On The Rise

I talked last week about what a big week it was for the Cowboy and Cowgirl soccer, football and volleyball teams.

It was a milestone weekend for the soccer teams as the men defeated Ozarks and tied UT-Dallas. With the win over Ozarks Dan Heger became the school’s all-time leader in wins. What a great accomplishment for him and his team.

Ozarks and UT-Dallas have been right at the top of the list along with the Cowboys as the top teams in the conference. The Cowboys head into another big weekend as the leader of the ASC and it has already played three of the top contenders. The schedule is lighter on the back end, but a trip to Mississippi College this weekend could be the determining factor if the Cowboys are to claim one of the top two seeds and allow HSU a bye in the first round of the conference tournament.

If you haven’t watched this team yet there are only two more chances and that is October 24th and 25th when Cowboys will play UMHB, led by former Cowboy Brad Bankhead, and Howard Payne. They are really a fun team to watch play.

Congratulations are also in order for the Cowgirl soccer team as they pushed their ASC unbeaten streak to 100 games. What an amazing feat. Coach Wood and the Cowgirls earned a 0-0 tie against old rival UT-Dallas.

This is a big weekend for the Cowgirls again, especially the game at Mississippi College. Currently, the Cowgirls are 5-0-1 in league play and Mississippi College is 5-0-0. If the two teams tie or if MC wins the game and wins out then Mississippi College would host the ASC tournament. HSU has hosted the last five ASC tournaments and probably not coincidentally have won the last five ASC titles.

I have been asked a couple of times about who would host if the men and women both were regular season champions. The quick answer is the women would host if they both won the right to host this season.
In the 2005 season both of our teams won the right to host and we hosted both tournaments. Honestly, it was not the championship experience that the league or anyone really wanted to put on. Without lights, there were games played not only at HSU but at Shotwell Stadium. Without lights the games obviously had to be played in the daytime. With shorter daylight hours in late November and four games having to be played on one day we had games starting at 8 a.m. and no one should have their season determined at 8 in the morning.

After that season the league’s coaches, then AD’s, then president’s voted that one school could not host both events anymore. They put in a system where if both teams won the right to host that the men would get the right in odd years and women in the even years. There are similar rules in NCAA Tournament play as well with both teams hosting. It is the only sport in the ASC that has this problem, because the other sports have divisions that alternate between the East and West.

The volleyball crossover tournament went well last weekend with the Cowgirls winning all three matches. They are currently one game behind Texas Lutheran in the standings and they still get to play TLU at home. The Cowgirls host McMurry tonight at 7 p.m. and can put some distance between themselves and McMurry. The Cowgirls have won 14 matches in a row at home and have won seven straight matches against McMurry.

The football game last weekend was really exciting and we had a legitimate chance to win the game. I think the team really believes it is making progress and if they can win out they would have a great shot at making the NCAA playoffs.

This weekend marks the 200th football game of the Jimmie Keeling era. The Cowboys host East Texas Baptist for Homecoming. HSU has never lost to ETBU, but the Tigers are undefeated in league play and have the lead on the Cowboys in the standings.