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Basketball teams open season,
wrestling handles John Carroll

By Gavin Keenan
 
Everyone wishes they were in Florida this time of year. But this is particularly true for the men’s basketball team who they have picked up three victories in the Sunshine State thus far. They opened the year with a 73-70 win on the road at South Florida, before losing 56-47 at George Mason.
From there, the Vikings traveled back to Florida for the Glenn Wilkes Classic held in Daytona Beach. After dropping a closely contested match up 72-70 to Georgia Southern, they responded by stunning ACC opponent Florida State 69-66 in an overtime thriller.
The game was nearly prolonged by a three pointer off the hand of Florida State’s Isaiah Swann at the end of overtime that would have tied the game. However, referees ruled that the shot had been released after time had expired and the Vikings were able to escape with the upset victory.
To close out the trip, the Vikings avoided a let down after beating a major conference school, as they handed Florida Atlantic a 76-66 defeat. The three headed-monster of Joe Davis, J’Nathan Bullock and Cedric Jackson led the charge by accounting for 60 of CSU’s points en route to the win over the 1-4 Owls.

Women’s Basketball

The Vikings opened up their 2007-2008 campaign at home on Nov. 9, as they played host to Big 10 opponent Wisconsin. Despite a scrappy performance by the undersized Vikings, Wisconsin used an 11-0 run late in the second half to fuel their 82-62 victory.
From there, the Vikings rebounded on Nov. 17 when in-state foe, Akron traveled to the Wolstein Center. Kate Peterson’s team used a great defensive performance and timely scoring out of Brittany Korth and Kailey Klein to down Akron 59-47.
Following their first win of the season, the Vikings traveled to Alaska for the Great Alaskan Shootout. Despite a 33-point explosion out of Klein, the Vikings were unable to knock off Alaska Anchorage. The Vikings squandered an eight-point first half lead and fell in overtime 80-72.

Wrestling

On Nov. 20, the Vikings wasted no time in defeating John Carroll 34-3 in their dual match. In all, the Vikings won nine of the 10 matches, including back-to-back pins by Ryan Hurley in the 149 pound weight class and Rob Michaels in the 157 pound weight class.
The tone was set early, when the Vikings opened the dual with three straight decisions by 125-pounder Ryan Riggs, 133-pounder Josh Palivoda, and 141-pounder Antonio Nicholson. While Riggs and Palivoda handled their opponents with ease, Nicholson won a hard fought decision 4-3 over John Carroll’s Dominic Spitalieri.
From there, the Vikings put things on cruise control and won six of the final seven decisions.
The Vikings are off until Dec. 2, when they travel to State College for the Penn State Open.

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