From L to R: Mark Mazzone, Greg Stawicki, Christian Huelsman
Mazzone

Huelsman

Stawicki

Three Wellington Dukes teammates thought it would be fun to continue playing soccer together after high school.

Sophomore standouts Christian Huelsman and Greg Stawicki, along with junior Mark Mazzone have known each other and played soccer together since elementary school all the way high school.

The trio made their dream a reality when they joined each other at Ohio Northern University, where they even helped lead the Polar Bears to their first-ever trip to the Elite-8 in the NCAA Division II National Tournament last season.

"It definitely makes the transition to college soccer a lot easier when you're comfortable with the players already," said Mazzone, who transferred there after playing at Guilford College in North Carolina his freshman season. "We have really good chemistry after playing so long together."

Huelsman, who is the all-time leading scorer in Dukes' history, couldn't be happier.

"I love it, it's so fantastic," Huelsman said. "We're in this together. We've always be doing this together. We're just so happy and so glad that we can share this experience. We've been through so much together. To see a lot of success out of all of our careers — is just amazing."

Huelsman leads the Polar Bears in goals (10) and points (23) for the second-straight year and is tied for second in assists (three). ONU currently stands at 10-3-2 and 4-0-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

"Our main goal is to be national champs," Huelsman said. "We have other goals to be conference champs and obviously win the OAC tournament. By doing that, it'll get us in the national tournament and then we can hopefully win it this year. We just have to take the steps along the way."

Last week, Huelsman recorded his second college-career hat trick in a 7-0 win over Defiance and then notched a goal and an assist in a 2-1 win over Muskingum. That earned him OAC Soccer Player of the Week honors.

"It's such a huge accomplishment, personally and as a team," Huelsman said. "When one of us wins player of the week, it's great because we all know that the whole team had something to do with it. You can't play this sport by yourself."

Last year, he started all 27 games and led the team with 18 goals and eight assists and broke the school record for most goals by a freshman. He was also selected first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference, along with second team All-GLIAC. He's now in ONU's all-time top 10 in goals scored (27) and his 65 points is four shy of cracking that top 10 list.

"Not a lot of teams knew who I was so I got away with a lot more," Huelsman said. "This year, they know my number so I'm getting double-teamed more. This year I have to work harder. Every game is a different puzzle."

Last year, the trio helped Ohio Northern (20-6-1) make its first-ever trip to the Elite-8 in the NCAA tournament. Three wins in the tourney earned them a spot in the final eight, but a 4-1 loss to Loras (Iowa) ended their dreams of a Final Four appearance and a chance at a national championship.

"I knew Ohio Northern was going to be a perfect fit for me when I came here," Huelsman said. "Ohio Northern's style is what I was used to. I knew it was going to be great when I came to visit here."

Stawicki has played in 15 games, including six starts this season. He has seven goals, good for third on the team. He also has two game-winning goals.

"I got a lot of experience from last year and I'm getting more playing time this season," Stawicki said. "After going so far in the tournament and having that pressure, now we have to keep it up, because every team is targeting us and wanting to beat us."

Stawicki also enjoys playing with his two good friends.

"It's awesome," Stawicki said. "We all know how each other play and what runs we makes. We know where each of us will be at. If one of us is feeling down, we pick each other up. We're like a family. (Christian) is a great player. I've learned a lot from him. He's an amazing finisher. He's made me a better player."

Stawicki is more focused than ever. He has his team's goals on his mind.

"As a team, we want to win conference, win the OAC tournament, make it to the final four and win the whole thing," Stawicki said. "Personally, I want to get better, score my goals, get more assists and just do my part to help the team."

Mazzone, a junior midfielder whose played in 12 games this season, is also focused on helping his team.

"I'd rather win than anything," Mazzone said. "Our biggest goal is to win the national tournament."

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Edison's Mike Zakerski just finished a fine freshman season playing golf at Adrian College in Michigan.

His golf team finished the fall season with an eighth-place finish at the Wuskowhan Players Club. The Bulldogs placed eighth in the event with a team score of 320. Zakerski shot a 41 on the first nine holes, and improved his score by two shots on the back to finish the jamboree with a score of 80.

Zakerski shot a 77 last month to help the team win their first MIAA Jamboree of the fall by one stroke over Olivet.

Zakerski and the Bulldogs finished tied for seventh at the seventh MIAA Jamboree hosted by Calvin College on Monday. Zakerski tied for 17th with a score of 78.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

North Ridgeville's John McGraw scored his fifth touchdown of the season, but then went down with an injury in a 21-17 loss to 13th ranked Otterbein on Saturday.

For the season, McGraw has 249 yards on 55 carries (4.4 yards per carry).

Stay tuned for more details on McGraw.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Amherst’s Nikki Kulasa, a sophomore at Walsh University, fired a 78, to finish with a 36-hole total of 155 (77-78), capturing medalist honors at the Pat Clouse Invitational hosted by Wittenburg University last week.

For Kulasa, it is the third time this season that she has captured medalist honors. She also won honors at Ohio Dominican's Kiser Classic and at the Walsh Invitational.

She also has a second-place and fourth-place finish this year.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Allie LaForce has always had a busy life.

At Vermilion high school, she was a three-sport star in basketball, softball and track, along with being involved with other school activities.

She also modeled and won the prestigious Miss Teen U.S.A. title in her first attempt. She went on to represent Ohio in the Miss Teen U.S.A. pageant held in, Louisiana — just five days after her 16th birthday. She was the first delegate from Ohio to make it to the semifinals since 1993, and was crowned Miss Teen U.S.A. in 2005.

Her winnings earned her a one-year modeling contract with Trump Modeling Management and a scholarship to the School for Film and Television in New York City. It also got her a guest appearance in the NBC soap opera "Passions".

LaForce made several appearances throughout the United States — promoting causes such as drug and alcohol awareness — as well as continuing to attend high school at Vermilion, where she earned valedictorian honors.

Her career ambition has always been to be a sports personality on ESPN and decided to attend Ohio University for a broadcast journalism degree.

Since she played sports her whole life, she decided to try to walk-on the basketball team at OU, and made the team as a non-scholarship player.

"I didn't know what to expect at all," said LaForce, who is now a sophomore. "It was so unreal. When I did make the team, I called my family in disbelief. The team was so welcoming, even though they called me Miss America for a month."

Although she has a love for basketball, she knew she needed to set her priorities and go back to concentrating on her broadcast dreams.

After playing eight games as a walk-on freshman, she hung up the sneakers to focus on what she wants to do with her career.

"Ohio U is a really great journalism school," LaForce said. "I was missing out on a lot of opportunities because Division I basketball was so time consuming. I love the game so much, but I need to take advantage of the things they have to offer here so I can put together an impressive reel. It was a really tough decision to not play basketball anymore. Since I was a walk-on, I don't have a scholarship so I had to make a decision based on what I want to get out of my career here."

This past summer, she served as a color commentator and play-by-play announcer for the Southern Ohio Copperheads, a baseball team from the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, who play their games at Bob Wren Stadium in Athens. She was able to travel with the team and would do three innings of play-by-play and four innings of color commentary during the season.

"I certainly learned a lot doing the internship there," LaForce said. "It was fun to travel and learn more about the sport. It was exciting. This is the way my life has always been. If I ever have an open-time slot, I'm so anxious to fill it with something, because there are just too many great things to take advantage of here at OU."

Still chasing her dream of big-lights, such as ESPN, LaForce was recently chosen by Nike out of 200 applicants nationwide after submitting a video for a Nike Field Reporter contest. Her and a college friend put together a three-minute video convincing Nike why she would make a good sideline reporter.

Following an interview that came with being one of the five finalists, LaForce took a position as a field correspondent, where she is required to travel, write and do interviews for Nike in the midwest region. ]

Her first assignment for Nike was called "Point guard college", an intense basketball camp with point guards from other Division I schools. She was assigned to go to camp as an Ohio University point guard and blog about her boot camp-like experience there.

She then flew out to Portland, Oregon for her next project, which was for a winter clothing line where she modeled different outfits for the Nike website, under shop-by-outfit.

"I'm so used to being busy, that's been the story of my life and I love it so much," LaForce said. "I think each year I get less and less stressed out. Now that I found my groove and I have my priorities straight, I have an idea what the next couple years are going to look like. It's less stressful for me."

She is also currently doing an Emmy-winning high school football show called "Grid Iron Glory" where she does a wrap-up, highlight-reel type of show where she serves as a reporter. She is also the co-producer of the "Bobcat Blitz", the Ohio U Coaches show that airs on local cable television.

When basketball season begins, she will serve as the color analyst for the 'Cats' women's basketball radio broadcasts.

She credits her parents, Wade and Lesa LaForce (also a former Miss Ohio U.S.A. in 1977) for keeping her humble and keeping the desire to follow her dreams.

"My parents are go-getters," LaForce said. "They are so upbeat. They are always doing new and exciting things. I credit my parents 100 percent. I can't even say enough. They are the reason I've been able to stay grounded and level-headed."

She also credits her aunt Connie Rummell for helping her have success in her athletic career. Another inspirational force for LaForce is her cousin Blake LaForce, who lost his life earlier this year after a courageous battle with leukemia and the consequences of insurmountable complications.

"He has touched so many peoples lives," LaForce said. "He was such a fighter. He taught me so many things. Every time I start to take something for granted, all I have to do is think about him and think about what he went through. What happened to him really put things in perspective."

In the meanwhile, LaForce loves her busy life and looks forward to her future.

"I'd love to work for ESPN, but I'm not limiting myself," LaForce said. "There are a lot of great sports networks and programs that I would love to be a part of. If I had to pick an ultimate goal, it would be ESPN, being a basketball analyst or commentator. I would even love to do sideline stuff and feature packages for other sports as well. "There's a certain stereotype that goes along with pageants and pageant girls," LaForce said.

"To be able to say I played Division I basketball helps balance that stereotype. Especially getting into sports broadcasting, I think it gives me more credibility."

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Perkins' Amy Schlessman made it to the third round of the NCAA ITA Tennis Tournament this past weekend at DePauw University, while playing tennis for Kenyon College.

Schlessman, who was the 17th seed, had a first round bye and then defeated Denison's Maggie Colvin, 6-4, 6-0 in the second round.

She then lost a grueling three-set match to Calvin College's Melissa Oosterhaus, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6. The match took over three hours to play.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Huron's Sara Sage is living her volleyball dream.

Sage is in her sophomore season playing volleyball at UCLA in California, playing for her dream team Bruins.

Sage first met UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski, while playing for the USA Volleyball team in eighth grade. She then visited the campus as a freshman in high school.

"As soon as I stepped on campus I knew it was home," said Sage, who is a middle hitter. "It was perfect. It's an honor to go to UCLA. It's everything I expected and more. I absolutely love the school. It's a great education. Volleyball is awesome and it's so competitive. There's nothing that I would change. It's a beautiful place."

The No. 14 Bruins found themselves as high as seventh in the nation, but lost 2-of-3 matches, dropping them to 14th on a recent poll.

On Saturday, the Bruins snapped a two-game losing skid, defeating No. 19 Arizona in four sets, 22-25, 27-25, 25-14, 25-13. The Bruins improve to 11-4 overall and 1-1 in Pac-10 play.

Last week, in front of an NCAA regular season-record crowd of 13,780, Sage and the No. 7 Bruins snapped No. 5 Nebraska's 90-match home winning streak in a five-set victory at the Ameritas Players Challenge. Set scores were 18-25, 25-17, 25-22, 24-26, 15-7.

"Playing in front of that big of a crowd gets you pumped up in warm-ups," Sage said. "But the second the whistle blows, I don't even notice anything. It's game time and you get the job done, and then you get going."

As a freshman, Sage played in 26 matches and 78 sets, making 18 starts. She was named to the Pacific-10 Conference All-Freshman honorable mention team. The Bruins lost in the NCAA Sweet 16 to Texas.

"Last year, everything seemed so new and I was like a deer in headlights," Sage said. "But now with a year under my belt, I feel a lot more comfortable. I feel like the game's a lot quicker and I can catch up to it. I know what to expect. I can read everything a lot easier. Last year I had to learn how to play it again and now everything comes natural to me."

Her highlight last season was when her Bruins took Stanford to five games and lost. It was Stanford's senior night and the Bruins were trying to snap an eight-year losing streak to the Cardinal.

"That was my absolute favorite match," Sage said. "That match was phenomenal. We took them to five on their senior night and we almost won. We ended up losing, 13-11, but it was still amazing. The whole aura of the gym was something else. I was so happy to be a part of it. That's definitely going to be up there in my memories."

The road to success wasn't easy as Sage endured three knee surgeries on her right knee. Her first surgery was her freshman year of high school after breaking her femur. Another surgery followed her junior year, on the same knee. She had the same knee scoped after her freshman year of college, but now feels in the best shape of her life.

At Huron High School, Sage was a four-year letter winner and a three-time All-Sandusky Bay Conference selection, All-District and an All-Ohio selection. She was named the SBC Player of the Year, All-District Player of the Year and Prep Volleyball All-American in her junior and senior seasons. She led Huron to the state semifinals her junior year. Even though she played just 2 1/2 seasons due to injury, she finished third all-time in kills with 1,343.

"The speed of the game and the competition level is the biggest difference in college volleyball," Sage said. "You're competing on every single play, every single touch. In high school, you just play and try and put the ball away. In college, you don't have time to have a mental lapse. You have to go hard every second of the game that you're out there."

Sage has adjusted well to West Coast living, but still appreciates coming home to Ohio.

"You're always on-the-go here in California, it's fast paced," said Sage, who is majoring in psychology. "There's really never time to sit back and relax. Everyone is always trying to one-up each other. You're competing every single day pretty much. So whenever I go home, I have no stress, I'm completely relaxed and I just let my hair down. When I'm at school, I'm always on the run and always have something going on."

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Avon Lake’s Trey Stross and his 13th ranked Iowa Hawkeyes are off to their best start in 14 years, as they slipped past Arkansas State, 24-21 this afternoon at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa.

Lake Catholic’s Ricky Stanzi threw for a season-high 296 yards and three touchdowns, including a 33-yard TD pass to Stross to set the pace of their offense. Stross’ TD gave Iowa an early 7-0 lead, one they build to 21-7 before having to stave off a Red Wolves rally that brought it to within three, at 24-21 with 2:01 left to play.

“They stuck around, stuck around, stuck around and it almost bit us in the butt. But we got the job done,” Stross said.

Stross finished with four catches for 64 yards.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Westlake's Kalpana Beach, a junior, has verbally accepted a full athletic scholarship from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, to play basketball and participate in track.

Kalpana, who averaged 15 points, eight rebounds and 2.5 steals per game as a sophomore, was named to the Southwestern Conference First Team.

In track, Kalpana was the SWC champion in the high jump the last two seasons. She even placed seventh in the state as a freshman and fourth as a sophomore. She holds the Westlake school record of 5-feet-10 inches in the high jump.

swalker@MorningJournal.com