Football
Lone Star Conference North Division Defensive Player of the Week Cory Whitfield and the Texas A&M University-Commerce football team are taking a long trip to Portales, N.M., to play Eastern New Mexico.
This is the last road trip before the Lions finally play a home game next weekend. They are still looking for their first win of the season. After their efforts at the Harvey Martin Classic against Abilene Christian, however, A&M-Commerce is motivated to notch one up against the Greyhounds.
Junior Adam Farkes is the favorite to start at quarterback. So far this season, he has completed 25 for 59 passes, thrown two interceptions and one touchdown. Last week, his touchdown pass to sophomore Taylor Fore sent the game into overtime.
Eastern New Mexico are 1-2 this season, and have already played two LSC games with a loss to Southeastern Oklahoma last weekend and a win against Southwestern Oklahoma on Sept. 5.
In their 49-47 loss to Southeastern, Greyhounds quarterback JJ Harp threw 94 passes, completing 64 of them, for a staggering 695 yards.
Women’s soccer
The A&M-Commerce women’s soccer team has two games this weekend, both on the road. First, they take on University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio Friday night at 6:00 p.m.
Due to the large amount of rain this week, preparations for the Lions have had to be changed.
“It’s affected us just because of the fact that the weather is bad,” head coach Neil Piper said. “We’re forced to practice in the football stadium, but the good thing is Incarnate Word plays on turf. So, it’s given us the chance to get used to that surface. But, because of football, we’re just not getting enough of a workout in. It’s an old team, we know what we need to do, so hopefully it won’t affect us too much.”
Piper said that Incarnate Word is a formidable opponent, and they have only lost two regular season games in the past two seasons, both to LSC team Angelo State. A&M-Commerce will have to keep tabs on the Cardinals’ Sarah Hernandez, who has scored eight goals in seven games.
“I think Incarnate Word is one of the better teams in Division II,” Piper said. “We’ve only beaten them once, I think, in the regular season in my twelve years here. So it’s going to be a hard game.”
A&M-Commerce’s second soccer game this weekend is against St. Edward’s on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
Volleyball
After opening up conference play with a win against Texas A&M-Kingsville (25-22, 25-16, 25-23) Thursday evening, A&M-Commerce volleyball is traveling to Stephenville, Texas, on Saturday to take on Tarleton State at 2:00 p.m.
The TexAnns are 5-9 on the season, and won this match last season, 3-1. They will have to cope with the red hot Lions, now on a nine game winning streak. Naomi Mays had 14 kills in the game against A&M-Kingsville. Freshman Rachel Robertson had a .438 hitting percentage, while senior Lauren Flynn had 25 digs.
Tarleton is also the team that knocked A&M-Commerce out of the 2008 LSC tournament.