YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN

Monmouth College will begin a nationwide search for a new swimming coach following the decision by two-time Midwest Conference Men’s Coach of the Year Keith Crawford to accept a similar position at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Crawford recently announced his decision to leave Monmouth for the Terre Haute, Ind., school citing the opportunity to move closer to his family in Indiana.

"It’s simply a case of being able to move to within an hour’s drive of my family," said Crawford. "I appreciate the opportunity Monmouth gave me to develop the program from the ground up. Monmouth has wonderful facilities and I’m certain the program will continue to thrive."

Crawford was hired in 2004 to resurrect the men’s swimming program after a 20-year layoff and establish a women’s swimming program at Monmouth. Under his direction, the Fighting Scots quickly developed into a contender in the MWC. The men placed second in the conference meet the last two years and the women steadily improved, finishing as high as fourth place in the conference in 2007. In Crawford’s five years guiding the Scots, the men have claimed six individual and relay conference titles. The women claimed their first two individual crowns last season.

"Keith has done an outstanding job developing our program," said athletic director Roger Haynes. "We’re very appreciative of the job he has done. He has left our program in good shape with a number of quality athletes."

Longtime assistant Dave Yez, a 1964 Monmouth College graduate, has been named the interim head coach. Prior to joining the Scots as an assistant, Yez spent the better part of two decades as a coach at Monmouth High School. Two-time conference champion Kurt Niemeier has been named Yez’ top assistant.

"Dave brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our program," praised Haynes. "We feel his experience and familiarity with the program makes him the perfect choice as we take the time needed to find a suitable replacement for Keith."

Monmouth will begin the nationwide search for Crawford’s replacement following the conclusion of the season this spring.

SOUNDS LIKE A BROKEN RECORD

Scots Scoop realizes today’s student-athletes may have never heard the headline phrase, but "Sounds like a broken CD/hard drive" just didn’t work for this story.

Lynsey Barnard (Pekin, Ill./Pekin) fired a school-record at last weekend’s final meet before the Midwest Conference Championships this weekend.

Barnard tied her own 18-hole school record with an 80 in Saturday’s opening round at the Millikin Fall Classic played at Red Tail Run in Decatur. The junior then carded an 86 on Sunday as her 166 bested the previous 36-hole record of 167 set by her coach, Molly McNamara in 2001. Barnard finished in a tie for 21st.

"Lynsey had a chance to be even lower," reported McNamara. "She had a string of five or six pars in a row, but had to finish on the two toughest holes on the course."

Led by Barnard’s record-setting round, the Scots posted a 376-370-746 to place 13th in the field of 19 which included Division II and other scholarship schools. The Scots finished above the only other conference team in the field, besting Knox which placed 16th, by 68 strokes. Monmouth’s 370 was their lowest 18-hole round since a 368 at the Knox Invitational on Sept. 5.

Senior Jessica Sackville rebounded from an opening round 97 to post an 87 in the final round and finish 67th with a184. Heidi Hartshorn finished in a tie for 77th with a 95-101-196, Kristin Humphrey carded a 104-96-200 to tie for 83rd and Kendra Catterton’s 106-111-217 placed her 95th.

"Jessica settled in on the second day," said McNamara. "She hit 14 fairways and was driving really well."

Playing on back-to-back weekends for the first time since the start of the season the Scots may have found their game on Sunday. That’s good news to McNamara who feels the team is hitting their stride.

"We played pretty well last weekend," praised McNamara. "The course is lined with prairie grass, so if you don’t hit the fairway or the first cut of rough, the odds are you’ll be taking a penalty stroke. There’s not much of a chance to scramble out of trouble. Just being able to play two weekends in a row helped us get back in a routine."

They’re hoping that routine will pay dividends this weekend at the MWC Championships. The championships will be played at the Grinnell Country Club course this Friday through Sunday.

"We’re playing now like we were at the start of the season," said an optimistic McNamara. "We’ll need to use everyone’s score at some point in a 54-hole format. Kristin is making good ball contact and scoring better. Heidi is playing as well as ever and Kendra is hoping to put a couple of good nines together.

Monmouth placed fourth in last year’s championships, trailing league champion Illinois College, runner-up Knox and third-place St. Norbert in the 54-hole event. McNamara’s game plan for the three-day tournament is to stay relaxed.

"We set 360 as a target score," she reported. "We’ve been knocking on the door, so we just need to play relaxed. There’s no pressure on us, it’s all on (league favorite) Illinois College."

CLOSING THE GAP

A change of venue didn’t seem to adversely affect the cross country team at last Saturday’s Brissman-Lundeen Invitational hosted by Augustana College as the Scots are steadily gearing up for next month’s conference championships.

The damage from the summer’s floods caused the annual meet in the Quad Cities to be moved to the Saukie Golf Course in Rock Island where the Fighting Scots men placed eighth out of 28 teams and the women finished 11th in the field of 27.

Mary Kate Beyer posted the fastest 6K time of the season in the Midwest Conference, placing sixth in the field of 315 runners with a time of 22:40.4. Katie Staab was less than two minutes back in 38th place with a 24:04.0. Bri Flynn led the 3-7 scoring pack with a personal-best time of 25:05.5, finishing 82nd. Taryn Tang’s 25:17.4 was five seconds faster than Jayme Ayers and nine seconds in front of Ashley Szabo. Amy Aghababian rounded out the Scots scoring runners in 115th position, clocking a time of 25:46.5.

"Mary Kate ran well and dropped her time from last year," said Roger Haynes. "The course was a bit more difficult than last year’s Credit Island layout with a lot of twists and turns. Mary Kate ran about 10 seconds ahead of last year’s pace and to finish in the top six in that field is very good. Our women’s split times overall were improved. I thought a 6K would be advantageous to us over a 5K and it proved to be true."

Adding proof to Haynes theory was the women’s pack time. The women’s scoring pack plus Whitney Didier, Sara Ditzler and Brook Potendyk lowered their 1-10 total pack time record by nearly seven minutes.

Brad Begyn led the men, placing 31st with an 8K time of 26:42.7. Scott Sheller finished 39th while posting a lifetime best by 50 seconds at 26:56.6 and Clay Staley finished 12 seconds back of Sheller in 50th position. Jon Welty paced the 4-7 pack with a time of 27:51.5, placing 84th in the field of 343 runners. Geoff Bird was 98th, Matt Peharda placed 116th and Craig Maher’s lifetime best of 28:39.1 rounded out the Scots scoring in 143rd place.

"Brad was solid again," praised Haynes. "Scott got under 27 minutes for the first time in his career. Jon and Geoff had good races as well, running fourth and fifth. Those two made good contributions to the team outcome."

Haynes was buoyed by the improvements of his team to this point of the season.

"The improvements Maher, Welty, Sheller and Bird have made really add to the quality of our team," reported Haynes. As an added bonus, Beyer and Sheller were named MWC Performers of the Week.

The Scots’ performance at the Saukie course could be a harbinger of things to come for Monmouth. It’s possible the site will be the venue of next month’s regional meet due to downed trees and other flood damage at the usual Credit Island location.

If the Scots qualify anyone out of the regionals, they’ll see another familiar course at the national meet. This weekend Haynes will take his team to Hanover, Ind., for a meet to be held at the site of November’s NCAA Championships.

The training regime for the Hanover meet may see the Scots running Euclid hill. Haynes describes the difficult course as "very hilly." This will also be the only time during the regular season Monmouth will run on consecutive weekends.

LIKE AN OREO COOKIE

Much like the kids on the Oreo commercials, the Fighting Scots women’s soccer coaches couldn’t wait to get to the middle – it was the beginning and the end of the Scots’ 4-1 loss to Grinnell Sunday that was hard to swallow.

"The coaching staff felt good about the way we played," said Barry McNamara. "We told the players to feel good about how they played. I’m not sure THEY feel good about it. But, we don’t want to have a string of moral victories, either."

After an early Grinnell goal, and another just minutes before halftime, the Scots found themselves trailing the Pioneers 2-0 at the break, but mounted a series of attacks to begin the second half and found the back of the net when Becca Bauer headed in a Lauren Vana corner kick less than three minutes into the second session.

"We told the women at halftime we had been there before," reported McNamara. "We told them someone was going to score the first goal of the second half and if it was us, we’d be in good shape. All of Lauren’s corner kicks were great and Becca did a great job of heading it in."

The Scots and Pioneers played even for the next 30 minutes until Grinnell’s Sydney Stoker punched in a goal with 12 minutes remaining. Miki Nakamura found the back of the net as the horn sounded for the 4-1 final score to make the outcome seem one-sided.

"A win would have set us up well (in the conference race)," said McNamara. "A lot of conference teams are going to lose to Grinnell. We’ve said all along that we need to beat one of last year’s four playoff teams, so we have three more chances of accomplishing that."

The Scots conference-opening loss wasn’t for a lack of effort. McNamara had praise for Megan Meeke who switched roles from her freshman year.

"Megan did an outstanding job of creating chances for us," praised McNamara. "She was our leading goal scorer last year, so she’s a little frustrated that she hasn’t been able to score this year. Her role this year is to create chances and we really feel like she did that, we just weren’t able to finish."

Grinnell was able to finish most of their good chances, although ‘keeper Sarah Wintersteen stopped the Pioneers on a couple of point-blank shots. McNamara feels the Scots made a few "correctable" errors and the team will be able to rebound this week, realizing Grinnell is one of the top teams they’ll face.

"We hung with them for a good, long time," praised McNamara. "They’re a perennial playoff team with seven seniors. We have one senior and we feel like we’ll be able to catch them in the future."

Brittany Parker’s free kick from near midfield sailed just wide of the goal as the Scots nearly realized "the future" Sunday.

"We had some good chances that just didn’t go in," said McNamara. "We had some good looks similar to Brittany’s. I wouldn’t say we outplayed Grinnell, but we were right there."

The Scots host Millikin tonight before entertaining league opponent Illinois College on Saturday with a chance to pull even in the Midwest Conference race.

A TALE OF TWO HALVES

A pair of turnovers last week turned Steve Bell’s predicted dogfight into a 41-20 Fighting Scots win over the Carroll Pioneers.

After the teams slugged it out to a 20-20 halftime time, Monmouth’s special teams and defense gave the Scots’ offense a short field to work with – that’s not a good thing if you’re the opposing defense.

The Scots swarmed on a botched punt return early in the third quarter and Alex Tanney promptly hit Kyle Wantland for a four yard TD pass. Cole Norman then picked off a Pioneer pass on the first play after the ensuing kickoff and ran it back 34 yards to the Carroll 15. Two plays later, Tanney found Steve Zidow in the endzone for a two touchdown lead, effectively taking the wind out of the sails of the Pioneers.

Trailing 34-20, the Pioneers had what turned out to be one last chance to close the gap, but Willy Mason picked off a Carroll pass at the Pioneers’ 46 with less than a minute left in the third period. The Scots made good on the chance, posting their final score after Mason’s pick.

Tanney connected with 10 different receivers on the way to 317 yards and six TDs. The six touchdown passes tied his brother Mitch for the most TD tosses in a single game. Alex leads the conference with 16 on the year.

The defense – ranked No. 1 in the nation – gave the Scots plenty of opportunities, intercepting Carroll three times to go with the fumble recovery. Anthony Goranson added to his league-leading sack total dropping the Pioneers’ QB twice.

Despite Carroll getting the benefit of three Scots’ penalties on their first possession to cap a 69 yard drive and jump to an early lead, Bell wasn’t overly worried about the game’s opening drive.

"I think sometimes the first drive of the game is overrated," he said. "There’s a whole lot of ballgame left after the first drive. They did get off to a good start and our defense prides themselves on not letting that happen. Carroll had two ‘drive changers.’ One was one of our penalties that gave them a bunch of yards and they had another pass that kept it going. We always talk about being even-keeled and not getting to high or too low when things go good or bad."

The Scots answered the Pioneers with their own march down the field. The offense finished off a 62 yard drive with Tanney’s 25 yard completion to Matt Shepherd, one of two 25 yard TD passes on the day for Tanney. He found Clay Bricker early in the second quarter for the second.

After a "frustrating" first half, the Scots defense turned it up a notch for the final 30 minutes, holding the Pioneers to just over 50 yards of offense in the second half. So coach, the defensive turnaround was the result of a little face time in the locker room – Right?

"I got that question a lot," reported Bell. "We really didn’t yell at them, we just made a small adjustment and reminded them to play their responsibility and be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there. Our kids expect a lot out of themselves and we didn’t live up to that expectation in the first half."

The offense also responded in the second half and took advantage of the opportunities the defense and special teams gave them. The Scots turned three turnovers in the second half into points and those three touchdowns became the winning margin.

The Scots will face another Pioneer team this weekend with their trip to Grinnell. Grinnell’s Pioneers are coming off a 32-16 win over Lawrence and Bell is a bit cautious in deciphering the Grinnell offense.

"They have a freshman quarterback who is a very good athlete," reported Bell. "The dangerous thing about freshmen is they get better every game."

The Pioneers picked off six Lawrence passes last week to break open a tie game at halftime, scoring 17 third quarter points. Grinnell’s defense kept the Vikings out of their half of the field for the most part, allowing a touchdown on Lawrence’s first drive and then surrendering a late TD once the outcome had been decided.

While some fans might think Monmouth has the advantage in this battle of the 4-0 Scots and 2-2 Pioneers, Bell isn’t calling this a gimme.

"Grinnell is always a tough place to play," said Bell. "We’ve had some real battles there. We better go into the game mentally prepared or it could be a long afternoon."

For Scots fans, as long as the afternoon ends in a "W" the length of the journey won’t matter.

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO...

The Tanney brothers weren’t even born when Irving Berlin wrote the classic song "Anything You Can Do" in 1946.

More than 60 years later, Alex and Mitch Tanney have staged their own version of the song about a couple in a friendly rivalry trying to outdo the other one. Younger brother Alex tied Mitch’s school record for touchdown passes last weekend and in the process earned the Midwest Conference Offensive Performer of the Week honor.

Tanney’s six touchdown passes in the Fighting Scots’ 41-20 win over Carroll tied him with his older brother Mitch for the most TD tosses in a single game. The sophomore signal-caller found a different receiver for each of his scoring throws. Tanney, who leads the conference with 16 touchdown passes in four games, completed 28 of his 39 attempts for 317 yards and hit 10 different receivers en route to the record-tying day as Monmouth stayed unbeaten and improved to 4-0.

Mitch had set the standard for TD passes against arch-rival Knox in 2004.

TENNIS GETS A PREVIEW

When the Fighting Scots meet likely opponent Lawrence in the team portion of the Midwest Conference championships later this month, they hope the sequel will have a different ending.

The Scots fell to Lawrence last Saturday 6-3 and would need to reverse two of the three hard-fought losses at No. 1 and 3 singles and No. 1 doubles. Kerry Frantz is optimistic about writing a different ending.

"I think the next time we meet it could be 5-4," said Frantz. "We need to reverse any combination of the Nos. 1 and 3 singles and the No. 1 doubles."

Monmouth’s trip to the Dairy State resulted in a 1-2 road trip, falling to Beloit 5-4 after winning 5-4 at Carroll on Friday. Brittany Donnelly did her best to help the Scots cause, winning all three of her matches at No. 4 singles. Kimi Wegner and Amy Unzicker were unbeaten on the weekend at No. 2 doubles, winning 8-0 over Carroll and Beloit and handling Lawrence 8-2.

"Amy and Kimi are rolling," said Frantz of his 10-2 doubles team. "They’re playing aggressively and controlling the net. Many times players will lay back, but these two are taking over the net."

The Scots have no matches scheduled until Oct. 11 – unless the rained out WIU Tournament is rescheduled. With a long break, Frantz’ strategy is simple – work on the fundamentals and keep it fun.

"We want to keep it fun and work on some skills we normally wouldn’t be doing," reported Frantz. "We’ll work on some drop shots and top spin. It’s almost like starting the season over again."

A recap of the season to this point finds Cassie Frantz and Brittany Donnelly continuing to battle for the career singles wins record. Donnelly, on the strength of a 3-0 weekend, now stands two wins up on her doubles partner with 38 victories. Frantz has a four-win lead over Donnelly in the combined singles and doubles win category with 75 wins. Unzicker and Donnelly lead the team with 10 singles wins each and Wegner has the lead in doubles wins with 11.

With at least one dual match remaining and three days of the conference tournament remaining, the Scots win totals could reach new heights – and unlike most sequels, they’re hoping the Lawrence sequel has a better ending than the first edition.

SPIKERS NORTHERN SWING

Kari Shimmin and her volleyball team would have preferred a sweep last weekend in matches at Lawrence and St. Norbert.

What they got was a split and a bit of confidence.

The Scots rolled to a straight set win over Lawrence on Friday, but fell in three to St. Norbert Saturday afternoon. The total margin of defeat in the three-set loss to the Green Knights was a mere seven points.

"We had so many plays where we had chances to win against St. Norbert," lamented Shimmin. "St. Norbert did a nice job on defense. We were attacking aggressively, but they were able to make the digs. We just weren’t able to finish them off in Set 2 or 3."

Tanesha Hughes may have played the match of her career, collecting 14 kills with just one hitting error for a whopping .419 percentage.

"Tanesha did a great job of mixing up her attacks," praised Shimmin. "Our setter’s (Alexis Keller and Alisha Shadid) were as consistent as they’ve ever been. We played at a high level all weekend and had a lot of positives come out of it despite the loss."

The Scots were able to fight off the urge to look past Lawrence who was still looking for their first win Friday night and pick up the win. Monmouth fought off a flat start to handle the Vikings’ strong serves and win handily.

Entering last night’s match with Grinnell, the Scots knew Job 1 would be to stop – or at least slow down – Grinnell’s star hitter Claire Reeder. In last year’s 3-2 Grinnell win, Reeder dominated with a 28-kill night that included seven blocks.

The Scots held Reeder in check (only 11 kills this time) to post a 3-1 win over the Pioneers and improve to 3-2 in the MWC.

"We knew we had to keep an eye on Reeder to be successful," said Shimmin. "She’s hard to defend because she can do so much with the same set."

Illinois College will visit Glennie Gym Tuesday for a 7:00 p.m. match. The Lady Blues sit one game back of the Scots and with the MWC tournament format changed to take only the top four teams, each league match is crucial.

With just four league matches remaining there is little margin for error. The Scot hope they have the formula that wouldn’t take an Einstein to figure out – Wins = MC 2 MWC Tournament.

PASSIONATE PLAY

For George Perry’s men’s soccer team, it’s more about passion for the game.

In last week’s 3-0 loss to perennial power Grinnell, the Scots had opportunities, but were unable to find the back of the net. It was a case of opportunity lost.

"We should have been able to take advantage of some opportunities, but we didn’t," said Perry. "We just lacked passion in our play."

The passion was there in a 2-1 loss to Knox last Saturday. The Scots found themselves ahead 1-0 at the intermission, thanks to a Mark Serio to Joe Howell goal. Howell found a slit in the defense as Serio lofted a corner kick in front of the net. Howell’s header put the Scots up in the 34th minute.

While the upperclassmen understand what it means to play their rivals to the east, that intensity is sometimes lost on the freshmen – and the Scots have six on the roster. Despite the inexperience of the newcomers to the rivalry, the level of play was quite intense.

"I was very pleased with our intensity and passion – from the players on the field to the guys on the bench," reported Perry. "I thought we played some very good soccer in the first half. I felt like we sat back a bit in the second half."

Knox took advantage of the softer play in the final 45 minutes, scoring two goals to pull out the win.

"I thought all the guys gave us 90 minutes of passion and enthusiasm," praised Perry. "We just lost track in the second half of moving the ball quickly. We lost some focus on what we wanted to do."

What the Scots want to do is keep the tempo up, something Millikin was able to do in a 3-0 win over the Scots on Tuesday. Monmouth kept the Big Blue out of the net for most of the first half, but a goal in the 32nd minute and a score less than a minute before intermission put the Scots in a 2-0 hole. It could have been worse.

"Our goalkeeper (Owen Robinson) didn’t have to make many big saves," said Perry. "I thought we were doing alright. If we could get through the first 45 minutes, we’d have the wind in the second half and would be able to step it up."

The Scots were able to mount some attacks in the second half.

"Lucas Knox had a nice run down the side," said Perry of the Scots scoring opportunities. "We had some good strikes and had several hard shots – Pat Blazer and Josh Del Valle had some good opportunities that just didn’t go in."

Millikin was able to slip one more goal in with 10 minutes left to ice the game. The goal came after Robinson stoned Millikin’s Andrew Cudone with a diving save to his left on a penalty kick.

"Owen does a nice job of reading the player on penalty kicks," praised Perry. "He’s stopped two of them this season – one to his right and Tuesday to his left. It’s not like he’s guessing, he’s actually analyzing and making the quick reaction."

One area the Scots hope to improve on for Saturday’s matchup with Westminster is defending counter-attacks and second chance goals.

"Millikin’s second and third goals came on a counter-attack and our inability to clear the ball after a shot," lamented Perry. "Offensively, we need to work on trusting our skills and move the ball quickly. We’re a much better team when we do that."

The Scots need only to look at game tape for proof of Perry’s statement. Monmouth’s aggressive, quick play against Knox paid off in the first half. Perry finds inspiration in an old acronym – KISS.

"We need to Keep It Simple," said Perry. "We don’t need one player to become a dazzling player. We need the team to work effectively together."

HALL OF FAMERS

On Saturday, Oct. 18, four former Fighting Scots athletes will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The ceremony, held in the Huff Athletic Center will begin at 8:30 a.m. Scots Scoop will profile each of the inductees over the next four weeks.

John Jacobs ‘94

The proverbial "man for all seasons," John Jacobs starred in football, wrestling and baseball for the Fighting Scots.

Jacobs got each year off to a great start by being named a first-team All-Midwest Conference defensive back, making him the only gridder in Monmouth history to receive four straight first-team honors. He recorded 256 total tackles in his career, including 96 as a senior, and intercepted eight passes.

On the wrestling mats, Jacobs posted a record of 42-13 in three seasons and reached the finals of the conference tournament to earn All-MWC honors.

Consistent success was Jacobs’ trademark in football, and it was in baseball, too, as he batted between .320 and .341 in each of his three seasons to finish with a career average of .326. He added nine homers, 52 RBI and 16 steals in his 62 career games. That included a senior season in which he belted seven homers and drove in 22 runs.

Thurs., Oct. 2

Women’s Golf – at MWC Championships, Grinnell, Iowa, TBA

SCOTSIVATIONAL