Photo by Kortnie Westfall/Sun StarJunior Sheena Brown goes for a layup and two points in the second half of Thursdays game against UTPB. Brown was the Nanooks’ top scorer of the game with 22 points, and also in Saturday’s game against BYU-Hawaii in Hawaiil.
Overall, this weekend was sucessful for the Nanooks. The hockey team split two games against the No. 1 ranked team in the nation; the women’s basketball team won at home and their first of three games in Hawaii; the ski team claimed the Alaska Nordic Cup to Fairbanks for the second straight year; and the swim team earned their first win of the third era. The men’s basketball team lost at UC-Irvine.
Hockey
The Nanooks split the weekend against Miami Ohio, the top team in Division I hockey this weekend. Friday’s game was a 3-1 loss, and Saturday Alaska notched a 3-0 win and senior goalie Wylie Rogers’ seventh career shutout.
Friday, junior Tyler Eckford scored for the Nanooks in a five-on-three powerplay. The lead was erased in the second period when Redhawk captain Ryan Jones scored just 25 seconds into the period.
Jones scored again twice in the end of the third period, the final goal came with only 27 seconds left in the game on a power-play off of a hooking penalty on Nanook Dustin Molle.
Saturday Eckford again started off the scoring, again on a five-on-three powerplay. This time, however, the Nanooks kept their lead. The second period was scoreless for both teams. In the third period, freshman Nathan Lawrence scored a power play goal, his third of the season, and senior Ryan Muspratt scored his first goal of the season on an empty net with just over a minute left.
Senior assistant captain, goalie Wylie Rogers stopped 32 shots en route to his seventh career shutout.
Women’s Basketball
The women’s basketball team built on their impressive season start with Thursday’s home win against the University of Texas at Permian Basin, and a win Saturday in Hawaii against BYU-Hawaii.
Thursday the Nanooks blasted UTPB 94-70, scoring 55 points in the second half. At halftime, the Nanooks were only leading by six points, and the Falcons jumped on the deficit early in the second half, leveling the score just minutes into the half.
The Nanooks didn’t allow the Falcons’ momentum to keep up though, and with the help of Sheena Brown’s 13 second-half points, out of a team-high 22 throughout the game,) hit 55 points to put the much shorter Falcons down for good.
Just hours after the win, the Nanooks jumped on a plane to Hawaii, and Saturday beat the Brigham Young University-Hawaii Seasiders 73-48. Brown again was the team’s leading scorer with 16 points and a career-high five steals. Sarah Herrin made 15 points, Kari Reabold 13, and Cristina Bruketta had 12, putting four Nanooks into double-figures on the scoreboard.
The Nanooks remained in Hawaii until today. Yesterday they played Chaminade, and tonight they face Hawaii-Hilo. The Sun Star is compiled on Sundays, therefore scores for those games were unavailable.
Swim team earns first win
The Nanook swim team got their first win of the so-called “third era” team, winning their first dual meet since being re-instated in 2005.
The win came Saturday over Division III Pacific Lutheran University with a score of 134-70.
Top Performances:
The 200-yd medley “A” relay team of Jacqueline van Driessche, Mariya Pavlovskaya, Kelly Becker and Heidi Tilicki finished first.
Sam Zinsli and Joann Kump finished first and second in the 1000 freestyle.
Heidi Tilicki outswam PLU’s top swimmer, Jessie Klauder, in the 200 free. Tilicki came from a nearly three-second deficit to beat Klauder by more than a second.
Freshman Kinsey Laine won the 400 IM and the 100 free.
Sophomore Kelly Becker won the 100 fly by four seconds.
In the 100-yd backstroke, freshman Mariya Pavlovskaya outpaced fellow Nanooks, sophomore vanDriessche for first and second places, respectively. Pavlovskaya also won the 100 breaststroke by four seconds.
In the 500 free, junior Zinsli won by eight seconds.
Sunday’s results were not available at press time.
Ski team brings home Nordic Cup
The Nanook ski team headed to Anchorage this weekend, and with a victory on Saturday and a loss Sunday, still had more points than the Seawolves and took the Nordic Cup, 44-40 on the weekend.
On Saturday, Nanook siblings Aurelia and Marius Korthauer took the top spot in each classic race. Aurelia won the 7.5-kilometer race 36.5 seconds ahead of her closest competition. Alaska’s Elisabeth Habermann came in third, just three seconds later.
Marius took the men’s race with a full 30 seconds between him and his next competitor, fellow Nanook Vahur Teppan.
Sunday, Alaska’s Elisabeth Habermann and Aurelia Korthauer were the top two in the women’s 5-kilometer skate-sprints. The men had a tougher run, with Korthauer being the only Nanook breaking the top five with a second place finish.
Men’s basketball loses in California
The men’s basketball team dropped another game to a Div. I school in California this weekend with a 87-53 loss to the University of California Irvine.
Mladen Begojevic led the Nanooks with 19 points. Senior Mike Titus put in 15 points for Alaska, and sophomore Kevin Atkins had a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Anteaters had four players in double-digits for scoring, and out-rebounded the Nanooks 36-28.
The Nanooks’ next contest will be during the AT&T Alascom Jamboree in Anchorage Dec. 28-29. They start their conference schedule Jan. 3 when they face Saint Martin’s in Lacey, Wash.