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| Oct. 21, 2004 | |||||
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Football puts loss in past, focuses on future Appalachian State head coach Jerry Moore pulled the football team and coaching staff together before Monday's practice and addressed the 54-7 loss to Georgia Southern as well as the upcoming game against Wofford. His message was clear: put the Georgia Southern loss behind and focus on winning the remaining four games. "He told us we need to come together and be more of a team," defensive tackle Joe Suiter said. "A lot of things went wrong on Saturday and he just wanted to let us know we're still a team and we have to put that game behind us." The loss to the Eagles was ASU's fourth-worst conference loss ever. It also gave Appalachian its third loss of the season and they currently stand at 4-3. A fourth loss would all but extinguish the team's hope of gaining an at-large playoff berth. Wide receiver DaVon Fowlkes was held to four catches for 27 yards and said after the game and at practice Monday the team was intimidated. "We were intimidated because they executed on the first drive and scored," Fowlkes said. "We got the ball and went three-and-out and they scored again, so we were down 14-0 and then 17-0. We need to come out and keep fighting this week." The Mountaineers host Wofford (5-1, 3-1) Saturday at Homecoming. The Terriers are ranked fifth in the Spots Network poll, making them the third consecutive top-five team the Mountaineers have faced. ASU scheduled Wofford for Homecoming in 2002, and the Terries upset the Mountaineers, 26-19. That game was the last home loss for ASU. Last season, Wofford handed ASU their fourth loss, all but knocking them out of the playoffs. "We definitely owe Wofford one because we didn't have our starting quarterback last year and they beat us last Homecoming," offensive tackle Matt Isenhour said. "Former players and former athletes will be here ... it's a special day. You don't want to get beat on Homecoming. We're going to be gunning for them pretty good." Wofford will likely be the last opponent with a winning record Appalachian will face. The remaining three games are against Chattanooga, Elon College and Western Carolina. Those three teams are last in the conference and have combined records of 4-15 and 1-8 in conference play. Suiter said starting last season 1-3 and being faced with a "must-win' scenario every week will help the team these final four games. "We have the same feeling [as last year]," Suiter said, "We know its crunch time and we know we have to win these games to make it to the playoffs. Everyone will see a different team than they saw last Saturday."
Volleyball spikes Terriers with sweeping victory There is something different about the Mountaineer volleyball ladies this season, something that makes them destined for greatness. On Sunday, ASU improved on matching their best mark since 1995 for conference victories by sweeping Wofford 30-18, 30-24, 30-28. It’s the Mountaineers fourth straight victory sweeping their opponent and their 10th win in the last 11 matches. Wofford’s leading scorer of the afternoon was Katie Laser with 10 kills and nine digs. Their setter Rhea DeJesus put up 27 assists, but couldn’t help the rest of her team reach such heavenly numbers as Wofford hit for a dismal .074 for the day. ASU, on the other hand, was reaching for the sky all day. The sky above the net that is, hitting up 54 kills with a .217 average for the games. Kali Rumberger dug up 13 balls, putting her name eighth on the single season digs list reaching 379. Amber Mangrum also made waves in school record books, moving 20 assists shy of second place on the all-time career assist mark with 43 for the match. Samantha Giudici had 16 kills and hit for .379, a match high. Stephanie Panzer made the only solo block for Appalachian, but not without putting up 13 kills, an ace and two digs to top it off. Chrissy Finch came in as a reserve for two of the three matches and made the most of her spare time converting six kills and six digs. Rounding out the Mountaineers scorers were Cali Cooper adding seven kills and freshman Baily Cromwell with five. Appalachian will begin a three game road trip, starting with a non-conference match against Gardner-Webb tonight. Then they will get back to business with three more conference foes, including their next home game on Oct. 30 vs. Chattanooga. The Terriers season has been quite the opposite the Mountaineers, slipping up a notch to 6-14 on the year, 2-5 in SoCon. Since SoCon play began Appalachian has lost one game, routing conference foes left and right to an astounding 8-1 SoCon record. It’s ASU’s best mark dating back to the 1995 season in which they finished 13-1 in SoCon. |
© 2004 ASU Student Publications
