University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: May 19, 2005

Baseball

Duquesne 12, UB 6
Central Michigan 3, UB 0
Central Michigan 6, UB 4
Central Michigan 12, UB 5

Duquesne and Central Michigan handed UB four losses last week. The Bulls enter the final week of the season with games remaining against Niagara and MAC foe Marshall.

Staked to a 5-4 lead in the fourth inning, Buffalo saw its lead evaporate thanks to seven unanswered runs as Duquesne rolled to a 12-6 win in non-conference action on May 10.

Senior Phil Vanhorne had three singles in the game. Freshmen twins Mike and E.J. Folli each had two hits, along with junior James Kingsley, as UB notched 12 hits in the loss.

Central Michigan's Ty Dunham once again showed why he leads the Mid-American Conference in innings pitched on Friday afternoon. The 6-4 junior shrewdly used 103 pitches to toss a complete-game, five-hit shutout to beat the Bulls, 3-0.

Ryan Peel's line drive off the right fielder's glove in the top of the fifth inning that rolled to the wall and scored two runs led Central Michigan to a 6-4 come-from-behind win over UB on Saturday. Mike Folli launched a two-run homer in the ninth inning to close the gap to two runs before the game ended. Vanhorne went 3-for-5 in his second three-hit affair during the week and sophomore Mike Connelly added two hits. Vanhorne needs eight hits in the final four games to reach the 200 mark for his career.

Central Michigan's offense, which managed just 12 hits in the first two games of the series, heated up early in the final game, scoring eight runs in the first two innings for a 12-5 win and a series sweep of UB on Sunday. Mike Folli went 3-for-4 to lead the Bulls.

Softball

Western Michigan 4, UB 0 (MAC Tournament)
UB 2, Kent State 0 (MAC)
Central Michigan 4, UB 1 (MAC)

UB ended the 2005 season with a 22-28 overall record after going 1-2 in its first-ever MAC Tournament in Akron. The Bulls, the tournament's fifth seed, opened with a 4-0 loss to fourth-seeded Western Michigan on May 11. The Broncos scored all four of their runs in the first inning while holding the Bulls to just one hit in the game&#!51;an infield single by senior Ann Magur in the fourth inning.

UB rebounded to earn a 2-0 shutout of No. 8 Kent State on May 12 behind the pitching of senior Stacey Evans, who allowed just four hits for her fifth shutout of the season. The Bulls' first run in the game scored on a KSU fielding error, and Magur led off the fourth inning with a solo home run to give the Bulls some added insurance.

Second-seeded Central Michigan ended the Bulls' tournament run with a 4-1 win on Friday. UB committed five costly errors in the game-the most in a game this season. Senior Julie Hibner laced a two-out single to left in the sixth inning to drive in the Bulls' lone run. Evans suffered the loss, despite allowing just one earned run on six hits while striking out three in five innings. She allowed just one earned run in 17.1 innings pitched in the Bulls' three tournament games for a 0.52 earned run average.

Earlier in the week, freshman Marcy Hansen was named to the All-MAC Second Team, as chosen by the league's head coaches prior to the start of the tournament. Hansen was an at-large selection to the second team after leading the Bulls with a .333 batting average (12-for-36) and a .400 on base percentage in conference games during the regular season. She hit safely in 11 of the last 14 games of the regular season, batting .410 (16-for-39) during that stretch to raise her season average to .241 entering the MAC Tournament. Hansen finished the year with a .226 batting average (fourth on the team), a team-high 13 sacrifices and 12 stolen bases in 16 attempts (tied for second on the team). She had three steals in a 7-0 shutout of St. Bonaventure on April 27 to tie the UB single-game record. She also had a .975 fielding percentage at second base.

Track and Field

Teams place seventh at MAC Championships

UB completed the MAC Championships at Ohio University's Goldsberry Track with seventh-place finishes. The UB women scored 59 points in the 13-team field. Kent State won the title with 129 points. In the men's meet, UB placed seventh of the seven schools with 48 points. Central Michigan won with 220 points.

Faith Thompson won her first MAC outdoor title with her record-setting victory in the women's hammer throw. Thompson broke her own UB, MAC and Ohio track records with her toss of 198-10 (60.60m). Thompson now has won the hammer throw in seven of UB's eight meets this season. Sarah Vance finished third with a toss of 182-6 (55.62m), improving her season best by seven feet and qualifying for the NCAA East Regionals. Thompson also placed third in the shot put at 50-5.50 (15.38m), while Vance added an eighth-place finish in the discus at 143-0 (43.60m).

Vanessa Roelofsen finished second in the javelin with a toss of 158-8 (48.36m).

Patrice Coney finished second in the heptathlon with 4,915 points, just seven points behind champion Katie Pickette of Western Michigan. Heading into the final event, the 800-meters, one of Coney's specialties, the sophomore trailed Pickette by 32 points. Coney was tripped at the start of the race, forcing a restart, but severely sprained her ankle. With the sprained ankle, she turned in a 2:26.44 clocking, well below her top time in the event, while Pickette finished in 2:28.43, earning just enough points to outscore Coney in the overall standings.

Jenny Koeppel finished fourth in the women's 10,000-meters in 35:50.65 and scored a fifth-place finish in the 5,000-meters in 17:15.55. Jessica Lister tied a season-best with her fifth-place finish in the pole vault at 11-11.75 (3.65m). Celestine Coney finished sixth in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:01.57. Kelli O'Brien took seventh in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:05.51.

The UB women also posted a seventh-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay in 3:52.32.

In the men's meet, sophomores Paul Riley and Brian Heim earned second-place finishes. Riley turned in a personal-best 1:51.11 in the 800-meter final after finishing third in the heats on Friday in 1:52.91. Heim, who set the Goldsberry Track record in Friday's qualifying of the 400-meter hurdles, finished second in the finals in 52.26 to earn a trip to the NCAA East Regional Championships.

Todd Joki finished third in the decathlon with 6,779 total points. In other events outside the decathlon, Joki scored an eighth-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 22-8.50 (6.92m) and finished eighth in Saturday's 110-meter hurdles finals with a time of 14.63 seconds.

Dan McKenna scored a fourth-place finish in the 1,500-meter run in a season-best 3:53.08. He also finished eighth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:30.27. Triple jumpers Rayshon Higgins and Gary Asbach turned in season-best marks in the event. Higgins, who had missed much of the regular season, finished fourth with a leap of 46-9 (14.25m), while Asbach was fifth at 46-2.75 (14.09m). Mike Giordano finished seventh overall in the shot put, posting a toss of 54-10.25 (16.72m), qualifying for the NCAA East Regionals. Andy Wigton earned an eighth-place finish in the 5,000-meters in 14:49.37.

Both the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams finished sixth.

Crew

Novice eight captures Dad Vail Championship

UB's novice eight crew won the Sara Vaughan Trophy of the 2005 Dad Vail Regatta on Saturday to cap off competition on the Schuykill River in Philadelphia and conclude the season for the Bulls.

The novice eight team didn't lose a race in winning the school's first championship at the Dad Vails, one of the most prestigious rowing events in the country. After winning its heat on Friday, UB took the semifinal heat in 7:45.96 on Saturday morning to move into the finals. In the championship final, the Bulls coasted to the victory in 7:42.26, 12 seconds ahead of the second-, third- and fourth-place teams, which finished within eight-hundredths of a second of each other.

UB's second varsity eight fell in its chase to capture the Coleman D. Boylan Trophy. The Bulls finished fifth in the six-team championship race in 7:43.38.

The UB varsity eight squad finished second in Friday's opening heat and was forced into the repechage races in order to reach the finals. UB, seeded third overall among the 33 entries, finished behind 10th-seeded Villanova by just 4.5 seconds in the opening round. In the repechage, UB again placed second in its heat, this time behind Saint Joseph's by 2.6 seconds.

However, the Bulls were unable to advance past the semifinal race on Saturday. The Bulls finished fifth in their six-team heat in 7:46.39 as only the top two teams, Connecticut (7:31.94) and Eastern Michigan (7:36.40), earned passage into the finals.

In the lightweight four races, UB finished third in its heat in 8:22.33 behind Carnegie Mellon (8:10.02) and Georgia Tech (8:17.23). The top two finishers in each heat advanced to the finals, although UB's time was faster than the second-place finishers in the other heats—Pittsburgh (8:22.99) and Jacksonville (8:23.83).