WOMEN’S NEWS … One of the hottest women’s conferences is the SEC. It had six teams make the 2008 NCAA Tournament. More than a dozen games involving SEC teams will be televised this season. And they have been cleaning up in non-conference play.
Six SEC teams — Vanderbilt (5-0-0), South Carolina (4-0-0), Mississippi State (4-0-0), Georgia (4-0-1), Arkansas (4-0-1) and Auburn (2-0-2) — are undefeated after three weeks of play, and no team has a losing record.
The only down note so far came when Florida star Ashlee Elliott was lost for the season with an ACL injury in the Gators’ 2-1 win South Florida. The defending conference champions then traveled to the Illini Challenge Cup and lost to Indiana, 2-1, and Florida, 3-0.
* It’s long way from Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus to California, but the Blackbirds had not trouble adjusting on their trip to San Francisco for the USF odwalla Nike Classic, where they beat the host team and San Jose State by the scores of 2-0 to give them four shutout wins in four games.
The trip was a homecoming for LIU’s six Californians, four of whom started against San Jose State. Ariana Calderon, the 2008 Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year, had the first goal. Also starting were senior Tasia Davis and juniors Sami Bock and Caitlin Meadows.
Tuesday’s results
* HAT TRICK HERO:
— Maggie Lupinski had three goals in 19 minutes in the second half to lead St. Joseph’s to a 5-2 comeback victory at St. Peter’s.