Roller hockey gears up for anticipated season

NICK PITTS STAFF WRITER NDP722@CABRINI EDU

The Cabrini roller hockey team is gearing up for its 2007 season. With eight returning players, they look to greatly improve on last year’s mark of 8-6-1-1.

“I didn’t know we actually had a roller hockey team at Cabrini,” Angela Lindle, a freshman exercise science major, said.

Not many students here on campus, however, know about the roller hockey team.

“The team made shirts for last season,” Mike MacDonald, a sophomore graphic design major, said. “When I wear mine on campus, people ask me if Cabrini actually has a team. Half don’t know we exist.”

Considered a club sport, the Cavaliers are opening what will be their eighth season in the Philadelphia Collegiate Roller Hockey League. Cabrini calls the Marple Sports Arena their home court, which is located in Broomall, Pa.

Coming off of a modest eight-win season, the team has high hopes for their upcoming season.

“I’m definitely excited for this season,” Mike Holland, a sophomore finance major, said. “I know the guys returning from last season really want to come out with a chip on our shoulder and show that we are a better team than the one that lost in the first round last year.”

The team made it to the playoffs and faced the University of Pennsylvania in the first round. They lost in the best of three series, two games to one.

The Cabrini roller hockey team prepares to play in a game last season at their home court, the Marple Sports Arena. The team hopes for much fan support this season.

“We got knocked out of the playoffs by a team we could have beaten,” Holland said. “We did not play well in the third game of the series and that was the difference.”

Though the Cavs are not the biggest crowd drawer, they do have a few dedicated fans.

Gina Mulranen, a sophomore math

LAURA LOMBARDI STAFF WRITER LCL723@CABRINI EDU

No. 5 Wisconsin Falls to Illinois

The Fighting Illini football team defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 31-26 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Il. This marked the second win over a ranked team in the last two weeks for the Illini and the second win over a ranked opponent since 2001. Illinois got on the scoreboard first, early in the first quarter going 80 yards on the second drive of the game. Although it was a tough-fought game, the Fighting Illini never looked back on their way to a victory. Last week, their 27-20 win over Penn State wasn’t enough to get them into the top 25, however, this win put them at No. 18.

Diamondbacks Sweep Cubs

The Arizona Diamondbacks finished off the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, Oct. 6 in front of almost 45,000 fans at Wrigley Field. Jose Valverde closed it out for the Diamondbacks, striking out Alfonso Soriano for the third and final out of the 9th inning. Livan Hernandez picked up the win for Arizona pitching his way out of trouble with a huge bases-loaded-double play in the 5th inning. The D-Backs move onto the National League Championship Series where they will face the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 8:37 p.m.

Stanford Upsets USC

The Stanford University Cardinals football team defeated No. 2 ranked University of Southern California Trojans 24-23 at the Coliseum in Southern Calif. This loss ended the Trojans 35-game home win streak. Stanford won on a fourth and goal pass from Tavita Prichard to Mark Bradford with 49 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter. This loss drops the Trojans to 4-1 on the season and 2-1 in Pac-10 play.

Gators Can’t Hang On

On Saturday, Oct. 6, the University of Florida Gators football team got an early lead up on Auburn University and went into halftime winning 17-7. It was looking as though the Gators and Tim Tebow were going to rebound after their tough loss to Auburn last week. The momentum changed sides when Tim Tebow’s pass hit Cornelius Ingram in the helmet, bounced up in the air and was caught by Lousiana State University linebacker Darry Beckwith on the Florida 27- yard line. LSU went up 28-24 late in the 4th quarter and hung on for the win. This win ends all disputes and clearly makes LSU the No. 1 team in the country.

secondary education major, said, “We had to carpool to games because there was no transportation, especially as freshmen.”

Mulranen attended four games last season.

“Every sporting event on campus gets great attention and advertisement,” Mulranen said. “People don’t know about sports played off campus. I wish there were more support for those teams.”

Holland agrees.

“We’re not well known, but we’re a good team. We are all about having fans come and support,” Holland said.

The official schedule for the league has not yet been released, but the Cavalier action starts in mid-October.

The roster is far from completed, but there are three definite freshman additions on top of the eight returning players. Four of the eight are sophomores.