Are You Ready For Some Futbol?
What an exciting couple of weeks we have had on the HSU campus and it gets even more exciting this weekend.
It was not a surprise to see the women’s soccer team win the American Southwest Conference title. It is not a given for the Cowgirls to win, but of late it almost seems that way. Congrats to Woody and the Cowgirls for their seventh straight ASC title.
For their reward, the Cowgirls hit the air to California for a tough opening round weekend and HSU beat No. 4 Puget Sound and No. 16 Claremont Mudd Scripps to advance to the sectional tournament. Next up is a showdown with Trinity.
The Tigers beat the Cowgirls in the season opener 1-0 in overtime and expect another nail-bitter in the series between the battle-tested rivals. If the Cowgirls can find a way through this weekend a nice reward is on the other side as the Final Four will be played in San Antonio. There is plenty of work ahead for that to happen, but HSU may have its best team and the scary thing is they start just one senior.
The Trinity game will be aired on the Internet and there are links here. If you can’t make it to San Antonio be sure to listen in.
For the Cowboy soccer team it has been an exciting couple of weeks. First the Cowboys won the ASC title at Mary Hardin-Baylor on penalty kicks. After that win, the NCAA did what the NCAA does when HSU and UMHB are in the NCAA Tournament and they paired them together in the first round.
Again the Cowboys came out on top and advanced to the second round on Sunday evening at No. 2 Trinity. After a shaky first half that somehow ended scoreless, the Cowboys settled down and took it to the Tigers in the second half for a 2-0 win. You can see Chris O’Brien’s go-ahead goal here. It was probably the biggest win in HSU men’s soccer history and it was the first time an ASC team had advanced past the second round.
The Cowboys will play at Loras College this weekend, fighting for a Final Four berth. HSU plays Whitworth on Saturday night and the game will be video webcasted. A win would put them in the sectional finals against the Loras-Dominican winner.
Now some editorializing on my part – this is a blog by the way.
The Cowboys have showed some tremendous heart the last two weeks in winning three games in very hostile environments. The two wins at UMHB (actually the first one counts as a tie in the records, but the championship rings show who won) were great. There were very vocal crowds that made it a tough environment to play. Soccer fans are closer to the action than probably any other sport and soccer fans are not known for being the most cordial.
With the action on the field and in the stands, it makes victory that much more exhilarating. A big win brings out a lot of emotion and there is nothing wrong with that. As hard as the kids work all year to see them celebrate is rewarding. It sometimes rubs the losing team and crowds the wrong way, but for the most part our kids handle themselves in the right way. To be able to celebrate with their teammates, coaches and friends is part of the reward and they should be able to enjoy them.
Some people complain about too much celebration, which is more out of line than any of the celebrating I have witnessed over the last two weeks. Let the kids be kids. These moments don’t come around that often and they should enjoy them.
Personally, I hope that both soccer teams get to celebrate on another’s teams field again this weekend. Good luck to both teams, you have already made your school proud and anything you do from here on out is icing the cake. Enjoy it, because it doesn’t last forever.
Some other notes of recent success and hopefully more to come.
The Cowboy football team closed out its season with five straight wins and secured an 18th straight winning season. Congrats to the Cowboys for fighting back from a tough 1-4 start. Character is built by how you respond to adversity and Coach Keeling and the boys should be commended for what they did to end the season. It was not an easy feat.
The Cowgirl volleyball team ended its successful run this season with a trip to the ASC Championship game. The Cowgirls gave it their all in a tough-five set loss to then undefeated Texas-Dallas. Kaela Parnell and Chelsie Fowler were named all-region for their efforts. Parnell was the ASC MVP.
Freshman Lindsey Hinton had a nice run in the NCAA Cross Country regionals with a 63rd place finish in the 189-runner field. She is the first Cowgirl to participate in the NCAA regionals in the two years of the program.
Footballers Lee Grounds, Garrison Hardin and Paul Thebeau, soccer players Amy Kuykendall, Sarah Stansell, Becca Gault and Lindsay Cogburn and volleyball players Erin Davis and Kaela Parnell were all named academic all-district. The all-district teams are the top student-athletes in Division II, III and NAIA in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico and Louisiana. It is a big honor and HSU had by far the most players honored in the district among ASC and Division III teams.
The basketball teams get moving this weekend with the first games. The Cowgirls play in the Trinity Tournament against Trinity on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday they will play St. Olaf at 5 p.m. The men open up Sunday at Baylor. All HSU basketball games can be heard on www.hsuathletics.com with Jay Ashby and/or Chad Grubbs on the call. The men will be home next Tuesday night for a game with Southwestern.
Stay tuned to www.hsuathletics.com for all of the up-to-date information on HSU Athletics and we hope to see you at the game.
