Sports Desk: College Volleyball Notebook...........A Good week for Tarheels and Highlanders

There were an unholy number of women's college volleyball games played over the weekend, as unlike some college sports, such as gymnastics and lacrosse, virtually every school in the country seems to have a women's volleyball, even The Citadel, a military institution in Charleston, SC, which only let women become students in recent years.

Let's start with the University of North Carolina Tarheels, as the team swept Notre Dame, a new ACC member, for a second time this year. This particular match being at home in Chapel Hill, NC.

Jovana Bjelica (pictured top), a graduate student from Belgrade, Serbia, who formerly played for Florida International University, had 16 kills, five digs and four service aces in the win over the Fighting Irish.

For her efforts in that game, as well as a win over North Carolina State earlier in the week, Bjelica was named ACC Player of the Week. The 'Heels are now 13-0, and ranked #11 in the country.

The other UNC_ this being the University of Northern Colorado Bears in Greeley, Colo._ had a tough bout with Weber State which ended in a 3-2 affair that was won by the school from Utah. But, Kendra Cunnigham, a junior from Eaton, Colo,, had 20 kills for the Bears.

And, Rachel Wiechecki, a junior from Wilmington, Del., had 14 kills and 20 digs to help Radford University in Radford, Va, your's truly'a alma mater, to a straight set win over arch rival Liberty. It was a home game for the Highlanders, and the team's first win over the Flames in several years. The Highlanders also won tonight over North Carolina Central 3-2 in Durham, NC.

Here are 15 weekend women's college volleyball games and their results:


Harvard 3 Darthmouth 0

UNC-Asheville 3 Gardner-Webb 1

Georgia 3 LSU 2

Virginia Tech 3 Wake Forest 1

*UNC 3 Notre Dame 0

JMU 3 William and Mary 2

Colorado 3 UCLA 2

Princeton 3 Penn 2

Duke 3 UVA 0

Ohio State 3 Michigan 1

*Weber State 3 Northern Colorado 2

Miami (Fl) 3 Boston College 2

Kentucky 3 Alabama 1

Long Beach St. 3 UC-Santa Barbara 2

*Radford 3 Liberty 0

*-Featured games

Incidentally, the middle image is a replica of the volleyball that was a companion to Tom Hanks in the film "Castaway."


http://www.ruhighlanders.com/index.aspx?path=wvball&tab=1

http://www.goheels.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&SPID=12977&SPSID=668175&SITE=UNC&DB_OEM_ID=3350

http://uncbears.com/sports/wvball/index

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

College Schools Nicknames- Retro Metro

Yes, there was once a college basketball conference called the Metro Conference, but it ceased to exist in the mid-1990s. But, today we remember the conference with its member schools (not all were in the Metro at the same time).

Since we are limiting these lists to 12 schools, we had to omit the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets, the first Metro team to defect to the ACC in 1979.

Four of these schools, Louisville, Memphis (the school was called Memphis State in its Metro days), Cincinnati and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) have reached the Final Four in men's basketball, while Louisville has won two NCAA titles in the sport. VCU has also qualified for this year's NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournament.

Here is the list of Metro Conference schools with their present conferences (note about the image, Virginia Tech has a club hockey team, not a NCAA team in the sport):


1. Cincinnati Bearcats. Big East. Cincinnati, Ohio.

2. Florida State Seminoles. ACC. Tallahassee, Fla.

3. Louisville Cardinals. Big East. Louisville, Ky.

4. Mephis Tigers. C-USA. Memphis, Tenn.

5. Saint Louis Billikens. Atlantic-10. St. Louis, Mo.

6. South Carolina Gamecocks. SEC. Columbia, SC.

7. South Florida Bulls. Big East. Tampa, Fla.

8. Southern Missippi Golden Eagles. C-USA. Hattiesburg, Miss.

9. Tulane Green Wave. C-USA. New Orleans, La.

10. UNC Charlotte '49ers. Atlantic-10. Charlotte, NC

11. VCU Rams. Colonial Athletic. Richmond, Va.

12. Virginia Tech Hokies. ACC. Blacksburg, Va.

Sports Desk- ACC Volleyball Action

It was a very busy weekend for the ACC, but while most people were paying to the football games in the conference, many women's volleyball games were played as well as all 12 current ACC members were in action.

I had the chance to see two of the games, including UNC's win over Wake Forest on the road (28-30, 29-27, 27-25, 25-22) and Virginia Tech's home win in a highly competitive five-match game over Clemson (25-22, 13-25, 14-25, 25-19, 15-11).

ACC volleyball got my attention late in the season last year when I noticed there was a Turkish player at Florida State. As a Turkish-American, I was aware that volleyball was a popular sport among female athletes in Turkey, but I didn't realize just how many volleyball players from Turkey were playing in the NCAA.

In the ACC, on current rosters, there are eight such players, including Duygu Duzceler and Fatma Yildirim (Florida State), Serenat Yaz and Cansu Ozdemir (Clemson, team image is above), Ece Taner of UNC and Cagla Sen of Boston College.

And, as it turns out Liz Trinchere of Virginia Tech went to my high school in the Roanoke, Va., area.

In weekend action, the UNC Tarheels won a road game over Wake Forest 3-1 (28-30, 29-27, 27-25, 25-22) on Friday as each of the four sets in the match were nail-biters. The 'Heels are now 17-5 (9-2 in ACC play).

And, in Blacksburg, Va., on Sunday, the home-court Virginia Tech Hokies a highly competitive full five-set match over the Clemson Tigers by a score of 3-2 (25-22, 13-25, 14-25, 25-19, 15-11); the Hokies go to 13-9 (6-5 in the ACC) and Clemson now has a record of 14-8 (6-5 in the ACC).

During Friday's game in Winston-Salem, NC, Kaylie Gibson of the 'Heels scored 24 digs and her teammate Emily McGee, a former ACC Player of the Week, had her seventh double-double of the season.

For the home Demon Deacons, Dani Thompson scored 14 digs and Andrea Beck added 14 kills. The game included a breast cancer fund-raiser which raised over $5,600.

During Sunday's game at Virginia Tech, the Hokies won a third straight five-set victory. Three Hokies scored double-doubles, including Cara Baarendse (with 13 kills), Justine Record and Jordan Fish.

For the Tigers, the aforementioned Serenat Yaz was one of three players with double-doubles along with Mo Simmons and Hannah Brenner.

Here is a complete list of ACC scores from Friday to Sunday:

Friday:

Clemson 3 UVA 1
Florida State 3 Maryland 1
Va. Tech 3 Ga. Tech 2
UNC 3 Wake Forest 1
Duke 3 NC St. 0
Miami (Fl) 3 Boston College 1

Saturday:

Ga. Tech 3 UVa 1

Sunday:

Va. Tech 3 Clemson 2
Florida State 3 Boston College 0
Miami (Fl) 3 Maryland 1

Sidebar: On a more serious note, the Turkish-American Washington DC-based group ATAA has set up a relief fund for victims of the earthquake in the eastern city of Van:

Turkish Philantropy Funds
Re: Van Earthquake Relief Fund
216 E. 45th Street, 7th Floor
NY, NY 10017

I expect there will be a segment about the devastation on the NPR talk show "The World," which examines evolving stories from around the globe.

More ACC Mascots

Well, we didn't want to snub anybody even though both Boston College and Wake Forest (pictured here) are already out of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, NC.

With the exception of Duke, this has actually been a down year for North Carolina's men college basketball teams. Western Carolina, North Carolina A & T and High Point University got to the semi-finals of their respective conferences, but alas all three teams fell short.

Appalachian State in Boone, NC, made it to the Southern Conference finals but they lost to Wooford University, which is located in Spartanburg, SC, at the conference tourney in Charlotte.

My friend Olaf Jacobsson (psedonymn) from Wilmington, NC, is an uber-Tarheel fan, but even he thinks that the very best they can do is beat Georgia Tech tonight (tipoff at 7:00 pm).

ACC Tourney Underway in Greensboro

The ACC Men's Basketball Tournament is going on here in Greensboro, NC. I should have cancelled my class to watch the games, but alas we will be meeting in (yikes!) 13 minutes.

UVA beat Boston College earlier today, and I am expecting Duke to win the tourney in a close title game against likely opponent Maryland.

Here are my choices for the six best mascots in the ACC:

1. Maryland Terps
2. Virginia Tech Hokies (pictured)
3. UNC Tarheels (pictured)
4. NC St Wolfpack
5. Duke BlueDevils
6. Wake Forest Demon Deacs....


for the worst, go to my other blog, Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time

ACC Basketball Games for this Weekend

The UNC Tarheels will be playing their first game since a road loss to Clemson as they face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a home game that will be broadcast on ESPN tomorrow at 2 p.m. I think the 'Heels will win by four points. If you're in Chapel Hill, NC, for the game tomorrow, you may want to stop by Chapel Hill Comics which has a special fundraiser going on for the Haiti earthquake disaster.

Other ACC games include the following:

Clemson @ North Carolina State- noon

Maryland @ Boston College- 4 pm

Virginia Tech @ Florida State- 6 pm

Miami (Fla) @ UVA- 8 pm

Wake Forest @ Duke- 8 pm (Sun)

I like Clemson, BC, Virginia Tech, UVA and Duke in these games. I think the Clemson-Nc St. game will be very close as the Wolfpack seem to be an improved team over last season.

Two major Big East games will take place this weekend too as Syracuse goes to Morgantown, W.Va., to face West Virginia U at noon (another ESPN game). On Sunday, Georgetown goes to Philly for a noon-time game with Villanova. I'll go with WVU and Georgetown though the 'Hoyas would pull an upset if they beat 'Nova.

UPDATE: All three of the teams featured in images for this blog lost that weekend. The UNC Tarheels' men's baskeball team is actually in the middle of a three-game losing streak as of today (1/25)