COUG SOCCER:
Lightning In A
Bottle, Cougars Take Down No. 8 UCLA, 1-0
9/21/2018 | WSU
Soccer
Based on story from
WSU Sports Info
LOS ANGELES. - A
lightning strike in the 61st minute by junior Morgan Weaver helped
No. 14 Washington State soccer team (8-0-0, 1-0-0 Pac-12) secure a 1-0 win
Friday night in Los Angeles.
The victory also a
tribute to Cougs’stifling defense that shut down the high-powered attack of No.
8 UCLA (5-2-1, 0-1-0 Pac-12) for the second-straight season.
Playing on the road
for the first time in three weeks, the Cougars' came up big at every turn,
holding off early pressure by the Bruins before breaking through on the
counter-attack for what would-be the game-winning goal early in the second
half.
After stopping the
UCLA attack, sophomore Aaqila McLyn sent a long ball over the top to a
streaking Weaver who knifed through the rest a pair of Bruin defenders before
rolling a shot inside the far post for the goal. McLyn's assist was just part
of the magic for the sophomore on the night as the second-year defender came up
with a defensive save early in the game and found herself in the middle of
every Bruin attack as she came up with clutch tackles to stop any danger. When
balls would get through the backline, redshirt junior Rachel Thompson was up to
the task as she came up with a career-best nine saves to earn her first
Division I shutout in just her third career start.
Quote of the Match
"What a gutsy
performance by our group tonight. UCLA is a fantastic team. We had a great game
plan tonight and we stuck to it. Morgan does what Morgan does and that was a
special goal there late in the game. I am super excited for this group and we will
enjoy it tonight but back to work in the morning." ~ Head Coach Todd
Shulenberger
::::::::::::::::::
The Cougs' win was a
record eighth-straight to start the season, snapping the previous best start of
7-0 in 2015 and the record for consecutive wins in a single season of seven
done twice prior.
The win over UCLA
was WSU's second-straight 1-0 shutout of the Bruins and first in Los Angeles
over UCLA since 1993.
Morgan Weaver
recorded her second-straight game-winning goal while picking up her team-best
sixth goal of the year. She now has 21 career goals, tying for sixth most in
WSU history.
The win over No. 8
UCLA marked the sixth win over a top-10 team in WSU history.
Rachel Thompson
improved to 3-0-0 on the year while making her third-career start. She picked
up her first solo shutout after combining with Ella Dederick for a shutout in
her first career appearance.
The Cougs play their
first Pac-12 home game Thursday, Sept. 27 when Oregon comes to the Palouse. The
game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks.
Attendance: 249
:::::::::::::
WSU Opens Season
Strong at Cougar Classic
September 21, 2018 /
WSU Women's Tennis
WSU OPENS SEASON
STRONG AT COUGAR CLASSIC
From WSU Sports Info
PULLMAN, Wash. –
Washington State University opened its 2018 tennis season with a strong showing
on the first day of play at the Cougar Classic at the WSU Outdoor Tennis
Courts. The Cougars captured all 12 singles matches and all three doubles
matches on the afternoon. In the Crimson Singles Flight, senior Tiffany Mylonas
and freshmen Yang Lee and Hikaru Sato each won two matches without dropping a
set to advance to the semifinals. In the Gray Singles Flight, senior Aneta
Miksovska and juniors Melisa Ates and Ege Tomey also won their matches in
straight sets.
In doubles play,
Ates and Yang captured a 6-1 win over Seattle's Kreutzer and Rasmussen in the
Crimson Flight. Also in the Crimson Flight, Mylonas and Sato easily advanced
with a 6-2 win over Montana State's Fristam and Walker. In the Gray Doubles
Flight, Miksovska and Tomey advanced with a 6-1 win over Seattle's McCollister
and Montana State's Iverson.
Play continues
Saturday with singles semifinal matches and two rounds of doubles.
In Malibu, Calif.,
Cougar sophomore Michaela Bayerlova won her second-round match before falling
in the quarterfinals at the Oracle/ITA Master's at Pepperdine University.
Bayerlova, ranked No. 17 by the ITA, opened the day with a 6-2, 6-2 win over
Harvard's Erica Oosterhout, ranked No. 67. In the quarterfinals, Bayerlova
dropped a 6-2, 6-2 decision to Pepperdine's Evgeniya Levashova, ranked No. 41
nationally. In mixed doubles, Bayerlova and Baylor's Sven Lah posted a 6-4 win
over Oosterhout and Texas' Christian Sigsgaard. In their semifinal, the duo
posted an 8-4 win over Kate Fahey of Michigan and Minnesota's Stefan Milicevic.
The mixed doubles final will be Saturday at 6 p.m.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::
No. 22 Cougars Upset
Bid at No. 13 Huskies Falls Just Short
September 20, 2018 /
WSU Volleyball
NO. 22 COUGARS UPSET
BID AT NO. 13 HUSKIES FALLS JUST SHORT
Apple Cup rivals
battle in five set thriller to open Pac-12 play
From WSU Sports Info
SEATTLE -- The
No. 22 ranked Cougars of Washington State (9-2) nearly completed the upset bid
against the No. 13 Washington Huskies Thursday night on the road to begin
Pac-12 play this season.
Set scores for the
match were: 18-25, 17-25, 25-19, 25-16, and 9-15.
This rivalry
match-up featured each program battling for the early advantage, as the Cougars
took advantage of three straight service errors from Washington to gain the
early 5-3 lead. A crucial kill from Ella Lajos tied up the set at 10-10 in this
Apple Cup contest, as WSU began to swing momentum in its' favor. The Huskies
however generated multiple small runs to take a lead over the Cougars, and
ultimately won the opening set at 25-18.
The Cougs found
themselves in a tight set midway throughout once again after back-to-back kills
from Jocelyn Urias and Taylor Mims gave WSU the narrow 10-9 over their in-state
rivals. A 4-0 run from the Huskies propelled Washington throughout the
remainder of the set, never surrendering a lead change or tie, taking the
second set over Washington State at 25-17. Mims got her offensive attack
kick-started in this second set, leading the Cougar offense with seven at
intermission.
The Washington State
offensive attack came out in full force in the third set of play, with big
momentum swing kills from Claire Martin, Ella Lajos, and Mims helped power WSU
out to a lead over Washington. A 4-1 run from the Cougs late in the set surged
them ahead, as WSU once again took advantage of the Husky errors to notch the
set three victory at 25-19 by the final Lajos kill.
WSU continued to
ride the wave of momentum into set number four, as a critical 5-0 run from the
Cougars led the way for the set four victory. Washington State saw crucial
points from McKenna Woodford, and Mims as the offensive finished the set,
hitting .204 as a team. Ashley Brown and Urias each added kills of their own to
seal off the set win, and send this Apple Cup match-up into a decisive fifth
set.
The Huskies and the
Cougars continued trading points and lead changes to open up set number five,
knotted up at 4-4 after a kill from Mims, and an attack error from Washington.
The home squad generated a 4-0 run however, jumping out to an 8-4 advantage.
WSU battled back with a kill from Urias as the deficit was set at 10-7 in favor
of the Huskies, but another 4-0 run from Washington sealed the five set win for
UW at 15-9 by the final point.
STAT OF THE MATCH
The Huskies finished
this Pac-12 contest hitting .231 on the night, compared to that of Washington
State at .191 overall.
::::::::::::::::::
WSU hopes to see
growth in global students
Program aims to make
campus more diverse, expand global reach
Asif Chaudhry
discusses the success of the INTO student program at a Faculty Senate meeting
Jan. 11, 2018.
By HANNAH WELZBACKER
WSU Daily Evergreen
r
Sept 21, 2018
WSU is seeking to
increase the number of international students in its second year partnering
with INTO, a private global education company.
Asif Chaudhry, the
vice president for international programs, said WSU is currently at 7 percent
international students compared to the top 25 research universities with an
average of 18.6 percent.
“That enrichment
plays into how well the student body interacts and performs,” Chaudhry said.
The number of
students who came through INTO last fall was about 152 new students and just
over 100 in spring, Chaudhry said.
During an interview
with The Daily Evergreen staff, WSU President Kirk Schulz said WSU opted to
contract with INTO instead of spending resources on building up staff.
“We could not put
the resources in to get the growth that we would like to over the next 10 years
without this partnership,” Schulz said.
According to INTO’s
website, the company has 130 staff in 30 regional offices that manage over 600
recruitment partners in 75 countries.
Chaudhry said the
partnership is intended to grow the university, not displace any students who
grew up in-state. He also said it helps WSU create an interconnected world on
campus.
“We want students to
be global citizens,” Chaudhry said. “The only way to do that is either we
expose them to the world, take them all over for study abroad programs or
somehow we bring the world to them.”
At WSU, the INTO
program primarily serves graduate students but also a small number of
undergraduates. Among the application requirements, students must take an
English proficiency exam.
Some students
recruited by INTO meet WSU’s admission requirements, meaning they can start their
program as soon as they arrive in Pullman or at one of the other campuses.
However, other
students that might need academic help or have trouble with English have an
opportunity to prove themselves before enrolling. This is done through a
“pathway” program that is administered by both WSU and INTO.
The pathway program
can last one or two semesters depending on a student’s performance. Chaudhry
said it is like a probationary period for international students who might
otherwise miss any chance of attending WSU.
“WSU still has
absolute and total control over the process of admission,” Chaudhry said. “If a
student meets the requirements, then they are moved on to degree-seeking
status.”
Schulz said he could
not give the exact breakdown of how much money the university makes after INTO,
but the revenue does make a difference.
“I don’t want people
thinking ‘well, you’re just doing it for the money’ but the financial
implications for a program like that are important,” he said.
:::::::::::::::::
COUG FOOTBALL
Busy making other
plans
Nick Begg came to
WSU as a tight end before finding his home at D-tackle. Meanwhile, he
carved out a
different kind of niche
By Dale Grummert, Lewiston
Trib Sep 21, 2018
The Washington State
football roster in 2014 listed Nick Begg as a tight end, which in retrospect is
puzzling in at least two ways.
One, Begg had never
played that position in high school.
Two, the Cougars
don't use a tight end.
Chalk it up as a
failed experiment, and a prime reason this highly conspicuous 6-foot-5 athlete
took so long to find his niche with the Cougars.
Well, not his niche
- his position on the field. There's a difference.
Having gained
perhaps 35 pounds during his four-plus seasons in Pullman, Begg as a senior is
now a starting defensive tackle, rangy and undersized at 260 but well-suited to
the Cougars' Speed D.
He'll make his
fourth career start today (7:30 p.m., ESPN) when Washington State (3-0, 0-0)
faces Southern California (1-2, 0-1) in a Pac-12 game at Los Angeles Coliseum.
It will be a homecoming for Begg, who grew up in nearby Orange County.
Over the years, it
has become obvious that Begg's value to the Cougs goes beyond his contributions
inside the white chalk marks. He's a sideline guy, a body-language guy. He
energizes teammates and radiates optimism. In countless small ways, like his
habit of sprinting off the field when being replaced, he communicates to the Cougars
a sense of common purpose.
It's nothing new. He
evidently displayed these traits while playing for California prep coaching
luminary Harry Welch at Santa Margarita High.
"He always has
this charismatic joy about him," Welch, who retired six years ago, said by
phone Thursday. "If I were going to get back into coaching, I would hope
to have someone with Nick's enthusiasm, his joie de vivre. Every player wants
to be on the field, and that's understandable to a coach. But he celebrates the
team when he's on the field and equally when he's not on the field."
Although Cougars
coach Mike Leach generally uses four wide receivers in his Air Raid offense,
he's not philosophically opposed to replacing one of them with a tight end. But
the idea doesn't seem to work out. In his debut season at WSU in 2012, senior
tight end Andrei Lintz made a splash in spring workouts but wound up catching
just two passes in games that year.
Begg couldn't even
match that. After devoting his high-school career to defense, he spent two
seasons on offense at Wazzu, one of them redshirting with a torn ACL, but never
saw game action until being switched to defensive end in 2016.
The impetus for his
tight-end experiment isn't entirely clear, but he makes it sound like his idea.
Maybe that's Nick Begg being Nick Begg.
He had originally
committed to Arizona State and spent a season grayshirting for that team. But a
shuffling of defensive assistant coaches left him feeling unsettled, and he
wound up transferring to Washington State, largely at the behest of his best
friend and former Santa Margarita teammate, River Cracraft, now catching passes
for the Denver Broncos practice squad. Another close friend from Santa
Margarita, center Riley Sorenson, was also on the WSU roster.
"It was weird
trying offense," Begg recalled this week. "I had never really played
tight end before. I didn't play offense in high school. I just wanted to play
with River and Riley when I came here, and I thought it would be an interesting
opportunity, a new challenge. It didn't really work out, because of our system.
I eventually made the switch to defense, and it came back just like that. It
had been two years since I'd played defense, so I had to work some things out,
get back into the rhythm of things. It took me a while in that sense. It
probably would have been smarter just to play defense right off the bat."
The point is, Begg
coped with these position changes - the Cougs even briefly looked at him at
offensive line - with an equanimity beyond his years.
His father, Frank
Begg, a retired sales representative in the furniture business in Southern
California, said in a phone interview this week that his friends often remark
on the pleasure of conversing with his son. For someone so young, he's
attentive and unhurried, they say.
Perhaps his ability
to relate to people of all ages is connected to the fact that his father is 79.
He was an offensive lineman for the University of Dayton, at 190 pounds,
"a hundred years ago," he said.
Early in his WSU
career, Begg rarely made the travel squad. But a couple of times in 2015, by
virtue of winning the team's weekly award for scout-team play, he did get to
attend road games. One was at Rutgers and another at UCLA, which both turned
out to be stunning comeback victories for the Cougars. Begg started to seem
like a lucky charm, if only because his presence on the sideline during these
rallies was unmistakable.
"I just brought
energy to the sideline," he recalled. "And that was kind of my thing.
If you're not doing anything, and you've got one job, do that. So I've just
stuck with that. Like when I'm on the sideline now, being a starter - I don't
care, I'm still going to be hyping up the offense, I'll be hyping up our
kickoff team, I'll be hyping up Willie Rodgers (with whom he alternates at
defensive tackle). I don't care. It's not about me. I just want to help our
guys and I want to get a win. Energy is huge, and it can make a difference in a
game."
Although he grew up
in bustling SoCal and needed time to adapt to rural eastern Washington, Begg
and his friendly nature are good fits in Pullman. He graduated ages ago - in
May 2017, in business marketing - and by the end of this semester will have
another degree in communications. In the process he has developed a fondness
for Pullman's college-town vibe.
"I think it's
partly his personality," said Welch, his old high-school coach, "but
it also speaks volumes about the people in the area. It's nice that Nick has
embraced the area, but I think first and foremost the area has embraced him. I
sent five players to Washington State that were all on the team at the same
time. Obviously that's how I feel about the area."
At the same time,
Welch agrees with something the athlete's father said. Frank Begg was
conjecturing on how things might have played out if his son had attended a
different school and found himself playing tight end.
He probably would
have thrived there, too.
::::::::::::::::::::
Week 4 radio show:
Mike Leach loves a bad locker room
By JORDAN FOX Sept
20, 2018 9:05 PM Cougfan.com
Mike Leach’s radio
show Wednesday came a day earlier than usual this week, but that didn’t make it
any less strange. Leach discussed college football’s best (or worst) road
locker rooms, his favorite movie sequels and intramural flag football strategy.
But he did spend some time on Friday’s opponent, the USC Trojans.
He said USC’s
offense likes to pound the ball and throw off play-action while its defense
tries to keep opponents off-balance by mixing up its coverages and blitzing
more than average. While the Trojans have a size and speed advantage, Leach
said the Cougs need to focus on themselves.
“(We need) to do
what we did last year: Worry about playing the best we can play and see where
it takes us once the dust settles,” Leach said, referring to WSU’s 30-27 win in
2017.
Leach said
Washington State looked more synchronized in all three phases last week against
Eastern Washington. He said the defense played well, excluding the middle of
the game when it allowed some explosive plays. But Leach especially praised the
Cougs’ special teams and their coordinator, Matt Brock, whom he said is “one of
the busiest guys in the building.” Travell Harris returned a kick for a touchdown
in the win, and Leach said he’s been pleased with the play of specialists Blake
Mazza and Oscar Draguicevich III.
“Both are really
confident,” Leach said. “Your kickers can have a really squirrely personality,
and you don't know which guy you're going to get. I think a number of those
guys have multiple personality disorders. Ours don’t seem to, so that puts us
ahead of a lot.”
But little other
football was discussed. As the Cougs travel to Los Angeles, Leach talked about
the "best" road environments he’s coached in. He singled out LSU,
which he says is not the loudest place (Arkansas, he said) but has its own
unique challenges — namely a live tiger, a musty locker room, a harrowing
police escort and students tossing heated up pennies at the sideline.
But true artistry,
Leach said, can be found in Starksville, Mississippi. While schools now try to
make visiting locker rooms comfortable, Leach said Mississippi State’s was
“outstandingly obnoxious.” He said the small concrete box didn’t have any chairs,
space or lockers — with nails to hang clothes instead — and had two toilets
placed in the center of the room sharing one roll of toilet paper.
Leach was then asked
which movie sequels he thought were better than the originals. He said he had
trouble recalling which movies were sequels, though he did praise “the British
guy who karates everybody,” later clarified to be Jason Statham.
The show finished up
by discussing Leach’s time as a flag football referee in college. He was asked
if he has considered incorporating rugby strategy into his offenses, which he
said would be difficult considering the differing importance of fumbles in the
two sports. But he did say he’s seen in used successfully once, by a team he
refereed in BYU’s intramural flag football league during his college days. He
said the team rarely passed the ball, freelancing its way down the field by
laterals and eventually winning the championship. Was the nascent football
coach critiquing or learning anything from this strategy?
“I kinda punched the
clock there,” Leach said.
::::::::::
Jack Thompson: Let
me make something perfectly clear
By BARRY BOLTON
Cougfan.com
JACK THOMPSON WANTS
to clear something up and he is emphatic about it: He would never be a party to
covering up allegations of sexual misconduct, be those allegations against a
friend or anyone else. “Sexual misconduct is unacceptable and should not be
tolerated anywhere, anytime, at any level, by anyone. Those who know me and my
values know this would be, and is, my stand on this subject,” he told
Cougfan.com on Thursday.
Thompson has been
accused by the former director of the IMG Radio Network’s WSU account, Matt
Almond, of telling him to “stay in his lane” relative to allegations Almond and
former WSU fundraiser Uri Farkas raised late last year about Jason Gesser, a
long-time friend of Thompson’s who resigned this week from his post as an
assistant athletic director at WSU.
“The ‘stay in your
lane’ comment is patently not true,” Thompson said. “I was stunned when I heard
that. That expression isn’t even a part of my vernacular, and this week it was
the centerpiece of a newspaper article which attempts to characterize me and my
involvement in this situation inaccurately. I take this seriously and I’m not
going stand by and have my character questioned, or my involvement
misrepresented, when my motivations and actions were pure. My name was brought
up in the Office for Equal Opportunity notes because of two telephone
conversations I had— neither with Matt Almond or Uri Farkas — that occurred
late last year.”
One of the phone
calls was with then-WSU deputy athletic director Mike Marlow. “I made the call
because I had heard from Jason that he, Almond and Farkas weren’t working well
together, to the point of dysfunction,” Thompson said. “I called Mike to see if
I could help smooth the waters in any way and to express my concern that, at
this critical time when our former athletic director (Bill Moos) had left and
the university was in the midst of replacing him, dysfunction in the
fundraising and marketing arm could be crippling, and they needed to be working
together as a team.”
The second
conversation was with WSU President Kirk Schulz. “He called to tell me that the
university was looking into allegations of sexual misconduct by Jason — he
didn’t want me to hear about it through the grapevine,” Thompson said. “This is
how I learned of the allegations against Jason. I was very clear with President
Schulz, and later with Pat Chun when he came on board, that I would be shocked
if it was true but if it was, then Jason would need to be fired.
"In the OEO
report, an individual claimed I made a statement to him back in December --
that I told him my role was to 'keep this from getting to the president’s
desk.' The individual who attributed
this statement to me is someone I didn’t talk to regarding allegations against
Jason. More importantly, the president is the one who had informed me, and who
was already fully aware of the situation, making this alleged comment by me
clearly false.”
How those two
conversations with Marlow and Schulz turned into the “lane” claim — a claim
that both The Inlander and Spokesman-Review have used to pillory Thompson — is
mind numbing to Thompson.
“In the OEO report,
the person to whom I spoke, Mike Marlow, gives his account of my phone call
with him, which was to express my concern about the staff not working together
and to offer my assistance. Neither of the writers who have published stories
about me has included this information,” he said.
“Many of Jason’s friends are feeling as I do
this week. We feel like we’ve been kicked in the gut,” Thompson added. “If
there is anything I am guilty of, it’s believing the words of a friend I’ve
known for 20 years, who repeatedly told me, and other friends, over the past
several months, that he was innocent. At any point during the time I’ve known
him, had I seen Jason act in an inappropriate way, or had I known any of the
rumors were true, I would have been the first person in his face. Anyone who
knows me well, knows that would be the case. I’ve hesitated defending myself in
a public forum, and in the midst of this terrible situation, but given these
attacks against my character, I decided I had no other choice but to state the
facts as I know them.
“Right now, the
focus should not be on me. The focus should be on the women who’ve had to make
the difficult and courageous decision to come forward with their stories, who
have suffered privately, and who have endured inappropriate and unwanted
advances from someone they thought they could trust.”
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