ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No, Charles Dickens isn’t our guest writer for the women’s basketball report, but that Dickens line sums up the Scots’ play through the first three games.

On Saturday, Monmouth was able to survive a second half Rockford run. The Scots led by as many as 17 points in the first half but saw their 36-23 halftime lead shrink to four with 14 minutes remaining. Monmouth then pulled away, thanks in part to a 14-2 run. Sophomore Elise Waldorf was nearly perfect shooting, her career-high 28 points came on 14-of-17 accuracy from the floor. While Waldorf was nearly automatic, junior Melissa Gorski struggled with her shot, but was "relatively" close a quadruple-double, scoring 7 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 steals. "Melissa was a great example of how someone can be a huge help to the team even if their shot’s not falling," said Jones. Katie Sheets lived up to her preseason billing as an outside threat, scoring 16 points while hitting four treys.

It was more of the same Sunday vs. Wartburg, building a 20-point lead midway through the first half, only to surrender the lead in the second half. This time, the Scots couldn’t hold off a stubborn Knights team.

"I think we scared ourselves by how good we were (against Wartburg)," commented coach Melissa Jones, referring to the first half. "That was the best 15-20 minutes I’ve ever seen any Monmouth College team play. We were great." The stats certainly back up Jones’ claim in the first half, shooting over 62-percent from the floor, including 7-of-9 from 3-point range.

The Knights best defense proved to be halftime. The Scots shooting cooled dramatically in the second 20 minutes, hitting just 21-percent from the floor and 1-of-11 on treys. "Just as good as the first half was, the second half was that bad," Jones said. "We played to win in the first half, then in the second half we played not to lose. We were very tentative."

Jones liked what she saw with the inside-outside game of Sheets and Hughes. "It was great to see Katie have a couple of good games from the perimeter," said Jones. "Tanesha was very strong, especially in the first half. She was a big post presence for us."

The Scots open their conference schedule this weekend and will quickly find out how they may fair in the MWC. Friday night’s opponent, Carroll was the overwhelming favorite to win the title. The Pioneers are also getting national attention, ranked 21st in the USA Today/ESPN poll and 25th by D3Hoops.com.

"We match up well with both teams," said Jones in referring to Carroll and Lawrence. "We can’t allow either team to get on a streak. We can’t come out flat in the second half."

Jones would also like to see a couple of players step to the front. "Alison Andrews doesn’t realize how good she can be, yet," said Jones. "Ashley Yeast has gotten off to an uncharacteristically slow start. We need to get both of them going."

Yeast’s quest for the school’s women’s rebound record could come to pass this weekend. Her 792 career rebounds leaves her 17 short of Penny Rowan’s school record.

GOOD EFFORT, BAD OUTCOME

"If we can copy that game and tweak a few things, we’ll be OK." That was the sentiment of coach Mark Vershaw after Saturday’s tough 80-76 loss to St. Ambrose University at the Pizza Hut/County Market Classic.

"We put together 40 minutes of good basketball," praised Vershaw. "There were no bad stretches. We were in position to win, and the effort was outstanding. The execution wasn’t quite there down the stretch, but we hadn’t been in that position yet."

Senior Joe Terwelp led Monmouth with 22 points. Two freshmen, Eric Grant and Alex Tanney, scored 17 and 14, respectively. "We’re going to need somebody other than Joe to score," Vershaw said. "Joe was outstanding, but our scoring is going to have to come from different players."

The news wasn’t all good. Tanney injured his knee and will join senior Blaise Rogers (broken foot) on the sidelines for a yet undetermined amount of time. "Those are two players we’re going to miss, but they’re also guys that will help when they are able to return," said Vershaw. The coach is hopeful he will have Rogers and Tanney available after the first of the year.

It was quite a different story Sunday in a 79-52 loss to Robert Morris of Chicago. The No. 7 ranked team in the NAIA reminded the Scots coach of a couple of previous opponents. "They were along the lines of Central Missouri State and (exhibition opponent) Eastern Illinois. Very good athletes top to bottom," he said. "The most important thing is, we came out flat and that just doesn’t work."

The Eagles took the air out of the Scots tires early, taking the lead within the first two minutes and then built a 20-point lead by halftime. The second half was much better statistically for Monmouth, nearly staying even with Robert Morris in the second frame.

The Scots will have another set of tough back-to-back games this weekend when Carroll and Lawrence visit Glennie Gym. While the Scots have nine players averaging more than 10 minutes per game, Vershaw expects his bench to play an even bigger part this weekend. "We’re fortunate to have guys who’ve shown they can step in and play," he said. "We need to be in a conference game where we can bounce back energy-wise on Saturday.

"Having Andy (Moore) back will help us," Vershaw continued. "We need that team effort. I think we’ll have different guys stepping up, outside of Joe, in the scoring department."

You might think the Scots’ coach would call on some of his MWC connections to get a scouting report for the weekend, after all he and Beloit coach Brian Vraney and Lake Forest coach Chris Conger are University of Wisconsin alums, but Vershaw reports his team needs to first focus on what they need to do. "At this point we’re really concentrating on what we’re doing," he said. "We’ve had four very, very tough games including our exhibition, and stiff competition, so hopefully we’re battle-tested and are ready to step it up a notch. We need to do what we need to do right. If we can, then we’ll be OK."

The Scots will face Carroll Friday night and host Lawrence Saturday. The Viking were voted as the No. 2 team in the league during the preseason coaches’ poll.

PALKOVIC GOES BOWLING

Kicker Nate Palkovic has been selected to play for the American Football Coaches Association’s Division III All-Star team that will represent the United States against the Mexican National Team in the 2007 Aztec Bowl on December 8 in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Palkovic, a senior from Peoria, Ill. (Woodruff), averaged 41.9 yards per punt and 62.4 yards per kickoff this season for the Scots. He also converted 9 of 14 field goals, including a long of 46 yards and 35 of 36 extra points.

Palkovic is one of 50 NCAA Division III seniors from around the country who will make up this year’s team. Former Widener, Delaware Valley and LaSalle Head Coach Bill Manlove will coach this year’s team.

Gametime: This year’s game is scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. CST on December 8 at Estadio Olimpico Universitario in Chihuahua.

The Aztec Bowl is the traditional season-ending game for Mexico’s college football season. The game has been played 36 times since 1947 with the last 10 contests featuring the United States-Mexico match-up. The United States is 9-1 in the series and defeated Mexico, 28-7, in the 2006 game in Aguascalientes.

For more information on the AFCA and its programs, log on to the AFCA’s website at www.afca.com.

CAMPIONE’S BACK

Regardless of how you interpret the headline, you are correct. Senior swimmer Dan Campione has been conspicuously absent from the meet results this fall and for good reason. Campione suffered a fractured vertebrae in his upper back that has kept him out of the water for the first two months of the season.

While the exact cause of the injury is a mystery, coach Keith Crawford is confident Campione will be ready soon. "We hope to get him back in the water the first part of December," Crawford said. "He’s been undergoing six weeks of physical therapy, so we’re shooting for a January timeline to get him back into competition."

The Scots took last week off for the Thanksgiving break and were on their own for training. Crawford is hopeful his team can build on the momentum they had going into the week off, describing the IWU Invitational as a "solid meet" for both the men and women. The Scots get positive marks from their coach in what he called a "critical meet" in terms of training. Crawford calls the training progress as "typical" to this point, saying the meet prior to Thanksgiving is traditionally a tough meet due to the holiday.

The Scots will jump into the deep end of the pool this weekend with their first competition after the holiday break at the two-day DePauw Invitational.

TWICE AS NICE

Freshmen Megan Meeke (Elmhurst, Ill./York) and Brittney Parker (Waukegan, Ill./Warren), made quite an impression on the Midwest Conference women’s soccer coaches and were rewarded with all-conference honors.

Meeke was named All-Midwest Conference first team and led the Fighting Scots in points (18) and assists (6) and was second in goals (6). The forward played in all of the Scots 18 games and was named a Midwest Conference Performer of the Week for the week of Sept. 24.

Parker, named All-MWC honorable mention as a defender, scored nine points on four goals and one assist. She anchored a defensive unit that allowed less than two goals per game and picked up an MWC Performer of the Week honor the first week of the season.

This marks the sixth straight year Monmouth has placed at last one player on the All-MWC squad.

FORMER GRIDIRON COACH HONORED

Galesburg Register Mail sports editor Mike Trueblood reported last week that former Fighting Scots football coach Kelly Kane was being inducted into the Galesburg High School Hall of Fame. Kane posted a 59-33 record at GHS before taking over the reins at Monmouth College in 1984. His 1980 Galesburg team, which included future Fighting Scots Hall of Famer Mark Reed, finished the season at 8-1.

Kane told the Register Mail - "I was surprised. I think I always will be. Certainly it's a great situation and always a humbling one."

Kane’s success at the high school level followed him to the college ranks at Monmouth, winning three consecutive Midwest Conference South Division titles from 1987-89. He ended his 16-year career as the Fighting Scots head coach in style with a dramatic 27-26 win over archrival Knox.

"College was a great opportunity," Kane told Trueblood. "A long time ago I thought I’d coach for 40 years, and in two years that will be it. I’ve already told the powers that be, that will be it."

I WANT MY MWCTV

THE WEEK AHEAD

SCOTSIVATIONAL