Original link: www.statehornet.com

Joe de Ocampo | 0 comments

The Sacramento State women’s tennis team’s leadership and successful history has earned 92 consecutive Big Sky match wins and earned its 11th Big Sky Tournament title this past weekend in Gold River, Calif.   

The Hornets ended their regular season 15-9 overall with eight wins in the conference. Senior Tatsiana Kapshai earned three Big Sky Conference Player of the Week awards this season.

Head coach Dima Hrynashka said one of the reasons behind the success of the team is the reputation previous teams set with their dominance on the courts.  

“They have had motivation and a little extra pressure from the teams before who started to build the wins,” Hrynashka said. “Now it’s already at 90. Everyone is trying to keep winning and keep the line going.”

The Hornets earned the Big Sky Conference Tournament title in 2002 when it beat Northern Arizona University 4-3. The team later competed in the NCAA Tournament and was defeated by then No. 2 Stanford 4-0.

Since then, the Hornets have dominated the Big Sky with 11 regular season titles.

Kapshai said during her two and a half seasons with the Hornets, she saw the team grow and develop an attitude to continue the tradition set by its predecessors.

She said the team has a strong spirit and determination despite losses and mistakes it makes during play.

“Winning or losing we are keeping (team spirit) up and playing our best and change whatever is needed to turn the game around and start winning,” Kapshai said.

Teammates said one of the reasons for whose success is the relationship they have with each other.

Senior Clarisse Baca has been on the team for four seasons and said its success is due to the passion, determination and the relationship players share.

“Everybody (on the team) has a love for the sport. We wanted to not lose any matches in the Big Sky and become top 20 in the nation,” Baca said. “I think we also have a good relationship outside and inside the court.”

Baca said despite the diversity in background each player has, the coaches and coordinators helped players bond into a familial atmosphere. She said her teammates poke fun at each other playfully, go to dinners and movies, which helps on the court.

“We have a pretty good connection; we joke around a lot and I think it helps us have better communication as a team,” Baca said.

Baca ended her regular season 12-9 in singles on a six-game win streak and 15-7 in doubles. As a sophomore, she earned first team all-Big Sky honors after collecting 16-7 in singles play with 6-0 in the Big Sky.

She said her position as captain enabled her to keep the team motivated and focused while learning lessons in her last season.

“I think I did a decent job in trying to put the team together outside and inside the court and the best thing about being a leader is you get to learn about respecting what others want and taking it into consideration,” Baca said.

Senior Maria Meliuk said the team has stronger lines of communication compared with  other teams, which contributes to the successful season.

“All of them feel like family, so I guess this is something that gives us power; we support each other all the time and keep it together,” Meliuk said.

Meliuk said the team’s attitude toward each other has changed since she first started playing and attributed it to the roster changes with new seasons.  

“In the beginning, nobody knew each other, it was a little bit different and harder to communicate,” Meliuk said. “But once we got to know each other, it became better.”

Meliuk ended her regular season 15-7 in singles and 14-7 in doubles. She posted a perfect 6-0 record in the Big Sky competition and earned first team all-Big Sky honors in 2010. 

Kapshai said the team is strong but still can better itself and focus on its strategy to outwit opponents. 

“Keep working hard and try to improve everything,” Kapshai said. “Not only tennis, but psychologically. If the team were to focus on tactics the game would improve and give confidence to players.”

Meliuk said she hopes the underclassmen learned the value of hard work and its payoff.

“Stay tough on court, even if we are hurting,” Meliuk said. “We get injured often, but it’s a part of our college tennis life and we have to play through the pain.”

She said although the team competes individually, the goal should be the success of the entire roster.

“We have to put the team first and put our feelings and ourselves second,” Meliuk said.

Originally posted on statehornet.com

By Joseph de Ocampo

The Sacramento State women’s tennis team won 6-1 over the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo., earning its 11th consecutive Big Sky Conference regular season title and sixth straight win.

The team played its last regular season matches Sunday afternoon against the Bears and won its 90th consecutive Big Sky match, placing first in conference rankings, with a record of 8-0.

The singles were dominated by the Hornets with senior Tatsiana Kapshai starting with two wins 6-0 and 6-1 against Bears’ senior Jennifer Whateley.

Sac State continued to defeat Northern Colorado in singles with victories by junior Rebeca Delgado, senior Clarisse Baca, sophomore Sophie Lohscheidt and senior Maria Meliuk.

Freshman Andrea Gomez Carus took the only defeat in the series against Bears’ freshman Chrissie Hoolahan, 6-0.

Kapshai and Delgado, the No. 82-ranked doubles team in the nation, continued to dominate the Bears with an 8-1 win. Meliuk, Baca, Lohscheidt and Gomez Carus followed, winning their matches and closing the season with an overall 15-9 record for the team.

Kapshai, two-time Big Sky Conference MVP, ended the regular season 13-11 in singles and 17-5 in doubles.

Winning this year’s Big Sky Tournament would add to Sac State’s 11-season streak of winning both regular season and tournament titles, which started in 2002.

The tournament will be held Saturday and Sunday at Sacramento’s Gold River Racquet Club where Sac State will face off against Northern Colorado again in the semifinal match Saturday at 10 a.m.

Original Link: statehornet.com

Joe Fleming and Joe de Ocampo | 0 comments

Baseball has been America’s national pastime for more than 200 years. Originating in the 1800s by American Army officer Abner Doubleday, the sport gained popularity and grew to the multi-billion dollar organization it is today. Along the way, the sport has seen many great players, such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, and many more. The rules of the game, however simple they may seem, come with a 130-page guide full of hypotheticals and instructions explaining how the game is played. Even with a rulebook of that size, there is still room for a few more rules that do not make it in print – the unofficial, the unspoken, the unwritten rules of baseball. 

These mysterious rules, though unspoken, but certainly understood by nearly every player in Major League Baseball are the instigation of many in-game brawls. It can start with a batter exaggerating a home run trot and subsequently being hit with a pitch in his next at-bat. Most of the unofficial rules explain the etiquette of baseball.

A few members of the Sacramento State baseball team give examples of the unwritten rules.

Head Coach Reggie Christiansen

Head coach Reggie Christiansen has a baseball-coaching career spanning three schools in addition to Sac State and said the Hornets do not practice some of the aggressive rules due to their consequences. 

He said behavior by the team should be respectful and holds the team to a high standard of professionalism. 

“If you go watch a junior high softball or baseball game you hear a lot of the cheerleading and you don’t hear much of that anymore in college baseball,” Christiansen said. 

One unwritten rule is if a fight breaks out, the entire team is supposed to participate. He compared the problems a professional athlete and a college player would endure by following this rule. 

“In the college level, for every guy who goes on the field there are suspensions and ejections. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a fight at a college baseball game. It rarely happens,” he said.

Assistant Coach Tommy Nicholson

Assistant coach Tommy Nicholson has been involved in baseball for 25 years, and said players pick up the rules throughout their experiences in the game.

“You hear and learn about those things as you grow up,” Nicholson said. “You watch and see teams get in fights over things like that: It’s learn as you go.”

During his time in the minor leagues, some players have tried to learn the signals opposing teams would use to communicate and gain an advantage. This with other unprofessional actions can culminate into a fight with the team.

“It escalated over a number of games, eventually a guy got hit and that was enough and we ended up fighting,” Nicholson said. “(They were) picking signs at second base, hitters admiring home runs and pitchers celebrating after strikeouts, stuff that fires you up when you are on the other side.”

Nicholson said there has been a change in the attitude of these unwritten rules, where actions once considered rude are now part of the game.

“Forty years ago all those old-timers would say they wouldn’t let these guys get away with it, but now it happens all the time,” he said.

Infielder Clay Cederquist

Clay Cederquist, junior infielder, said the rules are mostly superstitious and personal rituals only some follow.

He said the rule about bunts should not be attempted during a no-hitter is not something he agrees with in order to advance the game.

“I am all for it. Bunts are part of the game, and if you can break it up, then break it up,” Cederquist said. “If I was that pitcher I would trust in my teammates they would make that play.”

He said being professional after hitting a home run and not over-celebrating is a general rule and hitters should make small celebrations.

“I think it’s universal.You hit a home run and get around the bases and don’t try to show up the other team,” he said.

The rule of not peeking at the catcher’s glove when batting is one he said is commonly broken and generally accepted.

“Batters shouldn’t, but you see that they do from time to time, along with base coaches relaying signs verbally,” Cederquist said. “It seems like it’s becoming more a part of the game.”

Joe Fleming and Joe de Ocampo can be reached at [email protected].

Original Link: statehornet.com

By Joseph de Ocampo

The Well at Sacramento State will host the Collegiate Climbing Series Regional Championships on Saturday. Competitors hailing from colleges around California will compete in bouldering on Sac State’s climbing wall and boulder.

The Program’s Director John Myrick said Sac State’s event will be the final round for Northern California. It consists of three divisions for both men and women: recreational, intermediate and advanced. Previous meets in Northern California were held at Sonoma State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Humboldt State.

Myrick said the Collegiate Climbing Series started in 2008 by USA Climbing with six regions and has doubled in size to cater to more than 500 members in 11 regions throughout the country.

John Pistotti, supervisor of the climbing wall at The Well, said the school would be hosting students from various schools, including Stanford and Chico State, to compete in the climbing series.

Pistotti said bouldering is a style of rock climbing relying on power and strength to make a series of tactical maneuvers over a short distance. Climbers do not have a rope and usually are limited to reaching 13 feet over the safety of a crash pad.

Myrick said competition climbing is divided into three categories: bouldering, sport climbing and speed climbing. He said bouldering is the equivalent of what the 100-meter dash is in track and field.

“It’s very explosive and powerful,” Myrick said. “The routes are a lot shorter, but each individual move is more difficult and gymnastic.”

Pistotti said the school is preparing for the upcoming competition by closing the wall the first week of April for maintenance and build new courses for the bouldering-only competition. By doing this, he said, every competitor will possess no knowledge on how to navigate routes.

He said the difficulties of the routes are determined by a range of V0 to V6+ with the easiest being zero and six and higher being the most difficult.

Employees from The Well went to other rock climbing facilities such as Pipeline to receive help constructing more difficult routes.

“Imagine climbing glass in the rain. That’s what it would be like to climb the more difficult routes,” Pistotti said. “V0, you can call a ladder. There are solid hand holds and foot holds.”

Stephen Franz, junior accounting major and Sac State’s Climbing Club Treasurer, said the challenge of a new setup is refreshing.

“It’s always good to try a new setup because it gets boring after a while,” Franz said. “I’m glad they have people that are changing it and keeping it fresh, it makes it more fun.”

Dennis Ho, graduate civil engineering student, said he mentally maps out the course first.

“You want to mentally climb it first and be able to rehearse it in your mind,” Ho said.

Meredith Budlong, volunteer coach for the Climbing Club, said this is the second year Sac State has hosted the climbing competition and this is the first year Sac State has an organized team for the event.

“Because there was no actual team (last year) CSUS did not have a ranking as a team, just for individuals who go to school here,” she said.

Franz said he will be competing in the intermediate category for the competition.

“A lot of people will train by going to the gym and have general exercise, but the best way to train for the competition is to climb, which is the best way to train for anything,” he said.

Ho said he has a little more than a year of climbing experience and has been keeping a diet to stay lean as well as exercise his core in addition to climbing. He said club members would get pointers from Budlong to help improve on stamina and performance during club meetings.

Budlong said the team’s performance would be based on how each climber performs on a personal level.

“It’s hard to say compared to other schools since we are still very new we haven’t seen how to compete in other competitions,” Budlong said. “But because our practices focus on training and self-improvement I have a feeling team members who competed last year will see a great improvement.”

Pistotti said the point scoring for the competition could be made either with red or on-sight scoring. He said red point scoring is where climbers attempt to run routes with points being awarded based on difficulty and attempts made, and on-sight format scoring has points awarded for how high a climber has reached on a course’s route.

The event is now open to all students for $35.

Ho said a beginner should observe others before attempting a route on a rock face.

“Just watch other people climb first and for a brand new climber who doesn’t have the vision to breakdown moves, watch the more experienced climbers beforehand,” he said.

Joe de Ocampo can be reached at [email protected].