HERE’S THE (POSTSEASON) SITUATION…

VCU’s last fall sports conference championship came in volleyball in 2005. The Rams have four chances to end that drought this fall.

VCU sports are enjoying a record-breaking fall, and for the first time since 2000, field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and volleyball will all play in the conference tournament in the same year. A couple of them have legitimate NCAA at-large shots as well. Here’s a quick look at the postseason prospects of VCU’s fall athletic programs.

FIELD HOCKEY (13-5, 4-3 A-10)
Remaining Schedule: Regular season complete
Atlantic 10 Tournament: The Rams are the No. 4 seed and will meet top-seeded Richmond in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 2 at 11 a.m. in Amherst, Mass. Click HERE for the A-10 Championship page.
Conference Championships: None
NCAA Appearances: None
Current NCAA RPI: 30
The Skinny: If this were hoops, VCU’s 30 RPI would be a sure ticket to the NCAA Tournament. However, the NCAA Field Hockey Championship is 16 teams, which means the Rams need to win the A-10 Tournament to dance. It won’t be an easy task. The Rams are 0-3 against the A-10 Tourney field (Richmond, Temple and UMASS) this season.

FALL SPORTS, SUMMED UP IN ONE PLAY

It was another banner weekend in VCU Athletics. Fall sports were unbeaten (again). Volleyball and field hockey swept a pair of matches, women’s soccer beat Richmond, men’s soccer picked up a draw and a win. Nice, tidy 6-0-1 weekend. Heck, for good measure, 17-year-old freshman Jake McNulty fired a 69 in the first round of the OBX/ODU Collegiate Sunday morning for the VCU Golf team.

VCU fall sports (volleyball, field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s soccer) have a combined record of 50-14-7. If the regular season ended today, all four would qualify for their respective conference tournaments for the first time since 2000.

Below is a great example of how we roll at VCU. Redshirt freshman Uzoamaka Ibeh is a great kid from Jersey. Works hard. Great teammate. But she hasn’t played much as a Ram. Saturday’s match with Duquesne marked the seventh appearance of her career. That didn’t stop her from diving headlong into the scorer’s table to make this save. I was practically on top of the play and it was much better in person. All hustle.

CARDEN LEADS VCU ON, OFF FIELD

Senior goalkeeper Kristin Carden has helped VCU record shutouts in four of the Rams’ last five matches.

By Mike Schuster

For Kristin Carden, soccer is much more than a game. It’s her entire identity. Hooting and hollering from the sidelines during the spring and summer practices earlier this year, onlookers might have assumed she was a coach, not the starting goalkeeper.

Carden was forced to sit out during much of summer conditioning this year after an ankle injury confined her to a walking boot. However, instead of hanging her head, she seized the opportunity to serve as a mentor and solidify her role as the team’s go-to leader on the bench. Her vocal presence is hard to overlook, and her work ethic has drawn high praise from the VCU coaching staff. Carden’s on-field contributions are critical, but they’re only one piece of the puzzle. She also sees it as her responsibility to encourage her teammates and keep them focused.

“I think one of her best qualities is just having a presence,” said Women’s Soccer Co-Head Coach Tiffany Sahaydak. “Not only her size and her unique ability, but she cares a lot about this program, and her teammates around her really know that and embrace her for that. The younger ones look at her, being a fifth-year senior, and with how competitive she is, and her strong vocal presence, as someone they can look to for advice and inspiration both on and off the field,”

Carden began her career at Virginia Tech, where she racked up the second-most wins in school history during the 2008 and 2009 campaigns. She transferred to VCU in 2011 and has been nothing short of spectacular during her tenure in Richmond.

THE WRAP: SEPT. 11 – EVERYBODY’S A WINNER AT O’SHEA’S!

R.I.P. O’Shea’s.

I had a flashback this weekend, as VCU teams were barreling through their schedules and piling up victories.

It was the summer of 2003, and I was in Las Vegas for my college roommate’s bachelor party. By 4 a.m. of the first night (because Vegas deserves a minimum of two nights, even if it kills you) we five remaining souls, including four of us who had flown cross-country that morning, found ourselves at the gritty Las Vegas Strip outpost O’Shea’s, an Irish-themed casino whose dingy carpets and worn felt underscored years of neglect.

In recent years, O’Shea’s adopted a debauched college frat-house approach, complete with loud music, cheap brew and scores of beer pong tables, a strategy that, while kitschy, earned the place a rowdy reputation and passionate following that regularly packed the house. [Note: O’Shea’s closed this summer to make way for a new, glitzy property.]

This was not that O’Shea’s.

THE WRAP: SEPT. 4

Senior Kelsey Scherrer became the leading goal-scorer in VCU history in Sunday’s win over Columbia.

FIELD HOCKEY (2-0; 1-0 last week)
Scherr Shot
THE story of the weekend was me, successfully cooking an unburned meal for my wife on her birthday. The SECOND biggest story of the weekend was senior Kelsey Scherrer scoring the 39^th goal of her career – a game-winner – in VCU’s 2-1 win over Columbia. Scherrer, who has two goals in as many games this season, passes Alycia Yoder, who racked up 38 goals from 1991-94.

“I foam at the mouth when I get in the circle with the ball,” Scherrer said, rather colorfully, of her nose for the goal.

Opening act
With Sunday’s victory, VCU is 2-0 to start the year for the first time since 2009.

See ya when I see ya
Following a pair of victories at Cary Street Field, the Rams will hit the road for the next six matches. Only the Grateful Dead have been on the road longer.

Ram-blings
“We are playing…this is a phenomenal year. We play as a team, as a unit on the field. We come off the field and we’re not as tired as we have been [in the past] because we’re playing as a unit. We’re connecting, we’re finishing. We’re doing the things we practice. We’re doing better every game. This has been the best game we’ve played so far and it can only get better.” – Kelsey Scherrer on VCU’s 2-0 start

THE WRAP: AUG. 27, 2012

VCU Volleyball captured its first tournament victory since 2009 at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge.

Wrapping up the weekend in VCU Athletics, but not with an actual rap, because that would be awkward.

VOLLEYBALL (3-0)
Last week: at Ball State Active Ankle Challenge (Muncie, Ind.)
8/24: Def. Illinois State 3-1
8/25: Def. Ball State 3-1
8/25: Def. Gardner-Webb 3-1

Love the trophy, but what in the world is an active ankle?
VCU swept three matches over the weekend to win the Active Ankle Challenge at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. It marks VCU first 3-0 start since opening at 5-0 in 2009, as well as the program’s first tournament victory since that season.

It matters because…
The Rams win over Ball State could prove important down the road, and not just in case they meet BSU-alum Dave Letterman in an airport. The Cardinals were 25-8 a year ago and 36 in the RPI. If Ball State is anywhere near as good this season, it would constitute one of the biggest, if not the biggest, road win for the Rams in decades.

Networking
VCU middle blockers Jasmine Waters and Martina Samadan, a freshman, led the way. Waters, a fifth-year senior, hit .522 and averaged 1.00 blocks on the way to Most Valuable Player honors. Samadan averaged a staggering 1.92 blocks per set and was named All-Tournament, as well as Atlantic 10 Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Sophomore libero Amanda Love also picked up an All-Tourney citation.

Put it in quotations
“Getting a win like this after we beat Illinois State yesterday was great. The thing is, when the selection committee is trying to decide on an at-large, you need these kind of big wins. To get one opening weekend is fantastic.” – Head Coach James Finley following VCU’s win over Ball State.

SCHERRER NEARS RECORD, FALL SPORTS IN FULL SWING

Field hockey senior Kelsey Scherrer is closing in on history, and tonight may be the night.

Scherrer enters Friday’s season opener with Missouri State (Cary Street Field, 4 p.m.) with 37 career goals, one fewer than Alycia Yoder, who piled up 38 between 1991-94. Scherrer has scored 11, 15 and 11 goals, respectively, the last three seasons. A year ago, Missouri State allowed 3.4 goals per game, including 10 against Iowa.

If she gets the record, you can wave your official VCU Field Hockey tank top over your head like a hankie in that “North Carolina” song, or whatever it was. We’re giving them away to the first 100 students tonight.

The good thing about Friday’s VCU schedule is that you can double dip. The VCU Men’s Soccer team will open the regular season at 7:30 p.m. at Sports Backers Stadium against Bucknell in the aptly-named VCU/Nike Classic.

This will be the first regular season game for the Rams since the tragic loss of teammate Yoram Mwila this summer. Come out and support the Rams and give a nod to “Yo-Yo”, as Mwila was affectionately known. I’m sure he’s watching from somewhere.

Meanwhile, volleyball and women’s soccer will also be in action tonight in road contests in Indiana and Tennessee, respectively.

OLYMPICS UPDATE; ONE RAM UP, ONE DOWN

Quanitra Hollingsworth, a 2009 VCU graduate, has averaged 9.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in two games – both victories – for Turkey at the Olympics.

Quanitra Hollingsworth’s Olympic experience is off to a great start, while Hayley Moorwood’s time in London has been met with heartbreak.

Hollingsworth, who is suiting up for the Turkish women’s basketball team in London, scored eight points and grabbed one rebound while battling foul trouble in a 61-57 win over the Czech Republic Monday morning.

The victory was a significant one. The Czechs were ranked No. 4 in FIBA’s World Rankings and the victory improved Turkey to 2-0 in Group A action. Turkey defeated Angola in its Olympic opener Saturday. The Turks may have punched their ticket to the quarterfinals with Monday’s win. At the last two Olympic Games, two victories was enough to earn a spot in the elimination round. Canada in 2000 was the last team with a 2-3 record in group play to fail to advance to the quarters.

So, although Hollingsworth has more fouls (9) than rebounds (5) so far, Turkey is in great shape. If she can stay out of foul trouble, the Turks can really make some noise.

Next up for Hollingsworth and Turkey is a contest the United States – the heavy gold medal favorites – Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. (EST). That game will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus), as well as the NBC Olympic Basketball Channel.

Women’s Basketball: Group Standings

For Moorwood, the Olympics have not gone as well. In women’s soccer competition, Moorwood and New Zealand suffered their second 1-0 loss at these games Saturday, this time to Brazil. New Zealand battled favored Brazil for most of Saturday’s contest, only to fall on a goal scored in the 86^th minute.

New Zealand is now 0-2 and likely out of contention for a quarterfinal spot. Moorwood and New Zealand will meet Cameroon Tuesday at 12:45 (EST) in what will likely be their final match in London.

Women’s Soccer: Group Standings

ROBERTS SAHAYDAK’S DARING OLYMPIC DREAM

Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak says watching the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles inspired her own Olympic dreams.

Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak isn’t afraid to go out on a limb. By the time she was six years old, she had already proudly declared that she wanted to be an Olympian.

It was the summer of 1984 in Northern California, and just about six hours down the pike were Los Angeles and the Olympics. At her family’s home in San Ramon, Roberts Sahaydak became captivated by the athletes on her television. Something about the world’s greatest athletes competing in the world’s most prestigious competition sparked her desire.

“It just lit a little fire or something,” said Roberts Sahaydak, co-head coach of the VCU Women’s Soccer team. “From that Olympics on, that was always my go-to thing. When someone would ask, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’[It was always] ‘oh, I’m going to be an Olympian.”

Roberts Sahaydak says she was wowed by American gymnast Mary Lou Retton’s perfect 10 and the star power of track and field’s Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The Roberts family even traveled to the Bay Area to take in a men’s soccer game, feeding little Tiffany’s growing interest. Tiffany was a gymnast. Tiffany ran track. She also played soccer.

In grade school, when asked to draw a picture of what she would grow up to be, Roberts Sahaydak would dream of Olympic glory. One particular school project displayed an oversized gold medal, as well as three little Tiffanys, each competing in a different sport, track, gymnastics and soccer.

“I just wanted to be the best at something, and I wanted to have that gold medal,” she said.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF VCU OLYMPIANS

Half a dozen VCU alumni have appeared in the Olympics over the years, including two this summer in London. Some of these student-athletes will be familiar to you, others may not, but all have been a part of history. Let’s meet them.

SAEED BASWEIDAN – YEMEN (1996 Summer Olympics – Atlanta)
Saeed Basweidan was just 19 when he ran the 800-meters for Yemen at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He was clocked at 1:49.35 and finished sixth in his heat. He did not advance to the finals.

A native of Mokala, Yemen, Basweidan transferred to VCU in 1997 from Florida Community College after winning three National Junior College Championships in the 800. He enjoyed a solid, if not spectacular middle distance career at VCU from 1997-99, qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 1998, as well as the NCAA Indoor Championships in 1999. He was also a member of VCU’s NCAA-qualifying distance medley relay team in 1998. He still holds school records in the indoor 800 (1:49.33) and as a member of the distance medley and 4×800-meter relays.