Joe Lindholm
Primary tabs
Author Content
For sophomores like Ashton Kapphahn and Ashley Abear, who are both 2015 All-MCAC first-team players, it will be their second trip to the big stage when the Central Lakes College Raiders compete in the NJCAA Division III event Friday through Saturday at Rochester. Last year's trip was bittersweet for the Raiders who are seeded third and will play No. 6 seed Monroe (N.Y.) College at 12:30 p.m. Friday. The bitter was CLC suffered a first-round loss to Lorain (Ohio) County Community College in five sets and Abear went out with a knee injury in the deciding set.
Radamus Jones scored 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting to lead the Central Lakes College Raiders to a 96-83 win over the Ridgewater Warriors in their season opener on Wednesday night. N'Gai Dixon and Nic Wiesmann each added 18 points and Darsean Woodson accumulated 14 points as CLC shot 52 percent from the field. The Raiders led the Warriors by just four points at halftime by a score of 39-35, but they got the offense going in the second half with 57 points on their way to the win. The two teams combined to score 56 points from the free throw line.
Kelly Pearson collected 28 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and dished six assists to lead the Central Lakes College Raiders to a 77-70 win over Ridgewater in their season opener on Wednesday night. Mackenzie Holst and Marka Baker also hit double figures with 17 and 13 points while Kaitlyn Spar finished with nine and Cheyanne Johnson tallied eight in the Raiders win. "Kelly was nine-for-nine from the free throw line. She is becoming a verbal leader and she is becoming empowered that this is my role," said head coach Cassie Carey of Pearson's play.
Cassie Carey begins her second season as head coach when the Central Lakes College Raiders host Ridgewater at 7 p.m. Wednesday. With very little recruiting time last year, Carey sometimes had only one bench player. While growing her CLC basketball family, Carey also welcomed an addition to her family during the off-season. "We are excited to start our season," she said. "With the new addition to our Carey family — Aiden, who's now just over three months old - we were trying to figure out how things would work with juggling family, work, and basketball.
Under the direction of head coach Jim Russell, the Central Lakes College Raiders basketball team has competed at a consistently high level and expectations will be the same as CLC enters its 2015-2016 campaign. Russell's Raider teams have had 14 straight winning seasons and have been to the MCAC state tournament 13 times. Darsean Woodson, Deshun Patterson, Radamus Jones and N'Gai Dixon return from last year's team that finished fourth at the MCAC/Region 13 tournament. "We do have five players from last year and one transfer.
Despite a case of early nerves and falling behind in the first game, the top-seeded Central Lakes Raiders rebounded for a 3-0 Region 13B semifinal over the No. 4 seeded Itasca Vikings. The Raiders, ranked No. 3 in the latest NJCAA Division III poll, pushed their overall record to 25-2 and recorded their 10th straight win. Jenny Skoog and Rachel Mathias knocked down 12 kills and Ashton Kapphahn added 34 set assists. Faith Kassulker and Britta Torgerson each served two aces and the Raiders had just 10 service errors.
The Central Lakes College football team, ranked No. 3 in the NJCAA poll, will travel to Wahpeton, N.D., to meet the 18th-ranked North Dakota State College of Science Wildcats in the semifinals of the MCAC state tournament at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. It will be the first time in recent memory the two teams will meet as NDSCS entered the MCAC just last year. The Raiders enter the game with a better overall record (8-1) then NDSCS (7-2), but CLC's early season loss to Rochester gave the Raiders a 4-1 Eastern Division record and a No.
As the Central Lakes College Raider women prepare for the Region 13B tournament Friday and Saturday on the campus of Central Lakes, they hold a regular season of dominance over the other teams in the tournament. The Raiders finished division play with a 14-0 record and in the six games played against Mesabi, Rainy River and Itasca - the other teams in the tournament - CLC has only dropped one set. No. 1 seeded Raiders will open the tournament 6 p.m. Friday against No. 4 Itasca. No. 2 Mesabi will face No. 3 seeded Rainy River following.
The Central Lakes Raiders volleyball team was a little slow getting off the bus after the five-hour trip to Thief River Falls but woke up after a first set loss to win the next three and get their 10th division win of the season with a 3-1 win over Northland. Rachel Mathias notched 23 kills and Ashton Kapphahn totaled 40 set assists for the Raiders, who came into the game ranked third in the latest NJCAA Division III poll. The Pioneers also had received votes and entered the game with a 5-4 division record. Jenny Skoog scooped 18 digs and Kapphahn had 16.
Four consecutive scoring drives in the second quarter propelled the Central Lakes College Raiders to a 68-14 win over the Mesabi Norse Saturday at Findorff Athletic Complex. The victory raised CLC's MCAC Eastern Division record to 3-1 and lifted the 12th-ranked Raiders to 5-1 overall. Quarterback Jake Faber connected with Kieran Johnson on three scoring passes and Carlton Djam grabbed a 40-yard touchdown pass as the Raiders moved from just a 20-14 lead to a 49-14 lead on their way to their third straight win. Faber finished with 338 yards passing and six touchdown passes.
