WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
When: Wednesday, Jan. 20, UW-Stout (7-9, 4-4) at UW-La Crosse (5-11, 1-7), 7 p.m., Mitchell Hall; Saturday, Jan. 23, UW-Whitewater (11-4, 6-2) at UW-Stout, 3 p.m., Johnson Fieldhouse.
Last Time Out: Stout blew by UW-Superior in the second half on their way to a 91-72 decision, Saturday, Jan. 16 in Menomonie. UW-Stevens Point slipped past the Blue Devils, 76-72, in overtime, Wednesday, Jan. 13 in Stevens Point. La Crosse split a pair last week, dowing UW-Platteville, 76-59, Saturday, but were tipped, 73-65 by UW-River Falls. Whitewater also split a pair, but needed overtime to down Carthage College, 62-61, Saturday. The Warhawks were roughed up by UW-Eau Claire Wednesday, 76-59.
Last Time They Met: The Blue Devils had little trouble with the Eagles, taking an 83-63 decision at Johnson Fieldhouse, Dec. 2; The Warhawks downed Stout, 74-56, Dec. 5 at Whitewater.

ICE HOCKEY
When: Jan. 22-23, UW-Stout (4-12-1, 1-6-1) at St. Norbert College (12-2-2, 7-1-2), 7:05 p.m. both nights in DePere.
Last Time Out: The Blue Devils put a scare into Bemidji State, Jan. 8, taking a 4-1 lead into the third period, but fell, 5-4. Stout lost, 6-3, to Bemidji, Jan. 9. St. Norbert downed UW-Eau Claire, 5-2, Friday, Jan. 15, but the Blugolds came back to tie the Green Knights, 4-4, Saturday, Jan. 16. The Knights currently are in first place of the NCHA.
Last Time They Met: St. Norbert won both games last season, taking a 6-3 win Jan. 23, 1998, and 5-2 the next night.

GYMNASTICS
When: Monday, Jan. 18, Hamline University at UW-Stout, 7 p.m., Johnson Fieldhouse.
Last Time Out: Stout lost to UW-Oshkosh, 137.225-92.325, Saturday, Jan. 9 at Oshkosh.
Last Time They Met: The teams met several times last season, with the Pipers taking a dual meet, Jan. 23 in St. Paul, Minn., 139.875-126.35. The teams also saw each other at the NCGA Regionals in Oshkosh, March 7. The Blue Devils scored a school record 134.60 points. The Pipers scored 143.925 points.

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
When: Saturday, Jan. 23, UW-Stout hosts the UW-Stout Invititational for both men and women in the multi-purpose room of Johnson Fieldhouse beginning at 11 a.m. Who: On the men's side, UW-Eau Claire, Macalester, St. Mary's, and UW-Superior will join Stout. It will be a bigger meet on the women's side, with St. Olaf, St. Benedict, UW-River Falls, Hamline, UW-Eau Claire, Macalester, UW-La Crosse, St. Mary's, Carleton, Minnesota JV, and UW-Superior joining Stout. Last year: In last year's opening home meet, La Crosse and Eau Claire finished first and second in both the men's and women's meet.

MENOMONIE- UW-Stout broke out of a halftime tie to take a six point lead, but allowed UW-Superior to take the lead, then utilized a solid defensive effort to bring home an 82-59 win at Superior Saturday, Jan. 16 in men's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) action.

After allowing Superior to take a 44-43 lead at the 14:44 mark of the second half, Stout's Ben Kuepers (Jr, Dickeyville) notched a steal, but missed a jumper. Dave Larson (Fr, La Crescent, Minn) pulled down the rebound and made the shot to give Stout a 45-44 lead, a lead they would not relinquish.

With the score 54-48 with 9:21 left, Stout (11-5, 4-4) went on to hold Superior (3-9, 0-8) scoreless for more than three minutes, jumping up to a 66-48 lead. The Yellowjackets would score only 11 more points the rest of the way, while the Blue Devils got a chance to empty their bench.

Stout shot 64 percent in the second half, and finished the game shooting 52 percent (30-for-58) from the floor.

Stout's Aaron Vachowiak (So, Wausau) led all scorers with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Jeremy Preston (Sr, Madison) added 15 points. Jeremy Leibfried (Jr, Dickeyville) finished with 14 points and Kuepers had 12.

The Yellowjackets were led by Brett Gunderson with 13 points and had three players with 12 points.

January 13, 1999

MENOMONIE - Aaron Vachowiak (So, Wausau) scored six points in the final one minute, 30-seconds to help lift UW-Stout to a 67-63 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) win over UW-Stevens Point Wednesday, Jan. 13 at Johnson Fieldhouse.

With the score tied 58-58, Vachowiak gave Stout a one point lead with the back end of a free throw, then notched a three point play 40 seconds later on a layup and a free throw. Vachowiak gave Stout (10-5, 3-4) a six point lead with 26 seconds remaining when he sunk two more charity shots.

The Blue Devils made 7-of-9 free throws down the final stretch as the fought off a Stevens Point (8-7, 2-5) charge that saw the Pointers come back from a 17 point second half deficit.

Both teams traded big runs in the first half, with Stout jumping out to a 17-5 lead before the Pointers stormed back to tie the score at 22-22 with two minutes left in the half. Stout took a 27-25 lead into the locker room.

The Blue Devils charged out to the 17-point lead in the second stanza on the strength of five 3-pointers, three by Jeremy Preston (Sr, Madison) and one each by Ben Kuepers (Jr, Dickeyville) and Jeremy Leibfried (Jr, Dickeyville).

Preston led all scorers with 18 points, while Kuepers finished with 15 points, Leibfried 14 and Vachowiak 12.

The Pointers were led by Brant Bailey with 17 points, followed by Jay Bennett's 14 points and Derek Westrum's 11.

January 11, 1999

MENOMONIE - With UW-Stout holding a 48-42 lead with more than seven minutes remaining, UW-Platteville went on an 18-2 run to hand the Blue Devils a 60-50 loss at Johnson Fieldhouse Monday, Jan. 11.

Stout (9-5, 2-4) led for nearly the entire second half until the Pioneers went on their run, strengthened by 6-for-6 free throw shooting by the Pioneers' Mike Jones. Platteville (13-1, 6-0) took the lead for good with 4:08 remaining when Merrill Brunson nailed a jumper for a 50-49 Platteville lead.

Stout trailed 30-27 at halftime, but made their move early in the second half with 8-2 run of their own to take a 37-32 lead. Stout stretched the lead to 48-42 when Jeremy Leibfried (Jr, Dickeyville) nailed a 3-pointer at 7:47. But that would spell the end of the scoring for the night as Stout managed only two more free throws the rest of the way out.

Platteville's Brunson and Jeremy Preston (Sr, Madison) shared scoring honors with 19 points. Mike Jones had 10 for the Pioneers and Leibfried finished with 11 points.

Women's Basketball

January 16, 1999

Shannon Berg (Sr, Ellsworth) scored seven points to key the run. The Blue Devils went on to as much as a 19 point lead several times in the second half.

The Blue Devils (7-9, 4-4) overcame 28 turnovers, including seven in the opening minutes of the game where Superior jumped out to a nine-point lead early in the game. Stout hammered back and took the lead for good with five-minutes, 22-second remaining in the first half when Rachel Traynor (Sr, Ellsworth) nailed a 3-pointer for a 32-29 lead.

Heather Peterson (Jr, Altoona) led the Blue Devils with a career-high 21 points and added 12 rebounds, while Traynor pitched in 16 points. Berg finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The Blue Devils dominated the boards, yanking down 57 rebounds to Superior's 40. The Yellowjackets' Mandy Giffen led all scorers with 27 points.

January 13, 1999

STEVENS POINT - Heather Peterson (Jr, Altoona) hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer of regulation to send the game into overtime, but UW-Stout's magic wore out in the extra period as the Blue Devils fell, 76-72, at UW-Stevens Point Wednesday, Jan. 13.

The Pointers (8-6, 4-3) outscored Stout (6-9, 3-4), 13-9 in the final stanza to score the win. The Blue Devils took a 66-63 lead in the overtime period when Andrea Bresette (Jr, Ashland) made a free throw and Peterson a layup.

But the Pointers went to work, especially Kari Groshek who hit a layup and five consecutive free throws to give the Pointers a 72-68 lead, and the Pointers never trailed again.

The loss dropped the Blue Devils into a two-way tie with UW-River Falls for fifth place.

The Pointers' Jessica Ott led all scorers with 23 points and Groshek contributed 22. Peterson led the Blue Devils with 16 points. Shannon Berg (Sr, Ellsworth) contributed 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Stacie Anderson (So, Clayton) added 12 points and Rachel Traynor (Sr, Ellsworth) 10 points.

January 11, 1999

PLATTEVILLE - Four UW-Stout players scored in double figures and Tina Gillen (Fr, Northfield) set a new single game record for blocked shots as Stout downed UW-Platteville, 86-72, Monday, Jan. 11 at Platteville.

Gillen blocked six shots to break the school record of five, set last season by Bree Mahone.

Stout (6-8, 3-3) got 15 points from Heather Peterson (Jr, Altoona) and 14 points from Shannon Berg (Sr, Ellsworth), Rachel Traynor (Sr, Ellsworth) and Tina McNamara (Fr, New Richmond).

The Blue Devils jumped out to a 48-32 halftime lead, then held off a Pioneer (5-8, 0-6) charge. Stout shot 50 percent from the 3-point line, nailing 12-of-24 long distance bombs. Berg landed 4-of-7 3-pointers and Traynor connected on 3-of-4. The Blue Devils needed the treys to offset the Pioneer advantage at the free throw line where Platteville hit 27-of-35 charity shots.

Platteville's Ellie Nies scored 20 points to lead all scorers. Laurie Buechel finished with 16 points and Lisa Dietzel 11.

Stout's nine blocked shots was a season high. The Blue Devils held a 48-40 advantage on the boards.

January 18, 1999

MENOMONIE - After a week off, the UW-Stout ice hockey team will have a tough row to when they head over to DePere to face St. Norbert College in a series, Friday, Jan. 22 and Saturday, Jan. 23. The Green Knights are currently in the lead of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA), with 16 points. UW-River Falls is second with 14 points. St. Norbert defeated and tied with UW-Eau Claire last weekend.

Women's Gymnastics

January 9, 1999

OSHKOSH - The UW-Stout gymnastics team improved their overall score by more than 12 points as they competed in a dual meet at UW-Oshkosh, falling 137.225-92.325, Saturday, Jan. 9.

The Blue Devils filled out their card in only two events, competing five gymnasts on the vault and four on the floor.

Brenna Jones (So, St. Paul, Minn), competing with an injured heel, paced the Blue Devils in all events and tied for third on the vault with an 8.575. Jones finished with an 8.55 on the floor and a 31.875 in the all-around competition.

The Blue Devils will open up their home portion of the schedule Monday, Jan. 18 when they host Hamline University at 7 p.m.

UW-Oshkosh 137.225, UW-Stout 92.325
(First place, and all Stout competitors) Vault: 1. Tiffany Barden (Osh) 9.00; 3. Brenna Jones 8.575; Lauren Seebert 7.85; Andrea Hassel 7.60; Scarlett Ramey 7.55; Kelli Mork 7.35
Uneven bars: 1. Gina Zubert (Osh) 8.30; Brenna Jones 6.85; Scarlett Ramey 4.95
Balance beam: 1. Tiffany Barden (Osh) 9.35; Brenna Jones 7.90; Andrea Hassel 7.05; Lauren Seebert 6.30;
Floor exercise: 1. Sabrina Ashton (Osh) 9.50; Brenna Jones 8.55; Andrea Hassel 7.7; Alissa Martin 5.90; Kelli Mork 5.55
All-around: 1. Kristin Arquette (Osh) 35.225; 2. Marion Imhauser (Osh) 31.825; 3. Brenna Jones 31.875.

General Athletics

January 9, 1999

MENOMONIE The UW-Stout Physical Education and Athletics Department will mark the 13th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day with an all-sports clinic and workshop preceeding the the women's basketball game featuring UW-Stout and UW-Oshkosh, Saturday, Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. at Johnson Fieldhouse.

The afternoon will begin with registration at 12:30 p.m. for a sports clinic for area elementary girls and boys. The clinic will feature workshops hosted by several UW-Stout women's varsity sports and their players and will run until game time when all participants are invited to attend the women's basketball game.

There is no cost to participating in the clinic and participants are encouraged to dress as they would for physical education class.

National Girls and Women in Sports Day is scheduled for the first Thursday in February — Feb. 4 this year — and is set aside by several national advocacy groups, including the Women's Sports Foundation, for the observance as thousands of sports educators, coaches, athletic directors, recreation directors and affiliated associations sponsor events and participate in activities that focus attention on issues involving girls and women in sports.

There will be special halftime activities for women and girls in attendance at the basketball game.

The theme of the 13th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day is "All Girls Allowed."

Updated: January 18, 1998