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It would have been close, with this in mind.  I wouldn't say clearly, as she was 11-8 in that 2020 season.  If we hold to her winning percentage that year over the usual ~25 singles matches each full year, which the prior recordholder also played each season, she gains 3.47 wins in that season.  Regardless, congrats to her, and understood on the NCAA guidance. 

The 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons were both impacted because it was Spring 2020 cut short and Fall 2020 where they did not play at all. She had at least 15, probably more like 20, singles matches that were cancelled due to COVID-19 during her career and she needed only three extra matches during her fifth year to break the record.

Congrats to Olivia!  However, I am curious how the athletic department views records in such a unique circumstance as the last few years.  The prior record holder played 4 seasons, as that was all that was allowed.  With an extra COVID year, Olivia was able to proceed to a 5th full year of play, and broke this record during that 5th year.  It seems a bit wrong to just claim an outright record in such a case, but maybe it is just me. https://www.valpoathletics.com/wtennis/news/2023-24/22262/czerwonka-breaks-program-record-for-career-singles-wins/

In this case, Olivia clearly would have broken the record even in a non-COVID situation because the spring 2020 season was cut off with over a month remaining in the season, they did not play at all in fall 2020 and she broke the record three matches into her fifth year. In terms of the question about how we view career records where student-athletes have the extra year due to COVID-19, they are viewed and recorded no differently than if they had occurred in four years. This is consistent with NCAA recordkeeping.

Unfortunately, Valpo drops a 10-9 game to Belmont to end their season as well as end all Valpo athletic event till the fall.  An improved baseball team hit with lots of key injuries and lack of pitching. Still, their entire starting lineup will be back if, and its a big if, Ryan Maka isn't drafted.  The kid is the real deal.

Maka will not be drafted this year - he's only a sophomore and you have to finish your junior year to be eligible.

Last year, Anthony got an individual at-large birth to the NCAA tournament (and played well at the tournament, though he missed making the finals). Let's hope he gets an at-large birth again.

He did receive an NCAA berth last year, but it was not an at-large berth, it was an automatic berth and he has it again this season as the winner of the MVC Tournament automatically advances to the NCAAs. What a great performance by Anthony this week. I cannot say enough good things about the job Dave Gring does running our men's golf program.

Great thread. It's been a pleasure to get to know Ben by spending the last four years around the team. Low maintenance, easy going, no ego, great student, great work ethic and loyal to Valpo on top of the everything you see on the court.

As an aside, if the statistics individual is on this forum, the below sequence makes no sense, and added around 70 yards to the rushing stats for the NMSU player.  You can't have a punt blocked on your own 29, and then NMSU somehow has the ball on their own 0, for a 77 yard rush to Valpo's 23.  This was likely an 11 yard gain from Valpo's 34 to their 23.

Thanks for pointing that out -- the home team does the stats... I keep an eye on them and try to correct any errors, but didn't catch this. I'll work on getting it fixed.

https://www.valpoathletics.com/football/news/2022-23/21444/season-preview-game-week-is-here-for-valpo-football/

PO, do you know if there's any plans to stream the press conference on Thursday?

https://bit.ly/ValpoAD

Ah yes, he clarified that it has to be agreed upon by both coaches prior to the game, but I've never seen anyone agree to such a thing.  In college, you can easily go on a run over a few innings, to catch-up from down 10. I remember during my redshirt year, in the conference tournament, we were down by 9-10, and ended up winning 20-13 over WIU.

For all of our conference games, the 10-run rule is in play as 10 after seven is a Missouri Valley Conference baseball rule. It's a good rule. For nonconference games, the 10-run rule is at the discretion of the coaches. Most of the time, it's not in play for nonconference, but sometimes the coaches will agree to it before the game, especially for a midweek game in the middle of the conference season where the coaches may want to save pitching for the weekend if the game gets out of hand.

Why is it a good rule?  Unless two teams are completely mismatched in talent, anyone can overcome a 10 run lead in 2 innings, using metal bats...

Sure, those comebacks could happen, but I think they are much more rare than you think. When they play out the final two innings of a 10-run game, both teams empty the bench and the trailing team won't use any of their top bullpen arms (especially if it's Game 1 of a series), so it usually goes from bad to worse. The rule saves everyone time and pitching. If you want to win, don't get down by 10 runs through seven.

Ah yes, he clarified that it has to be agreed upon by both coaches prior to the game, but I've never seen anyone agree to such a thing.  In college, you can easily go on a run over a few innings, to catch-up from down 10. I remember during my redshirt year, in the conference tournament, we were down by 9-10, and ended up winning 20-13 over WIU.

For all of our conference games, the 10-run rule is in play as 10 after seven is a Missouri Valley Conference baseball rule. It's a good rule. For nonconference games, the 10-run rule is at the discretion of the coaches. Most of the time, it's not in play for nonconference, but sometimes the coaches will agree to it before the game, especially for a midweek game in the middle of the conference season where the coaches may want to save pitching for the weekend if the game gets out of hand.

In what I guess could be seen as a positive sign, The Times sent a reporter to the post-game press conference and included a box score in the paper.

Here is a story that is on the front page of the sports section in today's print edition by Times sports editor Aaron Ferguson: https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/beacons-beat-taking-stock-in-valparaiso-halfway-through-mvc-play/article_2468f221-5ba9-5442-9b9f-e20042fd453d.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_nwi.

Actually, both stories on the front of the sports section this morning are Valpo related with the other being about Lloyd McClendon becoming the manager of the Toledo Mud Hens.

I'm posting the link here to hopefully drive some more traffic to the story as I know page views are an important piece of the coverage decisions for The Times. I met Aaron Ferguson for lunch last week and had a productive conversation with him about Valpo Basketball coverage. He's a hard worker and a very good reporter and editor, but the state of the newspaper industry overall is unfortunately much different than it was even a few years ago, causing some coverage limitations. Although coverage won't return to what it was when newspapers were booming, I'm hopeful that we'll see an increase in the coverage our fans desire and deserve as we move through the remainder of the season.

Since I know that the Valpo stats folks peruse this board, can someone let me know why the below would be the case?  You are telling me that someone who played exclusively at the D-2 level, would still be recognized as the all division record-holder, versus someone that took the leap from D-2 to D-1, but still within the confines of the NCAA?  So someone that plays exclusively in D-3, can eventually lay claim to such a record, but someone who played a combined D-2/D1 cannot?  That makes absolutely no sense. 

Kevion Taylor has made a 3 in 83 consecutive contests dating all the way back to Dec. 15, 2018 while playing for Winona State in a game at Concordia St. Paul. The highest of the NCAA records (Division I, Division II or Division III) for consecutive games with a made 3 is 93 and belongs to Daniel Park of D-II Rollins from Jan. 26, 1994 to Feb. 28, 1997. However, Taylor's streak would not be recognized in the NCAA record book should it reach that point since it is split between Division I and Division II.

I agree with you. However, I've talked to the NCAA stats contact about this and basically they don't track an overall record for this category, only the records separated by division. So I don't think they can verify with certainty that there hasn't been someone else to cross over divisions with a longer streak, though it's highly unlikely. Maybe I should just celebrate it as the record from our accounts even if the NCAA won't officially list it in their record book!

• a 5-minute weekly coaches show published twice in 12 weeks

I just wanted to jump in and provide a clarification as I know you've brought up the coaches shows on several occasions. We rotate weeks between men's basketball and women's basketball, so Mary joins me every other week. I've done three men's coaches show with Matt and the fourth will be recorded tomorrow and published this week, plus there have been just as many coaches shows featuring women's basketball. There were a few weeks where we did not a record with either coach during the nonconference season due to travel to Stanford and the Bahamas plus the weeks of Christmas and New Years, but now that we're into conference play and the schedule is more consistent, we're into a rhythm of coaches shows every week rotation between men's and women's.

Do we know who's calling the game? It would be great to hear Todd call a championship game.

Brian Jennings and Renee' Turpa, our primary volleyball broadcast crew. Agreed on Todd, and it's bene fun to have him on a few volleyball matches this season, but Brian has been our primary play-by-play voice for volleyball for several seasons and does and excellent job. With Dave Huseman's departure before this season, Brian now calls all of the home women's basketball on ESPN3/+ as well.

I complained sometime back that we the die hard fans have been kept in the dark about when Kobe will be eligible to play for no other reason than no one in the know cared enough to tell us. I specifically called out Brandon and Todd, who used to provide inside baseball info like that. Brandon replied that he has to sit out the first 9 games. In a later interview Matt said 9 or 10 games, he couldn't recall which, so let's call it 10. Really? you're a Stanford graduate and you can't recall when your #1 transfer can begin playing?

So, here we are coming down to the wire, and we still don't know. Why does this program always seem to be shrouded in secrecy or uncertainty about things that should be crystal clear? Why doesn't anyone associated with the program (directly or indirectly) feel a sense of responsibility to keep the fan base feeling hopeful in light of the horrendous start to the season? Lots of us try to keep everyone hopeful with glass half full thoughts, but why bother when people associated with the program and have the most to benefit from an engaged fan base could seemingly care less?

Sunday at Western Michigan is the ninth game that Kobe has to sit out. He will play on Tuesday vs. East West. It wasn't that Matt couldn't recall, but at the time he said nine or 10, it was still unclear. His answer was completely honest; he wasn't sure if it would be nine or 10 games. Our season had already started by the time we got official word that Kobe would become eligible after nine games. A student-athlete receiving additional eligibility after having signed with an agent is a new and complicated issue with the NCAA, so it took quite awhile for this to be finalized. There will be a national story on ESPN.com on Tuesday about Kobe's journey leading into his debut, and later this weekend I'm going to work on getting Kobe's upcoming Valpo debut on the national radar with other reporters as well. To say that everyone who has seen him practice is excited to see him play would be a major understatement.

As engaged and plugged in to Valpo basketball as we all are, it never ceases to amaze me what a weak connection there is between the team and the fans when it comes knowing important facts. Why  should there be confusion around when what may well be our star player is going to be eligible to play? They obviously know. Why don't we know? Did anyone know that Emil is wearing a boot? And if you did, do you know the back story or his condition currently or if he's improving or when he's projected to be able to play? Days? Weeks? Never? Anything?

Where's Todd? For years he was a regular poster who regularly filled in the blanks about things like this without violating any rules. Now the only time he says anything about Valpo basketball is 15 minutes before game time. Where's Brandon? He's another guy who no longer adds any value to the board. Do we even have a Post Tribune reporter anymore? What happened to our conduit???

This is a good point, wh. I attended a meeting with VU admissions administrators this week to discuss strategies for outreach to crucial communities, especially those already engaged with Valparaiso University in various ways, for recruiting prospective students. A priority is placed upon personal interaction whenever possible to enhance community relations. I would imagine this applies here as well. The members on this board are as engaged, supportive, and loyal to the university as any group. Though I wouldn't want the coaches or players involved on the board, I don't understand why a couple representatives of Athletics do not participate a bit more, at the very least to build goodwill with those here who are potential donors. As you note, MLB and Brandon have contributed in the past, as has Todd. However, in recent weeks with basketball season approaching, I have seen nothing here. A brief occasional update would probably suffice. Considering the unusual circumstances with Covid and the limitations on personal connections nowadays, I would think the possibility of communication with avid fans and donors on this board would be an even more valuable asset.   

Fair points all around. When you all and other members of our fan base ask for and desire more coverage and content, that is certainly a good thing and helps me in advocating for more coverage both internally (content produced by Valpo Athletics) and externally (media coverage). Last year, one bright spot of the unfortunate circumstances of our fall seasons being cancelled is that it gave me more time to produce stories on each member of the basketball program and focus on content building into basketball season during the fall. Obviously, this year we're back to normal so we have to keep up with coverage of our fall sports, and Aaron & I do a lot that happens behind the scenes that goes beyond maintaining our website. Another factor at play is the changing newspaper landscape. In years past, much of the coverage you desire would come from the local newspapers, but newspapers across the country are facing budget and resource challenges. They have decreased staffing and decreased space in the papers. That is not a reflection on the quality of the editors and reporters who work in the area -- we're lucky to have great people working at The Times and Post-Tribune. All of you know what an incredible job Paul does and he is a huge advocate for Valpo Athletics coverage. And his full-time job is teaching classes, he is a freelance reporter for the newspaper. We're also so lucky to have a strong ambassador for Valpo in Todd Ickow, who has added some women's soccer and volleyball play-by-play on ESPN3/+ to his workload that already includes home & road football in the fall.

As far as Kobe, I believe he will miss the first nine regular-season games as stated in Paul's story. His is a very unique eligibility situation and our compliance office did a great job in helping making sure he will be eligible to play despite having signed with an agent previously. His eligibility is not connected to the completion of the first semester or the start of the second semester. Matt and the other MVC head coaches will be on a media day zoom call next Wednesday, Oct. 20, and I'm sure Matt will be asked many of your other questions at that time.

I'll also say that I think the Valpo fan base, campus and community will love this team. It's a very mature, likeable group between the veteran transfers who have joined the program and the returning players. The players are very engaged across campus and within the athletic department. For example, Thomas Kithier works for me in media relations and also in our ticket office and has done an excellent job for us. He'll be one of our marquee players, and having one of our marquee players in men's basketball working on campus, getting to know support staff and supporting our other sports sets the tone for the whole team and athletic department. I think our fans will find this group relatable and likable.

I try to follow along on the message board, but feel free to email me at brandon.vickrey@valpo.edu with any suggestions or questions going forward.

I believe that if the university is in a lower division, it can play at a higher level for one sport. That is the case for Dallas Baptist in baseball and for numerous schools in hockey.

DBU was grandfathered in for baseball as are most of the other programs that have one D1 sport. After 2010-11, no additional schools can do this.

Does anyone know if the video provided by Stretch and IWU has a cost or is it free? Looks like you might have to register.

https://portal.stretchinternet.com/Indianawesleyan/

The Stretch Internet feed will be free, and I just got word from Indiana Wesleyan that they've added ESPN3 for this as well: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=83f002ad-40f6-481e-8e2a-a9a6421e51af.

It was enjoyable to be with the team in Carbondale this week -- for a team loaded with talented freshmen and sophomores to get the opportunity to play four games in the MVC Tournament is great experience that should pay off going forward. Joe Healy from Baseball America had several good points about the program on Twitter, and that praise coming from a reporter from a national outlet says a lot. The other encouraging thing is that even the underclassmen who did not have great numbers this season have high ceilings, and our program has a strong history of player development. Schmack is an excellent pitching coach and I think a few of the young arms could make big jumps. For example, Rhodehouse had a 9.68 ERA as a sophomore before becoming an all-conference type pitcher over the last few years.

I was excited to see them have some success at the tournament in part because this program is run the right way on & off the field. For example, the four fifth-year seniors all have high GPAs in the MBA program after finishing undergrad last year, and those were the guys setting the tone. Numerous times over the years when I've traveled with the team, including this week, I've heard restaurant staffs tell the coaches how good the team was to work with for such a large group. And that extends to on the field as well -- I hear from broadcasters & SIDs across the league that their coaches have a lot of respect for the way our team competes and how they play the game.

https://twitter.com/JoeHealyBA/status/1398484356134588418 https://twitter.com/JoeHealyBA/status/1398484359078977537 https://twitter.com/JoeHealyBA/status/1398484361415114754 https://twitter.com/JoeHealyBA/status/1398484365458513920

I believe that it was only supposed to be a single 9 inning game on Friday, but they moved one of the Saturday games up.  If you have a DH, both are typically 7 innings, so my guess is they are keeping that 2-7 and 2-9 inning game split for each conference weekend.

All of the MVC series are four games this year - three nine-inning games and one seven-inning game. The normal format will be one nine-inning game on Friday, a doubleheader on Saturday featuring a seven-inning game followed by a nine-inning game, and a nine-inning game on Sunday. There is also a run rule if a team is leading by 10+ through seven innings of a nine-inning game. There is no standard for doubleheaders across the NCAA - Valpo has played two 9s, two 7s, a 9 then a 7 and a 7 then a 9 this season.

Maybe Brandon can shed some light on this, Wondering where a few of the seniors have been Germain/Twigg/Stablein, are they doing internships and will be back in the fall? or have they been outperformed/recruited

Variety of factors in play, some of which you touched on -- injuries are also a factor for a few of the guys you mentioned. I don't have a clear/complete list of which seniors are expected to return for the additional year of eligibility in the fall as of yet, but I'm hoping to have that by season's end.

I didn't notice during the game, but were the stands mostly full?  I see an attendance of 6,566.

This was a mistake in the initial box score -- they meant to type 656 and typed 6566, so not quite a packed house haha. Regardless of how many were there to see it in person, this was a very good win; I'm thrilled for our team and coaching staff.

Brandon, is there any way that you can work the words 'Buck Futler,' into future editions?  You don't need to spell it out sequentially.  Maybe secret code, where each paragraph starts with the letters, coming together to form such an accurate assessment of our feelings towards Futler?   I do love that my sport is probably one of the only Valpo programs, which has a winning record against Futler.

Haha. It's a big Valpo/Butler weekend with football, baseball and tennis all playing the Bulldogs, plus men's golf is at the Butler Invitational early next week. Let's hope for all victories!

To the writer of this game summary, we beat Notre Dame when they were #1, during our 2001 season.  Probably the only D1 Valpo program to beat a #1?  Thank you .

http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/news/2020-21/20330/baseball-edged-by-nationally-ranked-notre-dame/

It hurts when we realize that our college years are no longer "in recent memory."

I know!  How dare this individual unilaterally decide that 2001 is no longer a recent memory.  Did I miss a vote??  This is some sort of ageism BS

As the writer in question (who was 6 years old in 2001, by the way), I'd say the line for recent memory if whether or not freshmen on our current team were born when it occurred

In this context, I was referring more to the Schmack head coaching era as recent memory. We beat ND in 2012 and had a two-run loss to a ranked ND team in 2013 as well. Your 2001 win was referenced in my pregame notes - it is not forgotten!

Friday's game says it is going to be on ESPN+, but is this going to be one of those situations it is blacked out in Indiana? I have not had cable for 4 years.  Waste of money.   I get ESPN+ during basketball season but more and more games are either on ESPN3 or on some obscure network, both of which you need some sort of $50-$100 per month subscription through Sling, Comcast, HuluTV etc. in order to use. Let me know if anybody has any info on this.

Yes, the ESPN+ broadcast is out of market only. The game is on NBC Sports Chicago+ in the Chicago TV market. Also on FOX Sports Indiana/Midwest/KC and blacked out in those areas.