September 2013 Sports

St. Ambrose will again host the NAIA Men's Golf National Championships at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., in 2016 and 2017.

SAU, TPC Deere Run and the Quad-Cities Convention and Visitor's Bureau previously hosted the national tournament in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The host role includes an automatic entry for Coach Jeff Griebel's Fighting Bees golfers.

The 72-hole championship event will be played May 24-27 in 2016 and May 16-19 in 2017.

TPC Deere Run has been the site of the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic since 2000.

• The Fighting Bees football squad will take a No. 7 ranking to No. 2 St. Francis of Indiana on Saturday. The Bees got off to a 1-0 start with a 48-37 win over Taylor University on Sept. 14. Cole Kelly ran for four touchdowns and Eric Williamson passed for 375 yards. Jeremy Wallace had 10 tackles and a sack as the Bees held Taylor to just six second-half points.

• Men's lacrosse will make its unofficial SAU debut when coach Brad Keel's crew hosts Dubuque at the Davenport Sports Complex at 10 a.m. on Sept. 28. The contest is part of a 10-team fall scrimmage schedule. The team has been accepted as a member of the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference (GRLC) and will play in the Division II Northwest Division, along with Creighton, Dordt and Missouri Valley. Benedictine (Kan.) will join the Northwest Division in 2015. Tops teams in each of four GRLC divisions advance to the conference tournament, to be contested May 2-4 in St. Louis, Mo.

• Eric Littig has been named coach of the SAU men's bowling team. He will replace Donna Lawrence, who will continue to coach the SAU women's bowling squad. Littig has been coaching junior bowlers privately for 24 years and has coached high school teams at Davenport West and Davenport Central. He spent two years bowling professionally on regional Pro Bowlers Association tours. The SAU bowlers will open their season on Oct. 5.

• Despite graduating 7 of the top 9 from the conference championship team last season, the Fighting Bees men's cross country team is again on top of the conference. Ranked as the top team in the MCC, the men won the Fighting Bee Opener on August 30 and will try to defend their home course again at the Fighting Bee Invite on Oct. 12.

• The Fighting Bee women's cross country team is off a blazing start. In their first meet, they set the school record for team time in a 4K race. The Bee women finished 21st at Nationals last year and continue to be recognized in the top 25 poll.

• The men's golf squad posted a third-place finish in the seven-team Green Bay Invitational that included five NCAA Division I teams and placed sixth in the 13-team Clarke Invitational. Junior Luke Staudt's 75.7 scoring average leads the squad. The junior varsity squad won the William Penn Fall JV Invitational.

• The women's golf squad finished fourth in the eight-team Viterbo Invitational on Sept. 14-15, its best finish in three starts this year. Senior Abby Frideres finished second.

• The men's soccer team has won three straight to improve to 4-2. Sophomore midfielder Ryan McEvoy, one of 11 English players and one 17 foreign recruits on Coach Jon Mannall's team, leads the Bees with four goals and an assist for nine points.

• The women's soccer team is off to a 3-1-1 start, with the 0-0 tie coming vs. 15th-ranked Robert Morris on the road. Senior Ashley Dexter leads the team with a goal and two assists.

• The women's tennis squad posted a 7-2 victory over Simpson on Aug. 31 for its lone win in five dual starts.

• The women's volleyball team is off to an 8-4 start that includes four victories to win the Augustana Viking Classic. Hitters Katie Bailey, a senior, and Maddie McElroy, a junior, each have more than 100 kills. Sophomore setter Kate Nowak leads the team with 405 assists.