Salute to NCAA College Sports (1 of 3)

Here are the six student athletes pictured: 1) Trevor Moore, men's hockey, Denver; 2) Caitlin Atkinson, women's gymnastics, Auburn; 3) Luke Eddy, men's basketball, Elon; 4) Casey DiNardo, women's lacrosse, UNC; 5) Nick Marrocco, men's hockey, Georgetown; 6) Marissa Beucler, women's gymnastics, Kentucky.......

Top 10 Dinner Guests: Will Alexandra Petri Be Running Late.....

Greetings to our blog readers in Ireland, Greece and Pakistan....

Today, we start a new entry series as we look at ten dinner guests we would love to have at our table for dinner; we got this idea from both "Washingtonian" magazine http://www.washingtonian.com and the NPR show "The Dinner Party Download" http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org which runs on radio stations such as WUNC-FM (91.5-Chapel Hill, NC) http://www.wunc.org

Among our guests would be "Washington Post" social life columnist Alexandra Petri http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/ who wrote a vintage column about the art of losing.

The other people who made our top ten include: 1) Ambassador Rudolf Bekink of The Netherlands (pict. top), 2) Film director Sofia Coppola (pict. center) and 3) Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.). Here is our top ten:

1. Rudolf Bekink

2. Sofia Coppola

3. Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va; even though we don't tend to agree with him).....

4) Gillian Jacobs of "Community"

5) Stephan Pastis, comic strip guy

6) Alexandra Petri

7) Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)

8) Parker Posey, independent film actress

9) Zeynep Tufekci, UNC professor, expert on Turkey

10) Roy Williams, UNC men's basketball coach

College Gymnastics List (3 or 4): EAGL and Big 12 Gymnasts Combined

If one thinks college basketball is confusing with conference realignments, then one should consider some of the things happening with college gymnastics.

For starters, the Big 12 Conference has only ten teams in most sports, and one of those teams is West Virginia University which is quite far away from conference rival Texas Tech. But, WVU has a women's gymnastics teams and Texas Tech doesn't. In fact, there are only three schools in the Big 12 with women's gymnastics programs, Oklahoma, which is a contender for a national championship, and Iowa State.

Then, there is the EAGL Conference which included some ACC schools, some Big East schools, and some Atlantic-10 schools, but next year, EAGL members Rutgers and Maryland are joining the Big 10. West Virginia was also an EAGL member; in fact, the Mountaineers have still won more conference titles than the other schools, before they moved to the Big 12.

So, in this entry, we are combining the two conferences, and if you are reading this entry in 2015, keep these changes in mind.

Without further confusion (we can imagine that blog-readers in Hong Kong are scratching their heads), here is the list:

1) Haley Watts, University of North Carolina. Junior (pictured top)

2) Henrietta Green, Iowa State*. Senior (pictured center)

3) Stephanie Giameo. Maryland^. Junior (pictured bottom)

4) Diahanna Ham. North Carolina State. Senior.

5) Nicolette Swoboda. West Virginia* Freshman.

6) Taylor Spears. Oklahoma*. Senior.

7) Nicole Pearson. Pittsburgh. Sophomore.

8) Alyssa Straub, Rutgers^. Senior

9) Meghan Pflieger. Univ. of New Hampshire. Freshman.

10) Lauren Ross, Towson, Junior.

George Washington University (GWU) is also an EAGL member.

*-Denotes Big 12 schools

^-Denotes schools moving to the Big Ten next year

College Game Day Facebook Feeds (Mostly Women's Gymnastics): Lots of Pink Meets

Here are some Facebook feeds for this afternoon, mostly regarding college gymnastics. At least three college women's gymnastics teams: UNC, Arizona and West Virginia are holding pink meets for Breast Cancer Awareness:

1) UNC Gymnastics: "WEAR PINK!!! And come out tonight and support your Tar Heels as they take on Pitt at 7pm in Carmichael."

2) Michigan Hockey: "51 days, it's finally game day at the Yost! No. 12 Michigan Hockey hosts No.9 Wisconsin tonight at 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised on the Big 10 Network."

3) Arizona Gymnastics: "Come support the Gymcats this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. as they take on Pac-12 rival Washington. It's our breast cancer awareness meet so wear pink!"

4) UCLA Gymnastics: "Meet Day! UCLA at Cal tonight in Sadiqua Bynum's hometown of Berkeley. Watch it live on Pac-12 Lost Angeles."

5) Radford University Highlanders: Ayana Avery of Radford women's basketball breaks single-season record for three-pointers in 63-62 win over Coastal Carolina."

6) Nebraska Gym: "Tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. come help the Huskers light up the night against Minnesota. First 800 fans get free light-up wand.

7) UNC-Greensboro Athletics: "Men's Hoops Looks to Maintain Momentum Saturday Against Georgia Southern."

http://www.collegegymfans.com

Sports Desk: UNC Edges NC State in Home Gymnastics Meet

Greetings to our blog readers in Canada, Sweden and Mongolia........we do actually hits from there every now and then!

When I first saw the results of the meet in Chapel Hill, NC, yesterday between the home University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the visiting North Carolina State Wolfpack, I mistakenly thought that NC State had won.

Though we try to be completely objective when it comes to college gymnastics, to prevent an influx of hate emails from Athens, Ga., or Tuscaloosa, Ala., but so that no one would be wrong about the outcome we posted an image of the UNC mascot Rameses ** over the NC State mascot Mr. Wuf.

The final score of the meet was UNC 194.975 NC State 193.950.

Amazingly and ironically enough, the Wolfpack actually swept the all-around with Brittni Watkins leading the way with an AA score of 39.325.

Watkins also won the bars  (individual scores) event with teammates Stephanie Oullette scoring a 9.8 and Diahanna Ham scoring a 9.725 on the event. Lexi Cappali scored the highest on the bars for UNC with a 9.875, one of the two events that UNC won along with the floor exercise.

The 'Pack won the balance beam as Hannah Fallanca, who went to Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, a city that is some 80 miles west of Raleigh, winning the event with a 9.925. Haley Watts, who had the top AA score for the 'Heels, came in second on the beam with a 9.900.

On vault, the 'Pack featured strong performances from Watkins (9.875), Oullette (9.825) and Fallanca (9.775). Though NC State won the event, UNC closed the gap on the vault with stand-out scores from Cappali (9.775) and Watts (9.75).

The two teams will see each other again on Friday, as NC State hosts a home meet in Raleigh.

In addition to UNC, traditional Big 10 powerhouse Michigan and Towson University (Maryland) will be heading south to face the 'Pack.

It will be interesting to see if Mr. Wuf * shows up on Friday.

*_Yes, there is actually a Mrs. Wuf as well.

**_ We have Rameses spelled incorrectly in our link.....we forgot the 's' at the end

College Volleyball Notebook: Good Weekend for the Other UNC

As we posted on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com the University of North Carolina Tarheels had an outstanding weekend with two home wins over Clemson and Georgia Tech.

As it turns out, it was also a good weekend for the University of Northern Colorado Bears in Greeley, Colo., as the team won a pair home games including a three-set sweep over Sacramento State on Sunday.

Ashley Guthrie (pictured) was named Big Sky Player of the Week for her efforts, which included 33 assists, six digs and four kills in the Sacramento State win.

Here is a look at west coast college volleyball scores from weekend play:

Northern Colorado 3 North Dakota 1

Stanford 3 Colorado 0

UCLA 3 Oregon State 0

Santa Clara 3 BYU 1

Cal 3 Colorado 1

Hawaii 3 UC-Santa Barbara 2

Northern Colorado 3 Sacramento State 0

USC 3 Oregon State 0

Stanford 3 Utah 0

Oregon 3 UCLA 2

8 Things You Need to Know: Turkish Soccer Riot, the Durham Bulls and Billy Bragg on Tour in America

Here are 8 Things You Need to Know Today:

1) The 11th Annual Washington D.C. Turkish Festival gets underway this weekend. The event will take place between 12th and 14th Street, two blocks from the White House, of course, Turkish food will be served!

2) In a nationally-televised game on ESPN-U tonight at 8:00 p.m. (eastern time) the undefeated University of North Carolina Tarheels take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack (Mr. Wuf, one of the Wolfpack mascots is pictured bottom) in women's volleyball. UNC has two international players in Ece Taner, a junior from Turkey, and Jovana Bjelica, a gradate student from Serbia. The Wolfpack's lineup includes stand-out Tamm Aljoe.

3) Ivy League women's volleyball gets underway this weekend. Among the games is a match between visiting Columbia University and Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY, at 2:00 p.m. Kelly Marble of Davie, Fla., is among the seniors for Cornell.

4) A major soccer riot broke out in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, in extra time, no less! The game featured two Istanbul powerhouse rivals, Galatasaray and Besiktas. The game had 76,000 spectators in Ataturk Stadium. The Eagles of Besiktas had a 1-0 lead going into half-time. But, Ivory Coast stand-out Didier Drogba scored two goals within minutes for the Lions of Galatasaray. Felipe Melo, (pictured top),got a red card in the 92nd minute, and shortly thereafter hooligans came down on the field. There is still no official winner of the game. Various sources blame far right wing activists disguised as Besiktas fans for the incident, but there appears to no conclusive resolve as to who is to blame. For more on this situation, and Turkish soccer, we highly recommend the blog of our friend Ahmet Bob Turgut: http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

5) Kudos to the Durham Bulls of Durham, NC, (pictured middle) as the Triple-A affiliate of the Tamps Rays won its fourth International League title by besting the Pawtucket (Rhode Island) Red Sox. The team went on to the Minor League World Series, which was won by the Omaha (Nebraska) Storm Chasers. Vince Belnome of the Bulls was named as the MVP of the Rays' organization.

6) Legendary progressive singer Billy Bragg, who hails from England, takes the stage at the State Theatre in State College, Pa., which is home to Penn State University, on Oct. 2nd. The venue is located at 1300 W. College Avenue.

7) Insert Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joke here........

8) Teasers: We are hoping to post entries about tweets regarding Washington, DC, and quips from some of our favorite novels on this blog later in the week.

http://www.milb.com/index.jsp?sid=t234 (Durham Bulls)

http://www.turkish-football.com/

http://www.billybragg.co.uk/

http://www.turkishfestival.org

7 Words in Norwegian (5 of 7): Shark

The Norwegian word for shark is hai, or shark=hai. The image above is from the American cartoon "Jabberjaw," which ran on ABC in 1976.

SIDEBAR ONE: Kudos to the University of North Carolina for the team's 3-0 win over Notre Dame in the season-opener for women's volleyball. The other UNC (University of Northern Colorado) won as well as the team defeated Cal Poly 3-1. Other victors from the first night of women's college volleyball included North Carolina State's 3-0 over Cleveland State and my alma mater Radford University's 3-0 home win over North Carolina A & T.

SIDEBAR TWO: A few weeks ago on Facebook, my friend Ara Baliozian, a respected Canadian author of Armenian heritage, made the following observation: "Marriage is the best cure for love as suicide is the best antidote for a fear of death."

SIDEBAR THREE: There were lots of interesting tweets tonight on Twitter, and most were about trivial matters, such as Miley Cyrus shedding her Marie Osmond image once and for all, or very delicate news items, such as the Syria crisis. But it was this one from @MarketplaceATM (the NPR/American public radio show "Marketplace") which stood out: "15% of all Americans are offline."


http://www.marketplace.org

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.baliozian.blogspot.com

Kudos to UNC Women's Lacrosse Team and Remembering Fallen Soldiers

Kudos to the University of North Carolina's women lacrosse team which pulled off an upset over the top-ranked University of Maryland to win an NCAA national championship by a 13-12 margin in a game that lasted three overtimes in Villanova, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia.

Ironically, UNC's long-standing rival the Duke Blue Devils prevailed in the men's final in Philadelphia today by defeating Syracuse 16-10.

For the Lady Tar Heels, Sammy Jo Tracy, a sophomore from Bedford, NY, scored the magical, winning goal against the Lady Terps, a team that finished the season at 22-1, with Sunday's loss being their first ever of the year.

It was the Terps that won the ACC title in the sport a few weeks ago; UNC is in the same conference. The Tar Heels finished 18-3, and the game was the longest women's lacrosse title game in NCAA history. Tracy scored the goal a mere 31 seconds into the third overtime.

The Tar Heels flew back from Philadelphia this morning, and they were greeted home by a jubilant group of supporters upon arriving back in North Carolina.

SIDEBAR: We also want to take a moment to recognize fallen soldiers who lost their lives while serving combat missions for the American military. Today is Memorial Day here in America. My late stepfather Donald Sullivan was a WW-2 veteran.

Today, President Barack Obama marked Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., where the likes of President John F. Kennedy, boxer Joe Louis and actor Lee Marvin are buried. In his comments, Obama spoke to veterans in attendance and to troops who are still serving in the war in Afghanistan.

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil

http://www.arlingtonva.us

http://www.visitchapel.org

http://www.unc.edu

Top 10 Things 2 Do in the Next Week (or so..........)

On occasion when something we want to post becomes too complicated, we resort to our proverbial old bag of tricks, which might also work for David Copperfield (for those of you in Tajikistan, he is an American magician).

And, one of our traditional entries, even dating back to our earliest entries way back in the stone ages of 2005, was a Top 10 Things To Do List; this effectively postpones our hopes to make fun of conservative newspaper columnist Cal Thomas.

So, here is our latest installment, we imagine at the BBC, they are never this desperate:

1) Taxes (the reason for the image of the vintages Mr. Professor children's calculators from the 1970s; I don't live in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, but if I did, I'd check in with Ronald A. Weiss)

2) Watch a tape of the University of North Carolina-Clemson baseball game that we recorded on Monday from ESPN-U (this is the reason for the image of a tiger; the Clemson mascot is a tiger with no name, but finding a suitable image of that tiger proved to be difficult and time-consuming as is this explanation)

3) Go to West Virginia

4) Eat a gyro

5) Get new library card

6) Read the Torah (It should be pointed out that I am not Jewish, but I did get a copy of the holy book for one dollar at an estate sale; the image below is of a synagogue in the Czech Republic).

7) Go through old records........as in stuff from bands like The Bee Gees

8) Write a poem (for myself, not for a woman- that never seems to work in real life)

9) Get stamps

10) Read the current issue of the Sunday "Washington Post." (We personally love how the woman always says the man that she is hooked up with in 'Date Lab' is never good enough or lives a few many Metro stops away from her!).

Friday Night Tweets: Hooray for Danica Patrick

We initially tried to get a picture of Danica Patrick, the women's race car driver who won the trials of the Daytona 500, in a bikini to get higher hits, but we figure that those image have stern copyrights. And, besides, we are popular in Dubai!

Here are tonight's tweets. It should be pointed out that tomorrow the University of North Carolina is facing ACC rival North Carolina State in a key men's basketball game. Those two schools met tonight in college gymnastics, and the UNC Tar Heels edged out the visiting Wolfpack:


1) Toledo Walleye @ToledoWalleye: "Kyle Rogers got his second consecutive goal!" (The Toledo Walleye won their home minor league hockey game over the Wheeling Nailers 5-2 tonight).

2) WRAL News in NC @wral (WRAL is the NBC-affiliate in Raleigh, NC): "UNC, NC State set for pivotal ACC contest."

3) Alabama Gymnastics @BamaGymnastics: "Alabama and Arkansas are tied @ the midway point of the meet after scoring matching 49.425s on vault and 49.175s on uneven bars."

4) Duke's Men's Lacrosse @Duke M-LAX: "And Penn scores after the 30-second warning goes on. Quakers lead #Duke 13-9, 3:00 to go." (Penn was hosting Duke)

5) Tar Heel Monthly @Tarheel Monthly: "Congrats to @uncwlax on big win tonight in Chapel Hill, topping No. 1 Northwestern 11-8."

6) The Onion @TheOnion: "In Sports: Danica Patrick Lauded for Breaking Down Barriers for Attractive Women." ("The Onion" is a faux news publication, Patrick is pictured on in our top image).

7) Anchorage Daily News @Adndotcom: (SPOILER ALERT: We love this one!) "Anchorage mother and son jailed in attempt 80 pounds of marijuana to Alaska."

8) University of Akron @uakron: "Retweet @ZipsMBB: Zeke Marshall hits two at the line, Akron leads 60-45 with 1:49 to go #ZipsGameDay." (Akron went on to beat North Dakota State 68-53; the game is part of Bracket Busters, which is a weekend when teams from secondary conferences in college basketball play each other. Marshall is in the middle image).

9) Kansas City @VisitKC: "The second full moon cycle will be here next week. Are you ready?"

http://www.visitkc.com

http://www.toledowalleye.com

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.uakron.edu

http://www.danicaracing.com

http://www.espnbracketbusters.com

Tweets for a Snowy Night

It's snowing in Maryland, Washington DC, West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia, here is a look a some tweets for a snowy, snowy night:

1) Gator Gymnastics @GatorZoneGym: Freshman Bridgette Caquatto makes her debut on uneven bars tonight with a 9.8! #GoGators

2) UNC Women's Lacrosse @uncwlax: Enjoying the snow here in Chapel Hill.

3) NC A&T @ncatsaggies: #NCAT will open at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

4) Robin Reed @wxman7: Looking for reports on road conditions mainly residential- in your area- send me a quick tweet or picture! (Reed is a long-time weather reporter for WDBJ Channel 7 in my hometown of Roanoke, Va.)

5) NC State Gymnastics @PackGymnastics: "Diahanna Ham notches the top-score on beam for the Pack with a 9.775"

6) Cornell Daily Sun @CornellSun: W. Hockey. C.U. heads on the Road to Play Ivy Rivals Yale, Brown.

7) Denver Gymnastics @DU_Gymnastics: The traditional 'calling of the hogs; here at Arkansas just took place. Both teams getting set for the first touch warm-up.

Bonus Road Trip- (6 of 10) Springfield, Vt., to Springfield, Mass.

First of all, our apologies to Stephen Colbert and Morgan Spurlock. We were unable to put Colbert's, a political humorist/actor, and Spurlock's names into the tags from our last blog, so we will just simply, arbitrarly mention them here.

Today, we compare the relatively short distance between Springfield, Mass., home to the Basketball Hall of Fame, to Springfield, Vermont, which actually beat out all Springfields to host the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" in 2007. Since many believe that the Springfield in "The Simpsons" is modeled after Springfield, Mass. (though that is never mentioned), many in basketball town were disappointed.

But, the premiere screening of the film took place in a historic old cinema in Springfied, Vt., which was pleasantly pleased with the publicity.

There are also Springfields in Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, Kentucky and...ahhh, I'm getting a headache!

Of course, if one were to take this short drive, they would probably want to go in a school bus, but they may not want a person like Otto Mann, (hmmm, I wonder if this is a joke about the Ottoman Empire; I am a Turkish-American, so I suppose I should be humored or annoyed by this. Ironically, Principal Skinner is an Armenian-American!), who is voiced by the great Harry Shearer.

Shearer, who is not only known for voicing Otto and Principal Skinner, but his great acting in the 1985 cult classic "This is Spinal Tap!," recently showed his serious side with a documentary called "The Big Uneasy" about the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. Shearer is a part-time resident of New Orleans.

So, is the distance between these two zip codes?:

A) 1 hour, 20 minutes

B) 1 hour, 30 minutes

C) 1 hour, 40 minutes

D) 1 hour, 55 minutes

E) 2 hours, 10 minutes

SIDEBAR: Alas, the University of North Carolina Tarheels women's volleyball team fell to Pepperdine University on the host school's home floor in Malibu, Calif., late last night (eastern time). The score for the Waves was 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-22), but junior Emily McGee of the 'Heels scared 18 kills; for her career, she now has 1,0004 kills in NCAA play.

SIDEBAR 2: Yes, it does appear that presidential campaign of fringe, far-right Republican candidate Herman Cain is now over with. But, we saw a tweet from "The Huffington Post" which said the former Godfather's Pizza baron, who has not admitted to infedelity or sexual harrassments charges, allegedly did fess up to quoting Pokemon in various campaign speeches.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Gyumri is Armenia's Second City

Today, we continue our look at former republics of the Soviet Union that are now independent countries with a look at Armenia. By the way, we think this sheep is from Scotland. Armenia is a predominantly rural country that overlooks Mount Ararat, with lots of hills, and therefore, lots and lots of sheep.

As it is, since I am a Turkish-American (Turkey and Armenia are traditional rivals, and yes there is a controversial, dark chapter of history between the two sides which we are not going into), there are plenty of other things I will need to do here, including making sure that I have spelled Armenia's prime minister Tigran Sargsyan's name correctly. Sargsyan is relatively close to age to President Barack Obama, as he is 51, which makes him a year older than Obama.

Gyumri is actually the answer to what is Armenia's second largest city behind the capital Yerevan. It is in fairly close proximity to Kars, Turkey.

In May of 2010, Gyumri was the site of major political demonstrations organized by the Armenian National Congress. During these protests, former prime minister Hrant Bagratian criticized the government in Yerevan, according to Radio Free Europe.

Gyumri has a population of 168, 918, roughly the same size as the American city of Greenville, South Carolina. Gyrumi has many historic Orthodox churches, including Saint Jacob and Holy Mother of God.

The city is also home to a large domestic brewery and the Armenian League soccer team FC Shirak, a team that has a player named Hovhannes Tahmazyan, who turns 42 in January (wow!).

Gyumri is also the hometown of Soviet Olympic weight-lifting great Yurik Vardanian who won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

This is the next-to-last profile of former Soviet states in our series. The final entry will be dedicated to Azerbaijan.

SIDEBAR: We wanted to give a quick update from yesterday's first round NCAA women's volleyball games. The University of North Carolina Tarheels prevailed over the tenth ranked California Bears in a game that was played in 'neutral' Malibu, Calif., which is considerably closer to Berkeley than Chapel Hill.

The 'Heels won the match 3-2 (25-17, 16-25, 23-25, 25-17, 15-9). Junior Emily McGee lead the way with 23 kills and 18 digs for UNC. The 'Heels now face Pepperdine on the California school's home court.

But, the 'other UNC' the University of Northern Colorado was swept by Hawaii in a game that didn't finish until the wee hours of the morning on the east coast as it was played in Honolulu. The final score of that match was 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-15). Hawaii had a 29-1 record coming into the match, and were highly favored; they will next play Colorado State.

It was also a bad day for UNC's traditional rival Duke University (the two teams only played each other once this year in Durham, NC, a game that Duke won) as they fell to Tennessee 3-1 in a game that was played on the Lady Vols' home court; the Vols next face Ohio State.

Sports Desk- Women's NCAA Volleyball Tourney Begins

The University of Hawaii Rainbow (picture; 29-1) will be among the 64 teams seeking the NCAA Women's national championship in volleyball. The team will start play in Honolulu against the University of Northern Colorado Bears. Among the standouts for Hawaii are Kanani Danielson, Emily Maeda and Jane Croson. The Rainbow have won 24 games in a row; the Bears have not played in Hawaii since 2003.

Eight teams from the Big 10 made the field as did five teams from the PAC 12, including Oregon, which will play against Colorado State in Honolulu.

The more familiar UNC, the school in Chapel Hill, NC, will head all the way out to Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., to face the University of California. Last week, the Cal Bears upset sixth-ranked Stanford thanks to Tarah Murray, who was named Pac 12 Player of the Week. But, the Bears will face a solid challenge from the Tarheels as the team features Cameron Von Noy, the ACC Freshman of the year. And, three All ACC players in Kaylie Gibson, Emily McGee and Chaniel Nelson. The two teams play at 5:00 p.m. (esatern time) on Dec. 1.

Two of the other three ACC schools in the field of 64 include both Florida State and Miami (Fl).

The Seminoles actually get to host their first round game against the University of Albany. The 'Noles have perhaps the most internationally diverse squad in the field as their roster includes the likes of Duygu Duzceler and Fatma Yildirim (both from Turkey), Rachael Morgan (New Zealand), Patricia Fiqueriedo (Brazil) as well as two players from Serbia and one from Latvia. Their opponents, the Great Danes, lead by senior Brooke Stanley also have a player from Croatia. That game will take place on Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Their conference and in-state rivals Miami (Fl) travel to Ames, Iowa (Iowa State University), to face Northern Illinois. The Hurricanes team includes ACC Player of the Year Lane Carico.

The top four teams in the field are Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa State and Texas. The national championship game will be played on Dec. 17th in San Antonio, Texas.

In the whoops department, we misinformed the public by saying that my alma mater Radford University had won the Big South Tournament in Charleston, SC, several days ago. It was in fact our arch rivals, the Liberty Flames, that won the tournament. But, the team from Lynchburg, Va., now has the challenge of facing defending four-time NCAA champion Penn State on the Nittany Lions' home floor.

SIDEBAR: Since we have many blog readers in Turkey, at least as of late (I am a Turkish-American), I thought it would be good to run a list of scores from this weekend's soccer action. In what was arguably the game of the week, Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas beat Trabzonspor 1-0. A feat that is made more impressive because Trabzonspor is playing Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League at the moment.

Here is a partial list of other scores from the Turkish Premiere League:

Samsunspor 1 Antalyaspor 0
GalataSaray 2 Sivasspor 1
Ankara GB 0 Fenerbahce (Istanbul) 0
Karabukspor 2 Bursaspor 0

Happy National College Radio Day

Happy National College Radio Day. I co-hosted a Turkish music show on WUVT-FM (90.7-FM) in 1994, so I fully respect the hard work and dedication that all college radio djs put in. Today's Turkish music show on WUVT-FM is called "Turkish Music Hour" and it airs from 1:00-2:30 p.m. (yes, it is an ironic title since the show lasts an hour and a half). I still listen to the show, and I think it's quite well-done. The hosts have in fact thought me about the Turkish female pop singer Nil Karaibrahimgil who is apparently very popular now.

There is a Greek music show before the Turkish show, as was the case when my friend Bahadir and I co-hosted the show. And, it is also quite good.

Since I now live in North Carolina, I also want to mention four exceptional college radio stations between Greensboro and Raleigh. They include WKNC (North Carolina State), which has a great heavy metal show on Friday nights, WXDU (Duke University, pictured) which has a great folk/local music show hosted by Washboard Dave.

In addition, there is WXYC (UNC) and WUAG (UNC-Greensboro).

SIDEBAR: This was a good weekend for many ACC sports team in Virginia and North Carolina. In college football, Wake Forest pulled off a huge upset of Florida State by a 35-30 score. Similarly, the Virginia Tech Hokies were able to defend their home turf in an exciting 38-35 win over Miami (Fla).

Not that this is pick on the Miami Hurricanes Day, but the UNC Tarheels won a home volleyball in five sets over the Hurricanes yesterday. Emily McGee of the Tarheels was named ACC Volleyball Player of the Week. On Thursday, the Tarheels, which also have a Turkish player named Ece Taner, host the Virginia Tech Hokies, a team that features junior Liz Trinchere, who is an alumnus of my high school, Glenvar High School in Salem, Va.

Sports Desk- Vikings and Spartans Victorious in Virginia

Yes, a Spartan mask from a museum was not our initial choice for an image for this blog, but all the marching band photos were either too big or unavailable for legal reasons.

As it is, my alma mater Glenvar High School from Salem, Va., was not in action, but 'the big school' Salem High School was. And, the Salem Spartans defeated the William Byrd Terriers 27-13 in a home game.

Up the road, the visiting Northside Vikings beat the Hidden Valley Titans 21-17. Hidden Valley High School is one of two Roanoke-area high schools, including Eastern Montgomery High School, which did not exist in the 1980s, when I was a star quarterback for the Glenvar Highlanders (that is a joke, our real quarterback was a guy named Barry).

Here is a rundown of other high school scores from the Roanoke/Lynchburg/Blacksburg region:

Cave Spring 34 Lord Botetourt 18
Christiansburg 47 Bassett 0
Galax 43 Radford 0
Magna Vista 28 Franklin County 26
E.C. Glass 21 William Fleming 20
Martinsville 44 Liberty 34
George Wythe 31 Floyd County 19

SIDEBAR: We learned recently that an alum of Glenvar High School named Liz Trinchere plays volleyball for Virginia Tech. The Hokies were victorious over their arch rivals the University of Virginia Cavaliers by a 3 sets to 1 score in Blacksburg. Cara Baarendsey, a junior from Mason, Ohio, scored 13 kills and 16 digs for the Hokies in the home victory.

It was a mixed bag for the UNC Tarheels in women's volleyball this weekend. The team hosted the Tarheels Classic, and they scored wins over St. Louis and Miami (Ohio), but the 'Heels feel to Tulsa 3-1. Kaylie Gibson of Apex, NC, and Aleksandra Georgieva of Bulgaria combined for 13 kills despite the loss.

Conversely, my alma mater Radford University fell in a road game to UNC-Greensboro in the Spartan Spiketacular in straight sets on Saturday in front of 311 spectators. Radford Highlanders senior Carly Fleming of Manassas, Va., did become the school's all-time solo blocks leader (50) in spite of the defeat.

Karrian Chambers, from College Station, Tex., helped guide the Spartans to their victory and she recieved all-conference honors as well.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- UNC Mascot

For those of us who live on the North Carolina-Virginia border, the annual football game between the Virginia Tech Hokies, where my late father and sister went to school, and The University of North Carolina is perhaps more exciting than the in-state rivalries, especially since Wake Forest, Duke and The University of Virginia have weak football programs at the moment.

The game takes place on Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill, and I know my friend Greensboro, NC, folk singer Bruce Piephoff will be rooting for his beloved Tarheels. We should also mention that Bruce is actually performing in Aberdeen,NC (not Southern Pines, NC, as we stated in our 'Easy Rider' entry yesterday; we are too lazy to make corrections) at The Rooster's Wife on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

SIDEBAR: Our beloved Ragsdale Flying Tigers in Jamestown, NC, (not my alma mater) beat rival Glenn HS 49-21 to advance in the North Carolina state high school football playoffs tonight.


Other state scores are as follows:

High Point Central 28 Smith 22

Eastern Alamance 36 Rockingham County 10

Randleman 36 Reidsville 35

Carrboro 55 Whiteville 33

It Was a VERY Bad Day...

I'm not an African-American, like this guy is, but I love the expression on his face. It pretty much sums up everything I went through today in which nothing went according to plan and I was pretty much miserable the whole day.

Yesterday, however was a pleasant day which made this a bit of a surprise!

But, I do want to thank the UNC college radio station dj for WXYC-FM who played my request for the David Bowie/Queen classic "Under Pressure." I was listening to his show from Virginia via the Internet. He also played Kate Bush's classic "Running Up That Hill," which I was ironically thinking about earlier in the day.

I can definitely sympathize for the football players from Charlottesville High School in Charlottesville, Va., as they lost to Robert E. Lee High School (from Staunton, Va.) by a 42-6 margin. Interestingly enough, I have close friends who are alumnus of both schools. My presumption is that neither Greg or Tom really care about this!

But, my alma mater Glenvar High School (Salem, Va.) defeated James River High School (Buchanan, Va.) by a 41-34 margin, according to "The Roanoke Times."

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that for me, it was still quite a lousy day!

NC State Women's Gymnastics Team Upsets Nebraska.

I was at the NCAA gymnastics meet held at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC, on the North Carolina State University campus where the home-team Wolfpack upset tenth ranked Nebraska. The University of North Carolina was also at the meet, and came in third though Christine Nguyen (pictured) won the all-around competition.

According to the Wolfpacks' gymnastics team web site, there were 3,721 fans on-hand to witness the most impressive win in the program's history (It should be noted that the Wolfpack gymnast pictured here who we believe to be Ashley Shepard was on last year's team).

The Wolfpacks' coach Mark Stevenson said he was very pleased with his team's performance.

"I'm really excited about how the meet turned out," Stevenson said. "We beat Nebraska for the first time ever and they are a top ten team."

The Wolfpack scored a seson best 9.875 as freshman Rachel Fincham posted that same score on the bars event. The 'Pack were also helped out with strong performances from Jess Panza, Brooke Barr and Becca Teich. Barr and Teich finished second and third respectively in the all-around competition behind Nguyen.

As for the visiting Cornhuskers (we tried to find an image of a gymnast, but alas we had to settle for one of the team's mascots!), coach Dan Kendig told Brendan Carl of "The Daily Nebraskan" that he gave his team a pep talk going into the fourth rotation when they realized they were down to the Wolfpack by a considerable margin.

But, in the end, it simply wasn't enough to overcome.

"I wish we had a better showing, but we will live to see a better day," Kendig told "The Daily Nebraskan."

For the 'Huskers, senior Kylie Stone gave a good performance and she told the newspaper that her team stayed tough in spite of a poor balance beam performance.

As for the Tarheels, the loss featured many positives as Nguyen won her fourth all-around title which prompted her to being named EAGL (east coast collegiate gymnastics conference) Gymnast of the Week as she score an impressive 39.375 in Raleigh.

'Heels coach Derek Galvin told the UNC women's gymnastic's team's web site that he was delighted with ther performances from his team which included a 9.800 on the balance beam from stand-out gymnast Kara Wright.

"Going into this week our focus was on bringing our beam routines up to the level of the other events," Galvin said. "We did that and we surpassed them."

The Wolfpack stay in Raleigh to face the always tough Pitt Panthers on Saturday night. Fans who bring in two books can get in for free as part of a literacy program that the team is sponsoring.