Women's Volleyball, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer, Cross Country

http://www.ramblermania.net/extras/stor ... review.htm

Well done! I hope to catch some additional games this year besides just men's basketball. Not to mention going to the men's volleyball Final Four.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

An excellent piece! Thank you for taking the time to research and write it. It is obvious that the MVC will provide stiffer competition
for the Ramblers in all sports. It will be interesting to follow all of the Loyola teams in the upcoming school year. Will they be able to rise to the challenge?

the MVC men's cross country championship meet has been just a dual meet between Indiana State and Southern Illinois for about the past 10 years or so. Everyone else has been an "also-ran" (pun intended)

Naturally a nice job, 63 !! Of course you are REALLY getting ready to present to our new colleagues, the HOOPS preview--That is where they will see a terrific report !!

Excellent report, 63!

But being the suspicious person that I am, I can't help thinking that you are working some sort of angle with your Missouri Valley valentines and switch from political opinion pieces to straight-up sports reporting.

Is there a position in Illinois State's Sports Information Department with your name on it?

(Absolutely no offense intended. Feel free to delete this post if you want; I won't mind. It's just that there probably hasn't been as big a conversion as yours since St. Paul saw the light on his way to Damascus.)

Swella, I don't think you were active on the old Ramblermania (circa 1999-2004, especially 2001-2003) when I did a lot of this type of stuff. In fact, in the 2001-02 season I attended 25 out of 31 men's basketball games and wrote a game story on every one. I think by the time you became a regular reader, I had handed the thing over to Big Joe and mostly just checked in when feeling especially cynical. Here are a few columns from the old site:

Fall Sports Preview, August 29, 2001
http://web.archive.org/web/200206081902 ... ory829.htm

Loyola beats UWM in Milwaukee to take sole possession of first place in the HL, Januaary 10, 2002
http://web.archive.org/web/200204092228 ... ory110.htm

Last regular season men's basketball game, February 24, 2002
http://web.archive.org/web/200204080948 ... ory224.htm

The Loyola Women's Soccer team was picked to finish last (7th) in the MVC preseason poll, and was the only team to not place a member on the pre-season all-conference team. In my fall sports preview, I picked the Ramblers perhaps a tad optimistically to finish second, squeezing in between Illinois State and Drake. Upon further reflection, I think third is more likely, but definitely not last.

Last year Loyola lost to MVC champion Illinois State 1-0 and beat Indiana State 1-0, both on the road. The Ramblers made the HL title game on the strength of some very good defense and goalkeeping. Additionally, Creighton was winless in the conference regular season last year, handing a victory to each and every other MVC team, before scratching out a tie and another loss in the conference tournament. I don't think Loyola will be as much of a pushover as Creighton was last year-- and in fact Loyola won more games against the MVC as a member of the Horizon than Creighton did as a member of the MVC.

I hope the women's soccer team can use the preseason poll as some bulletin board material to get up for the MVC season.

http://www.mvc-sports.com/wsoccer/news/ ... cer-crown/

I suspect some similar preseason polls will soon be released for men's soccer and women's volleyball. Hope we prove a lot of naysayers wrong.

I do not know if you noticed that Northern Iowa who is one spot ahead of us, received a vote for 1st place.

They're 0-2 on the season so far.