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Sophomore Allana McInnis earned a spot on the Dunn Hospitality Invitational All-Tournament Team as the University of Evansville volleyball team took on Austin Peay and Northern Kentucky on Saturday inside Meeks Family Fieldhouse.
UE (5-4) fell by a 3-0 final to Austin Peay (7-1) and another 3-0 contest against NKU (5-3). In the other match, the Norse picked up a 3-2 win over the Governors.
The nightcap saw the Aces give it all they had against Northern Kentucky before falling, 3-0. Rachel Tam led everyone with 19 kills while Mildrelis Rodriguez had 11. McInnis paced everyone with 23 assists and Olivia Goldstein had 11 digs. Haley Libs led NKU with 12 kills.
Six ties led to a 6-6 score in game one before NKU took a 10-7 lead. They led by as many as six at 22-16. Evansville made a late rally as a kill from Elizabeth Giller capped off a 4-0 stretch that cut the deficit to a pair. NKU answered back as they finished with the 25-21 win to take a 1-0 lead. Tam posted nine kills in the set.
NKU hit .440 in game two on their way to a 25-15 win. They took a 6-2 lead and quickly extended it to 11-3. Their lead reached 10 at 22-12 before they held that advantage for the final of 25-15.
Tam began game three with two early kills as the Aces took a 4-1 lead. The lead remained at three (8-5) when the Norse rallied to tie it up at 8-8. Tam put the lead back in the hands of the Aces with a kill to give UE a 9-8 edge. The lead would grow to a pair for the Aces at 17-15, but Northern Kentucky rallied back. A pair of UE errors saw them take a 20-18 advantage. From there, they held on for a 25-21 win to clinch the tournament championship.
In the opener for the day, Austin Peay took control in game one, cruising to a 25-9 win. Mildrelis Rodriguez had three kills in the frame. UE quickly regrouped in the second set as a Joselyn Coronel service ace gave the Aces a 5-2 lead. Later, a pair of Governor errors set the Aces lead at 12-8.
Austin Peay battled back, taking a 16-13 lead before freshman Cecilia Thon got the Aces back on track. Her serving helped UE tied it up at 17-17, but the Governors were too much as they pulled away for the 25-19 win.
Evansville put forth its best effort in game three. A Rodrigez kill tied it up at 4-4 before APSU took a 10-6 lead. That is when Rachel Tam accomplished a rare feat. Three service aces in a row, coupled with a kill, helped Evansville tie the game at 11-11 before Kerra Cornist followed with a point of her own to give the Aces a 13-12 lead.
Neither team relented down the stretch as eight more ties led to a 20-20 score. After the Governors posted two in a row, the Aces responded with three-straight points, capped off by a Thon kill. Austin Peay grabbed the momentum back as a Caroline Waite kill helped them record the final three points to take the set, 25-23, while clinching a 3-0 win in the match.
Tam posted 11 kills, tying for the top total in the match. Thon notched eight digs and 11 assists while Allana McInnis posted a team-best 12 helpers.
Tennessee State is next up for UE as the Aces welcome the Tigers on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. in Meeks Family Fieldhouse.
University of Southern Indiana Volleyball (7-3, 1-1 GLVC) fell to the University of Missouri-St. Louis (6-4, 2-0 GLVC) Saturday evening in straight sets.
The Screaming Eagles finished within five points in each set, forcing the Tritons to be as efficient as possible on their attack.
Senior Erike Peoples (Bloomington, Illinois) led USI with 16 assists. Junior Elexis Coleman (Joliet, Illinois) and freshman Taylor Litteken (Foristell, Missouri) led the Eagles with six kills.
First Set – UMSL 25, USI 20
Second Set – UMSL 25, USI 20
Third Set – UMSL 25, USI 23
Due to ongoing rain in the area, the schedule for the opening day of the Fuzzy Zoeller Invitational saw teams able to compete just over one round of play at Champions Pointe Golf Club.
Originally schedule for 36 holes on Saturday, each team finished its first 18 while most got through a handful of holes in round two before lightning and rain forced play to be stopped for the day. On Sunday, the teams will finish their second rounds before playing the scheduled third round to complete the tournament.
The University of Evansville ranks in 13th place with one round officially in the books. Freshman Dallas Koth led the way with a 1-over 73. His effort is tied for 25th. Next up were Spencer Wagner and Noah Reese, who carded scores of 76. Jessie Brumley notched a 77 while Matthew Ladd checked in with an 85.
Gabe Rohleder played as an individual and had a nice round to start the event, recording a 2-over 74.
Southern Illinois leads the team standings with a score of 275. They have three of the top seven individuals on the leaderboard. The Salukis are six ahead of Bowling Green and seven strokes in front of Indiana. Matthis Besard of SIU and Pablo Heredia Iglesias of BGSU are tied for the individual lead with each shooting scores of 66 in round one. Their rounds were six under par.
The University of Southern Indiana women’s soccer team rallied in the final moments of regulation and in the second overtime to defeat Purdue University Northwest, 2-1, in Hammond, Indiana. USI goes to 1-2-1 overall, while Purdue Northwest sees its record go to 2-2-0.
USI dominated the opening half, but was unable to come away with a goal. The Eagles had a 9-2 advantage in shots (including the half’s only shot on-goal) and a 3-1 lead in corner kicks.
The second half saw both teams pick up a tally and end the 90 minutes of regulation tied at 1-1. PNW got the initial goal and took the lead, 1-0, at 66:52.
The Eagles rallied in the final minutes of regulation to knot the game at 1-1 with a tally at 85:32. USI freshman forward Madeline Weston (St. Peters, Missouri) record her first collegiate goal to set the stage for overtime.
While neither team was able to gain the upper hand in the first overtime, USI wasted little time in the second overtime as junior forward Emilie Blomenkamp (Smithton, Illinois) scored the game winner at 102:24. Blomenkamp posted her first goal as an Eagle off an assist by senior forward Ryley Hancock(Evansville, Indiana).
Senior goalkeeper Emily Hopkins (Greenfield, Indiana) picked up her first victory of the year between the posts. Hopkins allowed one goal, but did not earn a save in the match.
USI returns home September 14 when the Eagles open 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference action by hosting Drury University at Strassweg Field. Due to the GLVC home-road weekend, the Eagles and the Panthers will have special Friday afternoon 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
We hope that today’s “READER%S FORUMâ€Â will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?
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Those individuals being recognized are:
New Deputy Sheriff:
Hunter Blackford
Retirements:
Major Craig Titzer – Deputy Sheriff
Lieutenant Jana Wade – Deputy Sheriff
Promotions:
Sergeant Brian Traylor – Lieutenant
Deputy Mark Harrison – Sergeant
Deputy John Helfrich – Sergeant
Lieutenant Jason Ashworth – Major
Officer Brent Counts – Confinement Sergeant
Officer Dawn Zuber – Confinement Sergeant
Awards:
Sheriff’s Appreciation – Nurse Cara Huebner
Sheriff’s Appreciation – Nurse Susan Ndoye
Sheriff’s Appreciation – QMA Tasha Bennett
Lifesaving Award – Officer Andrew Dile
By James Polston
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS — The head of Indiana’s Department of Child Services told a legislative panel that her agency is making progress to fix some of the problems at the troubled agency.
Director Terry Stigdon told lawmakers on the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary Wednesday that the department has added attorneys and supervisors and is in the process of figuring out pay raises for employees.
Those were among the 20 recommendations the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group (CWG) gave DCS in a report that came out in June after a six-month examination of the department.
In response to the report done by CWG, the department hired Todd Meyer as associate director to oversee the implementation of some of the recommendations from the report.
Since Stigdon took over the department in January, it has hired a net gain of 44 supervisors and 30 attorneys and will continue to hire additional help. The current supervisor to family case manager ratio is one to seven and the department’s goal is to get the ratio down to one supervisor per five family case managers within 18 months.
With the $25 million from the state’s surplus that Gov. Eric Holcomb allocated to DCS in June, Meyer says the department’s first plan is to support on-the-ground employees with salary raises, training and recognition. The next plan of attack will be to address a few of the CWG’s recommendations.
Of the $25 million, Meyer says DCS will use $22 million to raise the salaries of DCS supervisors, family case managers and attorneys.
Currently, the starting salary for family case managers is under $34,000 during training and under $36,000 after training. The starting salary for a DCS attorney is $52,000 and a number was not given for supervisors.
Meyer also said they will announce the proposed raises soon but DCS plans to notify employees first.
Stigdon and Meyer also talked to the committee about draft legislation to change parts of the law affecting the work of DCS.
The draft proposed for the 2019 legislative session would allow older youth in foster care to receive services until age 21 rather than age 20 under current law.
The second part of the preliminary draft would clarify descriptions of caseloads so family case managers and supervisors aren’t handling too many active cases.Â
Stigdon explained that under the proposed change, if siblings are out of a home they would be counted as individual children but if the siblings are in a home together, they would be counted as a family and not individual children.
State Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, who sits on the interim committee, mentioned her three-year stint as a family case manager. She told DCS that she knows from experience that caseload and understaffing is an issue.
“I had, at one time, 49 ongoing cases and 60 investigations,†Houchin said. “So, I do appreciate the additional staff that were brought on during the Daniels administration and then also an emphasis on not overworking your case managers — that’s just too much to handle.â€
The final part of the draft would require the department to initiate an assessment not later than 24 hours after receiving a report of child abuse or neglect if the department believes the child is in immediate danger of serious bodily harm.
Under current law, the department has no later than one hour to initiate an assessment.
Houchin raised concern of the proposed 24-hour initial response time for the family case managers.
“My concern is that if you give 2,100 people the opportunity to decide whether they go immediately or within 24 hours, that’s 2,100 opportunities for a child to die,†Houchin said. She said the 24-hour window is a recipe for disaster.
The next meeting of the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary is Sept. 19 and the committee chair, state Rep. Gregory Steuerwald, R-Avon, wants DCS to come to the meeting with recommendations for the response time for initial assessments.
James Polston is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
