Thursday State Sports Briefs: No. 3 Marquette stumbles against Notre Dame

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The No. 3 ranked Marquette University men’s soccer team lost at Notre Dame 3-1 last night. It put the Golden Eagles into a four-way tie for first-place in the Big East Blue Division, with one regular season game left on Saturday.

Axel Sjoberg gave Marquette a 1-0 lead on a header in the 25th minute. But the Fighting Irish scored three unanswered goals in the second half to join Marquette and the others atop the division standings at 5-2. The loss dropped the Eagles to 14-2 overall.

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The University of Wisconsin men's soccer team blanked Missouri-Kansas City last night, 2-0 in Madison. Jacob Brindle scored both goals in the second half, as the Badgers improved to 6-8-2 overall. Wisconsin out-shot UMKC 19-to-2 – and they earned eight corner kicks to one for the Kangaroos.

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The UW-Milwaukee men soccer team lost at home to Detroit 1-0. Adam Bedell scored the game’s only goal on a penalty kick. Milwaukee had four shots on goal in the second half, but none went in. The Panthers fell to 1-2-2 in Horizon League play, and 7-6-2 overall.

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The University of Wisconsin is nowhere to be found in the Big Ten’s official pre-season media polls for men’s basketball. Only the projected top-three were listed – and Indiana was picked to win the league’s regular season title, with Michigan second and Ohio State third. The poll was released this morning at the Big Ten’s annual Media Day in Chicago. An informal media poll earlier in the week had Wisconsin placing fifth, even though the Badgers have not finished any lower than fourth in Bo Ryan’s 11 seasons in Madison. Wisconsin was also left off the media’s Pre-season All-Big-10 team. Cody Zeller of Indiana tops the list, along with DeShaun Thomas and Aaron Craft of Ohio State, Trey Burke of Michigan, and Tim Frazier of Penn State. Zeller is the league’s Pre-season Player-of-the-Year. Indiana returns all five starters and 11 letter-winners from a team that made the NCAA Sweet-16 a year ago. Former Marquette coach Tom Crean is in his fifth year at the helm for the Hoosiers. He led them to a 27-9 mark a year ago.

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Wisconsin turned up empty today in the Big Ten’s pre-season polls-and-awards for both men’s-and-women’s basketball. Both the league’s coaches and media picked Penn State to win its seventh-straight regular season women’s title. Both had Nebraska in second and Purdue third. The media named Tayler Hill of Ohio State as its Pre-season Player-of-the-Year – while the coaches gave the nod to both Hill and Penn State’s Alex Bentley. No Badgers made either pre-season all-conference team. The men’s honors were announced earlier today. There was only a league-sanctioned media poll – and again, only the top three were named with the Badgers on the outside looking in. Indiana, led by former Marquette coach Tom Crean, was the media’s pre-season choice to win the title. Michigan was picked second, and Ohio State third.

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Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan says he’s confident that a strong leader will emerge to replace departed point guard Jordan Taylor. At the team’s media day, Ryan said it’s “amazing how young men step up” – and after 40 years of coaching, he says he has “all the faith in the world” that new leaders will emerge. Taylor graduated after being an All-American honorable mention last season. But the Badgers still have a solid core from the team which made the NCAA Sweet-16 round last March. Wisconsin has three senior forwards – Ryan Evans, Jared Berggren, and Mike Bruesewitz. And junior point guard Josh Gasser is expected to move into Taylor’s old spot. Bruesewitz is due back next month after a severe leg cut that needed 50 stitches. The Badgers still have players that provided 71 percent of last year’s scoring, and 84-percent of last season’s rebounds. And Ryan says they’ll need to gel earlier than last year, because of a tough non-conference schedule that includes five teams which played in last spring’s NCAA tourney. Ryan also plans to get freshman Sam Dekker into the mix quickly. Dekker was the state’s top high school player a year ago, averaging 32 points and 13 rebounds in leading Sheboygan Lutheran to a state title. Ryan says Dekker wants to be a complete player – and knows he has a lot to learn.

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University of Wisconsin men’s hockey center Derek Lee will miss this weekend’s two-game series at Minnesota-Duluth, after he got into a scooter accident last Saturday. Coach Mike Eaves said Lee escaped serious injury after his scooter collided with a car in Madison. Eaves said Lee is quote, “sore from head-to-toe.” The Badgers hope he’ll return for the following weekend’s contests against Colorado College at home. Lee was the center on the Badgers’ Number-two line – and he was on the Number-One power play unit.

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A defensive back from Waukesha has given a verbal commitment to play at Wisconsin. Matt Hubley said he was offered to be a preferred walk-on at the Badgers’ summer camp. But he told the Wisconsin State Journal he wanted to prove that he was worth a scholarship – and he finally received that offer on Monday night. Hubley is a safety, and he had three sacks last week for Waukesha Catholic Memorial in its state high school Division-Three playoff victory over Brown Deer last weekend. Hubley is also a solid rusher on offense, running for almost 1,200 yards this season. But he expects the Badgers to use him at safety. Hubley said he was told by Coach Bret Bielema that a couple scholarships became open – including one planned for defensive tackle Darius Latham, who pulled his commitment recently.

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Lakeland College of Sheboygan is the coaches’ pre-season favorite to win the North Division men’s basketball title in the Northern Athletics Conference. And Aurora is the favorite to take the South Division crown. Lakeland received all but one first-place vote, after winning the NAC tournament last season. Edgewood of Madison and Marian of Fond du Lac are tied for second in the coaches’ poll. Concordia-Mequon is projected to finish fourth. Aurora is projected to win the South title, after placing fourth a year ago – just two games behind co-champions Benedictine and Concordia-Chicago. Benedictine is picked to finish second in the South this time, with Rockford third and Concordia-Chicago fourth.

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UW-Stevens Point has clinched the WIAC volleyball title for the regular season. The 20th-ranked Pointers won their second straight crown, after shutting out UW-La Crosse at home last night. A year ago, the Pointers shared the title with Eau Claire and Whitewater. Now, the Pointers have the crown all to themselves – along with the top seed for the conference tournament which begins next Tuesday. Six teams will compete, and Stevens Point will host the semi-finals and finals November second-and-third.

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The Milwaukee Admirals lost at Texas last night 3-1. Jamie Oleksiak broke a 1-1 tie on a wrist shot with 9:14 left. Mark Van Guilder scored the only goal for Milwaukee, which fell to 2-4 on the young American Hockey League season.

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Fox Point native Skip Kendall is playing in the championship of the PGA’s second-tier Web.com Tour. Sixty players are competing in the event, which began this morning in McKinney, Texas. Jim Renner was at even-par through four holes.A number of PGA pros went to Malaysia to compete in the CIMB Classic, but no Wisconsinites made the trip. Troy Matteson has the first-round lead at eight-under-par 63. Tiger Woods was at five-under.

And on the PGA Champions Tour, Rhinelander native Dan Forsman is part of the field for the AT&T Championship. The 54-hole tournament begins tomorrow in San Antonio.

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The San Francisco Giants took Game-One of the World Series last night, 8-3 at home over Detroit. Giants’ slugger Pablo Sandoval became only the third player in history to hit three homers in a World Series game – and the first to do it in his first three at-bats. Sandoval also went 4-for-4 with four RBI’s – something only Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, and Albert Pujols have done in the World Series before. Former Brewers’ first baseman Prince Fielder singled in four trips for the Tigers, who will try to even the series in Game-Two tonight. Prince and Cecil Fielder became the 22nd father-and-son to make separate appearances in the Fall Classic. Cecil Fielder played in the ’96 Series with the New York Yankees.

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