Yes, that’s right, Marquette does have a waterski and wakeboard team, and it’s the defending champion of the Wisconsin Collegiate Open. The team was also Division II runners-up in 2006 at Nationals in Sacramento, Calif. The Marquette club waterski and wakeboard team will attempt to defend its championship at the Wisconsin Collegiate Open in Neosho, Wis. this weekend.
Scott Fleming, president of the club and member since the inaugural year in 2005, said that although Marquette is always one of the top competitors, you need no skiing or wakeboarding ability to join.
“Anyone and everyone is welcome in our club,” he said. “Experienced or not, we have a place for you.”
There are currently 30 members in the club and Scott mentioned that only about half of them actually ski. The other half are simply fans.
“As if coming to Marquette wasn’t great enough, being part of this club is an added bonus,” Fleming said.
The club’s main season is in the fall where a majority of events take place, but Marquette is now in the midst of its spring season and is competing hard.
A waterskiing competition consists of three events: the slalom, the trick, and the jump. The slalom event features an individual skier navigating through an obstacle course of six target buoys. The trick event is where a skier receives 20 seconds to accomplish as many tricks as he or she can for the judges. The jump event gives each skier three attempts at the jump ramp to fly as long a distance as possible and ski away from the ramp.
Kelly Kotarek, a sophomore and a member of the team since the fall of ‘07, said these events and competitions mean much more to her than just competing.
“I have friends from all over the Midwest because of these tournaments,” she said. “I had considered transferring from Marquette earlier this year, but the experience I’ve had with this team drew me back in.”
Having fallen just short of a national championship last year, the Marquette women’s club volleyball team knew it had something to prove this year. A championship trophy is probably proof enough.
“Last year we were unable to pull it together against Texas, but this year we were able to just shrug it off and fight hard to get back in the game,” said Margaret Hall, co-president of the club.
In 2007, the University of Texas defeated Marquette to win the national championship, which brought about a devastated, but determined Golden Eagle squad. Coincidentally, Marquette met Texas in the 2008 Collegiate Club Volleyball National Championship again, but this time they played a reversal of roles. That determined Marquette team was victorious in consecutive games, 25-21, 25-21 in front of a crowd of 4,000.
The team has been in existence for the past 13 years and has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation for the 11 straight years. They have been in the Final Four six times out of the 11 years, but this was the first time the team took home a title.
This year, the National Collegiate Club tournament was held in Dallas, Texas. Out of 360 registered women’s club teams, 108 were invited to compete for the national championship — and Marquette outlasted all of them.
In Thursday’s opening round pool play, the Golden Eagles seemed to have no problem as they defeated James Madison University, Rutgers and Michigan State University, which advanced them to Friday’s championship pool round.
After a convincing victory over Purdue University, Marquette was matched up against in-state foe UW-Oshkosh and suffered a 25-23 defeat in the first set. However, Marquette came rallying back as the won the next two sets to push them through to the Gold Division Round.
Marquette had once again reached the Final Four after consecutive victories over Santa Clara and Grand Valley State, and was matched up with the Ball State Cardinals for a chance to compete in the National Championship.
After being dealt a 25-27 loss to Ball State in the first set, Marquette’s near flawless run to this point seemed vulnerable, but like they had done all season long, the Golden Eagles fought back and crushed the Cardinals 25-13 in the second set and 15-3 in the third. That gave them a trip to the finals where they defeated the Longhorns.
Sarah Frogge, a setter, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“You could just tell that everyone was playing for the people standing next to them on the court, for the teammates cheering their hearts out on the bench and for our dedicated coaches who believed in us all year,” Hall said.
In the first ever women’s lacrosse game, the Golden Eagles gave a great fight before eventually losing to the University of Illinois 7-4.
Freshman Kathryn Steigerwald scored the first ever goal for the program, and was also the leading scorer with two goals.
“It was an amazing effort considering it was our first game,” women’s lacrosse coach Vinny Maurici said. Maurici is also the men’s lacrosse president.
Be sure to keep checking out the blog for more lacrosse updates.
The men’s lacrosse team just finished a successful “fall ball” season. Coming from the Northern Iowa Fall Classic, the Golden Eagles finished 2-1 with wins over the University of Iowa and Augustana. The Eagles also played a hard fought game in an unfortunate close loss to Northern Michigan. The Eagles played hungry , beating Iowa by two goals and Augustana by three goals. Marquette was led in scoring by senior midfielder Andy Hunt.
Marquette will continue to practice during winter break and will continue their season during march.
The Marquette Club Crew women’s 4+ boat won its race and set a course record with a time of 19:19.17 at the world’s largest two-day regatta, The Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Mass., this past weekend.
The next closest boat was Simmons College—eight seconds behind. The four Marquette rowers, Diana Mitsche, Rachel Stoll, Julie Knyszek, and Mary Kaleta along with Coxswain, Katie Scheidemantel, proved that the smaller Marquette team can compete with much larger teams from around the country. Rower, Rachel Stoll, said Marquette may be at a disadvantage because bigger teams are able to recruit experienced rowers and sometimes Marquette crew has rowers who have never even seen a boat. Marquette surely showed its will and determination in its record setting performance in Boston.
Marquette’s record setting time was the first occasion the university had ever received a medal at the Head of the Charles Regatta. The team had its sights set high and has even higher goals for next year.
Stoll said confidently, “I think that we will do very well next year; the boat that won consisted of three seniors and two sophomores. Our seniors will be very deeply missed, but we do have a very strong group coming up after them. I think that we can expect this kind of performance in the future.”
In the 43rd running of the race there were over 30 teams competing and 31 rowers from Marquette. Marquette is able to put several boats in the regatta every year and compete against some well-funded and accomplished teams from around the world.
The Marquette men’s boat placed well enough in the regatta to earn an automatic spot in the 4+ race next year. Hopefully Marquette’s success will continue and will carry into all aspects of our athletics this year.
Saturday Marquette club football team took on Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in its season finale. Marquette struck first with a blocked punt and converged on for a safety. The Cougars rushed in three touchdowns in the first half but were offset by a great show of scoring by the Golden Eagles. Freshman Jonathan Volpentesta ran in three of his own touchdowns and wide receiver Dustin Peterson caught a touchdown pass from senior quarterback Mike Grossoehme. Marquette went into half confidently leading 32-16.
Coach Mike Maloney stressed the importance that it was the last chance for the seniors to prove themselves and asked the players to leave it all on the field in their last game. Marquette came out and found an awakened SIUE defense in the second half that allowed no points. Marquette held strong however and allowed only one rushing touchdown after a fourth and long interception that led to an 80-yard scoring drive by Southern Illinois.
The second half was a defensive struggle, but Marquette won 32-22. The Golden Eagles finished 2-5 but lost some tough away games [Carroll College 61-20 (1-1, 1-0); Concordia University, 21-14 (1-2,1-0); SIEU 22-18 (1-4,1-1); Miami University-Ohio, 41-12 (1-5, 1-2)]
Freshman running back Tom Nass said the team is full of young talent and has high hopes for next season.
Marquette club hockey improved to 6-2 with another win over the Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks.
Led by Marty Wilkins’s two goals, the Golden Eagles managed a tight 5-4 victory. Coming off of Friday’s beat down, the Leathernecks came back out with a renewed sense of urgency on Saturday afternoon.
“They came out with a lot of energy and played very well,” said team captain senior Tim Benson. “They tried to get under our skin, but we gutted out a close victory that really showed the character of this team.”
The Leathernecks made it 5-4 with 30 seconds after they pulled their goalie, but they weren’t able to capitalize on the score and tie the game. Marquette will try to improve to 7-2 when they take on St. Norberts College Oct. 26.
Cara Skowronski and Amy Hammer were absolutely dominant last weekend, and they were rewarded for their efforts by being named player and pitcher of the week, respectively.
Skowronski went 4-4 and drove in the winning run in game two in the series against Washington University. She also scored three runs overall and fielded phenomenally.
Amy Hammer pitched two great games. She drove in the lone and winning run in the final game. Throughout the whole series Hammer pitched 12 innings, only allowing one run and six hits.
Skowronski and Hammer’s performances have led the Golden Eagles to a 3-0 record. The team is currently at the top of the East Mid-America Conference Standings. The Golden Eagles play next at the University of Illinois, from Oct. 26 to 28.
Standings, news and awards can be seen here.
Although it might have been cold on the ice rink, the Marquette hockey team was on fire.
Coming into the game with a 4-2 record, the team was ready to play. Showing exuberant confidence and swagger, the Golden Eagles came through with an impressive 11-2 victory against the Western
In a high scoring game featuring many exciting scores, the team played great defense led by goaltender Blake Hallada. Blake came through with many amazing and astonishing saves. The defense played great, but in a hockey game where Marquette scored 11 goals, there was plenty of offense to go around. Roger Erikson led the way with four goals and three assists, while Chris Flom scored three goals and handed out three assists. Although the team was excited, they know they have more work to do. Captain Tim Benson was proud of his team, saying, “It was a decent game. You gotta put points on the board, but we are just trying to get wins and play our hardest.” The hockey team will play again today at noon, but you can check out the schedule, roster and game results at <a href=”http://www.muhockey.com”>muhockey.com</a>. Be sure to keep checking the club sports blog for more information on the hockey team and other club sports.
Marquette Lacrosse is off to a great start this season. Fifteen freshmen came out for tryouts this year, making it the largest tryout in club history. MU finished 2nd in the first ever Marquette Invitational. They beat UW-Milwaukee 5-4 in their first game, but lost 5-4 to UWM in a hard-fought championship game.
Next up, the lacrosse team heads to Illinois in a few weeks to participate in the Northern Illinois Fall Classic. It will be a very competitive tournament with 15 teams.
This will be a great year for club lacrosse. The men’s lacrosse team held a parent banquet in the AMU, raising $15,000 in two hours. And there is now a women’s lacrosse team. Both teams have been playing hard during “fall ball,” and are gaining great team chemistry as they get ready for “spring ball.” So be sure to check out both teams and we’ll keep you posted about their success.
Opinions expressed on this blog are that of the individual blogger and may not represent the views and opinions of the Marquette Tribune.