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Alondra Vazquez has career night in huge Aces win
Evansville defeats Missouri State, 3-1
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One of the biggest weekends in recent memory got started on a high note with the University of Evansville volleyball team taking a 3-1 win over Missouri State inside Meeks Family Fieldhouse on Friday night.
Entering the night, the Purple Aces (16-10, 7-8 MVC) were vying with Missouri State (9-21, 6-10 MVC), Southern Illinois and Valparaiso for a spot in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. UE got the job done, securing the season sweep over the Bears and would be on the cusp of clinching a spot in the tournament with a win tomorrow over the Salukis.
“Since last week, our goals were to secure a winning season, which we did against Indiana State. This week it was to get closer to .500 in conference and we did what we had to do tonight,†UE head coach Fernando Morales said after the win. “We had a great week of practice. They knew from Monday what this weekend meant to us. Hopefully we can keep it going tomorrow.â€
Sophomore Alondra Vazquez had the best night of her career, tallying 29 kills and 12 digs. Her kill total passed her previous high of 25, which was set last season against UNI. Melanie Feliciano made some history herself with a 22-kill contest. She now has 435 in her freshman campaign, passing Jessica Kiefer’s freshman season kill record of 434. Kiefer set her mark in 1997.
Gabriela Macedo had another stellar night defensively, adding 34 digs. Her season total of 622 34 shy of Julie Walroth’s single-season mark. Allana McInnis added 56 more assists to her season total and stands at 1,114, putting her in the top ten in the UE single-season record book. The Bears saw Chloe Rear post 13 kills with Emelie Orlando notching 24 helpers.
Missouri State had the upper hand early on, taking a 9-6 lead. Elena Redmond helped UE retake the lead as she did the serving in a 4-0 run that included an ace. A back-and-forth contest saw the Bears retake a 13-12 edge before two in a row put Evansville back on top. MSU was able to wrestle away a 19-16 lead on a kill from Sarabi Worsley-Gilbert. With the bears still up by three (21-18), the Aces made a huge rally by scoring four in a row. A kill from Alondra Vazquez got the run started while Feliciano also added a kill to put UE in front, 22-21. Vazquez added the final two kills to clinch the 25-22 decision and a 1-0 Aces lead.
Evansville scored the opening two in the second set before the Bears defense registered four blocks in a row to take their first lead. Their advantage extended to 8-5 before the Aces rallied with six of the next seven points to go up 11-9. Patricia Joseph and McInnis extended the rally with a double block, forcing an MSU time out. The run continued as an ace from McInnis helped to push the lead out to five. Vazquez helped the Aces lead by as many as nine points at 22-13 as she added two more kills and a block as UE cruised to the 25-18 win.
UE’s first lead of the third game came when the 14th kill for Vazquez made it a 5-4 game. Missouri State grabbed the lead right back, opening a 9-7 advantage before back-to-back Feliciano kills put the Aces in front – 10-9. The Bears were able to make their way back in front and take a 20-15 edge. They extended it to as many as seven points before winning, 25-20.
In the fourth, it was UE going up by a pair at 5-3 before MSU scored three straight along with a 6-5 lead. They would hold that edge until Vazquez added another kill, her 23rd, to put UE back in front at 10-9. Missouri State did not go away, taking advantage of an Amelia Flynn service ace to take a 15-11 lead. Two Vazquez kills cut the deficit in half before the Aces came all the way back to go back in front at 19-18.  Joseph and Feliciano combined for the block that gave UE the lead. From there, it was all Aces. They held strong to clinch the match on the strength of a 25-21 decision.
USI bows out of GLVC Tournament with 1-0 loss
University of Southern Indiana Men’s Soccer bowed out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament with a 1-0 loss to McKendree University Friday evening in the semifinals at Woehrle Athletic Complex in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The Screaming Eagles, the fifth-seed, see their record go to 9-7-3 overall, while McKendree, the top seed, goes to 15-2-2.
USI fell behind late in the opening half when McKendree grabbed a 1-0 lead with a goal at 40:21. The 1-0 advantage would be all that the Bearcats would need, holding that margin through the intermission and the end of the match.
The Eagles tried to find the equalizer in the final 45 minutes, outshooting the Bearcats 16-7. USI also had six of the last nine shots of the match, but could not find the back of the goal.
The loss ends the 2019 campaign for the Eagles, who after starting the year 0-3-2 rallied with nine wins and a tie in the last 14 matches to make a run in the GLVC Tournament. USI also must say good-bye to nine seniors, who conclude their career with a 46-21-9 record that pushed Head Coach Mat Santoro into a tie for the most wins program history (97).
USI suffers first loss of November at Quincy
The University of Southern Indiana volleyball team saw its four-match winning-streak in Great Lakes Valley Conference play snapped at the hands of Quincy University at the Pepsi Arena Friday night in three sets, 25-21, 25-12, 25-23.
The Screaming Eagles (15-14, 7-7 GLVC) had their November-momentum halted in Friday’s second set as the Hawks (15-16, 7-7 GLVC) gathered a 25-12 result due to a back-breaking .485 hitting clip leading into the third set. That torrid hitting pace led to a match pace of .320 compared to USI’s .165 mark.
Freshman outside hitter Leah Anderson led the Eagles’ offense with 13 kills and fell one dig shy of yet-another double-double. Freshman right side hitter Katherine Koch posted 11 kills, seven coming in the valiant 25-23 defeat in the third set for USI.
Junior setter Casey Cepicky and senior middle blocker Amanda Jung posted four blocks each to lead the Eagles and tie for the match-lead. Cepicky added 29 assists on USI’s 35 kills.
USI Volleyball heads to Kirksville, Missouri for the GLVC regular-season finale at Truman State University, Saturday at 3 p.m. The Bulldogs defeated McKendree University in three sets Friday night to move its record to 13-17 (6-8 GLVC).
Commentary: Teachers To Give Lawmakers An Education
By Mary Beth Schneider
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS— On Tuesday, Amber Seibert, a teacher at Westlane Middle School in Indianapolis, plans to go to the Statehouse with a simple message for lawmakers: “Enough is enough.â€
She won’t be alone. As many as 13,000 teachers are expected to pack the Statehouse to educate lawmakers who have given them little more than platitudes for the last decade or so.
Maybe, this time, lawmakers won’t be able to ignore them.
Maybe, this time, the sea of teachers wearing red for Tuesday’s Red For Ed Action Rally will be so memorable that lawmakers will do something more than appoint a commission to look at better pay.
Maybe, this time, legislators will rethink linking teacher compensation to the ever-changing standardized tests Indiana administers with even worse results.
Maybe they’ll rethink the goofy requirement that teachers have to work 15 hours at some other job to renew their license, the so-called “externships†that are a new part of the professional development teachers already do.
And maybe, this time, they will start focusing on the traditional public schools the vast majority of Hoosier children attend rather than charter schools and vouchers for private schools.
They won’t get answers at Tuesday’s one-day organizational meeting lawmakers hold annually to prepare for the session that starts in January. But maybe 13,000 teachers will be a lesson still heeded when they draft and pass the next round of laws.
This won’t be Seibert’s first trip to the Statehouse. She’s come before as lawmakers debated such things as how to address school shootings.
“I have seen first-hand the lack of empathy and respect legislators have†toward teachers, said Seibert, now in her fourth year of teaching language arts. “…Frankly, I believe educators like myself have had enough. If people who sit in comfy chairs at the Statehouse are unwilling to listen or use sound judgment, we are going to make them listen.â€
Sarah Martin, who teaches pre-school children at the Warren Early Childhood Center, will be there, too, hoping to draw lawmakers’ attention to the needs of pre-kindergarten students. A typical day for her means being at school from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., “and I still don’t get everything was done that is on my never-ending to-do list,†she said. That means bringing work home, where she’s also doing on-line course work from Ball State as she completes her bachelor’s degree to be fully licensed.
That home, by the way? She’s still living with family because her pay doesn’t cover the typical rent in Indianapolis.
She and the other teachers headed to the Statehouse chose their vocation with kids, not salary, in mind. But they also didn’t sign up for having the slowest pay growth in the nation or being judged by the results of a single test, rather than what they do in the classroom every day.
And that pervasive feeling that “enough is enough†is why this is expected to be the largest rally at the Statehouse since 1995 when 20,000 labor union members jammed the Statehouse grounds and hallways to protest legislation that meant lower wages on public projects.
Jennifer Smith-Margraf, vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, said she’s hoping the size of the rally shows lawmakers “the seriousness with which educators are taking these issues across the state, and the real need for them to find a resolution to the issues we’re facing.â€
That includes those “externships†passed at the end of the 2019 session as part of a new, longer license renewal process.
What’s the point of having teachers, many of whom already have second and even third jobs to make ends meet, working another 15 hours at some business that has nothing to do with their ability to teach, say, history?
“That is something that I’d really like some of the legislators to explain to us,†said Smith-Margraf. “Educators were just very upset and I’d go as far as to say insulted by (the new requirement.)… It just shows that the legislators don’t understand that educators know what sort of professional development we need to improve our own craft.â€
Maybe 13,000 teachers can drive that point home.
But just in case some lawmakers learn better with short reading lessons, teachers will be telling their stories on Post-It notes they will put up in the Statehouse atrium. Each will be only six words.
FOOTNOTE: Mary Beth Schneider is an editor at TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalists.
VANDERBURGH COUNTY COMMISSIONER BEN SHOULDERS SEEK RE-ELECTION
Ben Shoulders, current president of the Vanderburgh County Commissioners, officially announced that he will seek re-election in 2020 for Vanderburgh County Commissioner (District One). Â Shoulders, Democrat, was first elected in 2016 and is currently a Senior Commercial Lender at Banterra Bank. Â A lifelong Evansville native, Shoulders is active in the community serving on such non-profit boards and past committees as Boys and Girls Club, IU Alumni Association, IU College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Board, Leadership Everyone, EVSC Foundation, WNIN Auction, Habitat for Humanity, Darrell Ragland Foundation, Corridor of Champions, United Way and many more.
“I truly love serving our community and look forward to continuing to listen to the needs of our citizens and taxpayers of Vanderburgh County,” Shoulders says.  “We’ve accomplished many things since taking office, but there is still more work to be done.  My family and I are sincerely grateful and humbled by all of our continued supporters, friends and constituents sharing our vision for our great county.  I’m excited to announce my  candidacy for re-election and look forward to the campaign trail.â€
Commissioner Ben Shoulders, wife Shannon, and three children; Emma (9), Sadie (6) and Parker (6), currently live on the east side of Evansville.
Commentary: They Asked For Red For Ed
Commentary: They Asked For Red For Ed
By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.comÂ
INDIANAPOLIS – In a few days, thousands of educators, parents, and students will flock to the Statehouse.
That has self-appointed education reform advocates all in a tizzy.
The occasion is Red for Ed Day on Nov. 19. That’s when teachers, administrators, parents and students from all around the state plan to show up at the Statehouse to lobby for more money for the state’s schools. So many teachers and students are planning to attend that some schools plan to close on that day.
Some members of the education reform crowd think this is just horrible.
Even though they’ve applauded students and educators from charter schools or private schools accepting vouchers who went to the Statehouse to lobby, they say, somehow, that it’s wrong for public-school teachers, parents and students to do the same.
This is an argument for more civics education in all schools – and maybe remedial training for adults, too.
Last time I checked, the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances didn’t have an asterisk by it. It doesn’t say that self-proclaimed education reformer were the only ones who got to go to the Statehouse to ask for more money.
But that smokescreen is not what has the education reformers so upset about Red for Ed Day.
No, what has them worried is that people have begun to figure out that none of their so-called reforms have worked.
Worse – from the point of view of the “reformers,†that is – people also have begun to realize who to hold accountable for these failures.
Once upon a time, “accountability†was a word the education reform crowd loved. The reformers said they wanted to hold schools and educators accountable. It was the state’s responsibility to make sure that every child had a quality education and, thus, it was the state’s responsibility to hold every – every! – school accountable for delivering that education.
Another word they used almost like punctuation was “empowerment.†They said they wanted to “empower†parents. “Empower†students. “Empower†citizens who cared about education.
These days, they don’t use those words as often.
That’s because it’s now clear that they didn’t mean what they said.
If they had meant it, they wouldn’t have removed charter and voucher schools and students from the accountability measures imposed on traditional public schools. Any time anyone casts an inquiring eye on how charter schools are performing or whether the students receiving vouchers are doing better in private schools than public, the reformers pull another curtain closed or throw up another barricade.
Accountability, it seems, is for other people.
Not for them.
Their definition of “empowerment†is similarly selective.
They love it when parents take an active role in their children’s educations – unless, that is, that active role contradicts some of their cherished but largely ineffective notions of how schools should be run.
A few years ago, for example, parents around the state were so upset about the state of Indiana schools that they elected a traditional public-school educator, Glenda Ritz, to be the state superintendent of public instruction.
The reformers were so thrilled to hear the parents’ voices in that election that they stripped parents of the right to choose the state’s schools chief.
Then, when the person they recruited to defeat Ritz, current Superintendent Jennifer McCormick, began to say that the reformers’ plans to improve Indiana schools belonged in the science fiction section of the bookstore and also said she wouldn’t run again, they accelerated the plan to make her job appointed rather than elected.
That’s some parental empowerment, isn’t it?
There’s a cliché that says that some people play checkers while others, those who think farther ahead, play chess. These education reformers seem to be confused by tic-tac-toe.
The reason so many students, parents, and teachers are coming to the Statehouse on Nov. 19 is that the reformers gave them no place else to go.
Every move the reformers have made has funneled all the anger and frustration surrounding the state’s schools right back at them.
They might as well have sent an invitation.
FOOTNOTE: John Krull is the director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.