Since the last issue, women’s soccer kicked off the conference season with back-to-back wins before falling to Hanover on Saturday. The team opened conference play with a 1-0 upset win at home over Mount St. Joseph on a goal by Maddie Martin in the second. They traveled to Manchester and secured a dominant 4-0 win. Preseason conference favorite Hanover proved too much in a hard-fought 1-0 road defeat. The Ravens entered on a seven-match stretch without a loss. Now 7-2-1 with a 2-1 record in HCAC play, the Ravens host Rose-Hulman tonight in a huge match. The Fighting Engineers were among the conference favorites in the preseason poll, garnering a first-place vote. Rose-Hulman is 5-7 on the season but holds an identical 2-1 HCAC record. “This game is the most important yet,” said Danae Miller. “A win can put us in a good spot to make the top four in conference.”
The men’s soccer team now holds a 7-5-1 record on the season, 2-1 in conference play. After defeating Mount St. Joseph 2-1 and Manchester 3-1, the team dropped a match against Hanover 5-1. Several Ravens carry impressive stat lines through the first half of the season. Jacob Pokorski, Danny Collins and Wes Erny are all tied for fifth in the conference with four goals apiece. Pokorski’s eight assists are three more than any other HCAC player. His 16 points are good for second best in the conference. Goalkeeper Brandon Weer has 76 saves on the season, nine more than the next best in conference. Heading into tonight’s match at Rose-Hulman, the Ravens will look to build off of these strong performances.
After picking up a win in the conference opener, AU football has dropped three straight contests, falling short at Hanover, at home against Rose-Hulman and on the road against Bluffton. The Ravens will host Defiance on Saturday for Homecoming. The Yellow Jackets 1-5 record is identical to that of the Ravens. AU is hunting their first conference win against a team other than Earlham since Oct. 31, 2015.
After a 3-1 showing at the Scarlet Hawk invitational, AU volleyball looked to carry momentum into the HCAC season. Unfortunately, the Ravens dropped back-to-back three set matches against Rose-Hulman and Transylvania. The match against Transylvania was particularly frustrating, as the Ravens trailed 15-5 in the first set and 13-1 in the second. They battled hard in the third set before eventually falling 26-24. Slow starts have hurt the team throughout the year. “If we start out at the very beginning of the game things will go much smoother,” said Sydney Coffman. “For some reason it is taking us a while to get warmed up and into game mode. If we start in game mode at the first point we will have a better shot.”