took home the victory.
 
Calvin shot 43.9 percent in the game to Olivet’s 42.6, but the Knights hit on
only 3 of 18 shooting from beyond the arc for a meager 18 percent to Olivet’s
45.5 from three points land.
 
“The big picture for us is to find what it takes to be consistent so we can
play our best basketball,” Vande Streek concluded. “For me I’m really after
getting us to be as good a team as we can become and we have a ways to go.”
 
The next action for Calvin will be Wednesday February 9th at home against
Adrian. That game will begin at 7:30 p.m.
 
OTHER MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES 2-5-11
 
Trine 75, Kalamazoo 74
Hope 85, Alma 71
Albion 66, Adrian 57
 
 MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-5-11 GAMES
 
Hope 9-1
Albion 6-4
Calvin 6-4
Olivet 6-4
Adrian 5-5
Kalamazoo 5-5
Trine 2-8
Alma 1-9
 
MEN'S AND WOMEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING
 
Due to scheduling complications, the Calvin men’s and women’s swimming and
diving teams participated in two MIAA dual meets on the same day and in the
process, had to split up their squads to compete on Saturday. The Calvin women
managed to pick up two wins, defeating Albion 169-124 and Olivet 150-85. On the
men’s side, Calvin fell to Albion 150-112 and to Olivet 154-131.
 
In the men's competition at Olivet, Calvin freshman Andrew Krafft (Fort Wayne,
IN/Home Schooled) had a record-breaking day as he shattered his own school
record on the one meter diving board with a first place score (six dives) of
332.20 points, breaking his previous record of 311.10. On the three-meter
board, Krafft broke the second-oldest record still in the Calvin men's books
with a score of 321.25. The score (six dives) eclipsed the previous record of
298.50 set by Bill VanEe in 1985. Both record-breaking scores were also NCAA
III qualifying scores.
 
In the pool, Calvin was led by sophomore Stephen Kraft (Warsaw, IN/Home
Schooled) had a huge day, winning the 200 IM (2:04.41), 100 breaststroke
(1:02.06) and 200 breaststroke (2:20.36). The Knights also picked up victories
from sophomore Mathias Bares (Holland/West Ottawa HS) in the 1,000 freestyle
(10:19.41) and junior Ross Battoclette (Cincinnati, OH/Clark Montesorri HS) in
the 200 freestyle (1:46.04).
 
Over at Albion, Calvin picked up a pair of wins from freshman Casey Harless
(DeWitt, MI/DeWitt HS) in the 100 backstroke (58.60) and 200 backstroke
(2:11.39). Also claiming wings were junior Greg Gorham (Minneapolis,
MN/Richfield HS) in the 10 breaststroke (1:01.10) and 500 freestyle (5:08.43),
sophomore Devin Heitz (Brockport, NY/Brockport HS) in the 50 freestyle (23:25)
and freshman David Doud (Marshall, MI/Marshall HS) in the 100 butterfly
(57.70).
 
In the women's competition at Olivet, Calvin received a pair of wins from
senior Monica Bressler (Sandusky, OH/Perkins HS) in the 50 freestyle (25.43)
and 200 freestyle (2:16.59), a pair of wins from sophomore Rachel Colasurdo
(Chesapeake, VA/Home Schooled) in the 100 freestyle (55.66) and 200 IM
(2:15.74) and a pair of victories from sophomore Samantha Klaasen
(Holland/Holland Christian HS) on the one-meter (211.35) and three-meter
(212.85) diving boards.
 
Other winners for the Calvin women include sophomore Stephanie Fox (Kentwood,
MI/Home Schooled) in the 200 freestyle (2:00.86), junior Briana Seaks (East
Lansing, IL/Okemos HS) in the 100 backstroke (1:03.19), freshman Elizabeth
Schleh (Mount Vernon, WA/Academy Northwest HS) in the 500 freestyle (5:28.29)
and junior Gillian Morris (Windsor, ON/Maranatha Christian HS) in the 200
breaststroke (2:42.06).
 
In the meet at Albion, junior Bridget Scott (Oakville, ON/Kings Christian
Collegiate HS) claimed the 1,000 freestyle (11:14.42) while sophomore Shelby
Cloyd (Plainwell, MI/Plainwell HS) won the 200 free (2:02.73) and 500 free
(5:21.48). Senior Brianna VandenEnde (Huntsville, ON/Huntsville HS) also won
the 100 backstroke (1:04.06) and 200 backstroke (2:20.63) while sophomore Elise
Kauffman (Sugar Land, TX/Clements HS) was a winner on the one-meter (243.90)
and three-meter (231.08) boards.
 
Other winners included freshman Samantha Musolf (Byron Center, MI/Byron Center
HS) in the 50 freestyle (26.11), freshman Maria Sedjo (West Chicago, IL/Home
Schooled) in the 100 butterfly (56.91) and sophomore Elizabeth Counsell
(Indianapolis, IN/Heritage Christian HS) in the 200 IM (2:21.31).
 
Both Calvin teams will now prepare for the MIAA Championships, scheduled to be
held February 17-19 at Jenison High School.
 
 
 

 
Received on Sun Feb 6 00:06:24 2011