Men’s match a marathon Hamish Knox Watching the men’s volley- ball match last Friday was like watching a two-hour Beavis and Butthead episode—no one could score. Coming off an embar- rassing loss to the Trinity Western Spartans the week before, Douglas was intent on getting out of the starting blocks quickly and dominating the Sun De- mons from Kamloops. However, this didn’t hap- pen, as UCC threw up a 6'7” wall named Stuart Chase, who sent every Royals attack back in their face. DC didn't help their cause any by hammering serves and spikes out of bounds as Kamloops sprinted to a 10- 4 lead, before Coach Brian Newman called a much needed timeout. UCC got two more points on the Royals before DC started an incredible comeback. Using pinpoint serves and an offense directed by Ryan Henley, Douglas slowly crawled back into the game, causing the Sun Demons’ coach to call timeout with his team leading 12-9 and berate his players for their lack of finishing. DC continued their attack. Henley spread the ball around to all of his hitters, and Douglas took the game 16-14. The second game was almost a mirror image of the first, with both teams failing to do better than a side out and scoring points only after extremely long rallies. The Royals had many chances to score quickly, but their serving and attacks were constantly landing out of bounds. Kamloops called timeout leading 10-5 and on a 5 point run, but, again, the mental toughness of DC allowed them to stay in the match and rattle off their own run of 4 points. With UCC leading 12-9, Douglas was called for a substitution violation. Normally this would have finished off the team and the Sun Demons would have taken the game, but the Royals held on and eventually took the lead 16- 15. The score was tied at 16 for what seemed to be an eternity as both teams exchanged attacks and counter-attacks. Douglas finally pulled out the win 17- 16 on a kill that UCC couldn't dig up. “T think they [Kamloops] are the most improved team in the league since Christmas. I think we've improved a lot and it’s nice to beat them.” Said Coach Newman after match. The Royals came out of the between game break firing on all cylinders and launching a wave of jump serves at the Demons. Both teams were making very few mistakes at this point, as they treated the crowd to many excellent rallies. Eventually though, UCC caught on to DC's attack and were setting up their blockers before the set was in the air. The Sun Demons tore off a six point run on the Royals, who couldn't get any attacks past the Kamloops front wall, taking the game 15-9. Douglas looked like they were going to destroy the Sun Demons in the fourth game as they ripped off a 10 point run to go up 10-1. The UCC coach was becoming very agitated at this point as his team had been whistled for several net violations, which he considered questionable. He was eventually given a yellow card in the midst of the DC run, that energized his team, who went on a 6 point run of their own. The Royals eventually won the game 15-8 and took the two hour and fifteen minute match 3-1. “"T think we're a better team than UCC.” Said Coach Newman after the match. “But they won a lot of points on heart and desire and our heart and desire was there, but it was sporadic. We need to get it more consistent and I hope we're heading in that direction.” ‘Sport Shorts Basketball: The DC women’s basketball team continued their undefeated season last weekend as the men’s team dropped out of the playoffs for the time being. Friday, the Royals went cross-town to take on the Langara Falcons. The women’s team pulled out the win 68-61 behind Carrie Rogers’ 22 points and Audrey Curran’s 11 rebounds, while the men’s team kept it close to the end, but eventually fell 96-85. Danny Elliot dropped 29 points and Aaron Frampton scored 21 for the Royals, who went into Saturday looking for a weekend split against the Capilano Blues. Saturday, the women’s team solidified their grip on top spot in the BCCAA by destroying the Blues 72-52. Rogers led the scoring charge again, netting 16 points with Kim Neiszner close behind with 15. The men’s team suffered their second tough loss of the weekend, 67-63, dropping them to eighth place, 4 points behind Okanagan for the sixth and final playoff spot. Frampton led the Royals’ attack on Saturday, with a 15 point, 10 rebound double-double. Volleyball: Friday, the UCC Sun Demons rolled into New West, but could not overcome either of our teams. The women’s team had little trouble with UCC, winning the match 3-0. Coralie Hiemstra led the Royals’ offense with 12 kills. Despite winning the match 3-1, the men’s team was taken to the wire by the Sun Demons, 16-14, 17- 16, 9-15 and 15-8. Mike Mackay and Darryl McCrady had 21 and 20 kills apiece for the Royals who now hold down third place in the BCCAA, tied with the OUC Lakers, but with a match in hand. Saturday, the scene shifted to David Lam, as Okanagan swept into town. The women’s match, won by Douglas, took the full five games, in a rematch of last year’s provincial final. This time, however, the Royals damned the Lakers with Christine Bonish’s 15 and Kirsten Homeniuk’s 10 kills. The men’s team also needed five games, 15-10, 10-15, 15-9, 14-16 and 15-12 to defeat OUC, with McCrady leading the Royals’ attack again with 24 kills and 3 aces. Badminton: Douglas took the third tournament of the year last weekend, winning three individual events to go along with their team crown. Allison Rice took the women’s singles, Jennifer Wong and Rachel Shiu won the women’s doubles and Tom and Thinh Nguyen captured the gold in men’s doubles. The next tournament for our team will be this weekend at BCIT. DC Rugby Mike Quong (David Lam) The Douglas College men’s rugby team is back at practice after the season was put cna short hiatus over Christmas. The season doesn’: resume until January 30, but the boys are getting ready to 10 January 20 1999 tackle the second half of the season right now. The men’s college team re-opens the 1998-99 campaign with a home game against the University of Victoria. In their last meeting with the island squad, Douglas lost a close one 10-7. Hopefully they'll be able to pull off a victory on their home turf of the Other Press Queen's Park in a few weeks. The team is looking to bounce back from their dismal start to the season (a record of one win, five losses and one tie). However, they have been dominating opponents in the second half of their games and should tums some heads as they mn to the playoffs. ’ "Nice try man! High five!” Just leave already! He who walks behind the benches Last Wednesday at 9am PST, the world stopped. Okay, not really, but Michael Jordan retired. Finally. We've been through this before, remem- ber? When he retired to go play baseball, then realized he couldn't hit his body weight so he came back? But this time should be different. Hopefully so, because he’s “99.9% sure” that he won't come back, but, again we've down this road before. The big problem I have with Jordan’s retirement is that he’s going out with more fanfare than a presidential burial. He's “the greatest basketball player of all time,” and “he saved the NBA,” and now, those of us who aren't rabid Bulls fans (or basketball fans), are being forced to sit through half a sports broad- cast or look at an entire page of a sports section dedicated to “His Airness.” Remember when Mario Lemiuex retired? He got, a press conference, 30-40 seconds of career highlights on the day of his retirement and a few “we'll miss you Mario” columns. Jordan's retirement on the other hand, seems to demand Breakdown segments on ESPN and whole pages dedicated to how the NBA will survive without him. This is overkill. Oh, that “greatest player of all-time” tag MJ seems to be stuck with isn’t even accurate. The greatest player of all-time is either Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell, depending on whether you count ability or championship rings as a mark of greatness. Russell won 11 rings in 13 years, Jordan has 6 in the same time span. Yes, different era, different game, heard it all before, but look at production. In today’s NBA offense is run primarily through two players (name a Bulls play that doesn’t involve Jordan when he’s on the floor), in Chamberlain’s day you had to move the ball around, therefore decreasing your shot attempts. Chamber- lain also averaged 20 re- bounds per game and scored 30 points, Jordan can score, but his career average in assists is around 5. Obviously Barney needs to teach MJ how to share. Finally, Jordan’s should -have retired anyway. Think about his final shot, the patented MJ fade away jumper which beat the Utah Jazz for the NBA champion- ship. Can you get more on top than that? If he hadn't kept waffling during the lockout so the stars would have more leverage and retired right on the floor after he hit the shot it would have been a classic moment for all time. However, by dodging the issue and drag- ging this whole fiasco out until now, MJ has diminished himself a little. Thanks for the memo- ries Michael, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.