At 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, 11 girls from the St. Olaf womens cross country team met at Skoglund Athletic Center to spend the night on the newly sanitized matted floor of the wrestling room. The athletes each carried a weekend bag and pillow and were joined by coach Chris Daymont, who provided sleeping bags for all.
It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment when it all started to click for the women's soccer team this season. Maybe it was on one of those long road trips when the girls spent the first two weekends of the school year sharing laughs in the backseat of a 15-passenger van, piling in and out at fast food stops, bathroom stops, and pit stops, getting to know the lives of their teammates better than their corridor mates, roommates and classmates. The Oles slinked off the soccer field those first two games away from St. Olaf with two strikes against having been outscored by their opponents 8 to 3, but despite the on-field results the girls just might have gained something that's proven to be more valuable. Something that so many teams search in vain to find a bond.
The Ole football team lost 33-7 last Saturday in a mudfest, which saw the Oles dominate in every phase of the game besides the scoreboard. St. Olaf led the Royals in time of possession holding the ball for 38 minutes, first downs, rushes, passes/attempts, completions, and total offense.
After capturing the MIAC tournament title last season, the volleyball squad looked to add a regular season trophy to their case. But its members have run into a long list of problems, made up mostly of the other teams in the conference.
Abandon all hope ye who enter here. The inscription above the gates of hell in Dantes Inferno has taken on an entirely new meaning for the sports fan of Chicagos North Side Nine.
