Army West Point Athletics
This Week In Army Athletics
September 11, 2013 | General
Sept. 11, 2013
Dear Friends,
After posting a winning record against our fellow service academies last season, we got off on the right foot again in 2013. The men’s soccer team scored a 1-0 win at Air Force last Saturday, not only putting us in the win column against a rival, but also earning their third straight win to start the season.
Head coach Russell Payne’s young squad is 3-0 for the first time since 2007 and have not allowed a goal in 270 minutes of play. Cow goalkeeper Winston Boldt has earned all three shutouts and picked up his second straight Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week certificate on Monday. In addition, he was chosen as the Army Athlete of the Week. Plebe Ethan Spivack scored the game-winner in Colorado and was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Week. He is the second of our plebes to earn that honor in as many weeks.
The men’s golf team started its season in promising fashion over the weekend with a fourth-place showing at the Colgate Invitational. Brian Watts’s squad was the only one to put all five of its competitors in the top 25. The team finished just one shot behind defending Patriot League champion Lehigh and were at least 14 shots clear of the three other Patriot League teams competing in the event. Individually, yearling Marcus Plunkett and plebe Justin Pagila tied for 12th place. Marcus’s second-round score of 69 was the best round by any competitor during the 54-hole event.
Both cross country teams were on the course for the first time as well, hosting the Army Open at the West Point Golf Course. While there was no team scoring, both teams did boast the individual champion. On the men’s side Kendall Ward crossed the line first, while Madison Hill took the women’s race. It was Madison’s first collegiate race after missing all of last season with an injury suffered during Cadet Basic Training.
The biggest event on this week’s docket is football’s match up with fifth-ranked Stanford. It is the first time a top-five team has visited West Point since Army beat Penn State 9-6 on Oct. 13, 1962. Due to sellout crowd expected, we are urging everyone attending Saturday’s game to arrive early and allow extra time for getting through the Academy gates and parking. Game day events begin at 9 a.m. with kickoff scheduled for 12:05.
Keeping with the football theme, we’d like to share some information about new book, “West Point Leadership: Profiles in Courage,” by primary authors John A. Vigna and Daniel Rice. The book highlights more than 180 people associated with the U.S. Military Academy who went to both military and civilian leadership roles. One of the chapters is dedicated to the role of organized sports and physical fitness in developing leaders. Profiles include several of Army’s most prominent football names such as Earl “Red” Blaik, Felix “Doc” Blanchard, Glenn Davis and Don Holleder. The book also features National Football Foundation Award winners Dwight D. Eisenhower, Vince Lombardi, GEN Raymond Odierno, Douglas MacArthur and Norman Schwarzkopf. For more information, visit leadershipprofilesofcourage.com.
Army and Stanford won’t be the first gridiron action on post this weekend. The defending Collegiate Sprint Football League champion Black Knights will host Penn in their season opener at Shea Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
The men’s soccer team is home for two matches this week, hosting Marist at 7 p.m. Wednesday night and Fordham on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. The women’s team also gets a home appearance, taking on Rhode Island at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
The volleyball team has the next opportunity to score a service academy win when it faces Air Force on Friday at noon as part of the Service Academy Challenge played at The Pentagon. The team, who scored a 3-0 win over Rhode Island in their last match, will also take on Stanford and Yale.
The women’s tennis team becomes the latest fall team to start competition. The teams will be split into two squads, traveling to the Quinnipiac Invitational and the Stony Brook Invitational.
Thank you again for all of your support of Army Athletics. To find out more about the Army A Club and how you can enhance the cadet-athlete experience, click the following link: http://www.goarmysports.com/boosters/army-a-club.html, call (845)938-2322, or email armyaclub@usma.edu.
We appreciate all of your contributions to our success. Be well.
Go Army!
Boo
For all current information regarding Army Athletics and its 25 varsity programs, please visit www.goARMYsports.com.
Cross Country
- Cross country season officially kicked off with the Army Open on a sunny Friday afternoon at the West Point Golf Course as the Black Knights went toe to toe with Ramapo, Penn State Worthington Scranton, CCNY, SUNY Maritime and Royal Military College.
- In the 5,000-meter non-scoring meet, Army runners claimed the top spots in both the men’s and women’s races as senior Kendall Ward and Madison Hill won their respective individual titles. Each earned honorable mention nods in Monday’s release of the weekly Patriot League awards.
- The Army men recorded the top-12 collegiate times led by Ward’s 5K finish of 15:20.89. The senior was followed by classmate and team captain Ricardo Galindo who crossed the line in 15:35.71. Thomas Girardot (third; 15:39.15), Cody Barger (fourth; 15:39.50) and Josh Ecker (sixth; 15:54.44) rounded out Army’s top five.
- Hill, who missed all of last season recovering from an injury sustained during Cadet Basic Training and was competing for the first time collegiately, edged out freshman Brianna Miller, a freshman by snapping the tape with a 5K time of 19:00.95. Miller’s official time was 19:02.92.
- The Black Knight women captured eight of the top-nine times as sophomore Lindsay Gabow (third; 19:26.96), junior Katrina Mecklenburg (fourth; 19:42.76) and freshman Nicole Carter (fifth; 19:47.13) rounded out the top five.
- The Black Knights will get their first dual-meet test on Friday when they travel to Cornell. Army will square off against the Big Red at 5 p.m. in Ithaca, N.Y.
Football (1-1)
- Army played its first road game of the season at Ball State, losing to the Cardinals by a final score of 40-14.
- Fullback Larry Dixon led the Black Knights with 113 rushing yards and two touchdowns. It was his second straight 100-yard outing.
- Dixon scored on the third play from scrimmage, racing 71 yards up the middle for his first touchdown of the season. It was the longest run of his career.
- Raymond Maples added 84 yards on 12 carries. Army rushed for 363 yards on the day.
- Chevaughn Lawrence caught a pass for the 12th straight game, the longest streak by an Army player since Jeremy Trimble had a run of 22 consecutive games during the 2006-07 seasons.
- Backup quarterback A.J. Schurr came on in relief in the fourth quarter, running for a career-high 41 yards, including a career-best 31-yard scamper.
- Thomas Holloway led the Army defense with nine tackles, while Shaquille Tolbert and Alex Meier each had seven stops.
- Robert Kough made 1.5 tackles for loss from his defensive line spot, while cornerback Chris Carnegie made his first career fumble recovery.
- Army hosts fifth-ranked Stanford at noon on Saturday. It is the first top-five team to play at Michie Stadium since Oct. 13, 1962 when Army defeated Penn State, 9-6.
Golf
- Army opened its 2013-14 schedule at the Colgate Invitational. The Black Knights finished fourth of 14 teams, trailing defending league champion Lehigh by just one shot and besting the other three Patriot League squads at the event by at least 14 strokes.
- The Black Knights were the only team to have all five of its competitors to finish in the top 25.
- Yearling Marcus Plunkett and plebe Justin Pagila were the team’s top individual finishers. Both players tied for 12th at 8-over-par.
- Plunkett fired a second-round 69. It was the best single-round score by any competitor during the event.
- Army is back in action this weekend at The Doc Gimmler hosted by St. John’s. The tournament will be played in Farmingdale, N.Y. on the Bethpage Red Course.
Men’s Soccer (3-0, 0-0 Patriot League)
- Plebe forward Ethan Spivack netted his first collegiate goal in the 72nd minute to lift the Black Knights to a 1-0 win over its service academy rival Air Force on Saturday night at Cadet Soccer Stadium.
- The Black Knights, who recorded their third consecutive shutout to open the season, improved to 3-0-0 overall. The victory marks the first time Army has started its year 3-0 since 2007, when it opened with four consecutive wins.
- Junior goalkeeper Winston Boldt made four stops for Army to earn his third shutout of the season, and the seventh of his career.
- Boldt was named the Army Athletic Association Athlete of the Week and the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week for the second time in as many weeks.
- Spivack picked up Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors.
Women’s Soccer (2-3-1, 0-0 Patriot League)
- Toward the end of a five-game road slate, Army went 0-1-1 over the weekend.
- The Black Knights battled Fordham to a 1-1, double overtime draw Friday night. Army held the Rams to just one shot over the final 65 minutes of action (45 regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods). Kim An netted the lone Army goal.
- The Black Knights fell to 2012 NCAA participant Princeton on Sunday, 3-0.
- Army closes out its five-game road slate Friday when it visits Central Connecticut.
- The Black Knights host Rhode Island on Sunday (Sept. 15) for their first home match since Aug. 25.
Women’s Tennis
- The Black Knights begin their fall season with split-squad competitions. One unit will compete at the Stony Brook Invitational. The other will play at the Quinnipiac Invitational.
Volleyball (2-5)
- After coming off their first win in Gillis Field House versus Marist on Wednesday, the volleyball team traveled to Valparaiso Ind., for the Valpo Popcorn Classic. The Black Knights went head-to-head with three teams during the weekend including, Valparaiso, Eastern Michigan and Rhode Island.
- Army started the tournament with back-to-back 3-1 losses to the host Crusaders and Eastern Michigan.
- In their final match of the tournament, the Black Knights came out strong against the Rhode Island to sweep the Rams, 3-0.
- Plebe outside hitter Olivia Fairfield posted a .500 average hitting percentage in the match against Rhode Island.
- Cow setter May Vaccaro had 41 assists in the match versus Eastern Michigan, and firstie co-captain outside hitter Margaux Jarka had 26 digs and 18 kills in the match against Valparaiso.
- Jarka was voted onto the Valpo Popcorn Classic All-Tournament team for her efforts throughout the weekend.
