Oakton CC Fall Sports Update

Led by the unbeaten men's soccer team, the Oakton Community College fall sports teams are heavily involved in competitions through September.

Steve Brody's men's soccer team defeated Moraine Valley on Sept. 7 to extend its unbeaten streak to three games, including a pair of wins in the Skyway Conference. The men's soccer team has won the last two Skyway Conference titles and has won the title four times in the past decade.

The next match is against Kishwaukee CC  at 12 p.m. Sept. 11 at Oakton.

Remone Gordon from Senn High School had two goals and Angel Herrera from Maine West had the third against Moraine.

The men's golf team completed a meet Sept. 8, finishing fourth among six teams at the Prairie State tournament at Deer Park in Park Forest.

"We shot a 346 (total for four golfers), which is a drastic improvement of 22 strokes off our first match,'' Oakton golf coach Louis Walker said Thursday. "Right now, John Schreiber from Whitney Young is our best golfer."

The entire men's golf team is made up of freshmen, and Walker attributed the poor showing in the first match to "freshmen jitters.

"Golf is an individual sport and all it takes is someone to have a good front nine and confidence grows, and they find themselves shooting a 72,'' Walker said.

The men's and women's cross-country teams competed at the Seventh Annual Hawks Invitational at Harper College on Aug. 28 and sophomore Anna Galvez from Maine East had the best finish. She ended up 12th out of 45 runners with a 2-mile time of 14:18.

"She is top-notch,'' coach Tina Egle said of Galvez. "[Four-year schools] are trying to grab hold of her."

Shavon James of Evanston Township High School was the top men's finisher for Oakton with a time of 22:43 over three miles.

The team competes Sept. 10 at the Aurora Spartan Classic.

The women's volleyball team competed at College of Lake County (CLC) on Sept. 9 as part of its incredibly busy schedule, which includes 20 dual meets and four tournaments prior to national competition. Behind the hitting of Shelby Moser and Alison Daus, the Lady Raiders won at CLC in five sets and raised their record to 3-5.

Coach Denise Hollis said her freshman-dominated team is progressing through the first part of the schedule.

"We don't have a lot of depth in the hitting area, so we don't have a lot of room for error,'' Hollis said. "Freshmen are having to play a big role for us this year."

Volleyball fans can get a quick fix at Oakton next week as the Lady Raiders play at home Tuesday against Prairie State, go to Elmhurst for a match Wednesday and then play a third straight night against Carthage at Oakton on Thursday. They play a round-robin three-team match at home on Friday.

"I'm not sure what I was drinking when I made that schedule,'' Hollis said. "I think it is going to make us tougher. We have 28 playing dates available to us and I try to play them all. I think you get better by playing."