Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

Students, Parents, and Fans could listen to a live stream of the MCC taking on South Mountain on both April 11th and 12th courtesy of T-Birds sports live. The Thunderbirds defeated South Mountain in both games, rebounding from last week’s losses. The T-Birds won their first game 3-0 and progressed to their second game a few hours later where they won big 12-0.

The first game for MCC was slow and hard fought. The Thunderbirds came out swinging when a double by Garrett Smith allowed Kody Funderburk and Esteban to cross home plate giving Mesa and early 2-0 advantage. The game slowed from there with the next run not coming until the sixth inning giving Mesa the advantage. Strong pitching allowed MCC to hold on and defeat South Mountain in the first game with a final score of 3-0.

The second game against the South Mountain Cougars was a different narrative for the Thunderbirds when they pulled out a 12-0 victory. The game stated out slow with no runs scored in the first inning. Mesa then scored at least one run in three consistent innings. In the second Mesa scored three runs in the second, one run in the third, and two runs in the fourth against a scoreless Cougars.

The Thunderbirds then exploded in the fifth inning, putting up 5 runs and further widening the spread between themselves and their opponent. Funderburk got a grandslam at the close of the fifth inning with a homerun over right field to bring the score to 11-0. The final run of the game came in the seventh inning bringing the score to 12-0, where it stayed for the remainder of the game.

The Thunderbirds advance to 34-12 on the regular season and 19-11 in conference play. Their home win percentage remains considerably better than their away percentage but the team holds playoffs alive with their win over the South Mountain Cougars.

The T-birds go on to play a double header against Pima on Saturday the 15th at home, first pitch is at 12:00 p.m. the second is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. There are only four more games for the Thunderbirds on their way to the playoffs. Hopefully strong conference performances towards the end of their season will help propel them into serious playoff contention. The Thunderbirds are currently 20-12 in conference play.

Marcus Campbell
marcuscampbell.mesalegend@gmail.com
Twitter:marcusnoodlesoup

Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

Both men’s and women’s Mesa Community College tennis teams continued their streaks and finished the season strong.  The men’s tennis team closed the regular season with a record of 11-5. They advance to the first round of the division 1 playoffs with a conference record of 6-0. The women’s team also had a successful season and they will advance to the division 1 playoff. The women’s team concluded conference play with a perfect record of 8-0 and an overall record of 13-4.

In the match against Glendale on Tuesday April 11 the Thunderbirds showed more of the same dominance they displayed all season. Both teams forfeited matches due to incomplete rosters but won their remaining 6 sets.  The women’s team failed to schedule for one singles match and another doubles match. Doubles team Naa Ankrah and Khanh Huynh won 8-0 against G. Mercado and A. Morales. MCC’s second women’s doubles team Yolanda Carlon and Julia Ortiz defeated Julia Hansen and Savannah Smith 8-2.

In women’s singles action, all MCC athletes defeated their opponents and all 5 who participated, Khanh Huynh, Naa Ankrah, Yolanda Carlon, Julia Ortiz and Hannah Nelson won their matches with a perfect 6-0 finish. The men’s team failed to schedule three matches heading into their game against Glendale. Two singles match and one doubles match went up for grabs but MCC won the remaining matches. Noel Maurin and Linus Holthey beat Andrew Arnold and Bryan Castanon 8-0. Matt fisher and Kim Donghyun had the same result in their doubles match with a perfect 8-0.

Felix and Holthey won their singles matches with two perfect 6-0 games. Donghyun and Fisher each one both their singles matches with 6-0 and 6-1 final scores. The men’s and women’s teams have both had trouble on the road this year and an away game has seemed to spell impending doom for the Thunderbirds win percentage. The women’s team owes half their losses to road matches and the men’s team owes all but one of their 5 losses too road matches. Hopefully this trend doesn’t continue to affect the thunderbirds as they travel to Glendale to close out their season.

One thing the Thunderbirds tennis teams have working in their advantage are the nationally ranked players on their respective rosters. The tennis teams boast 5 ranked players between them. On the Men’s team David Felix is No. 14 and Linus Holthey is No. 31. The women’s team has three ranked contenders heading to the playoffs Khanh Huynh is ranked No. 13, Naa Ankrah is ranked No. 32 and Yolanda Carlon is ranked No. 43. The men’s and women’s MCC tennis teams will both participate in the conference championships next week, 4/18-4/19/2017, in Glendale on the path to the NJCAA Division Championship.

Marcus Campbell
Twitter:marcusnoodlesoup
marcuscampbell.mesalegend@gmail.com

Stephen Peck
Mesa Legend

The Thunderbirds fought valiantly while on the road at Phoenix College, but had to chalk up a loss, a division loss to boot.
The first inning was full of action as three hits, a walk and a run were put up on the scoreboard. The Thunderbirds took the field with Holden Barnhardt, #20, on the mound. The first batter he faced hit a single to right field on a 1-2 count. The next batter was behind when he hit to Holden, allowing the runner at first to advance, but still getting the out.  Kody Funderburk, #16, committed an error when he misjudged a fly ball to shallow right, allowing the Bears to tie the game.  The top of the second was looking like a typical inning. The first batter grounded out to third, then a walk was issued, with a strikeout looking leaving one out in the inning.

Life emerged from the T-Birds and the pinch runner stole second. The shortstop for the Bears then bobbled a grounder, allowing the runner on second to advance third and the hitter was safe at first. The runner at first stole second for the second time in the inning. Second base misjudged a shallow fly to right that allowed in two runs. The inning was capped off by a second error that allowed runners to second and third, but they were not able to score before the third out.  The bottom of the second and top of the third went quickly. The bottom of third the Thunderbirds came away unscathed with the bases loaded, even with Coach Cirelli visiting the mound to talk with Barnhardt.

The bottom of the fourth was the inning that put the Bears in a position to win the game. Phoenix College started the inning with a 1-0 triple to center, followed by a walk. Coach Cirelli then made a pitching change and Barnhardt’s twin came in, Locke Barnhardt, #29. He had a 3-2 count and threw a wild pitch allowing the runner on third to score and the batter to advance to first. Barnhardt, #29, stayed in and had the hitter lay down a bunt to load the bases. A 3-run triple was then blasted to center, again. Locke was done after three hitters and Cirelli brought in Riley Grivette, #7, to finish the inning.

A two-run bomb to left center came in the bottom of the sixth by Ben Aklinski, #20, a guy the team struggles to keep off the bases. Cirelli said, “We tried to go in on him and left it out over the middle and he made us pay for it.” Aklinski hit one of the triples earlier in the game.  The Thunderbirds notched another run in the top of the eighth. Aklinski would come to bat and negate this run by belting another ball over the fence.  The Thunderbirds scratched and clawed the Bears, but the bird strikes were not enough to subdue the Bears power. Cirelli said, “We just couldn’t get that knock, we got guys on and we just couldn’t get them in. We get a knock here or there, that changes the ball game around a bit.”

Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale was released to U.S. audiences on March 9, 2017 and will be shown in limited release though the end of March. Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale followed S.A.O. seasons one and two in the chronology. The film was the first feature length entry in the series. Ordinal Scale followed Kirito and company as they deal with the trials and tribulations of another virtual reality game. This time an augmented reality matrix called Augma. The Augma doesn’t have a full-dive system unlike its predecessors the Nerve Gear (Sword Art Online season 1) and the Amusphere (Sword Art Online season 2). The augmented reality system is supposed to make the users safer so Kirito joins his friends in the virtual world for another adventure.

The crew soon finds out that there is something suspicious about the new technology; including the game itself, its purpose, and the software’s creator Dr. Kurahashi. As the story progress bosses from old S.A.O. games appeared and encouraged veteran players to engage in combat. Only afterward, memories of former S.A.O. players were being sapped. Asuna, our main female protagonist, had her memories zapped because of dying in a boss fight. This launched the hero Kirito on his quest to recover Asuna’s memories of her and Kirito’s marriage.  Over the course of the story we meet up with old friends and new ones.

Sham Troupe, Allies Fuller, Tori Lloyd, and Anessa Glenn pulled the reins back on Essex but ultimately it wasn’t enough and Essex lead at halftime 36-29. The second half was more of the same for the T-Birds. The team suffered from poor shooting throughout the game.  The T-Birds did pull ahead for the first time in the game during the third quarter. However, after a series of lead changes Essex county came out on top. Allies Fuller finished the game with 20 points and Anessa Glenn finished the game with 12 points. The story went better for the Lady-T Birds when they rolled Chesapeake College 62-43 on March 23, 2017 in a consolation game.

The T-Birds came out of gate firing and by the end of the first quarter they held a commanding 21-9 lead. Huggins, Lloyd, and Glenn kept firing on all cylinders and ran the score up to 32-14 by halftime. Both Glenn and Huggins finished with 11 points and Fuller lead with 15 points. Takara Wade also snatched a monster 14 rebounds. The Lady-T Birds were not as fortunate in their final game and fell out of the tournament with a loss to the Parkland College Cobras. In what became the final game of the T-Birds season the team lost 66-57.

Despite multiple back and forth in the first quarter the Cobras stayed on top throughout most of the first quarter and finished at 28-14. The Lady-T Birds closed the gap but could not overcome it and entered halftime down 35-33. The Cobras came out of the locker room shooting and outscored MCC right out of the gate 7-2. By the end of the third quarter the Mesa had rallied but was still two points down with the score at 47-45.

At the end of the fourth quarter Parkland went on and 8-0 run while the T-Birds missed their final six shots. The result was a 66-57 loss for the Lady Thunderbirds. The team finishes with their best record since 2014 with 23 wins and 10 losses.

Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

Both the Men’s and Women’s Mesa Community College tennis teams won their games against Glendale Community College on Thursday, March 23 2017.  Both games were played in windy conditions and the Men’s game was fraught with injuries. The Women’s team blanked their opponent and won all their sets beating their opponents 9-0. The Men’s team lost only nine matches and won 8-1, losing one match by forfeit due to an injury.

After two weeks, the teams returned to conference play; the wins raised the men’s team to seven wins and three losses overall, and three wins and no losses in conference play, and the women’s team, nine wins and three losses overall, and four wins and no losses in conference play. Hanna Nelson beat Yulma Lopez in both her sets 6-0 as did Michelle Fournier when she played Julidany Ortega in singles.

No. 43 nationally ranked player Yolanda Carlon also had two perfect 6-0 singles matches against A. Morales. Julia Ortiz also had strong singles matches against Sunniva Juliussen at 6-1 each. No. 32 nationally ranked player Naa Ankrah also had an excellent singles performance with 6-0 and 6-1 matches. No. 13 ranked player Khanh Huynh rounded out the pack with a solid win over Julia Hansen in singles with 6-1 and 6-3 wins.

Naa Ankrah and Khanh Huynh beat G. Mercado and A. Morales 8-1. Yolanda Carlon and Julia Ortiz beat Julia Hansen and Sunniva Juliussen 8-0. Lastly, Michelle Fournier and Hanna Nelson beat Julidany Ortega and Yulma Lopez 8-0.  The men’s team forfeited one match due to an incomplete lineup because of an injury. Also, In No. 14 ranked David Felix’s singles match against Matthew Pascal, Pascal suffered and injury and was forced to leave the match at 4-1. David won his other match by a final score of 6-0.

Kim Donghyun defeated Andrew Arnold in both games 6-1. Noel Maurin beat Nathan Salim 6-1 and then 6-0. Eduardo Couto also beat Manon Pascal 6-2 and 6-1. No. 31 nationally ranked player Linus Holthey had strong wins against Bryan Castanon with 6-0 games. In doubles, the men performed equally as well. Noel Maurin and Linus Holthey beat Matthew Pascal and Manon Pascal 8-1. Matt Fischer and David Felix defeated Andrew Arnold and Bryan Castanon. Lastly, Eduardo Couto and Kim Donghyun beat Nathan Salim and James McLean 8-1.

Both Mesa Community College tennis teams finished with notches in the win column against Glendale Community College. The women’s team will visit Paradise Valley on Tuesday, March 28, 2017, and the men’s team will host P.V. on Tuesday, March 28, 2017. at Mesa Community College.

Marcus Campbell
marcuscampbell.mesalegend@gmail.com
@Marcusnoodlesoup

Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

The MCC women’s basketball team beat Phoenix College and Pima College at home in Theo Heap Gymnasium to claim the ACCAC DII Championship.  The first game against Phoenix College took place in Theo Heap Gymnasium on March 7. The result was a 70-49 win in favor of the Lady-T birds. From there Mesa Community College faced Pima College in a tense game, that resulted in a win for the Lady T-Birds 74-72.

The game against Phoenix College was a harsh contrast to the game against Pima. The Lady T-Birds fought hard against Phoenix College for the entire first half. Phoenix College game out strong, extending an early 10-4 lead.  The Lady T-Birds woke up and snapped back closing the score to 13-12 by the end of the first quarter. Phoenix College continued to put pressure on the Lady T-Birds for the rest of the first half.

The Lady T-Birds quickly put up points to take the lead for the first time in the game at 17-13.  The Phoenix College Bears snapped back however and extended their lead after multiple runs to 29-25 at halftime. For the beginning of the second half the Bears kept up with the Lady T-Birds but by the end of the third quarter the power had shifter. The Lady T-Birds went on monster runs and outscored the Bears tremendously in the third quarter.

The Lady-T Birds didn’t let up and outscored the Bears 45-20 in the second half. The result was an impressive finish at 70-49. With this win the T-Birds moved on to play Pima, who beat Scottsdale, in the conference championship. The meeting would be the fourth time in five years these two have met in this game. No. 2 Pima College arrived ready to play but No. 1 Mesa College was ready too. In what turned out to be a nail bitter The Lady T-Birds beat the Aztecs 74-72 in Theo Heap Gymnasium.

The result of the game was a Region I ACCAC DII championship for the Lady-T birds.  It took two minutes for a team to score the first basket but from that moment on the game was a dogfight. Pima college made a quick jump shot and Mesa answered with two made free throws to bring the score to 2-2.  The game continued neck and neck with multiple ties until Mesa broke free on a small run pushing the score to 23-12 at the end of the first quarter.

The Lady T-Birds held the lead until the second half where the score was 46-29.  The second half was more of the same, the T-birds held their lead but the Aztecs attempted to fight back. The Aztecs narrowed the gap to 50-60 by the end of the first quarter but couldn’t take the lead.  Over the course of the final period the Aztecs did battle against the T-Birds, but the T-Birds retained their lead and narrowly escaped with last minute lay-ups by Anessa Glenn and Free throws by Tori Lloyd.

The buzzer sounded and the families rushed down from the bleachers. Allies Fuller climbed into the stands to hug her family. Head Coach Kori Stephenson reached out for her sons after sharing words in the huddle with her team. When the excitement settled, composure was regained and everybody got a piece of the net. Sham Troupe was named MVP of the game. She certainly deserves it for how hard she worked on the court. Other T-Birds also had stellar games. Quynne Huggins had a monster 8 rebounds. Tori Lloyd put up 11 points, seven assists and seven rebounds. Allies Fuller also put up 17 points, two blocks and four rebounds.

When asked about the game and beating Pima College for the third time this season Tori Lloyd said, “It’s literally the best feeling, not only to beat a hard team like that three times in a row but also to win a championship that’s also the best feeling…We beat them at home, first time in a long time, and then we beat them at our house, and we beat them for the championship; best feeling.”

Director of athletics John Mulhern also talked about what wins and season’s like the Lady T-Bird’s mean for other programs, “This sets the stage for all other athletic programs. Three years ago, our women’s basketball program won the conference championship just like this, they went on and won the national championship. The same year our men’s baseball program won the conference championship and won the national championship and our men’s golf team won the conference championship, they had national runner-up.”

He went on to say, “We hadn’t won a national championship in 34 years and this program set the stage for the first one and then another one, and we almost won three in one year.” The Lady T-Birds will go on to play in the national tournament again.

Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

The Mesa Community College Women’s team named Tori Lloyd, Allies Fuller and Quynne Huggins to the All-Region I and All-ACCAC. Tori Lloyd received a spot on the All-ACCAC Second Team and All-Region DII First Team. Allies Fuller snagged a spot on the All-ACCAC Third Team and All-Region DII Second Team.

Quynne Huggins also received nominations to the All-ACCAC Second Team and All-Region DII First Team. Allies Fuller and Quynne Huggins also earned additional player of the week accolades throughout the season. Allies Fuller received ACCAC DII Player of the Week awards for her games against Pima College and Phoenix College. Quynne Huggins received ACCAC DII Player of the Week nominations for her games against Arizona Western and Tohono O’Odham.

Allies Fuller, Quynne Huggins, and Tori Lloyd all had monster seasons that helped their team earn the number one seed in the ACCAC DII playoffs. Each of the team’s leaders has a place in the top on the team’s statistics sheet. Quynne Huggins leads the team in Points Per Game with a healthy 13.5 point average. Huggins also ranks second in rebounds per game with six and FG PCT with 37.2 percent. Huggins also ranks third in three-point percentage with 31.3 percent. Allies Fuller leads the team in FG PCT with 57.8 percent. She also ranks third in points per game with 11.6 and third in rebounds per game with 5.2.

Tori Lloyd ranked second in points per game with 13.1, just behind Huggins.  Lloyd also averaged 4.3 rebounds per game rounding out the team leaders at number five.  Lloyd was also third in FG PCT with 33.5 percent. Lastly, Lloyd finished the regular season second in three-point percentage with 31.6 percent.  Huggins, Fuller and Lloyd all spoke about how seeing each other grow and receive recognition has helped the team. Allies Fullers mother had a different perspective on what makes her proud.

She is most proud of her daughter’s accomplishments working with children off the court. She also said, “Allies has also struggled with a lot of bullying.” The girls helped the Lady T-birds to have an impressive season overall. As the season wound to a close Mesa Community wound up averaging 67.2 points over the course of their 30 game regular season. Overall the Lady-T birds averaged 38.6 rebounds per game and 15.1 assists per game. They finished up the season shooting 39.6 percent from the free throw line and shooting 30.8 percent from the three-point line.

Clearly the Mesa Community College Lady-T birds have provided a family-based community that helps each athlete grow. The Lady T-birds will continue their postseason in the national tournament in Pioneer Pavilion in Harrison, Ark. The team enters the tournament at the number four seed, four seeds higher than the last time the girls entered the tournament and won the NJCAA DII National Championship.

Kian Hagerman
Mesa Legend

The MCC men’s basketball team lost in the first round of the ACCAC championship tournament to Cochise College on March 4. Even though Cochise had home court advantage, the game ended fairly close, going 79-76 for the Apaches who had already beaten MCC twice prior in the season.

Cochise would go on to fall to Arizona Western in their Region I final match on March 6, setting up Arizona Western to play the winner on March 11 of the second region’s final between Phoenix College and Pima. The final match will decide the winner of the District Championship of the ACCAC, and who will then go on to compete at the national level.

Michael Vos-Otin played in the most games, though Obi Megwa and Noe Anabir played in only one less with 29 games played each. James Hampshire led the team in FG PCT with a success rate of 66.7 percent. Anabir trailed slightly behind Hampshire with 58 percent FG PCT.

Jamil Wilson-Jones averaged 5.8 rebounds each game, the highest average of the team for the season. Vos-Otin came close with 5.7 rebounds per game of his own. The men’s team as a whole averaged 36.9 rebounds a game for the season. Field goal accuracy was greater for the T-Birds than their opponents, with 46.8 percent of all attempts resulting in points on the board compared to 42.3 percent for their competitors.

This superiority of precision unfortunately did not mitigate the lower number of overall shots made per game by MCC, in comparison to their opposition. Though unable to find postseason success, there is always next year for the T-Birds. To find out more information about future MCC athletic events including dates and times, as well as individual player statistics, visit www.mesatbirdsports.com.

Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

In what was their last home game, the MCC men’s basketball team fought tooth and nail against the Pima Aztecs on Feb. 25 to earn a close victory in overtime and retain their 3rd seed in the upcoming playoffs.

The Thunderbirds third overtime game in a row ended in victory this time as the Thunderbirds triumphed over the Aztecs, 94-93 after a tense overtime period.The Thunderbirds trailed for much of the first half until just after the 10:00 mark when the team began to rally back.

By the end of the half the Thunderbirds had recovered most the deficit with the T-Birds behind by 1, 41-40.
Both teams exchanged the lead over the course of the second half. In the closing moments of the second half the Aztecs scored and tied the game, sending it into overtime.  The overtime period was heated and tumultuous, with multiple lead changes, monster dunks and clutch three-pointers.

At the end of the overtime period an easy score by the Thunderbirds raised the final score to 94-93.
Multiple athletes on the Thunderbirds had huge games including several players who came off the bench and provided much needed support for the T-Birds.  Jamil Wilson-Jones was the team’s highest scorer with 19 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists.  Michael Vos-Otin followed close behind with a healthy 16 points, 5 assists and 6 rebounds.

Noe Anabir came off the reserves to serve up 13 points and 5 rebounds. James Hampshire also came off the bench to help the Thunderbirds and scored 12 points and snagged 9 rebounds. When prompted about the close victory Thunderbird Jamil Wilson-Jones said, “We’ve gone through a lot this year and for the sophomores and the people that we look to step up in big games it feels great. Because they did their job and did what they were supposed to do all the way down the bench. It always feels great to pull out a big win like this.”

When asked about their overtime win head coach Sam Ballard said, “It feels great, we needed some kind of momentum shift going into the playoffs and that definitely helps.”The Thunderbirds are optimistic for the playoffs this year but they have one more obstacle in their way, Phoenix College. The Thunderbirds will play their final regular season game against the Bears on Feb. 28 at Phoenix College, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Stephen Wright
Mesa Legend

The Thunderbird’s baseball team had a well-fought game Feb. 23. Unfortunately for MCC, the result was not a notch in the win column. The team is currently 13-4 with the loss to Thompson River.  The game was a make-up against Thompson River due to a rain out. The “Wolfpack”, according to their jerseys, scored in the first inning. Since the game was non-conference game, the Thunderbirds worked on their pitching staff. According to Locke Bernhardt, most of the pitching staff is in their first season.

The rest are sophomores, so they are a young pitching squad altogether. The pivotal point which cost the Thunderbirds the game was a throwing error. The catcher saw the runner at third away from the bag and overthrew the third baseman. It all started in the top of the eighth inning. There was one out when a walk was issued by No. 16, Kody Funderburk. Funderburk played first-base, until he was moved to the mound.

A single was then hit to right field, leaving runners at the corners.  The next batter for the “Wolfpack” had a 0-1 count.  This is when the error occurred allowing Thompson River to score the winning run of the game.  Thompson River also committed errors on their turn in the field. The Thunderbirds attempted to rally in the bottom of the ninth defending home field, but were unsuccessful.

The season is still young for the Thunderbirds as they work towards becoming a cohesive unit on the field. The pitching needs more experience and time on the mound. This is not to say they will have issues winning by this game alone. The Thunderbirds are 13-4 at the beginning of the season because they play as a team. Bernhardt said Coach Cirelli wants them to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, so when they appear that it’s not an issue.