After an entire season thus far of road games, the SDSU women’s softball team begins its home schedule with a series of home games this week. The Jacks lay claim to their new on-campus facility, situated just north of Coughlin-Alumni Stadium, on March 29, in the first game of a three-game series against North Dakota State.

Playing so many games on the road has been a great experience for the team.

“We have had lots of great opportunities to play some great teams in the country. I don’t think it gets much better than that,” first baseman Kiley Schwedhelm said.

While the team has enjoyed the road games, players are looking forward to playing in front of Jackrabbit fans.

“It means a lot to me to be able to play home games at SDSU. To finally be in an atmosphere where you have more fans than the opposing team, I think is a huge advantage,” Schwedhelm said.

Infielder Teresa Howell is appreciative of the fan base and the break from travel.

“This way, we can get a bigger crowd with more support. It’s also going to be really nice to not travel so much these next two weeks and to catch up on some school work. School is so important and not missing as many classes while being at home is huge. Traveling takes an extra toll on the body and no more planes and buses will be an extra bonus,” she said.

After returning from a tough tournament in Iowa this past weekend, the team holds a record of 10-18. The lineup of home games may give them an edge to complete the season with a winning record,

“There is definitely an extra adrenaline rush being on your home turf and nothing is greater than beating your number-one rival at home,” Howell said.

But not all players believe playing at home is a big advantage.

“I don’t think playing at home will really affect my performance, because I go into every game with the same approach. I go out there and play my best, by hustling and being energetic,” Schwedhelm said.

The Jackrabbits have had a very competitive schedule this season, competitive schedule this season, which is reflected in their losing record. But they don’t look at that record as a reason to hang their heads. They see it as an opportunity to improve.

“The best thing about being a Jackrabbit this season is having the opportunity to play in Oregon against a couple of the best teams in the nation. Not too many Jackrabbits can say that they got that experience,” Schwedhelm said.

Howell agrees with her teammate.

“We have a tough schedule, but it’s only to set us up for the future to have an even better success,” she said.

Facing nationally respected teams such as Oregon State, the Jacks have not backed down and they have not played scared.

Aggressive running has earned the Jacks a total of 41 stolen bases in 22 games, 20 more than their opponents. The Jacks are on place to surpass their 82 stolen bases from last season.

Jackrabbit softball can be heard on KBRK 1430 AM or by clicking on the broadcast link at www.GoJacks.com.

While students have been fighting snowstorms, the SDSU women’s softball team has been enjoying warm weather.

The team has been traveling all season to tournaments all across the country. They have been as far away as Florida and Oregon, and currently hold a 9-13 record.

Head Coach Shane Bouman, said the team has had some “bright spots,” but still needs to work on some pitching and defensive issues.

Bouman said the women’s main strength this season is their speed. They have stolen 41 bases in 54 attempts, 20 more than their opponents. The Jacks use their speed to put serious offensive pressure on other teams.

On the road, SDSU has had some great opportunities to grow as a Division-I team. In one tournament, they matched up with Oregon State, who was No. 4 in the country last year. Although SDSU suffered a loss, they played well against the Oregon squad and their two-time All-American pitcher. Opportunities to play against distinguished teams such as Oregon State may be just what SDSU needs to improve.

Improvement is one of Bouman’s goals for this season.

“(We want) to get to a point where we can play up to our potential and eventually compete for an independent championship,” he said.

With 22 games already played on the road, the team is crossing their fingers for some home games this season.

“We have been waiting for an on-campus facility for two years now,” Bouman said.

The facility is scheduled to be ready for the team’s home opener Wednesday, March 21, versus Saint Cloud, but there is a chance it may not be ready.

Bouman remains hopeful the facility will be ready in time.

“It would have a huge impact on our performance. It’s like asking the women’s basketball team if they want to play the WNIT in Frost Arena or at Indiana. Of course we want to play at home,” he said.

Total, the women have 19 home games scheduled for this season. Hopefully, they will get a chance to play them all in their new facility.

“If it’s not ready in time,” Coach Bouman said, “we will just leave it all up to the administration.”

#1.883624:3082498714.jpg:softball01.file.jpg::File Photo

The SDSU Women’s Hockey Team came up short in their quest for a national title this year. The University of Minnesota-Duluth captured the championship, followed by the runner-up, College of St. Scholastica. SDSU overcame Rainy River Community College in the final round to bring home third place.

SDSU, originally seeded No. 2 in the tournament, played a round robin of three games to vie for a place in the championship game.

The women first faced off against the College of St. Scholastica, the No.-4 seed out of Minnesota.

“We really underestimated them because they were the No.-4 seed and played very poorly at the beginning of the season.” Head Coach Heath Isaacson said.

But St. Scholastica played a lot of games since then and have shown some serious improvement.

“They were a good team. We just came out flat and they pretty much dominated every aspect of the game against us,” Isaacson said.

Club President Christa Friedrich said, “We hadn’t played St. Scholastica this season, and we psyched ourselves out because they had lost so many games. As a team, I don’t think we were ready for them to come out and play as hard as they did. They just jumped on us early and took us by surprise.”

After the disappointing 8-3 loss to St. Scholastica on Friday night, the SDSU women knew they would have fight their way to the championship by winning both of their remaining games on Saturday.

They next faced Rainy River Community College who, according to Friedrich, has been the club’s biggest rival. SDSU had faced this No.-3 seeded team already this year, each time winning by a score of 5-4. Games against Rainy River have always been rough and physical, which makes for a difficult psychological game as well.

“We really had to keep our heads in that game because they are so physical,” Friedrich said. “But we beat them when it counted. They self-destructed by being so rough and catching a lot of penalties.”

Rainy River led early in the game, but SDSU rallied back and ended up winning in the last 23 seconds. Thanks to their cool heads and aggressive play, SDSU once again came out on top of Rainy River.

SDSU’s final match-up before the championship round was against the No.-1 seeded University of Minnesota-Duluth. According to Coach Isaacson, this was the most difficult game of the tournament.

“We knew if we could beat them we were in the championship,” he said.

SDSU controlled most of the game and was leading 3-1 in the third period when UM-D caught hold of a hot streak and sent the game into overtime. SDSU battled hard, but wound up losing by a score of 4-3, the toughest loss of their season. The loss ended the hopes of a national championship.

“We played our hearts out. It was one of those games where we didn’t make any mistakes; we played solid. We just didn’t get the right bounce,” Isaacson said.

While St. Scholastica went on to beat UM-D in the championship game, SDSU once again overcame Rainy River to achieve a 3rd place finish.

“We had higher expectations for ourselves this weekend, but we probably played the best hockey we have all year,” Friedrich said.

Looking ahead to next season, Coach Isaacson is optimistic about returning to the national tournament, which will take place in Chicago. The team isn’t graduating any players this year and he is hoping that everyone on the team will return next season – and bring some friends with them.

Friedrich says that she “would love to get the bench a little deeper for next year.”

Isaacson said anyone interested in playing hockey for the SDSU Women’s Hockey Club next year should visit the club’s Web site at www.geocities.com/sdsuwomenshockey

#1.883678:4168169838.jpg:womenshockeyhuddle.jpg:SDSU’s women’s hockey team huddles together on the ice during the national tournament in Amherst, Mass. The Jackrabbits took third in the tournament, defeating Rainy River for the second time in the tournament.:Courtesy Photo

The SDSU women’s hockey team burst out of the gates three years ago and has been running toward one single goal: to win a national tournament. This year, they have a chance to do just that. The team will be traveling to the 2007 Women’s Division II National Tournament on March 8-11 to face off at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass.

With a smaller team than the others headed to nationals, SDSU may seem like the underdog of the tournament, but according to club president Christa Friedrich, the team has never felt that to be the case.

“A lot of teams look at us and just laugh, like ‘Where is your bench?’” she said.

Having the “disadvantage” of fewer players would cause most teams to be pessimistic. But these girls just want to win. They know it takes more effort when they are playing with fewer skaters, and everyone picks up the slack.

SDSU is seeded second in the national tournament. The No.-1 seed is the University of Minnesota-Duluth, a team the Jacks split with during the regular season (when they were playing with only six skaters). Since SDSU will take all nine skaters to the tournament, the coaches are optimistic about their chances of bringing home a championship.

“The only team that will beat us in Massachusetts is ourselves,” said Head Coach Heath Isaacson.

The team needs to focus on staying positive and working together.

“If we play our game and just have fun, I think we will come out okay,” said Assistant Coach Dallas Shearer.

The coaches predict their team is better conditioned than the other teams, but then again, the other teams will be on and off the ice quicker, getting more breaks. SDSU has to avoid taking their breaks on the ice if they want to win the tournament.

“If we do that, we’ll have a great chance of winning,” Isaacson said.

Shearer said, “We need to stay fresh, jump out to a quick lead and stay aggressive. We will be playing a lot of games in a short period of time.”

traveling all the way to Massachusetts for the tournament. According to Isaacson, the logistics of traveling has been a major point of frustration. Six of the girls will fly, while the rest will drive.

“I wish we all could have flown, but there is a limited amount of money in our budget – and checking a hockey bag is expensive,” Friedrich said.

The team is paying for most of the trip out of pocket. They have raised money working as a clean-up crew in the HPER after sporting events. They also sold t-shirts in the breezeway of The Union.

“Being a club sport, we don’t get a lot of financial backing from the school. Our money will not pay for us to go to nationals,” Isaacson said.

But Isaacson is undaunted.

“I’m a big fan of road trips,” he said.

Being a club sport also means the women’s hockey team lacks the administrative assistance other SDSU sports may take for granted. Club sports fill the administrative gap by utilizing volunteer coaches and promoting certain players to leadership positions, such as president, treasurer, etc. For the women’s hockey team, Friedrich fills all the administrative positions.

Friedrich is incessantly regarded as a cornerstone to the club, the coaches said. She works behind the scenes to make everyone else’s job easier and has gained the respect of her teammates and her coaches.

“If she wasn’t there we wouldn’t have a team. It’s that cut and dry,” Isaacson. “She goes to all the meetings and handles all the finances. She fills every office. I can’t put into words how important she has been to this team.”

Many other leaders have emerged from the women’s hockey team as well. There are diverse talents on this team, and everyone brings something different. Friedrich hopes their combined success will put SDSU women’s hockey in the spotlight and help people realize it’s an up-and-coming sport. She also hopes that their success will generate higher attendance at games next season and hopefully, some additional funds from SDSU.