North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 117, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 19, 2019 Page: 4 of 6
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SPORTS
NTDAILY.COM
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2019
Page 4
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UNT’s source for baseball set for new year
Senior set to take one
GOLF CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
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Chris Giaccardi throws the ball towards an outfielder on Sept. 12,2019. Zach Thomas
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last swing, has focus
on NCAA tournament
Junior forward Berklee Peters looks for a shot on goal against
Grambling State on Sept. 13,2019 Peters played a season
high of 87 minutes at home against the Tigers. Jacob
McCready_____________________________________
By Matthew Suarez
@thereal_Suarez
By Jack Brown
@J_brown131
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After a 6-16 finish to the 2018 club baseball
season, senior president Chris Giaccardi has
one word for the upcoming season.
“Underdogs,” Giaccardi said. “Usually we
are always down a little bit, either numbers,
talent, it’s something. So we have to come out
playing better baseball, with more confidence
and swagger.”
The UNT baseball club is not an NCAA-
sanctioned program and runs under UNT
Recreational Sports. The UNT athletic
department has included a baseball stadium
for a potential program in the athletics Master
Plan, according to lightthetower.com. The
athletic department noted in an interview with
the Daily that they didn’t want to entertain
the idea of a baseball program until all of the
existing programs were well funded.
The baseball program sits in a four-team
conference that consists of Baylor, Texas Tech
and SMU. Since other three programs in the
conference all have NCAA-sanctioned teams,
they have the ability to grab players that didn’t
make the cut. The program’s overall record,
The North Texas soccer team (5-3) has had
ups and downs through their stretch of eight
non-conference games to begin the season.
Nevertheless, the Mean Green will use these games
as catalysts to enhance what needs to be fixed and
magnify their strengths. They got off to a 3-0 start
with wins against Northwestern State (3-5), Texas
Southern (1-6) and Houston Baptist (1-6) in which
they outscored their opponents 14-1 and held their
first two opponents to zero shot attempts.
After starting undefeated, the Mean Green
suffered two losses against Texas Tech (7-1) and
No. 24 Memphis (7-1). They were outscored 5-0
through those two games and saw their shot
attempts decrease. However, despite allowing
Memphis to score one goal, their match against the
Tigers went down to the wire.
“I feel like the non-conference really did help
our team going into conference,” junior forward
Berklee Peters said. “We have a lot of new players
and freshmen and they now know what to expect
going into it. So they really need work on being
more physical and I feel like they have been doing
that but I think it really has helped us especially
with the new freshmen and transfers.”
North Texas finished it’s non-conference
schedule with wins against Incarnate Word (1-6)
and Grambling State (3-4-1) and a 3-1 loss against
Alabama (5-2-1) in Tuscaloosa.
“I think what’s prepared us is playing a Big
12 school and [Alabama] and a ranked team,”
junior forward Brooke Lampe said. “I think thats
basically getting ready to fight and know how to
play against really strong teams and players. I
think there’s going to be some strong teams [in
conference] but I don’t think they’re going to be as
strong as the other teams we’ve played. It teaches
up all of our newcomers and transfers about how
tough it’s going to be in conference so it kind of
toughens us up before heading to conference.”
After the Alabama game, Peters’ lone goal
tied her career high (6) for most goals in a
season. Despite already matching their loss total
from 2018, the women’s soccer team saw things
they could do to help improve themselves as a
team heading into Conference USA play.
“I think it’s very helpful,” senior defender
Natalie Newell said. “I mean some were Power
5 schools with very fast pace and it really just
helps show what we need to work on going into
J
just get the fundamentals down so I can play
ball next semester,” Pellegrini said.
Every year, the club participates in the
Wood Wars Tournament in Euless, Texas. Two
years ago, the team won it all and that’s their
main goal this year and every year. However,
they want to go beyond that tournament
and conquer the conference, their regional
opponents and winning nationals in North
Carolina.
“We try to go all the way and take it one step
at a time,” Giaccardi said.
The club plays six regular season series in
their fall season, five of which are at home.
Their matchups include Oklahoma State,
Southern Methodist, Texas Tech, Texas and
Lamar. Texas is the only series that won’t be
played at their home park.
Following their under .500 performance
in 2018, the team is looking for 2019 to be a
comeback season. Their year begins on Sept. 21
against Oklahoma State.
“I definitely think this will be a bounce-
back year,” Giaccardi said. “We have had a
talk with all the returners from last year about
mentality, we have a lot of talent but just didn’t
get the job done.”
/ Y 4 ^,
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Lauren Cox Courtesy Mean Green Sports
“[Cox] is a great person
overall, she has a great work
ethic on and off the green,”
Sinolungan said. “She works
really hard and it all pays off in
the tournaments.”
She went on to mention what
it meant for the Mean Green to
have Cox compete in the NCAA
Regionals.
“It motivates [us] as a team to
come through and play our best
to make it there this year and
hopefully move on to nationals,”
Sinolungan said.
With this being her last
year of college eligibility, Cox
aims to make the best with the
team around her and win their
tournaments as well as make it
to regionals.
“This year we have a really
good team so I think this year we
expect to win a lot,” Cox said. “ It
would be nice to graduate with a
couple of wins and to make it to
regionals, maybe nationals.”
V AY
Soccer begins C-USA play with Old Dominion
conference along with what we can fix
and what our strengths are.”
North Texas’ only 2018 conference
loss came at the hands of Old Dominion
after losing 4-0 on the Monarchs’
home turf. They also lost 3-1 to Old
Dominion the season previous (2016-
17). However this year, the Mean
Green will host the Monarchs for the
first time in two years. The Mean
Green currently hold a 23-0 unbeaten
streak at home and a win against Old
Dominion would tie their program
record.
“We’re prepared for it, since we
kind of don’t play our best against [Old
Dominion],” Peters said. “It’s the first
[conference] game, I feel like we’re
more prepared and want to get that
win a lot more.”
Given North Texas’ history of
underachieving against Old Dominion,
it’s become something of a rivalry,
Peters said. One of the things Peters’
stressed was getting a team that
consists of a large number of freshman
to understand the rivalry between the
Mean Green and the Monarchs.
“I know that the freshmen don’t
really understand that’s how our
rivalry with [Old Dominion] is because
we have lost to them,” Peters said. “We
need to tell [the freshmen] everything
about [Old Dominion] and just get the
win by the end of this.”
North Texas hasn’t lost a home
conference match since 2008, putting
even larger historical significance on
the matchup with Old Dominion.
“We’re really excited for that game
because we don’t want to lose that
streak,” Newell said. “We want to go
into conference 1-0 so I think everyone
is fired up and ready to go.”
The Mean Green will face the
Monarchs on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the
new Soccer and Track & Field Stadium
in Denton.
“We’re just excited for Old Dominion
and really hope that we have the school
on our back and supporting us all the
way [to] start off strong with a win,”
Lampe said.
Cox is the only senior on this
year’s women’s golf team, her
impact as a leader is something
that has been widely recognized
among her teammates. Whether
it’s her accomplishments that
pushes the team to strive for
greatness or her known work
ethic, sophomore Patricia
Sinolungan has seen it as
motivation.
dating back to the 2012-13 season, is 49-62, a
win percentage of 44.4 percent. UNT’s main
struggle in competition has been the lack of
a full team, despite recruitment efforts being
made by tabling at orientation and special
events.
“Last year, we lost a lot of people,” Giaccard’
said, “We were left with like six or seven
people, which is not a full time.”
Heading into this season, Giaccardi
and others were able to recruit 19 players,
the highest roster size since Giaccardi has
joined the team. One of these newcomers is
junior Spencer Pellegrini, who is coming off
ulnar collateral ligament and rotator cuff
injuries after spending a season in California.
Pellegrini received an offer to play baseball
at Arlington Baptist University but turned
it down because the school didn’t have his
major. UNT’s proximity to Boyd, Texas also
contributed to his decision to attend UNT and
study criminal justice.
Pellegrini is using this opportunity with
the club team to find his way to a collegiate
program.
“[I want to] get a couple wins with these
guys, go out and win the conference and really
well. She’s not intimidated by
anybody.”
Last season, Cox registered
the lowest score in a round in
school history with a 66 in the
second round of The Bruzzy.
She also became the first player
to be an All-Conference USA
selection since North Texas
joined the conference. Later
that semester, Cox was
selected to compete in
the NCAA Regionals
and although she
didn’t earn the results
she wanted, she still
managed to earn
a score of 73.90,
breaking a 16-year-old
school record.
“It was a good
experience,” Cox said.
“It was a little weird
going as an individual
after traveling with
our team the whole
semester. But it was a
good experience and
good practice for this
year.”
The senior golfer
expects to compete
beyond the collegiate level
and play in the LPGA after the
conclusion of her tenure at North
Texas. The LPGA hosts the
Q-School tournament in August
each year consisting of three
stages. Cox will have to pass and
avoid the cut each round in order
to compete in the LPGA.
The stages are a few weeks
apart, the first in California,
the second in Florida and the
third and final stage (Q-Series)
is in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Cox said she has not decided
whether or not she will keep her
amateur status and compete in
tournaments over the summer or
declare pro status and compete
at the pro level before the
qualifying series.
“You can play in small events
to prepare and get you ready for
Q-School,” Cox said. “Obviously
I still have a lot to learn. There’s
not really a handbook that comes
with it.”
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Najera, Rebecca. North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 117, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 19, 2019, newspaper, September 19, 2019; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1281518/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.