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

Kudos to Duke's Men's Lacrosse Team and Remembering Our Fallen Soldiers

Duke University (16-5) upset Syracuse (16-4) to win a second NCAA men's lacrosse championship for the Blue Devils. The team was helped by Brendan Fowler, who won 20 of 28 face-offs, Jordan Wolf, who scored four goals in the title game that was played in Philadelphia, Josh Offit, who scored the go-ahead goal and Jake Tripucka, who was a member of the all-NCAA tournament squad.

Tripucka is the son of former Notre Dame men's basketball star and NBA player Kelly Tripucka. The Blue Devils had lost the ACC championship to their rivals_ the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

SIDEBAR: Since my late stepfather Donald Sullivan (1918-2003) was a World War II veteran, we thought we would recognize those who lost their lives while serving in the American military. Though Donald was fortunate enough to come home, many were not and that was especially true for troops from Bedford, Va., where the National D-Day Memorial is located. Donald was fortunate to visit the memorial before his passing.

Here was a tweet from the D-Day Memorial today which talked about those who came to Bedford today: "Over 1,000 came to honor and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to our nation."

It is interesting that the D-Day Memorial has the flags of all the countries that were allies in World War-2, this happens to include not only familiar friends like France, both also countries such as Norway and Greece.

http://www.goduke.com

http://www.durham-nc.com

http://www.dday.org

http://www.visitbedford.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Joe Montana

Since the Super Bowl is coming up on Feb. 3rd as the New England Patriots face the New York Giants, we are going to quote Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks for the next four weeks.

Joe Montana, 55, won four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s, including wins over other star quarterbacks including Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins), John Elway (Denver Broncos) and Boomer Esiason (Cincinnati Bengals).

He played college football for Notre Dame (the image above is of Montana in a Notre Dame jersey):

"Confidence is a very fragile thing."

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Conan O'Brien

We were initially going to try to figure out the distance between Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind., and Akron University in Akron, Ohio, but yesterday's entry took almost as long as it would get from Duke University's campus in Durham, NC, to Hampton University's campus in Hampton, Va. That trip would take three and a half hours! But, the Blue Devils are playing the Pirates in 'neutral' Charlotte, NC.

Nevertheless, since it is Saint Patrick's Day, we though we'd mention the Notre Dame-Akron game even though it is actually going to be played tomorrow in Chicago at 1:40 p.m., New York time.

We also imagine that they will still be partying hard at Fiddlers Hearth, an Irish pub in South Bend, where the band Driving Irish will perform at 9:00 p.m. local time tonight.

As for the city of Akron, their hometown baseball team the Akron Aeros has their season opener against the Binghamton (NY) Mets at 7:05 p.m. on April 7th.

Tonight's Conan O'Brien Show is a rebroadcast from January that will feature retired talk show host Larry King and snowboarder Shaun White.

O'Brien posted this hilarious tweet on Twitter today:

"St.Patrick's Day is named for St. Patrick, the first guy to feed Guiness to a snake."

Before I head to Bethesda, Md.*, for a pet-sitting trip (I assume the locals are disappointed the Maryland Terps didn't get in, but two area teams the Georgetown Hoyas and the George Mason Patriots did!), I want to wish my dear sister Eva Svensson from Goteborg, Sweden**, a happy 37th birthday. Yes, she is a St.Patty's baby.

We also want to wish the NPR station 88.5 WFDD (Winston-Salem, NC) success with their on-going fund-drive which will hopefully off-seat any draconian measures that Tea Partiers might be able to push through Congress to cut federal funds for NPR.

Many people have projected that mostly small NPR stations in rural areas, like WETS-FM in Johnson City, Tenn., would be affected the most if such measures went into effect.

As I have told my friends to the right of me: "Mozart is not a Maoist." And, NPR should not be caught up in this culture war at all.


*- I am not actually going to Bethesda, but we love mentioning that DC-suburb.

**-My sister is not named Eva Svensson, nor does she reside in Sweden. But, today is her 37th birthday.

Quote of the Week- Dwight D. Eisenhower

For those wishing to visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum, it is located in Abilene, Kansas, and my mother visited in last year during a lengthy road trip excursion that ended somewhere in Colorado.

The Newseum in Washington, DC, is also commemorating the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's farewell address in January with guests like James Fallows from "The Atlantic" and Dana Priest from "The Washington Post."

Here is our quote from Ike, which is appropriate since lots of college football games are being played today (as we speak in fact):

"An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame-Southern Methodist University game and doesn't care who wins."

SIDEBAR_ Our High School of the Week entries are in recess, but we should congratulate Cave Spring High School of Roanoke, Va., as the Knights are the only school from my hometown left in the Virginia state playoffs thanks to their win over Grundy High School last night.