Women’s teams triumph in a disappointing semester

Women’s teams by and large put up strong numbers in their sports. Here are the spring highlights:

The #3 women’s tennis team has a chance to win it all at the conference match on Saturday, led by Amalia Nilsson (’11), who is undefeated in conference play (16-0) at #1 singles, and Lisa Harunaga (’10) (14-1) at #2 singles. Men’s tennis finishes the season with an overall record of 4-16, led by George Allen (’10) who went 10-9 overall at #1 singles. The softball team finishes its season this weekend in Tacoma, after facing the toughest competition in Division III NCAA softball, including defending national champion Linfield. The lady Pios graduate three seniors, and lose graduate student pitcher Natalie Matson to eligibility, but a young team of ten returners will help the program to move upward. First year Head Coach Juli Fulks has been working tirelessly to recruit for critical spots, like pitching and infield. Baseball concludes its season with two double headers against Pacific, and double headers against Patten and Oregon Tech. At the time of press, their overall record was 11-22, and their conference record was 9-19. The team will graduate six seniors but will return a strong core of freshmen.

Track & Field competes in the conference championships this weekend, for which several athletes have already qualified. Men’s golf also heads to the conference championships this weekend in Yakima, Wash. while women’s golf concludes the season in their conference games at Aspen Lakes in Sisters, Ore. Women’s swimming placed fourth in the conference championships. Lindsay Nixon (’09) fell just short of defending her title in the 400 IM, placing third, but also finished second in the 200 IM. The men’s swim team finished sixth at the NWC championships, led by Pat Murray (’09). Women’s basketball made the playoffs for the first time since LC joined the NCAA, finishing third in the NWC with a record of 14-11. The Pios dropped an exciting playoff game against #18 George Fox in overtime to end the season. Crystal Castle (’08) earned First Team All-NWC with her aggressive play, averaging a conference-high 15.0 points and conference-third 8.5 rebounds per game. Allison Farr (’08) averaged 12.9 points per game, earning her a spot on the All-NWC Second Team. Kim Kittell (’08) was named honorable mention, leading the conference in steals (58), assists (109) and was second in assist –to-turnover average (1.68). Men’s basketball foiled an auspicious start—earning a #21 national ranking in the beginning of the season—and an all-star line-up entirely of returners from last year’s NWC championship title team by failing to make the playoffs after a disappointing loss to Linfield at the end of the regular season. Nevertheless, standouts Gene Rivera (’08) and Thomas Tillery (’08) made All-NWC Honorable Mention.