After visting ESPN’s website on December 17, I was taken aback to see the UNF men's basketball team featured on the website’s homepage. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that the article, which centered around a 76-36 UNF loss to No. 25 Clemson, had little to do with any improvements UNF has made on the court. Rather than focusing on UNF’s attempt to keep up with Clemson Whelliston’s article had a much different objective: explaining the $80,000 paycheck UNF received to get crushed by Clemson. However, the author, Kyle Whelliston, did have a few words of praise to say about UNF’s effort.

After losing 33-26 to Florida Atlantic University and winning by forfeit to the University of Miami at the Florida Rugby Union College Championships in Tampa, Fla., the UNF rugby club is proud of the resilience it showed but knows it could have done better, UNF Rugby President Jackson Frenot said. The UNF rugby club entered the championships with high expectations and a lot of confidence, team captain Max Schwartz said. After upsetting FAU earlier in the season, UNF quickly fell behind in the first half of the two teams’ tournament match. UNF executed a surge in the second half but came up short in the final minutes.

The first win of the season for the UNF women’s basketball team came Nov. 30 against Wofford College at the UNF Arena. Teamwork, communication and hard work were the main components contributing to the Ospreys’ 71-60 win, said UNF women’s basketball head coach Mary Tappmeyer. In the first half, the Ospreys trailed 23-26. But after entering the second half and accumulating 20 turnovers, they caught up and took a 48-34 lead. “We challenged the girls at halftime to come out and play to win and to not play scared,” Tappmeyer said. “I thought they really stepped up to that challenge. Our rebounding got a little bit better in the second half. We still have to work on our defensive rotations though.”

A fourth-place finish in the NCAA Division I Provisional Tournament Nov. 22 closed the UNF volleyball team’s 2008 32-match season – its longest season since its transition to Division I. UNF went 2-3 in the tournament with wins against North Carolina Central University and Winston-Salem State University. UNF lost to Presbyterian College, the University of Central Arkansas and the University of South Carolina Upstate. “I was really proud of how they played for the tournament,” UNF head volleyball coach Kevin Campbell said. “I wanted them to play the same level they always do, but in reality, we’re down two outside hitters. They fought and passed well all weekend, not to mention they attacked offensively and served tough. I was really proud of that.”

The UNF men’s basketball team had a game on a platter for them the day after Thanksgiving, but gave it away at the charity stripe. In its 68-60 loss against Charleston Southern University Nov. 28, UNF had the lead throughout the majority of the game including the final minutes of regulation. UNF started the game off quickly by taking a 13-point lead in the first 10 minutes, but Charleston Southern was able to cut the lead down to two points with the score 27-25 at the half.

Recovering from a fifth-place standing after the first day of competition, the UNF swimming and diving team finished in third place out of eight teams at the Davidson Invitational Nov. 23. Davidson...