LACROSSE FINISHES OFFSEASON UNDEFEATED

The CSU men’s lacrosse team completed its fall season with a 4-0

record at the Best of the West Lacrosse Tournament in Las Vegas.

UNLV and the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference held and scheduled

the seventh annual weekend tournament.

“We looked really strong throughout,” said head coach Flip

Naumburg. “We showed a lot of firepower and maturity in every

single game.”

CSU faced rival Brigham Young, Texas, California-Berkeley and

Chapman over the weekend. The Rams defeated Brigham Young 17-11 in

a high-scoring affair.

On Saturday CSU played the Texas Longhorns for the first and

possibly the last time ever as the Rams cruised to a lopsided 16-1

victory.

The second game of the day was against a familiar

California-Berkeley Bears team. The last time these two powerhouses

met was in the semifinals of the 2000 National Tournament. This

season the Bears boast new head coach Stephen Dini, former Chicago

State head coach, but he had little effect on the team as CSU

hammered the Bears, 12-0.

In what could be considered the toughest game of the offseason,

the Rams faced the Chapman Panthers in the final match of the

tournament. Chapman ranked No. 14 at last season’s end and

outplayed the Rams in the first half of the game. Fortunately

junior Nick Stanitz-Harper scored the game-winner with a few

minutes left and the defense held strong in a 7-6 victory.

“Our early-season conditioning is really important for us to

have a successful spring season,” Naumburg said. “We came home from

Las Vegas not too full of ourselves after playing a tough game

against Chapman.”

The Rams’ first two games in the official spring season take

place in Tempe, Ariz., against the Arizona Laxcats and Arizona

State Sun Devils on Feb. 6 and 7.

Women’s club volleyball takes championship

CSU’s women’s volleyball team traveled more than 10 hours to

compete in the Iowa State club volleyball tournament in Ames, Iowa.

They made sure the trip was worth it. Playing six games on Saturday

in the daylong tournament the club squad defeated Iowa State-B

team, Wisconsin-B team, Minnesota, Western Illinois and Iowa State

before taking down Wisconsin 25-14 and 25-23 in the championship

match.

“A lot of us haven’t played together before,” said Ursula de

Pourbaix of the recently formed team. “We brought our talent

together as a team and played together right off the bat in our

first tournament. It looks like this is going to be a successful

season.”

The team’s next tournament against collegiate-level competition

is Nov. 29 in Tempe.