Sports Update

Women’s Soccer

The University of Akron women’s soccer team did not have a successful weekend despite some inspired play.

The Zips dominated play against both Bowling Green on Friday and Eastern Michigan on Sunday and ended up on the short end of the final score of both matches.

On Friday against BGSU, Akron outshot its opponent 23-14 and shots on goal nine to six. In the end, Bowling Green scored three times and defeated the Zips, 3-0.

“We conceded sloppy goals and that is something we continue to work on. We spent most of the time in their half but could not capitalize and they did,” Akron head coach Noreen Herlihy said.

In yesterday’s match, tallied two goals, but struggled to overcome an early deficit in losing to EMU, 3-2.

Akron (4-7-1, 1-3 MAC) controlled possession for most of the game and had an offensive advantage in shots with 18 compared to the Eagles 11. However EMU (4-7-1, 1-3 MAC) had the edge with more shots on goal than Akron, 8-6.

The Zips trailed 2-0 early and caught a break in 27th minute when the Eagles were called for a foul inside the box. Sarah Sivic lined up for her second penalty shot of the year and beat the goalie connecting on her fifth goal of the year.

After EMU took a 3-1 lead in the 61st minute, the Zips started to mount their comeback attempt when Sivic scored her second goal of the contest off an assist from senior Hannah Werth in the 81st minute.

Akron was only able to get one more shot off in the last nine minutes of the contest.

Women’s Volleyball

The University of Akron’s volleyball team battled in five sets with Bowling Green on the Falcons’ home floor, but the Zips came up empty handed in five sets Friday night, falling 25-21, 25-19, 19-25, 10-25, 14-16.

Amanda Bedell, Patience Brown, Anna Wenger and Kelsey Wilson each had 11 kills apiece to lead Akron.

The final set was a back-and-forth affair, the Zips scored two points on a pair of kills at the hands of Wilson and Brown, making the score 13-12 Akron, but that is as close as the Zips would come to victory.

On Saturday evening, Akron never seemed to put it together as a team against Miami, falling in straight sets to the Redhawks 13-25, 15-25, 10-25.

Wenger and Dragana Micic had six and five kills apiece from the left side to pace the Akron (7-10, 1-3 MAC) offense.

Rifle

The No. 14 Akron rifle team held their first home match a week early against the Virginia Military Institute and defeated the Keydets by a score of 4614 to 4484 on Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Robert A. Pinn Shooting Range.

“We had some pretty nice performances at this match as well as identifying some areas to work on. All in all a good match for Akron,” head coach Newt Engle said

In the Air Rifle competition, junior Zachary Strohl, sophomore Julia Hatch and freshman Rebecca Green all performed flawlessly and earned a perfect 100 points out of 100.

Returning to his first match coming off an injury, senior Tim earned the competition’s top gun in Smallbore with his 574 out of the possible 600. Freshman Caleb Lloyd fired a 573 followed by a nice pair of 570’s fired by senior Alan Agnew and Hatch.

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country

The men’s cross country team was seeking to capture their third consecutive men’s All-Ohio Championship title on Saturday, but they were defeated by a stronger Ohio State team. Akron finished in second place overall with a final score of 62, while OSU had 32.

Top finishers for the Zips were sophomore Garrett Crichlow (24:53.12) and senior Kyle Cochrun (24:54.78) to finish ninth and eleventh respectively.

Also finishing the 8K course for Akron were junior Clayton Murphy in 15th-place in 24:59.69, senior Trevor Norris in 25:04.03 (19th), and junior Dan Zupan in 25:05.92 (21st).

This race was Murphy’s debut for the new season.

In the women’s race, senior Jillian Roth was Akron’s top finisher crossing the line in 22:21.54 (22nd) to direct the Zips to an eighth-place.

In her 2015 debut, junior Natalie Zidd was next across the finish line for the women running the 6K course in 23:05.32 (65th).

Women’s Golf

The University of Akron women’s golf team swept the top three spots on the leaderboard en route to a 24-stroke tournament championship victory at the Roseann Schwartz Invitational hosted by Youngstown State University.

The Zips entered the Monday’s final round at the Avalon Lakes Golf Course with a 10-stroke advantage over host YSU and secured the tournament title by cutting two strokes from their final round score to finish with a tournament-best 301, 299 – 600 (+24) total.

Akron freshman Danielle Nicholson earned medalist honors by shooting 72, 74 – 146. The honor is her first collegiate win. Teammates Frida Fougburg (74, 73 – 147) and Pader Her (76, 73 – 149) finished second and third.

Rounding out the team scoring was Alejandra Velasco-Villanueva (161, 9th place) and Makayla Dull 165 (tied for 14th).

“Winning a tournament is always a great feeling, and I’m really happy the team experienced that feeling. I’m also proud of our 1, 2, 3 finish. It shows that we have a very strong team. These ladies do all the little things right in their preparation and that’s what led to our consistent play and the win,” head coach Jenny King said after the tournament.