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16 Independent & Free Press, Wednesday, November 1, 2006 SPORTS & LEISURE Lander's Edwards earns NCAA volleyball honour EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer Individual awards are nice, says Georgetown native J.J. Edwards, but she'd prefer that her South Carolinabased Lander University women's varsity volleyball Bearcats were rewarded a little more in the win column for their court efforts. The 19-year-old Edwards was recently named volleyball Specialist of the Week in the NCAA Division II Peach Belt Conference, an honour rarely handed out to freshmen playing the setter or libero positions. She leads the Bearcats in assists and has complemented that with strong serving and defensive skills that earned her the starter's job over a sophomore at Lander, which is located about an hour outside Columbia, S.C. The 5-foot-8 Edwards ranks third in the Peach Belt Conference in assists and fifth in service aces. However, despite a 19-13 overall match record this year, the Bearcats have an inter-conference record of J.J. just 1-9 and will have an EDWARDS unfavourable seeding for this weekend's league championship tournament in South Carolina. In a recent contest against Francis Marion, Lander reeled off the first eight points in game one behind Edwards' serving, but went on to lose by scores of 30-25, 30-19. "Within our conference, we were so close in so many matches and we seem to have the ability to win, but for whatever reason things start to fall apart at the worst possible time," said the Georgetown District High School grad and 2005 Rebel athlete of the year. "Our record doesn't look good, but we know we're right up there with the other teams in our conference and we can beat them all." With just one senior player on their roster, the Bearcats appear to be an emerging team in the Peach Belt and that was part of Edwards' decision-making process during recruitment. Also sought by U.S. schools for her softball talents, she considered campus size, depth of the roster and the availability of her desired scholastic program, exercise science. "They accidentally overloaded my timetable with courses because someone didn't realize that this was the semester I had volleyball so I'm going to have to take one course over again next semester," she added. "It's been crazy, but I like it. You basically get up in the morning, go to class, study, go to a three-hour practice, eat, and do more homework and then sleep again. Then on weekends, we have games, so there's not a lot of free time." (Eamonn Maher can be reached at emaher@independentfreepress.com) Oakville Blades Trevor Eckenswiller (6) and Nick McParland (10) teamed up to dispossess Georgetown Raider forward Rob Sgarbossa of the puck during an OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League contest on Saturday night at the Alcott Arena. The Blades won the lion's share of battles for loose pucks and dominated the Raiders from the opening puck drop, cruising to a 7-2 victory. Photo by Yves Desjardins Tie Cougars, bow to Blades Jr. A Raiders in a free-fall EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer A week's break from the OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League's regular season schedule likely couldn't have come at a better time for the struggling Georgetown Raiders as their winless streak extended to four games over the weekend. After beginning the season with an 8-1-0-0 mark, the Raiders have just two wins in their past 10 outings and have fallen from second to fifth in the OPJAHL's West Conference standings. Defending division champion Oakville handed the Raiders their first regulation time loss at home of the year on Saturday night, as the Blades dominated from the opening minutes of the contest, outshooting the hosts 47-25 in a 7-2 victory. Even with three new faces in the lineup to try to shake the Raiders out of their slide, the third-place Blades scored four power-play goals on starter Keaton Hartigan and grabbed a 4-1 first-period lead. Former Georgetown sniper Joey Piccone cemented the result with a pair of goals in the middle stanza. Matt Carter and Jeremy Whelan replied for Georgetown. Shifty 16-year-old forward George Lovatsis made his return to the Raiders after getting little playing time with the OHL's Barrie Colts and two new defencemen started against Oakville after being picked up from Ajax. Twenty-year-old Peter Drikos, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound blueliner, made his debut, as did 18-year-old Keegan McFarlane, who had two goals and two assists in 14 starts with the Attack. On Friday night in Burlington, the Raiders once again squandered a lead in a road game against the secondplace Cougars, settling for a 4-4 draw. After building a 3-0 cushion midway through the game, the visitors had to scramble for the equalizer with less than two minutes to go in the third period as Kyle Schwende netted his second of the night on a power play. Lovatsis and Carter added single markers for 10-5-2-2 Georgetown. Ahead for the Raiders this week is just one game, a date with the sixthplace Streetsville Derbys Saturday at the Alcott Arena beginning at 8 p.m. (Eamonn Maher can be reached at emaher@independentfreepress.com) Senior Rebels, Jaguars will host football playoff contests today Both Georgetown high schools will host quarter-final playoff games in Halton Division II senior action this afternoon (Wednesday). Christ the King's Jaguars crushed Lester B. Pearson 45-12 on Thursday to clinch second place in the division with a 5-1 record behind the undefeated Georgetown Rebels. The Rebels will host 1-5 Aldershot, while the Jags take on 2-4 Abbey Park. Today's games are set for 2 p.m. starts. On Monday, the HSSAA junior quarter-finals were held and the season came to an end for Georgetown and Christ the King. Lester B. Pearson downed the Rebels 40-6, while the junior Jaguars lost 38-6 to Abbey Park. GEORGETOWN JUNIOR "A" GEORGETOWN JR. A GEORGETOWN TOYOTA RAIDERS STREETSVILLE DERBYS Saturday, November 4, 2006 8:00 pm Mold-Masters SportsPlex (Alcott Arena) Call Star Phone! 416-350-3000 Category 2093 for up to the minute League Game Results and Special League Announcements vs GAME OF THE WEEK