April 21, 2008

The 2008 SLIAC Men's Golf Championships teed off today at Governor's Run Golf Course in Carlyle, Ill. Maryville University will be looking to defend their team title and make a return trip to the NCAA Division III Championships. Saints junior Nick Profancik will also be looking to repeat as individual champion, but will face some stiff competition from Webster University and Blackburn College. The two-day event wraps up tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22.

Men's and women's tennis are also preparing for the 2008 SLIAC Tennis Tournaments that begin later this week (Friday and Saturday, April 25-26) at Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park. This year's tournament will be played in a team format. Each team will be seeded according to their finish in regular season conference play. A single round robin in dual match format will comprise the first round, with teams advancing based on their team outcome.

Men's tennis has completed regular season conference play, and Maryville will receive the top seed and a first round bye after posting a 6-0 record. Westminster College and Principia College round out the top three and will face Fontbonne University and Eureka College respectively. Greenville College and Webster grabbed the #4 and #5 seeds and will face each other in first round action.

In women's tennis action, Blackburn and Greenville have the lone conference match remaining to be played this week. The Panthers currently sit at 5-1 in the SLIAC and have secured the #2 seed in the tournament. They will turn around and face #7 Blackburn again on Friday. Principia claimed the #1 seed after going undefeated at 7-0 in conference play and will face #8 Fontbonne in the first round. Webster rounds out the top three teams and will take on #6 Eureka. #4 Westminster will face #5 Maryvile in first round tournament play.

Baseball and softball still have a lot of action remaining, and the race for one of the top four spots in the conference tournament is up in the air. The baseball standings saw another shift last week with Webster claiming double header sweeps versus Blackburn and Westminster, and a series sweep versus MacMurray. Maryville now sits in second place at 11-5 after going 5-1 last week, including a double header sweep versus Blackburn. Westminster dropped into third place with three conference losses last week, while Eureka now sits in fourth place after victories versus Maryville, Fontbonne and Principia.

Greenville and MacMurray had a record-breaking game last week, as they broke the SLIAC record for Most runs in a game (two teams), with 44 runs in the nightcap of their double header in which the Highlanders claimed a 25-19 victory. MacMurray posted 23 hits and 25 RBI, while Greenville had 16 hits and 16 RBI. The two teams also combined for eight doubles and six home runs in the seven inning game that lasted two hours and forty minutes.

Webster's softball squad extended their win streak to nine games with sweeps over Eureka, Westminster and Fontbonne last week. The Gorloks are currently in first place in the SLIAC standings at 9-1 with only four games left to play. They will have to take on Blackburn, who is currently in second place at 6-2, and Maryville, who is currently in a tie for third place at 5-3. Maryville will look to keep their tournament hopes alive this week with back-to-back-to-back SLIAC double headers versus MacMurray, Fontbonne and Webster. Greenville (6-4) also remains in the running with only Westminster and Fontbonne remaining on their conference schedule, while the Griffins have not only Maryville and Greenville, but also Blackburn remaining.