Sower sports roundup, March 29
By Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
If you missed Concordia University Nebraska sports this weekend, here is what happened.
The Concordia golf teams traveled to Sioux City, Iowa to play in the Briar Cliff Match Play Tournament on March 27-28, in which Great Plains Athletic Conference schools come together to play duals against each other. Golfers go up against each other and play holes until someone is up more holes than there are left to play.
Both teams won one of their matches and lost two. The women lost to Dakota Wesleyan University 4.5-0.5, beat Northwestern College 3-2 and lost to Dordt University 3-2. The men lost to Dordt 3-2, beat Mount Marty University 3-2 and lost to Briar Cliff University 3-2. The women’s next event is the Concordia Bulldog Spring Invite in Lincoln on April 1-2. The men’s next event is the Bethel College Invite in Hesston, Kan. on April 5-6.
For the women, junior Emery Custer came out 2-1 in the tournament with a 4&3 loss against Dakota Wesleyan but a 1up win against Northwestern and a 2&1 win against Dordt. Other wins include senior Sarah Wilson who went 5&4 against Northwestern and senior Jennifer Gillotti who went 1up against Dordt.
For the men, senior Jaxson Fullerton won all three matches going 4&3 against Dordt, 4&3 against Mount Marty and 1up against Briar Cliff. Junior Brock Rogers also had a great tournament going 2-1 with a 3&2 win against Dordt, losing 3&2 against Mount Marty and winning 6&5 against Briar Cliff. Sophomore Jacob Dowd and junior Jake Richmond each had a win against Mount Marty. Dowd was 3&2 and Richmond ended 1up.
The Concordia tennis teams each faced the Morningside University Mustangs at home in tough bouts with both teams losing 4-3 on March 27. This snapped the women’s 9-game winning streak and they are now 11-2 overall and 2-1 in the GPAC. The men are now 9-6 overall and 1-1 in the GPAC. Both teams next travel to Orange City to face Northwestern on April 5.
The women started off with a competitive doubles point with Morningside taking the matches 2-1 with both wins going to extra points. Junior Mariana Molano and sophomore Chakira Derman took the No. 1 match 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 and No. 2 match 6-2, 6-2 respectively. Senior Tessa Blough scored the last point for the Bulldogs in the No. 6 match going 6-0, 6-4.
On the men’s side, the Bulldogs took the doubles point 2-1, but were only able to win the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches. Junior Hugo Fuentes who played the No. 1 match went 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 against Mustang Mark Trenkle. Junior Nick Velders had the No. 2 match and won 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) against Mustang Marcos Menendez.
The Concordia softball team had their home opener against the Briar Cliff University Chargers on March 28. The team won both games going 7-6 in the first and 8-3 in the second. The team is now 19-9 overall and 4-2 in the GPAC. Their next games are a double header against Midland University on April 2 at Plum Creek.
Game one was a back and forth lead change with big innings. Briar Cliff scored two in the first and one in the second, but Concordia roared back with four in the third. The Chargers were not down and out yet and responded with three in the fourth while the Bulldogs only had one in that inning. Down by two in the seventh, Concordia found their win in the form of a walk-off two-RBI double from senior Hanna Bowers.
Senior Megan Eurich was the starting pitcher for the game going for 4.0 innings with eight hits for six runs and three strikeouts. Junior Taryn Ganstrom finished out the last 3.0 innings and took the win with two hits for no runs and no strikeouts.
In game two it was Concordia’s turn to take a commanding lead. The game was scoreless until the Bulldogs went up four in the bottom of the third. Briar Cliff responded with three runs in the fourth, but Concordia snatched the lead back with two in the bottom of the fourth and another two in the fifth. Sophomore Kaylei Denison pitched the whole second game going seven hits for three runs and five strikeouts.
