November 22, 2008 - It’s that time of year again. Time to vote for your favorites of 2008.

If you’re a soccer fan, you’ll want to take part in the on-line voting for U.S. Soccer’s “Best of” awards honoring standout performances on and off the field during the year.

Female Athlete of the Year: With the finalists announced for the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year Awards,  fans collectively decide 50 percent of the final vote, with media and U.S. Soccer officials getting the other 50 percent of the vote.

Nominees:
Shannon Boxx - Midfielder
Lori Chalupny - Midfielder
Angela Hucles - Midfielder/Forward
Carli Lloyd - Midfielder
Christie Rampone - Defender
Hope Solo - Keeper
Vote

Best Goal - WNT: Best thing in soccer? Goals, goals, goals. This award crowns the top strike by a U.S. Women’s National Team player during 2008.

Nominees:
Carli Lloyd vs. BRA - Aug. 21
Carli Lloyd vs. JPN - Aug. 9
Lori Chalupny vs. JPN - Aug. 18
Amy Rodriguez vs. BRA - July 13
Kate Markgraf vs. IRL - Sept. 20
Heather O’Reilly vs. NZL - Aug. 12
Angela Hucles vs. AUS - May 3
Becky Edwards vs. CUB - June 20
Vote

In all, the “Best of” series has handed out 54 awards out to soccer players, bars, stores and even fans in the United States over the past five years check out the list of winner’s here.

Fans can vote once a day until Dec. 8th.

Filed under: Contest, Events, Int'l Soccer, Soccer by jane
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November 22, 2008 - The women’s college basketball season is in full swing so let’s catch up on some of what’s happening:

 California pulls off huge upset of No. 3 Rutgers - Alexis Gray-Lawson hustled all over the court on the way to 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists and No. 7 California pulled off the biggest home victory of fourth-year coach Joanne Boyle’s tenure with a 66-52 upset of third-ranked Rutgers on Friday night.

Paris notches 100th double-double as No. 4 Oklahoma drops Ariz. State -Courtney Paris had 20 rebounds and 19 points for the 100th double-double of her career and set Oklahoma’s scoring record in the No. 4 Sooners’ 70-57 win over No. 17 Arizona State in the semifinals of the Women’s Preseason NIT.

Hartford stuns fifth-ranked Duke 53-51 - Hartford took advantage of 26 turnovers and handed No. 6 Duke a surprising 53-51 loss in the first game of the DePaul Invitational on Friday night.

Toliver, big run lead Terps past James Madison - The Terrapin women’s basketball team and James Madison went back and forth for the majority of Thursday night’s game but the No. 11 Terps used a 14-0 run over 3:54 just past the midway point of the second half to outlast the Dukes for a 90-76 win.

No. 1 UConn routs San Diego St, 99-55 - Maya Moore led UConn with 21 points, 17 in the first half. The sophomore also had nine rebounds and six assists while playing just 25 minutes. Tina Charles added 17 points for the Huskies, who now have won 26 consecutive home games and 89 straight games over unranked opponents.

No. 1 UConn extends home win streak with rout of Rhode Island - As if Tina Charles, Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore weren’t enough, for the third consecutive game, at least five players scored in double figures to help the Huskies rout Rhode Island 91-43 on Saturday.

Bard’s Latiqua Williams records rare Quadruple Double - Bard College Sophomore, Latiqua Williams recorded a rare Quadruple-Double in a 75-28 win over The College of New Rochelle on Sunday, November 16th. Williams scored 21 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, had 11 steals and 10 assists in the victory.

Tennessee nearly upset by Chatanooga - Lady Vol’s Vicki Baugh made a tiebreaking free throw with 53.7 seconds remaining and Tennessee beat Chattanooga 66-63 on Friday night to avoid a major upset.

For great daily coverage, there are a number of bloggers who live and breath women’s hoops so be sure to catch their updates:

Girls Basketball Recuit - Girls basketball news and recruiting information covers D1 - D3 as well as community college and high school ball.
Women’s Hoops Blog - Great commentary on all aspects of the women’s game.

And of course you can always get your women’s basketball news from more traditional media outlets like:

ESPN Women’s Basketball
NCAA Women’s Basketball
USA Today Women’s College Basketball News
Yahoo! Sports - NCAA Women’s Hoops News

Filed under: College Basketball, News Bytes by jane
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November 21, 2008  Arguably the most dominant female golfer of all time, Annika Sorenstam has transcended her sport to become a prominent mainstream athlete and celebrity. Throughout her career, she has rewritten the LPGA and Ladies European Tour record books, won countless awards and events and brought unprecedented attention to women’s golf.  Along the way, she has inspired millions of young women worldwide.

And today, Sorenstam’s storied LPGA Tour career is coming to an end.

From ESPN:

The 72-time tour winner shot a 3-over par 75 on Friday at the ADT Championship, making her 5 over through two rounds of the LPGA’s season-ending event. The projected cut was 1 over, meaning it was virtually certain Sorenstam’s week — and career — was done.

“I know it’s over,” Sorenstam said.

She announced six months ago she was leaving the tour at year’s end to pursue business interests, get married and start a family. Sorenstam is still is No. 2 in the world rankings, but at 38 she says it’s time for new challenges.

Annika’s legacy is undeniable.  Often called the female Tiger Woods,  Sorenstam locked up 72 LPGA titles, made more than $20 million in earnings on the LPGA, and was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2003.

A win this week would have been the perfect ending to her career, but alas…the legend departs before our eyes.  She is, and has always been, a class act who will be sorely missed on the LPGA. 

After her LPGA Tour swansong this week Sorenstam will play in the Lexus Cup in Singapore later this month before bringing down the curtain on her competitive career at the Dec. 11-14 Dubai Ladies Masters.

Sorenstam won’t be out of the limelight for long however.  Surely she’ll be back for a random tournament here and there and she’s launching a signature fragrance called ANNIKA for Mother’s Day 2009.  The fragrance is said to evoke the essence of Annika -  confident, casually elegant and naturally beautiful.  Won’t be nearly as good as watching her play but hey….it’s something.

Annika Sorenstam website

Filed under: General, Golf, News Bytes, Profiles by jane
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November 21, 2008 - Lots of great match-ups this weekend as the nation’s top women’s soccer teams move to the NCAA Round of 16.

I’m personally looking forward to the UCLA-USC game tom’w night at Drake Stadium. It’s a rematch of last year’s College Cup Semifinals in which USC went on to win the NCAA championship.

This year,  the top-seeded and undefeated UCLA (20-0-2) hosts fourth-seeded USC (16-4-2). The Bruins defeated the Women of Troy, 2-1 in the only meeting between the two teams this season. 

Three Olympians highlight the Saturday showdown with UCLA’s Lauren Cheney and Kara Lang joining USC’s Amy Rodriguez on the field as players who participated in the recent Beijing Olympic Games. Cheney and Rodriguez were teammates on Team USA’s run to the gold medal, while Lang was a member of Canada’s squad.

The winner of this match advances to the quarterfinals to face either second-seeded Duke or third-seeded Virginia next week.

Both USC and UCLA write about the game on their websites.

In other matches,  the top-ranked Irish are set to play No. 22 Minnesota who kept their dream season alive with two wins last weekend to advance to its first-ever trip to the ‘Sweet 16.’

Check the NCAA bracket to see all the weekend match-ups.  Play on…

Filed under: College Athletics, College Soccer by jane
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November 20, 2008 - The 30-second spot is called “Dunk.”

Starring in the new spot is Sparks forward Candace Parker — of NCAA title, Olympic gold medal, WNBA rookie of the year and MVP all-in-one-year fame.

Thirty seconds, and with that, Parker joins what is mostly an athletic boys club whose members include ESPN “SportsCenter” anchors, well-known athletes and a furry, fruity collection of college mascots tapped to do the wickedly hilarious, always memorable “SportsCenter” promo spots.

There have been 325 spots since 1995 in what has been a wildly successful advertising series. Of that, only a handful have featured women athletes: Olympics gymnastics medalists Mary Lou Retton and Kerri Strug; college and pro basketball stars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi; tennis pro Maria Sharapova; and Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt among them.

The premise of Parker’s spot is that she is in the “SportsCenter” offices, an unassuming female who can dunk a basketball amid a bunch of male sports anchors like Stuart Scott, Brian Kenny, Jay Harris, Scott Van Pelt and Neil Everett who are wannabe slammers.

One of the hippest, funniest and most imitated ad campaigns of the last decade, the long-running “This is SportsCenter” ad campaign portrays the ESPN offices as a playground full of athletes, mascots and other characters rather than a dull newsroom. The mockumentary-style spots perfectly blend sports and pop culture while featuring the good-humored and always deadpan anchors of the show. 

We’re laughing just thinking about the new batch of ads and can’t wait to see Parker in action. Until then, here’s another of our favorite spots -this one features figure skater Michelle Kwan.

Filed under: Basketball, Candace Parker, Entertainment, WNBA by jane
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November 20, 2008 -

Cosmogirl RIP: It’s the very last issue of CosmoGirl (tear) which becomes the fourth major teen mag to suspend publication this year after YM, Ellegirl and Teen People. CG, which was published ten times a year and reached approximately eight million readers before folding, will continue with it’s website but I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that the print version of the teen mag will be universially missed.

The Dec 08/Jan 09 issue featuring the lovely Taylor Swift on cover, takes a cue from Barbara Walters by doing their own spin on the most intriguing people of 2008.  Included are gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson who are honored as girls who have the guts to follow their hearts rather than the crowd.

Uniqlo Try: To get the word out about their newly launched Bra Top, Japanese retailer Uniqlo recruited hundreds of women to participate in a video survey; questions ranged from “how comfortable is the top?” to “what’s your favorite magazine?” and the resulting videos were posted on a website called Uniqlo Try. Site visitors can opt to watch videos of women physically (age, height, size and build) similar to them. The website has gone viral, spreading to blogs and news sites, which apparently has contributed to a five-fold increase in sales of the Bra Top

Filed under: Beauty, Entertainment, Fashion, General, Gymnastics, Tips by jane
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November 20, 2008 - It started out with the fierce fourteen 2 months ago and ended last night when Brittany ‘McKey’ Sullivan was chosen to be the next America’s Top Model.

The former tomboy from Lake Forrest, Illinios, McKey, won (all together now…) a contract with Elite model management, a spread and cover for Seventeen magazine, and a $100,000 contract with covergirl.

Nineteen-year-old McKey defeated her rival, LA high school student Samantha Potter, after strutting along one unique runway, a giant hot pink hill, and striking memorable poses. Annaleigh was third in the contest.

We picked both of the finalists at the beginning because of their athleticism and beauty. Winner McKey played all kinds of sports as a kid including hockey and soccer. She now trains as a boxer with her cagefighter bf. 

When McKey was 15, a sports injury forced her off the field and she began to channel her competitive energy into modeling.  Looks like it paid off!!

Filed under: Beauty, Boxing, Entertainment, Fashion, MMA, TV by jane
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November 20, 2008 - The San Francisco Bay area’s entry in the new Women’s Professional Soccer league will be named FC Gold Pride.

The franchise unveiled its name Wednesday along with its gold-and-black color scheme and a logo featuring a growling lioness in mid-stride.  Their tagline? Welcome to the jungle.

Owner Brian NeSmith  came up with the team’s name after many discussions at the family dinner table. It’s meant to evoke California, the Golden State, along with honoring the U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning women’s soccer team. The rest of the name, “that’s tying into a pride of lionesses,” NeSmith said, discussing how well lionesses work together.

NeSmith became involved in soccer through his daughters, Sarah (now at Northwestern) and Amanda, and both are considered part of the ownership group.

“Awesome, a major-league sports owner, you must be pretty popular at school,” Earthquakes goalie Joe Cannon told 16-year-old Amanda NeSmith during the news conference. Referring to her youth-league club, he added that it was a long way from the Pink and Purple People Eaters.”

FC Gold Pride will play their home games at Buck Shaw Stadium, the 10,000-seat stadium that also hosts the expansion San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer.

Goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart, defender Rachel Buehler and forward Tracy Hamm are among those slated to play for head coach Albertin Montoya with the Pride.

Check back for our exclusive interview with former UCLA standout and Pride player Jill Oakes.

Filed under: General, News Bytes, Pro Soccer, Soccer by jane
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November 19, 2008 -  If you’ve been wondering where your favorite swimmers have been hiding since Beijing, most of them were at the New York Hilton on Monday night for USA Swimming’s fifth annual Golden Goggle Awards (clever name, huh?).

Olympic champions Natalie Coughlin and Michael Phelps were the big winners at the event, which was hosted by Bob Costas and celebrated the accomplishments of the totally awesome 2008 Olympic Swim Team.

Coughlin won top honors on the women’s side, taking home the Female Athlete of the Year trophy. Coughlin earned six medals at the Olympics – one gold, two silver, and three bronze, becoming the first woman in any sport, to win six medals in one Olympiad. In 2008, Coughlin broke the 100m back world record three times and set a total of 11 American records.

“This was a great year,” Coughlin said. “This year was really special with so many records being broken and I’m really glad to have been a part of it.”

Phelps’ record-setting performance in Beijing earned him three Golden Goggle Awards at USA Swimming’s annual banquet including Male Athlete of the Year and Male Performance of the Year.

Women’s swimmer Rebecca Soni was honored with two Golden Goggle awards, the Breakout Performer of the Year Award and the Female Performance of the Year Award for her stellar performance in the 200m breast at the Olympics in 2008. The USC senior took home a total of three Olympic medals in Beijing, a gold in the 200m breast and silvers in the 100m breast and 400m medley relay. Soni broke the world record in the 200m breast, and defeated heavy favorite Leisel Jones of Australia to win her first gold.

Dara Torres, 41, who won three silver medals at the Beijing Olympics, said at the New York banquet  that if she can stay healthy, she hopes to race at the world championships next summer.

Among the celebrity guests in attendance tonight were Donald Trump, Tiki Barber, David Blaine, Ana Ortiz (”Ugly Betty’), Heather Matarazzo, as well as Olympic legends Summer Sanders, Pablo Morales, Gary Hall Jr., Lenny Krayzelburg, Jenny Thompson, and Rowdy Gaines.

In other swim news, the AP reports that Katie Hoff is now training with Michael Phelps’s coach, Golden Goggle winner Bob Bowman, who has returned to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club after four years at the University of Michagan:

Swimmer Katie Hoff has changed coaches after a disappointing Olympics in which the six-time world champion failed to win a gold medal in a half dozen events.

Filed under: Entertainment, Fun Stuff, News Bytes, Swim by jane
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November 19, 2008 - Not again.  Last week, New Zealand motocross star Katherine Prumm suffered a severe accident while training and is facing an uncertain future as far as her career goes.

Prumm mistimed a jump and fell nearly 10 feet, landing head-first with her bike crashing on her back. After waiting nearly an hour for an ambulance, the 20-year-old two-time world champion was transported to a local hospital where doctors discovered she fractured her back in three places. 

Riding since she was nine years old, Prumm had won two motocross world titles in a row. Her 2008 campaign began promisingly but a knee injury and broken collarbone ended her hopes of a third crown. Now she’s unsure of whether she will ever ride a motorcycle again.

“As far as recovery goes, I haven’t really been told too much yet, about walking or riding,” she said.

“I think I’m more anxious to find out whether I’ll be all right or not,” she told NZPA.  “Not a lot else matters at the moment.”

Prumm’s accident is the latest in a string of life-altering injuries to major action sports stars including mountain bike racer Tara Llanes.

Read more about her accident here.

Filed under: Motocross, News Bytes by jane
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