MONKEY? WHAT MONKEY?

Scots men’s basketball coach Mark Vershaw didn’t feel any lighter when he got up Wednesday, a day after the Scots posted a 68-67 win over Lake Forest to end the squad’s school-record nine-game losing streak to start the season.

"I didn’t feel like it was a monkey off my back," said Vershaw. "It has never been about me. It’s about our guys and what we’re trying to accomplish this year. It was an important first step, but we’re not a team looking to win ONE game. There are a lot of things we want to accomplish. I was more relieved for our guys the way the game ended. To lose that one would really have hurt."

The Scots, who led for all but the first 2:49 of the game, missed the front end of three one-and-ones in the last 35 seconds, giving the Foresters a chance to win in the waning seconds. Trailing 68-67 with five seconds left, the Foresters pulled down the Scots’ final missed free throw and called a timeout to set up a final play. Lake Forest’s chances at a road win slipped away, literally, when Victor Campbell fell while taking a shot and was called for traveling. Monmouth then inbounded the ball with one second left and sealed Vershaw’s first career win.

Blaise Rogers (13 points) made his Glennie Gym debut for the Scots after missing the first two months of the season with a broken foot. The senior guard connected on four 3-pointers to tally 13 points in 24 minutes of play. Vershaw was upbeat about Rogers’ return. "We got a sense last night of just what he can bring," said Vershaw. "Even if he doesn’t shoot well, there are a lot of different areas where he helps. His leadership and winning attitude makes it nice to have him back in uniform."

Vershaw also heaped praise on Joe Terwelp (20 points), but in typical coaching fashion, says his senior can get better. "There’s always room for improvement," said Vershaw. "His conditioning has gotten to the point where he can play longer stretches. He really showed what he can do against Minnesota State’s 6-10 Division I transfer." Indeed. Terwelp poured in 26 points against the Mavericks and has added a 3-pointer to his arsenal, hitting four treys in his last two games.

Vershaw also praised Kyle Weyeneth’s contributions that don’t always show up on the stats sheet, calling it a "good effort" against a tough opponent. "You never have to question Kyle’s passion and desire when he plays," praised Vershaw. "He goes after a lot of rebounds and loose balls. He contributes in so many ways."

The Scots are hoping this begins a string of successes. Vershaw points to the last half of Friday night’s game against Division II Minnesota State as the catalyst for Tuesday’s win. "I felt like the first half of the season we put together some good 40 minutes, but didn’t execute down the stretch," he said. "We played a final 20 minutes of very good basketball against a very good team in MInnesota. We hoped it would carry over and it did in the first half against Lake Forest."

Next up, the Scots play at Illinois College Saturday and host Knox Tuesday. The Blueboys have been hot to this point of the season and picked up a double overtime win against Millikin. "They’ve gotten off to a very good start," reports Vershaw. "We can expect to walk into a very tough environment. We can assume they’ll play with a lot of confidence."

SCOTS SWIMMERS SWEEP

The Monmouth College swimmers showed few signs of taking a month off from competition with a dual meet sweep of Principia College Saturday. Swimming competitively for the first time since the DePauw Invitational on Dec. 4, the Scots men dominated the Panthers 203-72 and the women posted a 109-97 win.

"It was about what I expected," said coach Keith Crawford. "It was a good meet to shake off some rust after a long break. We were coming off a 12-day layoff and had just five practices to get ready."

Ready, they were, as a trio of men swam personal-bests while winning their events. Chad Rowland took first in the 1000-yard freestyle (11:01.22), Kevin Raske touched first in the 100- freestyle (50.63) and Kurt Niemeier won the 500- freestyle (5:07.82). Other firsts included Niemeier, Kevin Satler, Jon Peterson and Tom Pederson in the 200-yard medley relay (1:47.69); Raske, Peterson, Steven Whittle and Joe Moran in the 400- freestyle relay (3:37.05); Raske also picked up firsts in the 100- backstroke (57.27) and the 100- butterfly (56.53); Peterson in the 100- breaststroke (1:06.35); Ryan Bouwman in the 200- butterfly (2:33.38); Josh Van Swol in the 200- backstroke (2:13.16); Brant Furr in the 200- breaststroke (2:37.56); Harrison Heilman in the 200- individual medley (2:16.01). John Kaiser was a double winner, taking first in the 200- freestyle (1:57.09) and the 50- freestyle (24.09).

The Scots traveled to Elsah early in order to get a workout in prior to the meet. While you might think that would hurt performances, it did just the opposite as the Scots took either first or second in nearly every event.

Seconds on the men’s side came from Jack Clifford in 1 meter diving with a personal-best score of 153.00 points; Van Swol, Heilman, Moran and Whittle in the 200- medley relay (1:50.91); Moran in the 100- freestyle (55.94); Ed Novak in the 1000- freestyle (11:34.15) and the 500- freestyle (5:29.88); Niemeier in the 100- backstroke (1:00.72); Heilman in the 100- breaststroke (1:10.83); Rowland in the 200- backstroke (2:20.52); Kaiser in the 100- butterfly (58.95) and Bouwman in the 200- individual medley (2:30.15).

"The men had a reasonably competitive meet," praised Crawford. "Jack Clifford had a season-best in the 1 meter diving and Steven Whittle swam some nice legs in the relays."

Crawford also had praise for senior Heather Plum who led the women, accounting for three firsts. "Heather had some really nice swims," he said.

Plum won the 1000-yard freestyle (11:50.69) and the 500- freestyle (5:46.94). She also teamed with Anne Lane, Jessica DeMink and Megan Wentzlaff to capture the 200- medley relay (2:08.85). DeMink also touched first in the 100- breaststroke (1:22.74). Wentzlaff took first in the 200- breaststroke (2:54.63). Lane was the winner in the 100- butterfly (1:06.23). Meaghan Gritzenbach rounded out the firsts for the Monmouth women with a win in the 200- butterfly (2:49.43).

The Scots women were buoyed to the dual meet win with strong second place finishes in eight events. Lane finished second in the 200- freestyle (2:09.39) and the 100- freestyle (1:00.27). Jessica Houser had a personal-best while finishing second in the 200- backstroke (3:05.22) and was second in the 100- backstroke (1:14.19). Other seconds came from Wentzlaff in the 100- breaststroke (1:23.67) and the 200- individual medley (2:36.67); DeMink in the 200- breaststroke (2:56.50) and Gritzenbach in the 100- butterfly (1:17.06).

With nearly half the women’s team missing due to a school trip, Crawford was pleased with the women’s performance. "I feel like we stole the meet on the women’s side," said Crawford. "The women really gutted it out to win with a shorthanded squad."

The Scots travel to Augustana College for a dual meet Friday night where the women will again be shorthanded. Lane and Wentzlaff are scheduled to be overseas on a school trip. "I can’t complain about missing two of our top swimmers," said Crawford. "The students are here for their education, and what a great opportunity for Anne and Megan to travel to London."

While the women’s squad will be missing two swimmers, Crawford hopes to get one back on the men’s side. The plan is to have senior Dan Campione back in the pool for the Friday meet.

"Dan planned on swimming at Principia, but experienced some stiffness in his neck Thursday," explained Crawford of Campione’s recovery from a fractured vertebrae. "We felt it was best to sit him out of the Principia meet to give him a few more days of rehab. We’ll need him for the conference meet next month, so we don’t want to aggravate the injury now."

The only thing Crawford wants to aggravate at this point of the season is the other teams’ chances of winning a meet.

NOT EXACTLY WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

The Scots expected Elise Waldorf’s broken hand and her ensuing absence from the lineup to have somewhat of an effect on Tuesday night’s game with Lake Forest, but no one expected a 30-point loss.

"I was disappointed we let that bother us," said head coach Melissa Jones. "Teams always have injuries and shouldn’t let that affect their play.

Jones says the turning point of the game came just a few minutes later when Lake Forest opened up a double digit lead, scoring 15 points in transition to, in essence, put the game away. All told, the Foresters scored 32 points off of Monmouth’s 27 turnovers. Jones credits Lake Forest’s defensive intensity with determining the outcome of the game. "They made defensive mistakes, but it was their intensity. Every loose ball, every rebound, all the little intensity things you need on defense, they did," she said.

Lake Forest’s defense limited the Scots to just 35-percent shooting, but Tanehsa Hughes found a hole in the Foresters’ armor and scored a season-high 18 points to go with nine rebounds, a feat not lost on Jones. "Tanesha and Alison (Andrews) showed up to play," praised Jones. "Alison was scrappy on defense, bothering the ball handler. Tanesha was aggressive on offense, demanding the ball and taking it up strong."

While Jones hopes the loss to the Foresters is the low point of the season, she knows her team has come to a crossroads. "We’re at a fork in the road," said Jones. "We can either go south or we can decide to change the way we play defense, play with more intensity and do all the little things correctly. We had a really good practice Wednesday morning, so I’m interested to see how we respond over the next few games. This stretch will determine our fate for the playoffs.

"It’s important for us not to squeak in at a four seed," she continued. "The fourth seed would play the one seed on their floor, so we are shooting for the two or three seed. Those two teams would play on a neutral floor."

Waldorf is expected to be ready for the next stretch of games and that just might be the right prescription for the Scots to cure their shooting woes and break their three-game losing streak.

TERWELP IS TOPS IN MWC

Monmouth College senior center Joe Terwelp (Quincy, Ill./Notre Dame) had arguably his best game of the season and earned the Midwest Conference Performer of the Week honor in men’s basketball.

Playing against much taller opponents, Terwelp poured in a season-high 26 points against the Division II Minnesota State Mavericks last Friday. The 6-5 senior connected on 10-of-20 shooting from the floor, including 3-of-4 treys and 3-of-3 from the free throw line. He also pulled down seven rebounds and recorded two steals, an assist and a blocked shot. Terwelp ranks among the top 10 in the MWC in scoring (14.9 ppg), rebounding (6.7 rpg) and field goal percentage (.558).

A NEW KIND OF BALLGAME

In an "Introduction to Liberal Arts" class at Monmouth College in 2006, soccer player Sally Hayes of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, was introduced to more than just liberal arts.

It was in that class that she read about Illinois senator and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose biography, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," was used as one of the texts as students explored "exemplary lives."

Hayes has taken her belief in Obama’s abilities to the next level, serving as an intern for his campaign since last summer. The experience hit a big peak last week, as Hayes was back in her hometown, serving as a co-captain of one of Mount Pleasant’s five voting precincts, along with her mother, Monie Hayes, who’s an assistant professor of educational studies at MC.

At her local caucus, Hayes explained there were 10 delegates up for grabs. It took 26 voters to make a candidate "viable," and Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards each easily reached that number with about an equal number of supporters. Bill Richardson had only 11 supporters, so there was an effort made to get that group to switch their support to one of the other major candidates. Hayes, as sophomore classics, history and philosophy major, found herself in the interesting position of trying to sway those individuals toward Obama, while former Iowa governor and one-time 2008 presidential hopeful Tom Vilsack, who is one of her neighbors, was trying to win them over to Clinton’s camp.

Eventually, said Hayes, a deal was struck, and enough individuals left each camp to give Richardson 26 supporters and one delegate, while Obama, Clinton and Edwards evenly split the other nine.

Another of Hayes’ peak experiences came the week earlier, when she and one of her friends were asked to introduce Obama at a rally at Mt. Pleasant High School.

"Before we introduced him, we were talking with him backstage," she said. "He talked about Monmouth with me. He knew where it was, and he asked me about school and being on the soccer team."

An active student at Monmouth, Hayes is a member of the Associated Students of Monmouth College (student senate), earned a varsity letter in soccer for the Fighting Scots last fall and was named to the Midwest Conference All-Academic team. Hayes is also working on starting a "Students for Obama" chapter at Monmouth.

Other duties she performed as an intern for Obama’s campaign include helping to organize his visit last summer to Mount Pleasant, putting together a recent party for young voters and making lots of phone calls to registered voters.

THE WEEK AHEAD

SCOTSIVATIONAL