TCU Olympic Sports Update: Frogs Sweep, Swing, And See a Streak End

The lights of the big cities of sports (ESPN, FOX, etc.) are ablaze with coverage of college football, major league baseball, the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the NFL.  Not only can you find coverage of all of the actual games in these sports, but you can watch about six different TV programs that cover them every day too.  The glitz and glamour of these "major" sports are exciting, much like the hustle and bustle of the city.  Then, just beyond the horizon there is a place where the air is pure and athletes play not for their own "30 for 30", but for the love of the game and the thrill of competition.  Follow along with me today for a quick walkabout into the "Land of Underappreciated Athletics".  Let's go exploring.

VOLLEYBALL SWEEPING UP THE VICTORIES The volleyball team is on fire right now jumping out to an 8-1 record over the first few weeks of the season.  In volleyball, the non-conference schedule is broken up into a series of invitational tournaments. The Lady Frogs started out the season in the last weekend of August with the Cowtown Classic in which they won all three games against Texas opponents ACU, Texas State and UTEP with 3-0 sweeps.  The next weekend in the SDSU/USD Invitational tournament in San Diego, TCU defeated Dartmouth and SDSU with two 3-0 sweep before dropping their final match against #23 San Diego.

Just last weekend, the volleyballers went down to the bayou to take on our favorite North Temple U football opponent, Incarnate Word, Nicholls State and Tulane in the All State Sugar Bowl Invitational.  That one loss must have lit a fire under these ladies because they won all three of last weekend's games in New Orleans with 3-0 sweeps as well.  Blaire Pickens and Regan McGuire were both named to the all-tournament team last weekend and Blaire earned her first ever MVP honors.  The Lady Frogs have one more tournament, the SMU Doubletree Invitational this weekend before they open conference play next Wednesday at Texas.  They'll play the Ponies on 9/18/15 and hopefully they blank SMU because....well....hate week.

SOCCER SEES MEAN END TO WIN STREAK The soccer team dropped a tight contest to the Mean Green (I can't imagine the ladies enjoy that moniker, but okay) of North Texas on Sunday 9/13/15, a loss which ended their four game win streak.  The teams were scoreless through the first 85 minutes with TCU controlling the ball for the majority of the first half.  The Frogs had the advantage in shots 12 to 6 and shots on goal 5-3, but in the end it wasn't enough to pull out the win against the 7-1 Mean Green.

On the road to start the season, TCU dropped three of their first four games.  Al of those losses were against SEC or Big 10 competition.  Over the last four games at home, TCU had won three of four.  The loss on Sunday pushes their overall record to 4-4.  The have a chance to move to 5-4 on Friday against SMU in Dallas.

FROG GOLF GETTING INTO THE SWING OF THINGS The men's golf team had their first tournament on 9/4/15 - 9/6/15 in the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach Golf Links (yes, that Pebble Beach).  As a team they finished sixth overall out of the eight teams competing.  Paul Bajorn placed 10th individually after finishing one over after three rounds of play.

The women's golf team has played two tournaments so far, one on 9/7/15 and 9/8/15 in the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational in Manhattan Kansas where they placed second overall as a team out of 12 teams.  Three women placed in the top-10 as Brooke Graebe, Annika Clark and Emmy Martin finished seventh, ninth and tenth respectively.  On 9/14/15 and 9/15/15 they traveled to Minneapolis for the Minnesota Invitational where they finished ninth out of 12 teams with no top-10 finishes individually.

FROGS HOP CROSS COUNTRY The men's and women's cross country teams started their seasons on 9/1/15 at the Bear Twilight Invitational in Waco. Three Frogs finished in the top-20 individually in that meet.  Sophomore Anna Cozart got 11th place in the women's 4,000 with a time of 14.24.4.  Right behind her was another sophomore, Nicole Hicks, who finished the same race in 14.40.7, good for 17th overall.  Both improved on last year's times in Waco.  In the men's 6,000 meter, Matthew Brown finished 16th with a time of 19.20.9.  Matthew also improved on his time last year in Waco in this race. Overall, the women's team placed fourth and the men's team placed fifth.

At the Ken Garland Invitation in Denton this last Saturday, the women's cross country team has three more top-20 finishes.  This was enough to move them up to 11th in the USTFCCCA South Central Region rankings.  Sophomore Bailey Sullivan finished 12th (18.37.48) in the women's 5,000 meter with Anna Cozart right behind her (18.44.96).  Fellow sophomore Nicole Hicks rounded out the top-20 with a time of 19.05.43.  None of the men posted top-20 finishes this last weekend although Matthew Brown ran well again, finishing 24th (20.27.87) in men's four-mile race. The teams will get back to action next weekend as they go to College Station for the Texas A&M Invite on 9/26/15.

OTHER SPORTS BEGINNING SOON

- Men's and women's Tennis have their first tournament of the year on Friday 9/18/15 at the Midland Invitational.

- Swimming and Diving begins competition on 9/25/15 at the UNT Pentathlon in Denton.

- The No. 8 TCU Equestrian team begins it's season this Friday with the purple and white scrimmage. That will take place at Turning Point Ranch in Springtown.

- TCU's rifle team begins competing on Saturday 10/3/15 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Thanks to www.gofrogs.com for most of the stats and information in this article.