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[SEPT. 19, 2001]  The Taylorville Tornadoes blew into town last night intent on doing some serious damage to the Lady Railers’ volleyball record. The storm took only 45 minutes to pass and never touched ground. No damage was reported.

In its CS8 Conference home opener, the Lady Railers took control from the start and never let up. Behind the exceptional serving of Kelli Gleason and Missy Aper and with focused team play by everyone, the Lady Railers crushed the Tornadoes 15-1, 15-4. The Railers’ record now stands at an incredible 16-3-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play. Taylorville’s record falls to 5-7.

The only time the Railers didn’t score in Game 1 was when they hit the ball too long. Taylorville was able to score only once on the Railers, when the scoreboard showed 3-1. After that, the Railers notched 12 successive unanswered points to win the game.

From the service line it was truly a "senior moment." First, there was no stopping senior Kelli Gleason. Kelli accounted for an incredible 12 service points, including two aces and a nine-point run to end the game. The remaining three Railer scores came on serves by seniors Darcy White and Christina Xamis. The offensive and defensive net play of Cook, McFadden times two, White and Conrady made sure that when the ball hit the floor it was on the Taylorville side.

In Game 2 the Railers used their entire team to once again completely shut down the Tornadoes. Coach Howe rotated through the Railer bench throughout the game. The always energetic and smiling Missy Aper ran off five service points for the Lady Railers, and Kelli Gleason added three more to her night’s total. Kills, dinks and blocks across the entire Railer front line quickly brought home the match victory. Tina Cook had some beautiful touch shots in addition to her usual lethal left-hand kills. Christina Xamis displayed excellent passing and defensive skills throughout the game and made the final kill of the game to wrap up the victory. Taylorville also had no solution for the hitting and blocking of Darcy White, Michelle McFadden, Kari McFadden and Samantha Conrady.

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Taylorville managed a total of only four points, and that was only after the game and the match were no longer in question.

The Lady Railers seemed more focused and ready to finish last night than I had seen before. They didn’t suffer any midgame letdown. When they had Taylorville backed against the wall, they finished the matter. The Tornadoes were little more than a passing breeze last night. Tornado watch canceled.

The junior varsity continued to play well, as they also defeated Taylorville in a two-game match.

The Lady Railers travel to Rantoul on Thursday and return home for what is sure to be a hotly contested match against Olympia next Monday, Sept. 24. After last year’s match against Olympia, (those who were there haven’t forgotten) I challenge anyone with even an ounce of school spirit to be at Monday’s match. You won’t want to miss it! GO, RAILERS!!

[Rick Hobler]

[SEPT. 19, 2001]  Lincoln Christian College defeated Lincoln College in three games at the Lincoln College gym Tuesday night. LCC won by scores of 30-28, 30-13, 30-26.

The loss drops the Lynx record to 5-6 on the season.  Lincoln College is at home again Wednesday against Lewis & Clark.

Beth Guy had another outstanding night for the Lady Lynx with 15 points and 25 set assists.  Erica Miller had four kills and nine digs, while Molly Owens had eight kills and two blocks.  Janine Buettner contributed five kills, three digs and three blocks.

[Bill Martinie,
Lincoln College sports information director]

[SEPT. 18, 2001]  What do you do when your record is 14-3-1 and the other team’s record is 5-6? Apparently you play just well enough to win. That’s what the Lady Railers did last night as they defeated the short-handed and undersized Mount Zion Braves 15-10, 15-5. The team described it as "terrible." I describe it as a win.

Mount Zion came into the game missing three of its starters and should have been no match for the taller and stronger-hitting Lady Railers. Someone forgot to tell the Lady Braves that fact in Game 1. The Railers played the first game from behind until successive and decisive kills by Kari and Michelle McFadden and a dink by Kelli Gleason turned the tide.

As the game began, the Railers were actually too strong as they hit several balls long on kill attempts from the net. The Braves weren’t beating the Railers, they were beating themselves. After the Railers led 1-0, they didn’t regain the lead again until it was 9-8.

With the Railers down 6-3, Darcy White’s excellent serving brought the Railers back within striking distance. Then the emotional turning point of Game 1 and the match took place, with the Railers down 6-8 and Mount Zion’s Jennica Burne serving. Burne had just served two successive points, including an ace, to put her team back in the lead.

On Burne’s next serve though, Kari McFadden had something to say. She said it in the form of a passionate, hard kill that found the Lady Braves running for cover to the back of the court: Side out to Lincoln. Kari then rotated to the service line while her "little" sister took care of the net. Michelle McFadden delivered another hard kill to bring the Railers within one. With Kari serving again, senior setter Kelli Gleason called her own number and dinked the ball into the Braves’ open court, and the Railers were even. They never looked back after that.

Great front-line blocking by various Railer duos, point-winning kills by Tina Cook, Samantha Conrady and Darcy White, and the serving of Kelli Gleason and Samantha Conrady finished out Game 1. The Railers had struggled, almost beat themselves, but had survived to win.

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Game 2 was a different matter. No more "bravery" from Mount Zion, as Lincoln took the lead early, crushed Mount Zion’s spirit and dominated to the end. Except for a few minutes of mental letdown by the Lady Railers, it was no contest. The Railers jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead on solid team play. Solid defensive play by Darcy White, both on the back line and at the net, and front-line team blocking, kept Mount Zion from scoring for most of the game. When Mount Zion did score, it was usually as a result of Railer mistakes. The mental lapse came with Lincoln ahead 12-1. The Railers allowed four Mount Zion scores before putting the match away 15-5.

In the post-game huddle, the team told coach Howe that they played "terrible." Enough said. While I wouldn’t go that far, they certainly played below their potential and will need to sharpen their focus as they begin conference play tonight. The Lady Railers will need to avoid the "we’re way ahead" mental lapses, stay focused and put opponents away when they have the opportunity to do so.

Lincoln improves its record to 15-3-1 with the win. Mount Zion falls to 5-7 but looks to improve as their injury list shortens.

The Lady Railers begin CS8 Conference play at home tonight against Taylorville. A full slate of action is on hand, beginning at 5 p.m., as the freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams all take the court against the Lady Tornadoes.

In junior varsity action last night, the Lady Railers breezed to victory in their first game, 15-6, but had to come from behind to take the match game by the score of 15-13.

GO, RAILERS!

[Rick Hobler]

[SEPT. 18, 2001]  Lincoln College participated in golf tournaments at Knox College and Monmouth this past weekend. The Lady Lynx finished seventh at the Monmouth tourney with a team total of 420. Illinois Wesleyan won the meet with a 328 total.

Carrie Hoffert and Michell Rutherford each had rounds of 102, while Dori Booth came in with 107 and Gina Billy finished at 109.

Lincoln College had only three golfers for the Knox tourney; therefore, they did not qualify for team totals. The Lady Lynx were led by Gina Billy with a 123 total.  Booth had a round of 126 and Rutherford shot a 139.

[Bill Martinie,
Lincoln College sports information director]

[SEPT. 18, 2001]  After taking a 2-0 lead into intermission, the Lincoln College Lynx men’s soccer team exploded for six goals in the second half to defeat Illinois Central College in Peoria Monday afternoon. The contest was a makeup from a previous date.   

Lincoln College raised its season record to 3-2 and will play host to Parkland College at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Isaac Honegger scored the first Lynx goal on an assist from Steve Gorton, and then Jesus Cruz scored the first of three straight goals with an assist from Ryan Foy.

Cruz opened the second half with two goals in the first five minutes, the first coming on an assist from Mike Fox and the second assisted by Honegger.  Gorton followed with a goal off an assist from Fox, to stretch the LC lead to 5-0.

Nick Buysse scored the sixth goal for the Lynx and Cliff Scattergood got an assist.   Scattergood then followed with an unassisted goal, and Shefiu Ogunlana finished off the scoring with a corner kick. Justin Cronin was in goal for the Lynx and was credited with one save.

"We played a very steady game," said coach Mark Howard.  "In the second half of the SCI game (last week), we made some changes and told the kids to just go out and play.  They responded well in the second half of the SCI game, and it continued over into the game at ICC today."

[Bill Martinie,
Lincoln College sports information director]

[SEPT. 17, 2001]  The girls of the Lincoln Lady Railer swim team participated in the Woodruff Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 15. The Railers finished eight out of 14 teams, with 84 points. Dunlap won the event.

Lincoln had two top-six finishes — the 150-yard, three-person breast relay and the 200 free relay. Members of the breast relay were Ally Ray, Holly Shehorn and Emily Wilkinson. Their time was 2:00.17. The 200 free relay members, Samantha Davison, Dea Welsh, Stephanie Couch and Emily Wilkinson, completed their race in 1:55.58.

The Lady Railers travel to Petersburg on Tuesday to compete against Petersburg-Porta and Quincy in a triangular meet.

[Ruth and George Sloot, coaches]

[Click here for Lincoln placings at Woodruff Invitational]

[SEPT. 17, 2001]  The LCC Angels claimed victory at Saturday afternoon’s away game with Mount Mary in Milwaukee, Wis., winning 8-1.

Brittany Robbins and Lindsey Jones each brought in three goals, supported by one goal each from Rebecca Davis and Emily Best.

[SEPT. 17, 2001]  Lincoln College defeated Rend Lake 30-25, 30-25 in volleyball action at Lincoln Saturday, after losing a tough match to Illinois Valley College earlier in the day.   IVC beat the Lady Lynx 27-30, 34-32, 15-10.

Lincoln will take a 5-5 record into its next match, which is Tuesday against Lincoln Christian College.

Leading the Lady Lynx in the tournament were Amy Cox of Bloomington with 10 kills, three blocks and nine points. Janine Buettner contributed 10 kills and four blocks, while Erica Miller had 11 kills, eight digs and 16 points. Sarah McLaughlin, a Lincoln High School graduate, contributed four digs and four points, while Marie Burash added 11 points, one ace and four kills.

"We played a very solid match," said coach Mark Tippett. "We let the match against IVC slip away from us, but I was pleased with the way we rebounded against Rend Lake.   Both of these teams were very good, and we played well with the exception of a couple of defensive lapses. We came out and played with a lot of emotion against Rend Lake, who was a very athletic team.

"We had the lead against IVC in the second game; however, we let it slip away.  Our passing became a little off and that cost us. We had two chances at game point; however, we didn’t get the job done. The IVC match was really a game of runs, as both teams went on scoring stretches."

[Bill Martinie,
Lincoln College sports information director]

[SEPT. 14, 2001]  In a three-way meet at home on Thursday, Lincoln Community High School swimmers scored 80 points. Dunlap won with 150, and Limestone had 55. Placings for Lincoln swimmers are listed below. 

200-yard medley relay — 2. Stephanie Couch, Emily Wilkinson, Dea Welsh, Samantha Davison, 2.10.95;  5. Holly Shehorn, Ally Ray, Jamie Fuiten, Brittany Shaw, 2.26.42.

200 free — 3. Jessica Carey, 2.41.23;  5. Jessica Alexander, 2.47.42.

200 IM — 5. Stephanie Couch, 2.52.05;  6. Amy Holmes, 3.31.60.

50 free — 2. Samantha Davison, 28.16;  3. Emily Wilkinson, 28.21.

100 fly — 3. Jamie Fuiten, 1.25.67;  4. Elizabeth Brooks, 1.28.25.

100 free — 4. Dea Welsh, 1.03.56;  3. Stephanie Couch, 1.03.4.

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500 free — 3. Holly Shehorn, 7.02.14;  5. Jessica Carey, 7.22.42.

200 free relay — 2. Stephanie Couch, Samantha Davison, Dea Welsh, Emily Wilkinson, 1.54.55;  4. Danielle Edwards, Jamie Hamblin, Katie Simpson, Sonya Zeitler, 2.25.21.

100 back — 3. Brittany Shaw, 1.22.83;  5. Liza Volk, 1.31.52.

100 breast — 4. Emily Wilkinson, 1.24.44;  5. Holly Shehorn, 1.33.67.

400 free relay — 4. Elizabeth Brooks, Mikki Caskey, Jamie Fuiten, Ally Ray, 5.06.12;  5. Jessica Carey, Danielle Edwards, Amy Holmes, Elizabeth Meyer, 5.16.67.

[SEPT. 14, 2001]  Springfield College of Illinois, ranked 12th in the latest poll, handed Lincoln College a 4-1 setback in men’s soccer at Lincoln Thursday afternoon.   The loss drops the Lynx record to 2-2 for the season while SCI goes to 5-1.

Visiting SCI scored three times in the first half to take a 3-0 lead. The Lynx battled to a tie in the second half, each team scoring one goal. The lone Lincoln goal came off the foot of Nick Bussey on an assist by Steve Gorton.

LC goalie Justin Cronin had seven saves in the net. Chris Schilling, SCI goalie, was credited with five saves. Both Lincoln and Springfield had 14 shots on goal.

Mike Ngonyani scored three of the SCI goals in the contest, two coming in the first half.   The fourth goal was scored by Murphy.  Collecting assists for SCI were Justin Pierce, Carlos Castro, Vince Murphy and Kystar.

"They are a very good team," said Lynx coach Mark Howard.  "We will have to regroup and see where we go from here."

[Bill Martinie, Lincoln College sports information director]

[SEPT. 14, 2001]  Lincoln College reached the .500 mark by downing Carl Sandburg College at Galesburg Thursday night.  LC stands at 4-4 and will host Illinois Valley and Rend Lake in a tri-match Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.

Lincoln College got outstanding performances from Amy Cox, Erica Miller and Beth Guy as they downed Carl Sandburg 30-28, 30-12 and 31-29.

Cox had 10 kills, three blocks, eight points and three aces for the Lady Lynx.   Guy contributed 15 points, four aces and 27 set assists, while Miller had nine kills, nine points and three aces.

"It is great to get to the .500 mark. We played very consistent volleyball and were fundamentally sound all night. Carl Sandburg played extremely well in the first and the third matches, but we were able to overcome that with good play of our own."

[Bill Martinie, Lincoln College sports information director]

[SEPT. 13, 2001]  Lincoln College fell behind 4-0 in the first half and, although scoring two goals in the second half, was unable to catch visiting Springfield College of Illinois in a women’s soccer game at Lincoln Tuesday afternoon. SCI won the contest by an 8-2 margin.

Scoring goals for Lincoln College were Ayana Evans in the 64th minute and Lyndsey Pickering in the 71st minute.

"Our lack of numbers hurt us again today," coach Todd Spellman stated. "Until we get some of our injured players back, it is going to be tough for us."

The loss drops the Lady Lynx to 0-3 on the season.

[Bill Martinie, Lincoln College sports information director]

[SEPT. 13, 2001]  In women’s soccer, LCC lost to Culver-Stockton 2-0. LCC’s season record is now 1-5.

[SEPT. 4, 2001]  I’ve heard it said that it takes three years to turn a losing athletic team into a winner. Others suggest that it takes five years for such a transformation. Personally, I have no idea how long it takes. I do know that it will take time. I take my hat off to the new coach of the Lincoln Railer football team, John Oaks. He has stepped up to this challenge. We all know what football has been like around here the last few years. It will do no good to bring up the past again. I can tell you that the current group of Railers seems to be throwing support behind coach Oaks and his staff. The LDN hopes that the community will as well. During the middle of last week the LDN was able to attend their workout and talk with the coach on the field immediately after practice.

[Click here for Part 1]

Q. Ball control sounds like it will be the key for this week and for the rest of the season. Will you try to keep the ball between the tackles, will you spread the offense like you said earlier, or will you just mix it up?

A. It depends on how soon we get Sam Moore back. Our offense has taken a hit, in that we don’t have a tailback with near the capabilities of Sam. We’ll be working that position by committee. Players who could see time in that slot are T.J. Swinford, a junior; Scott Maestas, a senior; and maybe Jason Melton, a sophomore, could rotate in there some. We want to try to move the ball without Sam, so we’ll rely on Jim Babbs who’s a good fullback with some quickness. He’s not real big, but he’s a tough hitter up in the hole. You can’t just run in, you can’t just run out. We don’t have the speed to run outside, and we can’t just run up the middle because teams will gang up there. So, we hope to mix it up some.

A. It’s really hard to assess them from just that one game that we saw. We really don’t know how we’ll match up against them. They gave up 30-plus points to Chicago, but Dunbar’s a pretty doggone good team, too. We’ve got to worry about ourselves and make ourselves better. We’ve got to go into the game and make as few mistakes as we can and take it from there. We’ll prepare against their offense and we’ll prepare against their defense, but the key for us is to concentrate on ourselves — limiting our mistakes and improving our execution — and see where that takes us.

A. We’ve been real happy with the players’ attitudes and with their work ethic. I think we need to get a few things going in the right direction and gain a little extra intensity and enthusiasm on their part.

A. Two things: We have to get stronger; we must build the weight program to a higher level, and that’s going to take time. Also, we must build the numbers back up on every level of the program. We’ve got too many kids playing both ways right now. We need to have fewer kids sustaining injuries so that we can become a stronger program. Hopefully this freshman class that has 40 in it will continue to grow and get better. That should be a good start in the right direction for us.

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Q. Are you wanting to bring up some of those sophomores to plug some of the gaps you’ve got right now?

A. I don’t like doing that unless we have to. We had seven or eight sophs dress Friday night, and many of them were on special teams. We had one of them in the regular starting lineup. We are trying to plug some holes the best we can while trying to keep the units intact. We’d like the sophs to stay together and achieve some success. When you move ’em up, it’s kind of tough on those younger levels that you’ve depleted. We’d like to keep them intact the best we can. Right now we just don’t have the numbers to completely do that.

A. We go to Lanphier next week and then on to Jacksonville. Certainly Lanphier looked awfully tough in their opening win over Peoria Manual. And Jacksonville had a big upset victory over Jerseyville. I guess they play Taylorville, and we’ll find out how good everybody is after that one. There are no break times in the Central State 8. And this year seems to be more of an up year than most. There are least five or six teams that are playoff quality. It looks like we’re going to have our work cut out for us. We’ve just got to get our own act together to have a chance to be competitive.

I’ve always believed that anyplace can be competitive. It just takes time and patience. You have to get the right things in order — like I’ve been real happy with the booster club, and the community support here has been great so far. The kids have had a good attitude, and if we can keep that going through some of this drought time, then I think we can get things headed in the right direction.

Conclusion

Everyone here at the LDN and the community is behind you, coach Oaks, and behind every Railer team.

Good luck, Railers, throughout the season!

And if you’re on a local sports team and would like some coverage, call 732-7443 and let us know about it. You and your team may well be the next feature!

[Jeff Mayfield]

[SEPT. 1, 2001]  I’ve heard it said that it takes three years to turn a losing athletic team into a winner. Others suggest that it takes five years for such a transformation. Personally, I have no idea how long it takes. I do know that it will take time. I take my hat off to the new coach of the Lincoln Railer football team, John Oaks. He has stepped up to this challenge. We all know what football has been like around here the last few years. It will do no good to bring up the past again. I can tell you that the current group of Railers seems to be throwing support behind coach Oaks and his staff. The LDN hopes that the community will as well. During the middle of the week the LDN was able to attend their workout and talk with the coach on the field immediately after practice.

Q. Tell us about this week’s game.

A. We’ve got the Chatham Titans, which is their new nickname. But they’ll be the same old tough team, I’m afraid. They have quite a few starters back from last year’s team. They had a tough opening loss to Chicago Dunbar. In that game their quarterback was injured, but they’ve still got quite a few weapons. I’m certain they may have a little more of a ground game this week, but their backup quarterback came in and threw the ball pretty well for them, too. So, it will be a tough opening game here at home.

Q. How do you plan to go up against them?

A. We'll do the best we can. We’re beat up pretty badly ourselves right now. We lost two key starters with injuries and a third one due to disciplinary action. We’ve kinda got the shorts in trying to piece together a lineup out there. It’s going to be tough. I think our best chance is to try to put together some type of ball-control offense where hopefully we can keep the ball a little bit and keep it out of their hands.

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Q. Last week you guys got off to a pretty good start but then seemed to encounter some bad breaks and some injuries. How did you see it?

A. We moved the ball fairly decent, but we had some little things go against us. Some of those were our own doing. When things haven’t gone well for a team for a number of years, those things bring you down. We gave up a long run early in the game, and they ended up scoring a touchdown. We then had a nice drive going ourselves and got all the way down to the 14-yard line before three penalties in the next four plays killed the drive. You just can’t do those kinds of things. I think that took some of the wind out of our sails. We were still in it, only being down 7-0 at halftime. Then we had a couple of key injuries, one in the second quarter and one in the third, that I think hurt us, especially when we were trying to get the tide turned. Looking back on the game tapes, it wasn’t a terrible performance; we just need better consistency than what we showed. And now, obviously, with the injuries, we’ve got an even tougher job trying to replace those guys.

(To be continued)

[Jeff Mayfield]

[Click here for Part 2]

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