Sports Briefs

Fall sports teams get off to great start
The women’s soccer team opened the season on fire, winning its first eight games. ODU opponents managed to score only two goals combined.

The highly regarded men’s soccer team got off to a 7-1 start, and the Monarchs were ranked 13th nationally in mid-September.

In field hockey, the always impressive Lady Monarchs raced off to a 9-1 record and a No. 3 national ranking.

Freshman featured in Sports Illustrated
Field hockey freshman midfielder Katie Ueberroth (Stevens, Pa.) was featured in Sports Illustrated’s Sept. 18 “Faces in the Crowd” for being named CAA Rookie of the Week.

She came off the bench to help ODU to a 3-1 victory over Penn State and a 6-1 win over Ohio. Ueberroth, who scored the final goal against the Nittany Lions, had an assist on the game-winning shot against Ohio and tallied the final goal.

Wrestling class ranked 8th
Coach Steve Martin’s 2006 recruiting class was ranked eighth in the country by W.I.N. Magazine, marking the second consecutive year the publication has rated ODU’s incoming freshman wrestlers as a Top-10 class.

Four of the wrestlers were ranked by W.I.N., and ODU was one of 11 schools in the magazine’s Top 25 to have as many newcomers ranked.

Eure plays all positions in final game for Huntsville
Former Monarch Jeff Eure played all nine positions and got the save as well during the Huntsville Stars’ 1-0 win over Birmingham Sept. 4 in a contest of AA baseball teams.

Eure, who played first and third base for the Stars this season, went 1-for-4 in the contest. As a pitcher, he retired the final two batters on strikes.

Huntsville, part of the Milwaukee organization, finished the regular season 43-26.

Eure led ODU in 2001 with 40 RBIs and seven home runs.

Female grad tapped as boys football assistant
Marquenta Taylor ’96 (M.S.Ed. ’02) made Anne Arundel County, Md., history this fall by becoming the first woman to coach high school football.

A guidance counselor at Meade Senior High, Taylor was pressed into service as coach of the junior varsity defensive line after the unanticipated vacancy occurred.

Although Taylor played basketball and swam in high school, she said she had no football experience, other than having played on a powder puff team.

Varsity coach Andrew Smith, quoted in The Capital newspaper story about Taylor, said, “As a guidance counselor, she has a special connection with the players on and off the field, so it’s a win-win situation.”

ODU wins All-Sports title
Old Dominion won 67 percent of its intercollegiate athletic contests in 2005-06 to capture the 28th annual Virginia Sports Information Directors Association Division I All-Sport championship.

The University of Virginia was second overall at .658.