Catching Up 11/15/10

Men's Soccer:

Won their fourth consecutive (eighth overall) MAC Championship via a dominating 3-1 win over Buffalo Friday night, and a 4-0 trouncing of Western Michigan Sunday afternoon. I don't have time to put up details, so here are some highlights, from ZipsAthletics:

Buffalo (MAC Semifinals):

Western Michigan (MAC Championship):

Men's Basketball:

Absolutely shut down Millikin in the season opener, to nobody's surprise. The 89-41 victory (48-9 at the half) makes Akron 1-0, but doesn't necessarily prepare them for a tough away matchup with Dayton on Tuesday, which will be televised on FSN. Again, sorry for the lack of a recap (I love doing basketball recaps), but here are the highlights:

Volleyball:

Lost their final game of the season to Ball State in four sets. Yuck. After starting the season 3-4, the lady Zips won 10 in a row, 5 of those coming in conference play, only to lose the next 6, then win only 2 of the last 5 to end with a lackluster record of 15-13 (7-9 MAC). The good news is, they still have a chance in the MAC tournament, playing 10th seed Buffalo on Tuesday.

Football:

This bye week prevented us from seeing another disastrous football loss, but the whole nation will be able to see that on Wednesday (if anybody outside of Ohio is insane enough to turn to ESPNU at 6pm for the game against Miami). I will be at the game, but I don't expect us to put up more than 10-17 points. The recap should be fun, though.

Roo News 11/12/10

1) The volleyball team lost a thriller to Buffalo yesterday, falling in five sets after leading 2-1 after three. The Zips seemed a bit too confident midway through the fourth set after taking an 11-6 lead, lost focus, and never recovered, despite some seriously intense timeout discussions from head coach Ron Arenz. This loss drops the lady Zips to 15-12 (7-8 MAC). They close out the regular at Ball State tomorrow.



2) The MAC men's soccer tournament begins today. The Zips have the #1 seed, and match up against the #4 seed Buffalo Bulls at 5 o'clock. When the two teams met in the regular season, it wasn't pretty. The Zips won 4-0, and outshot the Bulls 22-2. You can find the box score by clicking on the previous link, or by looking under the word "domination" in your local dictionary. GoZips.com has a nice preview here.

3) Elsewhere in soccer, former Akron standout and current Kansas City Wizard Teal Bunbury will join fellow MLS forwards Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls) and Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake) on the United Stated national roster for the upcoming match against South Africa. He is the first Akron Zip to ever be selected for the national team.

4) The men's basketball team opens their season today at the JAR. After the Zips' 111-48 beatdown of John Carroll, fellow Division III program Millikin is going to need a lot to go their way (like Zeke Marshall suddenly shrinking 5 inches) for a win. It's also $1 Hot Dog and Pepsi night, so if you live in the area, are reading this blog, and haven't bought a ticket, buy one before I question your sanity.

The results should look very similar to the exhibition game against John Carroll, as the Zips once again hold a tremendous size and speed advantage. I'm curious to see how Keith Dambrot is going to handle the playing time of Alex Abreu and Quincy Diggs. I'm also wondering how much he plans on playing 6'10" center Mike Bardo this year. Bardo didn't get a lot of minutes last year thanks to some nagging injuries, but if he can hold those off, his size will help tremendously.