Bees reach for the stars in 2010-11

Statistics from the 2009-10 St. Ambrose varsity sports season read like a Bingo card: Eight conference championships. National championship qualifiers numbering 10. Seven All-American athletes and 71 All-Conference selections. Four Conference Coaches and eight Conference Players of the Year.

And 2010-11 is shaping up to be just as stellar a season for several Fighting Bees and Queen Bees teams.

One of the sports to watch is Queen Bees basketball, with 20-plus wins tipped in each of the past five seasons. This winter the Queen Bees will be led by first-year head coach Krista Van Hauen, who inherits a squad coming off a 24-8 season led by two-time All-American Ali Dolphin. Even with her senior season to go, Dolphin will end her career in the top five in virtually all major offensive records on SAU's books.

While hosting the 2010 NAIA Men's Volleyball National Invitational Tournament, the Fighting Bees reached the national semifinals in front of record-breaking crowds. Ambrose will host the national tournament again in 2011, and with eight new recruits, Coach Bill Gleeson and the Fighting Bees volleyball team will look to surpass last year's successes to take the national championship in front of the home swarm.

The women's volleyball squad is coming off a star-turn in the NAIA National Championships, as well. St. Ambrose was a perfect 8-0 in the Midwest Collegiate Conference and won the conference tournament before winning an NAIA Volleyball National Championship opening round match. Expect even bigger performances from Coach Bruce Billingsley's Queen Bees this year.

It's hard to believe the men's and women's bowling teams-both of which qualified for sectionals their first year as an intercollegiate sport at St. Ambrose, with the women finishing in the top 12 in the country-could get much better. But with a slew of returning sophomores, Coach Donna Lawrence could find both her bowling teams striking gold.

Always a strong program, the SAU men's golf team will host the NAIA Men's Golf National Championships for the third straight year at TPC Deere Run in Silvis in spring 2011. And the women's golf team, even with losing head coach Mike Orfitelli mid-year, won its eighth straight Midwest Collegiate Conference Women's Golf Championship.

After bringing home a national championship at Robert Morris University-Springfield, Ill., in 2010, Ron Ferrill was named the head coach of the Queen Bees softball team this summer. He inherits a program coming off an 18-win season and a 12-10 Midwest Collegiate Conference mark. Watch for this program to start making news.

Track and Field student-athletes broke numerous school records for the 2010 indoor season, and the men won the Midwest Collegiate Conference Indoor Championship!

Other Track and Field boasts:

• The men's and women's teams will again be NAIA Scholar Teams, boasting an average GPA of over 3.0. Last year, the women had the 7th highest GPA of any Track & Field team in the country at 3.56.
• This year, 8 men and 5 women earned the distinction of being NAIA Academic All-Americans: juniors or seniors who made significant contributions to the team and have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.
• Men's records: Three - two relays and one individual - broken by John Leahy, Russ Stump, Ron Holycross, Clyde Harris, Robbie Pogue, Austin Quinn, Tommy Fallon, John Darmody, and Dustin Renwick.
• Women's records: Nine - one relay and eight individual - broken by Ebonie Butler (2), Abby Parsons (3), Rachel Luehrs (3), Brooke Ashcraft, Dana Maier, Ashley Rojemann, and Mandy Streu.