University of St. Thomas Athletics
31-7
Juniata
34-5
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juniata College | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| St. Thomas | 22 | 22 | 16 | 0 |
Gene's Blog: 'Pham slam' helps create full sports docket
11/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Are you ready for some football... volleyball... cross country... swimming and diving.... hockey... basketball?
This weekend of Nov. 19-21 will rank among the busiest and most interesting of the school year for Tommie sports teams.
Take 250 Tommie athletes and coaches representing 10 teams. Send them to 14 different events at nine different venues. Travel to seven different cities in five different states and cross two time zones.
The Tommies will arrive either by plane, bus, van, car or by foot to compete on grass, turf, water or wood.
School history will be made at one of the events (volleyball). Another (football) will elevate St. Thomas onto your TV screens on the ABC/ESPN score-report crawl.
In all, UST will have head-to-head competition vs. teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois and Washington.
You know it's a full weekend when the Tommie-Johnnie rivalry (two men's hockey games) isn't atop our radar.
St. Thomas will compete in NCAA playoff showdowns against two different schools nicknamed Eagles. The weekend also includes competition against Johnnies, Blazers, Cobbers, Auggies, Scots, Lutes, Loggers, Tigers and Regals.
The fun starts in the Friday noon hour. With the help of JoAnn Andregg (and her credit card) plus a good travel agent, equipment manager, athletic trainer, computer operator, a meteorologist, and a lot of junk food, we may be able to pull it off smoothly.
Cool and the Gang
While one team (football) will be playing in the coldest temperatures of the season, other Toms will compete in their speedos. Go figure. While football fans will need parkas, mittens and long underwear, swim parents will be glad they left the sweaters at home.
Two teams (men's and women's swimming) will compete in two of the newest facilities in Division III. Runners Ben Sathre (shown at right), Taylor Berg and Allie Metzler (men's and women's cross country) will navigate an Iowa golf course.
On their travels, some Tommies will see the Arch, the Pacific Ocean, Mount Ranier, both narrow and wide points of the Mississippi River, and some scenic homes along Summit Avenue. (Hopefully, they'll miss those new TSA screening booths at the airport.)
There are two on-campus events. Friday's 6 p.m. home swimming meet against Augsburg and Concordia in the Anderson Pool has free admission. Saturday's noon NCAA playoff football game at O'Shaughnessy Stadium features 10-0 UST and 8-2 Benedictine (Ill.) and has an $8 cost ($4 for students), with free parking in the Anderson ramp 300 yards to the south at Grand and Cretin.
There are three other nearby events. Friday's 7 p.m. women's hockey game against St. Ben's and Saturday's 7 p.m. men's hockey game against St. John's will be played on home ice in Mendota Heights. Saturday's swimming and diving meet takes place at Macalester.
Several of the events will have live video webcasts (look for details on www.Tommiesports.com)
Peak Performance
Sunday was a sweet day for Coach Thanh Pham and Tommie volleyball. Before last weekend, Pham had accomplished plenty in his first eight seasons -- six MIAC titles; six NCAA playoff berths; 212 wins (14 postseason).
Last weekend's three 3-0 victories in the regional tournament, capped by wins over nationally-ranked UW-Eau Claire and St. Olaf, let St. Thomas volleyball enter a new stratosphere.
UST had six chances in the previous 20 years to advance to the national finals but lost all six matches, including that oh-so-close five-set, 15-13 home loss to UW-Whitewater in 2007.
Then came Nov. 13, 2010. Tommie volleyball hit a Pham slam and pulled off the signature triumph thus far in the program's 34-year history. That peak purple performance generated a 25-20, 27-25, 25-14 victory over an excellent St. Olaf team that had had won 24 of its previous 25 matches.
Now, St. Thomas is preparing for the national finals for 
the first time. It faces juggernaut Juniata (Pa.) Friday at 12:30 p.m., and hoping to pull off another signature victory.
PHOTO: Thanh Pham
This was especially gratifying for Dave Orren. He was on the bench as head or assistant coach for all six previous regional final matches where the underdogs Toms couldn't pull off the upset.
It's easy to root for St. Thomas' seven seniors -- Emily Foster, Alesha Nelson, Jill Osborne, Tori Jones, Molly Staton, Lindsay Simmons and Katie Bonine. All but 2009 transfer Bonine are the survivors of a 14-player newcomer class in 2007. There's nothing sweeter than making your last college season your best one.
Before last Sunday in their four-year run, the Tommie seniors were 4-3 vs. St. Olaf and 48-1 against all other MIAC opponents.
In three consecutive losses to St. Olaf over the previous 53 weeks, the Tommies hit a combined .146 and averaged seven hitting errors per set. Sunday they hit .325 and averaged four errors a set. Jones and Bonine combined for 50 kills and 36 hitting errors over 12 sets in those three losses. Sunday that duo collectively had 21 kills and only three errors.
There were many smiles and celebrations last Sunday evening when the victory was secured. As the players hugged and lined up for awards, the 5-foot-8 Pham strolled across the floor and received a bear hug from his 6-foot-5 boss, Steve Fritz.
It appeared that Fritz actually lifted Pham off the ground, leading to these four potential Gene Blog headlines:
"3-2-1 liftoff for Tommie volleyball, coach"
"Pham, Tommies stand taller on sweet Sunday"
"Spririts, coach lifted after peak performance"
"Athletic Director Fritz gives his coach a raise"
