Another Big Week

One of my favorite days of the year comes on Wednesday when the basketball teams open practice.

It has been a long offseason for both teams, but both teams should be among the favorites for ASC titles this year which makes it even more exciting.

The Cowgirls return three starters and six of the top eight scorers from last season. They have also added an extremely talented class of newcomers and this could be the year the Cowgirls make it back to the NCAA Tournament.

The men had an interesting offseason with coach Howard leaving and new coach Craig Carse coming in late in the summer. It will be interesting to watch how the team of talented players comes together. Cowboy fans will enjoy watching the up-tempo style of play. This team should score a lot of points, but must find a way to replace All-American Mardochee Jean in the middle.

It was nice to see the Cowboy football team play a fourth quarter with some breathing room on Saturday. HSU put away East Texas Baptist in the third quarter and how about the defensive effort. HSU picked off five passes in the game and you can see that unit starting to get more and more comfortable with the new scheme of Jay Niemann and Steve Barrows. The offense continues to move the ball at an amazing rate and they have improved their drive finishing rates.

It is good to see the team getting more and more confident each week and if they continue to get better a deep run in the playoffs is not out of the question. Before that can happen they have to play it one week at a time.

The soccer and volleyball teams continued their good seasons with strong weekends. The women’s soccer team beat Mississippi College 3-0 in a first-place showdown and also handled Louisiana College 8-0. They have the inside track on hosting the American Southwest Conference Tournament for the sixth straight year.

The Cowboys beat Louisiana College 4-1 and then got what has became par for the course treatment in Mississippi on Saturday. The Choctaws received a penalty kick with 22 seconds to go in the game to tie it and MC won it in overtime. This came after MC had twice tackled an HSU player in the box that should have been penalty kicks in the final minutes of the game. Such is life when you play at Mississippi College and you know going in you have to overcome it.

The volleyball team pushed its home winning streak to 15 and its streak over McMurry to eight with a win last Wednesday. The Cowgirls also won at Concordia. HSU will play at UMHB in the other crossover this weekend after playing at Howard Payne on Tuesday night.

HSU cleaned up on the ASC player of the week awards. Justin Feaster won his second of the year, Morgan Loyd won for women’s soccer and Kaela Parnell and Gracen Harris swept the offensive and defensive awards for the week.

The women’s cross country team had a fourth place finish at the UTPB meet on Saturday. Ashley (Allen) Huston ran her first meet of the year and finished eighth overall.

There are just three weeks left of the regular season for soccer and volleyball and it is on to the playoffs. The soccer teams have a light conference week as they only have one game this weekend against McMurry. The Cowgirls will host Southwestern on Friday in non-conference action.

Just a few other odds and ends.
• The Howard Payne game on Saturday is at 1 p.m. rather than the normal 2 p.m. start.
• The Cowgirl basketball team will have a BBQ sandwich dinner prior to the football game next Saturday. Check back for more details.
• The Sul Ross State game will be the 500th of the distinguished career of coach Keeling.
• How about my OSU Cowboys ranked eighth in the nation. I take a lot of grief about my alma mater in these parts, but it is nice to see them doing well.