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for October 2010
 Niagara Athletics has performed well on the recent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) report, which tracked the graduation rates for all student-athletes and the general student population during 2000-2003.
“I’m proud of our student-athletes for their commitment to academics,” Niagara Director of Athletics Ed McLaughlin said. “The NCAA academic reform has allowed institutions like ours to showcase academic success. I know all of our alumni and fans are proud of our student-athletes for their academic diligence.”
According to the report, Niagara’s student-athletes are well above the national averages for 2003 graduation rate (67% to 65%) and four-class average (70% to 54%). The Purple Eagles had a GSR of 87 percent for the 2000-03 cohort.
Continue reading ‘NU Athletics Bodes Well In Recent GSR Report’
 Senior Kourtney Brown has been named to the Preseason All-MAC East Team for the second straight season, the league office announced on Wednesday morning. Brown comes into the season as the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-MAC selection.
Brown finished last season averaging 17.8 points and 11.5 rebounds to lead the MAC in that category. Brown finished sixth in the nation in rebounding. She set the UB single-season rebounding record with 346 and places third in MAC history. Brown led the league with 63 blocked shots, second in school history. During the course of the season, Brown recorded 19 double-doubles, a school record, and had 11 20-point games. She had career highs of 33 points and 22 rebounds in UB’s season-opening win over Niagara. Brown also set the school record for points in a season with 535, breaking her mark of 532 that she set last year. She became just the second player in Mid-American Conference history to hold both the school’s single-season scoring and rebounding record, and the first to do it in the same season. Brown was named MAC East Player of the Week four times, tied for the most in the league.
Continue reading ‘UB’s Brown Named to Preseason All-MAC East Team’
 Buffalo Pro Basketball Inc. is pleased to announce the hiring of Herb Richmond as Head Coach of the Buffalo Stampede for the 2010-2011 season and beyond.
Herb Richmond is a Buffalo native, attended East High School, and played at Ithaca College. Mr. Richmond began his coaching career as an assistant at D’Youville College under Dave Spiller and was the Head Coach at Broome Community College from 1988-91.
He was also assistant coach at Ravenscroft School, in Raleigh NC. In addition Mr. Richmond worked for many years at Five Star Basketball camp working with players the likes of Chris Paul and Raymond Felton. Mr. Richmond has spent the better part of the last 2 seasons working with Coach Don Sillveri at Daemen College.
Continue reading ‘Stampede Hire Herb Richmond as Head Coach’
 The Buffalo Bills travel to Kansas City this Sunday in an attempt to end their six-game slide to start the 2010 season. If you concluded this would be an easy game when you glanced at Buffalo’s schedule over the summer, you were sadly mistaken. After flirting with the league’s worst record last year, the Chiefs are quickly showing their very much improved, if not straight-up AFC Contenders this time around.
Last year the Chiefs went just 4-12, finished last in the AFC West and had the third pick of last April’s draft. This year is a different story. They’re 4-2 and sport a two game lead in their division.
Bills head coach Chan Gailey thinks the mental approach Kansas City took has gone a long way towards turning the team around.
Continue reading ‘Gailey Knows First Win vs. Chiefs Won’t Be Easy’
 It’s been a whirlwind journey for forward Luke Adam as three days, and nine hours of sleep later he was back on the ice practicing with the Portland Pirates.
Adam, 20, made his NHL debut last night in Philadelphia, PA with the Buffalo Sabres in a 6-3 loss after being called up from Portland late Monday night.
Adam played a little over 14 minutes in the game and had a couple of opportunities to score including on his first shift, playing alongside former Pirate Tyler Ennis and Mike Grier.
The nerves were there for the St. John’s, NL native prior to playing the game, but he credits his linemates for helping him over any lingering butterflies.
Continue reading ‘Adam Rejoins Pirates After Sabres Debut’
 The Buffalo Bills were back at practice Wednesday early afternoon without the services of three of their starters: safety Jairus Byrd and offensive tackles Cornell Green and Demetrius Bell.
Bills head coach Chan Gailey hasn’t disclosed the type of injuries Byrd and Bell have, though he did say that Byrd would likely be back on the field in the next couple of days.
Green has been out with an injured knee. Rookie Cordaro Howard started in his place against Baltimore last Sunday and will likely get another start when the Bills take on the Kansas City Chiefs. Like Byrd, Gailey has yet to provide more information about Bell. If he’s out, Mansfield Wrotto will likely take his place in the lineup.
Continue reading ‘Three Bills Starters Miss Practice Wednesday’
 People have searched high and low for the biggest difference between the 2009 Buffalo Bills and the winless version that’s dropped six straight to begin this season. The front office is supervised by a new general manager, the coaching staff almost entirely new and the team is in a laborious process of trying to revamp the defense via a largely (to this point) fruitless 3-4 transformation.
Terrell Owens is gone, as is Aaron Schobel, Josh Reed and most recently Trent Edwards and Marshawn Lynch.
But when you look at the numbers and how they factor into games, the biggest reason the Bills are 0-6 and last year’s six-win season seems like a Super Bowl run by comparison, is pretty darn obvious.
Interceptions—- or I should say lack of them.
Continue reading ‘Bills’ Lack of Picks Are Disturbing’
 Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier announced today that forward Luke Adam has been recalled from the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League.
Adam (6’2”, 215 lbs., 6/18/1990) is currently second on the Pirates in scoring with 10 points (5+5) in 8 games. The native of St. John’s, Nfld., was named the AHL’s Player of the Week after recording a four-point game (2+2) in his professional debut with Portland on October 9.
Adam was selected by the Sabres in the second round (44th overall) of the 2008 Entry Draft. He’ll be in the lineup tonight when the Sabres take on the Philadelphia Flyers. Rob Neidermayer remained in Buffalo to be with his wife, who gave birth to a child Monday.
 Women’s volleyball setter Stephanie Kazmierczak (Buffalo/City Honors) was named the Buffalo State Athlete of the Week for the second time this season after helping the Bengals clinch a berth in the SUNYAC playoffs for the first time since 2002 with conference wins over Oswego and Geneseo this past weekend.
The senior business major dished out a team-high 141 assists in five matches last week, and added 17 kills, 51 digs and 16 blocks in 20 sets played. Kazmierczak ranks fourth in the SUNYAC in assists-per-set.
Kazmierczak and the Bengals will play non-conference matches at Pitt-Bradford on Wednesday and Keuka on Saturday of this week, in preparation for their SUNYAC quarterfinal meeting with New Paltz on Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. in Fredonia.
 St. Bonaventure’s Anna Cunningham was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Women’s Soccer Player of the Week, while Taylor Broderick and Massachusetts’ Brittany Moore share Co-Rookie of the Week honors as announced by the league office on Monday.
Cunningham headed in the game-winning goal from 12 yards out in leading St. Bonaventure past No. 25 Dayton 2-1 on Sunday completing a perfect 2-0-0 weekend for the Bonnies. The senior forward took a pass from freshman Taylor Broderick and headed the ball back to the far post to send St. Bonaventure to its third straight win while handing the Flyers their first regular season conference loss since October 24, 2008. Cunningham, a native of Groose Pointe Farms, Mich., also paced the Bonnies offense in a 2-0 win over Xavier firing a game-high six shots including two shots on goal as St. Bonaventure outshot the Musketeers 27-7.
Continue reading ‘Cunningham, Broderick Earn A-10 Weekly Honors’
 Sunday night following the Bills overtime loss to Baltimore, I wrote of reasons for optimism. Feel good semantics aside, this is the NFL and ‘almost’ winning doesn’t count. Therefore, today is about going back to reality, as evidenced by a glance at the league standings, which finds Buffalo as the sole occupiers of a big fat zero in the win column.
Playing an elite team on the road and coming close is nice, but it’s not good enough. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades… and politics. For all the positive things Buffalo accomplished Sunday, especially offensively, there’s an equal supply of reasons the team dejectedly boarded their flight back home from Baltimore still searching for their first win.
If there was ever a dispute about the saying “good teams find a way to win while bad teams find a way to lose”, there shouldn’t be after this game. Buffalo put up over 500 yards of total offense and 34 points on the scoreboard against a team who hadn’t matched that all season— and Buffalo still found a way to lose.
Here are the four biggest reasons why.
Continue reading ‘Back to Reality: Four Reasons Why Buffalo Lost Again’
 Niagara reeled off its 11 straight win with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-15, 25-20) result against the Manhattan Jaspers on Sunday. The Purple Eagles tied a season-high with 11 team blocks in the match.
“Today was another good win,” head coach Susan Clements said. “We started off slow, but we picked up our passing and our blocking was impressive.”
Niagara (17-8, 12-1 MAAC) fought off a sluggish start to the match, but eventually held off Manhattan (11-13, 5-7 MAAC) to take the first set 25-23. The Purple Eagles navigated through the second set with little trouble, racking up 19 kills for a match-high .432 hitting percentage, to take the second set 25-15. NU took the third set, 25-20, to wrap up another match in straight sets. Niagara improved to 14-2 in three-set matches on the season and 10 of its 11 wins during the streak has been in straight sets.
Continue reading ‘NU May Never Lose in Volleyball Again’
 It’s hardly unforeseen that the Buffalo Bills fell to 0-6 on the season with a road loss (37-34 in overtime) Sunday against the highly regarded Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore is considered one of the league’s elite teams while Buffalo… well, they’ve played like anything but one.
But had you told me Sunday morning the way this game would have played out, I’d have given you a polite smile before recommending an experienced shrink. Let’s be honest — nobody except possibly the players inside the Bills locker room (and even that’s debatable) expected to see them go toe to toe on the road like they did Sunday afternoon. After being run on, thrown on and laughed out of Lambeau Field and Gilettte Stadium already this season, Buffalo staying within 20 points of an incensed Ravens team coming off a loss at New England the week before would’ve been considered adequate accomplishment.
But the Bills showed the heart and plenty of execution that’s been lacking since the first snap against Miami in the season opener. Buffalo dominated at times and constantly fought back when they were against the ropes, a characteristic that’s hardly been an attribute of this year’s Bills model.
Continue reading ‘Bills Lose, But Find Reasons for Optimism’
The Buffalo Bills will be looking for their first victory of the season Sunday afternoon when they take on the Baltimore Ravens. In all likeliness that elusive win will have to wait for at least another week.
Baltimore (4-2) is one of the better teams in the league, even though they’re still steaming over blowing a 10 point second half lead in losing to New England in overtime last week. That doesn’t bode well for a Buffalo squad that’s off to their worst start in 25 years.
Bills head coach Chan Gailey knows what he’s up against.
Continue reading ‘Bills Face Daunting Task in Baltimore’
 The Buffalo Sabres continue to play well on the road. After losing at home to Ottawa Friday night, Buffalo quickly regrouped as they flew to New Jersey and handed the Devils a 6-1 beating Saturday evening.
Thomas Vanek scored a pair of goals for Buffalo, who outplayed New Jersey from the opening whistle and were never threatened. Drew Stafford, Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers and Patrick Kaleta also scored for Buffalo.
Ryan Miller stopped all but one of the Devils’ 27 shots on net to earn the victory.
He was backed by outstanding Sabres defense, especially from Steve Montador and Jordan Leopold, who were both a plus-three against New Jersey.
The Sabres travel to Philadelphia to continue their four game road trip that also includes Atlanta and Dallas. That’s fine with Buffalo, who improved to 3-1 on the road but are 0-4-1 at home.
 The very first play of the Bulls’ Homecoming game against Temple was a harbinger of things to come.
Buffalo fumbled on the opening kickoff with the Owls recovering deep in Buffalo territory. Twenty-three yards later the Owls were in the end zone and on their way to a 42-0 victory over the Bulls before 13,371 fans at UB Stadium.
After winning their last three Homecoming games, Buffalo experienced a torturous first quarter, that saw them fall behind 21-0 and never threatened the Owls, who improved to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the Mid-American Conference. Buffalo falls to 2-5 and 1-2 in the MAC.
Continue reading ‘UB Slaughtered by Temple, 42-0′
 WECK and Canisius College are proud to announce that the Buffalo radio station will carry 10 games of Division I hockey on its airwaves as WECK continues its commitment to collegiate athletics.
“Canisius College is thrilled to be joining WECK in providing a local radio outlet for Golden Griffin hockey,” Canisius Director of Athletics Bill Maher said. “This partnership with WECK is just another step in building a championship Division I hockey program for the Western New York hockey fans.”
All games except two will be played at Buffalo State Sports Arena, while the face-offs are at 7:04 p.m. unless otherwise denoted. The 10 games are as follows:
Continue reading ‘Canisius, WECK Team Up For D-I Hockey Broadcasts’
The Buffalo Bills already have the NFL’s worst run defense. It’s not likely to improve when the Bills face the Baltimore Ravens Sunday and the tandem of Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and Le’ron McClain. One of the key developments to emerge this week is the Bills may be missing one of their few solid defenders.
Kyle Williams missed practice on Thursday with an ankle injury and he was unable to practice on Friday either. Williams has been a rock in the middle for Buffalo, missing just two games since being drafted in the fifth round in 2006.
Torell Troup would take his place in the starting lineup in the middle, but the Bills were already planning on using Troup in their “heavier” defense to start to the game anyway. Williams’ absence should he be unable to go would likely mean Spencer Jonson would see a lot more action, and rookie end Alex Carrington, who’s only played once this season, would be activated for the game.
Buffalo will definitely be without cornerback Terrence McGee, who’s been ruled out.
In other news, the Bills have activated Jon Corto to the active roster. To make room the team has released defensive back Cary Harris.
 The University at Buffalo volleyball team will be holding its annual Dig For The Cure match on Saturday night when the Bulls take on Central Michigan at 6:00 pm at Alumni Arena. The team is raising money for Roswell Park Cancer Institute—working with TeamCure and “WeCanRow”—Buffalo, NY in efforts to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research.
The UB volleyball team has been doing their part to promote the match and raise money for breast cancer research. They have been collecting pledges per their specialty on the court for, digs, assists, kills or aces, as well as selling pink ribbons for $2 apiece. The team also be hosted a pick-up volleyball game Wednesday morning as part of UB’s Spirit Week and True Blue Days leading up to the homecoming football game. At UB’s football contest against Temple on Saturday at noon, half of the proceeds from the 50/50 raffle will go to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Also, pink t-shirts with blue print “Buffalo Bulls” will be available to purchase at the football game and volleyball match for $10. At UB Stadium, the shirts will be sold at the North and South ticket entrances.
Continue reading ‘UB Will “Dig For The Cure” Saturday’
 The Buffalo Sabres today announced that they will take part in the NHL Hockey Fights Cancer program for their home game on Friday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. against the Ottawa Senators. All Sabres coaches and broadcasters will wear specifically designed Hockey Fights Cancer ties and pins to commemorate the night, and Sabres mascot Sabretooth will wear a special pink Buffalo Sabres jersey.
Fans attending the game will have the opportunity to purchase Sabres hats autographed by a random Sabres player for $20. The hats have been donated by New Era Cap Company and will be sold by the Sabres’ significant others. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Buffalo Sabres Foundation.
Before the game, a check for $10,000 will be presented to the Kevin Guest House on behalf of the Buffalo Sabres Foundation and the NHL. The Sabres will also hold a ceremonial faceoff preceding the game featuring Carly’s Club member and Roswell Park patient Jimmy Szafranski dropping the puck.
Continue reading ‘Sabres to Host “Hockey Fights Cancer” Night Friday’
 Cleared but Not Out: 10 Thoughts and Observations, First Week Edition
The NHL season has started, and for Buffalo Sabres’ fans, it’s been somewhat of a rude awakening. The team kicked off its fortieth season with promise, overcoming an Ottawa Senators club that’s had the Sabres in its back pocket for years with a gutsy 2-1 victory. Unfortunately, that’s right where the good times ended. Over the previous five games before finally coming to life in Atlanta Wednesday night, the Sabres had recorded one solitary point and have looked listless at best and lifeless at worst.
♦ The standard bearer for the lack of effort has been Tim Connolly. Despite starting the season on a line with the team’s two best offensive wingers in Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville, playing less competitive minutes behind Derek Roy and having a cushy spot on the power play, Connolly has tallied only one goal and three points in seven games, to say nothing of his minus three rating and leading the forwards in giveaways.
Continue reading ‘Cleared but Not Out: 10 Thoughts and Observations’
 The Niagara volleyball team set a program record with nine straight victories in a convincing straight set win (25-13, 25-10, 25-16) over archrival the Canisius Golden Griffins on Wednesday night at the Gallagher Center. Niagara is up 3-0 in the 2010-11 Battle of the Bridge series with Canisius.
The 82nd all-time match between the programs was the inaugural “dig pink” match in an effort to bring awareness to breast cancer; both teams wore pink jerseys and donations were made to Mount St. Mary’s Breast Care Center.
The tone of the match was set early by Niagara (15-8, 10-1 MAAC). The Purple Eagles sprinted to a 9-0 lead in the first set and never looked back. The lead swelled to 14-2 after senior Shannon Ryan had one of her three service aces. Junior Hannah Hedrick ended the first set with a kill to give NU a 25-13 win.
“It felt good for us to start out really strong,” head coach Susan Clements said. “In the past couple of matches it took us awhile to get in the groove, so we wanted to set a precedent tonight.”
Niagara had a match-best .520 hitting percentage, while holding Canisius to a -.103 hitting percentage, in the second set en route to cruising to a 25-10 win. NU ended the set on a 12-4 run and freshman Ellen Senf had seven of her match-high 12 kills in the set.
The Purple Eagles benefited from another fast start in the third set. NU accelerated to a 10-2 lead, with Ryan and sophomore Kari Honomichl combining for five of the points. The closet the Golden Griffins crept to was six points and junior Michelle James had the honor to score the final point to seal the victory.
Niagara had arguably its best performance of the season in a match that set the program win streak, which was set last season, to nine matches. Niagara had a season-high .389 team hitting percentage and held the conference best hitting percentage squad to .021 percent.
Senf had a Purple Eagle season-high with a .647 hitting percentage. Honomichl provided 11 kills and three digs, sophomore middle blocker Amanda Wilken and had four blocks and Hedrick had seven kills and 13 digs. James recorded her seventh double-double of the season with a match-high 36 assists and 12 digs. Junior Sam Morgan collected 14 digs to extend her NCAA-best double-digit digs streak to 85 matches.
The Purple Eagles will continue their homestand this weekend when they play Saint Peter’s and Manhattan.
 Just like last Saturday night against the Blackhawks, the Buffalo Sabres put forth a solid road effort. Unlike the losing result in Chicago, Buffalo was rewarded this time. The Sabres skated into Atlanta Wednesday and dominated, taking a 4-1 victory to finally end their winless streak at five games.
Three players the Sabres are heavily counting on to produce offense finally scored their first goals of the season; Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers and Thomas Vanek. Cody McCormick also scored for the Sabres, who outshot Atlanta, 40-17.
The goal by Vanek was his first in 22 shots on goal this season.
Defensemen Chris Butler and Steve Montador each had two assists for Buffalo. Montador left the game late after being cut with a high stick, but appeared to be alright.
Ryan Miller was stellar again in the nets for Buffalo, stopping 16 of 17 shots. Only Tobias Enstrom managed to put a puck past Miller at 1:47 of the third period.
Buffalo is back home, where it’s winless on the year, to host division rival Ottawa on Friday night before traveling to New Jersey Saturday.
 Playoff proven or not, don’t fool yourself– the New York Yankees are in trouble.
First, let’s get the Cliff Lee stuff out of the way. Texas took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS last night on the heels of yet another dominating performance by Lee, who utterly owned the Yankees offense yet again. Lee allowed just two singles and a walk over eight innings, sending perplexed Yankee batters back to the dugout a career-high 13 times via strikeouts. Had Texas not blown the game open with six, ninth inning runs en route to the 8-0 blowout, Lee would’ve undoubtedly came back out of the ninth to mow down the Bombers one more time. Sure, he threw 122 pitches but when you reach triple digits and still throwing an effortless 92 miles per hour, you’re tank is far from empty.
Lee became the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out at least 10 batters in three consecutive postseason games. By the way, he’s 3-0 over the last 12 months against the Yankees in the postseason, including a pair of victories while with the Philadelphia Phillies in last year’s World Series. For his post season career, he’s an absurd 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA in eight career starts.
Continue reading ‘Yankee Bats Better Wake Up Quickly’
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