Category Archives: Sports Section

Lady Red Drop Five Matches at Mattoon Tourney

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Photo by Keith Stewart Sullivan’s Brittin Boyer dives for the ball during Saturday’s tournament at Mattoon. Her effort during the five matches earned her a spot on the all-tournament team.

Photo by Keith Stewart
Sullivan’s Brittin Boyer dives for the ball during Saturday’s tournament at Mattoon. Her effort during the five matches earned her a spot on the all-tournament team.

Poor showing Saturday all but erases strong start

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

After going 3-0 to start the season, the Sullivan volleyball team fell to 3-5 all in one day while competing at the 33rd Annual Mattoon Tournament this past Saturday.

All but one of their losses came in two set matches, with their final match against St. Elmo-Brownstown going to three sets. Sullivan won the first 25-22 but then fell in the next two sets 15-25, 12-15.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see our ‘refuse to lose’ attitude in the first two matches of the season especially, and I saw nothing of that attitude in our team as a whole in the tournament,” said head coach Heather Lindenmeyer.

Sullivan first faced Warrensburg-Latham but lost a close first set 25-23 followed by a 25-17 loss.

The Redskins next faced Heyworth, who had the same morning defeated host and reigning tournament champion Mattoon, in three sets. Read More

Lancers Knock Off Warriors for Third Straight Season

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Coller's 15 assists and Seegmiller's 6 aces, just a few highlights in win

by Kirk Whitaker
Arthur/Sullivan Reporter

“Everyone was pumped for the game,” Arthur senior Sherelle Coller commented, “We all wanted to get off to a good start, not only for each other, but to get Coach’s last season started off well.” Read More

Lady Red Makes it Three in a Row to Start Season Off Right

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OV falls to 0-2 after two set loss Tuesday night

Photo by Keith Stewart Sullivan head coach Heather Lindenmeyer tells her team to get focused during a second set timeout Tuesday night. The Redskins did just that, cruising to a 25-19 win.

Photo by Keith Stewart
Sullivan head coach Heather Lindenmeyer tells her team to get focused during a second set timeout Tuesday night. The Redskins did just that, cruising to a 25-19 win.

by Emily Scott
Bethany Reporter

In an anticipated intra-county rivalry, the Sullivan Redskins volleyball team earned a 25-8, 25-19 win against the Okaw Valley Timberwolves Tuesday night.

Sullivan started out with a lead in the first game and continued with it strongly. Okaw Valley created a few chances to score but had trouble executing plays. As OV began to trail with  errors accumulating, Sullivan came out on top 25-8.

Attempting to come back in the second game, Okaw Valley saw better plays and execution as they kept a tighter hold on their opponent, who came right back with the same intensity. After a couple of time outs, which only increased the tension between the two rival teams, Sullivan struck back to defend their lead. Sullivan’s Emily Neuhauser and Brittin Boyer led the team in well-timed blocks and kills in the last half of the game to finish strong at 25-19 to win the match.  Read More

Knights Run Over, Through, and Around Cornjerkers For Opening Win

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Friday night lightning reschedules game for Tuesday night

by Kirk Whitaker
Arthur/Sullivan Reporter

Atwood senior Jordan Feagan and the rest of the Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond kickoff return team brought new meaning to the phrase, ‘it was over before it started’ Friday night, when the senior scooped up the opening kickoff and scampered 75 yards untouched for the first score of the season, 13 seconds into the game.

“It set a good tone for us and gave us confidence and it showed we could score,” Knights Head Coach Dale Schuring said, “We were ready to play and anytime we can get an early seven points it’s a good feeling and if the kids weren’t already motivated it gave them even further motivaton.” Read More

SOV Girls Edge T-Town in Home Meet Opener

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SOV’s Tori Murphy tries to cool off during the three mile run at Tabor Park last Thursday. The SOV girls’ cross country team was hot on the trail, beating both T-Town and Tuscola for first place.

Photo by RR Best
SOV’s Tori Murphy tries to cool off during the three mile run at Tabor Park last Thursday. The SOV girls’ cross country team was hot on the trail, beating both T-Town and Tuscola for first place.

Boys take third behind Tuscola and Wooden Shoes on hot opening day

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Opening the season at home last Thursday, the SOV cross country team hosted Teutopolis and Tuscola, as well as several runners from Riverton.

The SOV ladies took the quad meet with 30 points, followed by T-town with 43, and Tuscola with 65.

Minus the top three finishes, the Lady Red rounded out the rest of the top 10 with sisters Cadisen and Carlin Nuzzo finishing fourth (24:41) and fifth (24:42) respectively. Junior Elissa Stewart took sixth with a time of 24:55 and was followed by Bailee Pratt (25:24), Annie Hogan (25:13), Drew Lehman (25:26), and Holly Lamb (25:31). Read More

Narrow Week One Loss Leaves Redskins Fuming

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Hot and humid Friday night a battle in and of itself

Photo by Keith Stewart SOV senior linebacker Kainan Bushert goes to strip the ball from Tuscola quarterback Zach Bates Friday night. Bushert’s defensive showing included one fumble recovery.

Photo by Keith Stewart
SOV senior linebacker Kainan Bushert goes to strip the ball from Tuscola quarterback Zach Bates Friday night. Bushert’s defensive showing included one fumble recovery.

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Failing to convert on their second two-point conversion late in the third quarter, SOV stood just two points behind heading into the fourth quarter Friday night in Tuscola. But it was a combination of a hot night, cramping muscles, and a diligent fourth quarter Warrior run game, which chiseled away at the clock that paved the way to a 23-14 Tuscola win.

“You put your next person in, and you hope that you’ve prepared them well, and we did. What we got hurt on is something we don’t have, an incredible amount of speed,” said SOV head coach Charles Brown. “That’s not a shocking thing; everyone can see that. But we’ll work better on stopping some of those sweeps, but when they were able to manage the clock, that’s what they were doing, and we just don’t have the speed to counteract that. That’s not faulting effort, that’s not faulting the kids, that’s not faulting anything but the fact that they found something they were a little bit better at than we were defensively.” Read More

ALAH Soccer Cracks Open Season with 7-2 Win

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Photo by Keith Stewart ALAH sweeper Natalie Bicknell chases the ball out of the Knight’s territory as Mt. Pulaski forward Eli Grieshiem chases her down Saturday. The Knights dismantled the Hilltoppers 7-2.

Photo by Keith Stewart
ALAH sweeper Natalie Bicknell chases the ball out of the Knight’s territory as Mt. Pulaski forward Eli Grieshiem chases her down Saturday. The Knights dismantled the Hilltoppers 7-2.

Mt. Pulaski unable to counter Knights’ speed and footwork

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

The visiting Mt. Pulaski Hilltoppers may have been the first to strike Saturday morning, not even five minutes in, but it was the ALAH Knights who not only served up an equalizer 50 seconds later but went onto break open the game to win 7-2.

“I’ve coached teams where if the other team scored on you, you knew you were done because they just went down,” said ALAH head coach Jeff Trower, “but these guys weren’t going to do that. They just kept saying, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ “

After sophomore Jovanny Martinez scored from just a few yards out to tie the game, co-captain and brother Omar put a shot on just outside the 18, scoring to take a 2-1 lead with 30:23 remaining in the half. Read More

OV Wins Three-way Match at Clinton

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Purple-Rider Knights take close second

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Sophomore Drew Fruchtl led his Timberwolves Tuesday night to their first win of the season, shooting a 43 after nine holes, defeating both Clinton and the new co-op Arthur/Lovington-Atwood/Hammond-Arcola (ALAHA). Read More

2013 Area High School Sports Guide

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FrontandBackSportSection-1Most area high school sports got underway the week of August 26.

The News Progress has compiled previews for Sullivan, Okaw Valley, and Arthur-Lovington high schools, which in turn see a variety of competitors in volleyball, soccer, football, cross country, and golf.

Check out this week's sport section for all fall 2013 previews.