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Battling back ay
9, 2019
The Lorian
photo courtesy LORAS COLLEGE ATHLETICS Sophomore infielder Luke Fennelly throws out a Wartburg hitter during a doubleheader against Wartburg.
Baseball team earns postseason berth by PATRICK COSTELLO sports writer
Entering the final week for the Du’s baseball team the final spot for the conference tournament was on the line. To make matters even more interesting, the team they were competing with for the final spot was the team they were facing that weekend, Wartburg home of the Knights. On many levels this weekend was emotional for the seniors, but the weekend did not disappoint. For the first game, on the hill for the Duhawks was first-year pitcher Curtis Lilienthal. Lilienthal on the season had a 2-2 record for the Duhawks in seven starts. His season’s success gave pitching coach Jeremy Gerardy and Head Coach Carl Tebon confidence that he could give the Duhawks a chance to take game one. He did just that giving up two runs in six innings. The offense took a few innings before finally breaking through in the sixth, where they scored four runs. The battle continued back and forth that, even after nine innings, the score was tied. Sophomore shortstop Luke Fennelly came up in the bottom of the 10th inning with Senior Robbie Agerbeek at second. Fennelly blasted a fastball to the left-center gap scoring Agerbeek on a walkoff double. Duhawks take game one of the series. Entering game two, the Duhawks knew that the Knights were going to come out with a fight. The Knight’s struck early and often scoring 11 runs through five innings, capped off by a grandslam that knocked Duhawk first-year start Sam Marhefke out of the ballgame. The Duhawks never gave up hope and contin-
ued to battle back. The team answered back scoring six unanswered making the score 12-7. Unfortunately, the deficit was too great and the Knights took game two by a score 14-9. This meant the storybook ending to continue the season was in line as the Knights and Duhawks had a winner-take-all game three of the series. The Knights jumped out to a quick lead scoring two in the first inning, but the Duhawks quickly erased that score with a run in each of the first two innings. Then, to continue the chess match, the Knights scored four runs in the fifth inning to jump up by a decisive margin. The Duhawks again never quit and they answered scoring four themselves in the bottom half of that inning. Finally, after a pair of scoreless frames from both sides the Duhawks managed to scrape together one run in the eighth inning. Junior closer Tanner Fallon came in and slammed the door shut sealing the victory and a trip to Cedar Rapids. Duhawks take game three and the series by a score of 7-6. The tournament begins for the Duhawks on Thursday, May 9, as they play a game against Luther college in the conference tournament. Not to be forgotten are the seniors who played their last game at Petrakis this season. The Duhawks are graduating nine seniors this season: Austin Konagel, Robbie Agerbeek, Jake Oglesby, Zack Murphy, Blake Anderson, Dan Westra, Danny Paluch, Cole Thompson, and Patrick Costello.
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3 named all-conference by JON QUINN sports editor
The No. 3 Loras College men’s volleyball team’s season reached a close on April 12 after an unsettling loss to No. 2 Fontbonne University at the MCVL Conference Tournament at the Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. Loras went down in four tight games to the Griffins, who then went on to take down No. 1 Carthage College and continue their run into the elite 8 in the NCAA national tournament. Ahead of the 2019 MCVL Conference Tournament, the league announced its 16 selections for its All-Conference Teams, as voted on by the league’s coaches. From Loras, three sophomores were recognized to be part of the All-Conference Team. Those three are sophomore outside hitter Mihajlo Gomez, sophomore right-side hitter Grant Ooms, and sophomore setter Patrick Hollander. This season marked the first season that the Duhawks had more than two representatives on the All-Conference Team as well as the first year that they were represented on the First-Team. Each of the Loras’ three honorees were selected to the All-MCVL squad for the first time in their careers. As one of two returning starters from last year’s squad that advanced to the tournament championship, Gomez provided leadership by crafting a season full of dazzling display, resulting in multiple top-five rankings in statistical categories. Gomez led the MCVL in service aces per a set, averaging .69 per set, ranked fourth in kills per set and 14th in attack percentage. In a 3-2 win over Mount St. Joseph, Gomez put away 22 kills, a season best, helping his team clinch a spot in the postseason. In seven conference matches, Ooms lowest kill total was 11 in a three-set sweep over Olivet. Since that contest, Ooms averaged 16 kills per match, which included 18 against top-ranked and regular season champion, Carthage. In seven of his nine conference matches, Ooms hit over .400 which included backto-back .500 performances against Olivet
photo courtesy LORAS COLLEGE ATHLETICS Seniors Leo Peters, Austin Kuchenbecker, Jake Chudzik and Jeffery Budz pose for a picture during “senior night” on March 30.
and Adrian. Ooms led all players with his 4.28 kills per set average in league play. Hollander came into the season as the primary backup, but when he was needed, he rose to the occasion with enthusiasm and ensured that the offense didn’t deteriorate. In fact, it was largely in part to Hollander’s execution that Loras set new team records in kills per set (12.96), attack percentage (.295), assists per set (12.04) and assist percentage (.464). Since his take over in March, Hollander recorded at least 26 assists in each of the remaining 10 matches, including 54 in a five-set thriller against Mount St. Joseph. The program is graduating four seniors, defensive specialist Jeffrey Budz, right-side hitter Leo Peters, outside hitter Jake Chudzik, and middle hitter Austin Kuchenbecker. The seniors are four year athletes who devoted their careers to volleyball here at Loras. “It feels really great to be part of a program that consistently places in the MCVL Conference Tournament,” said Peters. “I knew going into it that I would be part of the team in it’s growth stage so a lot of the four years, I emphasized on growth. Growth is pretty much the most important thing at my time here at Loras.” Next year, the volleyball program is hosting the national championships and is planning on playing in that national tournament.
