SPORTS
The Battalion I 2.23.15
4
W. BASKETBALL
M. TENNIS
Aggies continue winning streak
Vanessa Pefia —THE BATTALION
Senior forward Achiri Ade scored 10 points during the A&M victory
against Florida at Reed Arena Sunday.
All-around team effort leads
to win over Florida Sunday
By Andre Perrard
Texas A&M has no room for losing
games at home before March.
Sunday afternoon the Aggie wom
en’s basketball team moved its winning
streak to four games, defeating the
Florida Gators 66-46.
A&M is now 10-0 when allowing
fewer than 49 points. Courtney Wil
liams led A&M with 11 points, eight
rebounds and five assists.
Courtney Walker, Achiri Ade and
Khaalia Hillsman all contributed to the
win as well. Walker had nine points and
four rebounds, Ade had 10 points and
five rebounds and Hillsman finished
with nine points and six rebounds.
Hillsman has been coming on strong
the last few games and she said she at
tributes it to her practice mindset.
“Our coaches have really stressed
working hard in practice before you
can convert it onto the court,” Hills
man said. “I’ve been coming to prac
tice with the mindset to get better ev
eryday.”
Coming off a big road win at No.
11 Kentucky, A&M did not fall into
the trap.
“We really came out fired up and
ready to start the ballgame,” said head
coach Gary Blair. “We got in foul trou
ble with the two Courtneys, but I trust
my bench.”
It is the Aggies’ 17th consecutive
win at home. A&M is now 123-3
against unranked teams at home since
Feb. 2005 and has won the last 27 of
those games.
The game started out fast for A&M
(22-6, 10-4 SEC), and it never trailed
in the game. A&M started the game on
a 10-2 run. Florida (12-15, 4-10 SEC)
cut the 10-point Aggie lead to three
late in the first half. However, the Ga
tors went scoreless for over four min
utes, and a 7-0 Aggie run pushed the
lead back to 10 at the half 31-21.
Good shooting helped the Aggies
earn the win. They shot 47 percent
from the floor.
The Aggies built their largest lead of
the game at 21 in the second half with
a 15-2 run over a six-minute span. The
Aggies spread the ball around well, as
all five of the Aggie starters scored a
point. As a team, they had 16 total as
sists. Jordan Jones led the Aggies in as
sists with six in the game.
Chelsea Jennings contributed off the
bench with eight rebounds and five
points, a big part of the win. She said
her defense is what has been the biggest
improvement to her.
“I bring pretty good defense,” Jen
nings said. “I just try to do the little
things that maybe the starters are not
contributing to at the moment.”
A&M will return Thursday night to
Reed Arena for its home finale against
Missouri.
BASEBALL
No. 17 A&M sweeps Penn State
Vanessa Pefia — THE BATTALION
Sophomore rightfielder Nick Banks rounds third base in the win
against Penn State at Olsen Field Saturday.
The Aggies continue their
undefeated season
By Milkyas Gashaw
Four teams have tried, and
four teams have failed.
The No. 17 Texas A&M base
ball team (7-0) continued its un
defeated season with a 5-2 vic
tory on Sunday at Blue Bell Park
against Penn State (0-6).
The Aggies and the Nittany Li
ons are having polar opposite sea
sons — the weekend wins cap one
of the best starts in Aggie baseball
history, while Penn State searches
for its first win of the season.
A&M began the series on a
windy Friday evening with a 9-3
victory and then continued their
winning streak with a convincing
15-2 win. Head coach Rob Chil
dress spoke about junior Grayson
Long’s competitiveness in his Sat
urday start.
“He kept it together,” Chil
dress said. “I think that was in the
back of his mind going into to
day. Once he got into the fight I
felt like he was more competitive
and stopped worrying about be
ing perfect and he just competed.
That’s one of his strengths. I saw a
lot of the old Grayson in [the] last
four innings.”
The Aggies kicked off the scor
ing on Sunday with a two-run
homer from infielder Logan Tay
lor in the bottom of the second
inning. That was the 12th home
run that the Aggies hit this season;
A&M didn’t hit their 12th home
run until the 34th game of last
season. Junior Matt Kent pitched
6 2/3 innings and only allowed
eight hits, two runs and six strike
outs. The Aggies pushed the lead
to 5-2 with an RBI single from
Nick Banks.
A&M looks for its eighth
straight win at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
with a visit from Houston Baptist
University.
SOFTBALL
FULL STORY AT
THEBATT.COM
CLUBS
Quiddich to compete in World Cup 8
NO. 23 A&M GOES
UNDEFEATED (5-0)
IN MARY NUTTER
CLASSIC OVER THE
WEEKEND.
Both A&M teams qualify for
tournament in South Carolina
By Katie Canales
The Texas A&M Quidditch Teams will
head to South Carolina in April after
qualifying for the U.S. Quidditch World Cup
8 Tournament.
This past weekend both A&M Quidditch
teams, Texas A&M and Silver Phoenix, com
peted in the Southwest Regional Champion
ship in San Marcos. Both teams qualified for
the World Cup on day one of the two-day
tournament.
“World Cup each year is 80 teams from
across the nation who have to qualify through
their regional championship,” said Rosemary
Ross, president of Texas A&M Quidditch
and psychology senior. “So right now, Texas
A&M and Silver Phoenix are two of the top
teams in the Southwest to qualify.”
Texas A&M Quidditch has participated
in the World Cup Championships since its
founding in October 2008.
“World Cup is the event for Quidditch,
that is the biggest thing you can do, the big
gest tournament all year,” Ross said. “You
can lose all the tournaments all season and
World Cup is the only one that really mat
ters. It’s like the Superbowl is to the NFL.”
Ross said coverage of the World Cup games
in April that both A&M teams participate in
will be available online with a live stream.
Cody Franklin — THE BATTALION
Freshman Arthur Rinderknech assisted in A&M's win
against No. 1 Oklahoma Friday evening.
A&M kicks off
winning weekend
with upset of
No. 1 Oklahoma
By Alex Scott
The Texas A&M men’s
tennis team kicked off
its weekend by upsetting
the No. 1 Oklahoma Soon-
ers Friday night by a score of
4-3.
The Aggies secured the
doubles point behind an
effort from freshman AJ
Catanzariti and Arthur
Rinderknech.
The performance of the
freshmen carried over into
the singles matches, where
Catanzariti and Rinderknech
both won key matches. Cat
anzariti, after being down
2-5 in the first set tiebreak,
battled back to win the first
and proceeded to win the
second by only giving up
one game to his Sooner op
ponent (7-6, 6-1).
Adi eyes turned to
Rinderknech down the
stretch to see if the freshmen
could overcome his first set
loss and seal a win for the Ag
gies late Friday evening. Ar
thur won his deciding match,
(6-7, 6-3, 6-1), catching fire
in the final set.
“He’s done it now in
three matches where he is
the last guy standing and he
has come through for us in a
major way,” head coach Ste
ven Denton said.
Texas A&M improved to
4-1 on the season with a win
Sunday over the University
of Incarnate Word and will
open SEC play at 6 p.m. Fri
day against Kentucky.
SWIMMING & DIVING
FULL STORY AT THEBATT.COIVI
The SEC Swimming and Diving Championships have
concluded for the Texas A&M swimming and diving teams.
The teams will return home after competing for five days
at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center at Auburn University.
The No. 5 women's swimming and diving team placed second
in the competition while the men's team finished eighth.
The women's team accumulated 1,166 team points over
the five days, 284 points behind winner Georgia.
The men tallied 555 points, well behind three-time
defending champion Florida, which scored 1,314.5 points.
O'ROURKE
CONTINUED
“The official statement
made by EC when asked
about why I was disqualified,
which was rendered only af
ter I made an inquisition, was
that I failed to file an expendi
ture report,” O’Rourke said.
“We’re arguing that because
I didn’t spend any money. It
is not a withheld financial re
port, but rather an overlooked
null expenditure statement.”
Emma Douglas, election
commissioner for the Student
Government Association, said
the requirements were clearly
stated and thus his disqualifi
cation was justified.
“The facts of the 2018 case
are that [O’Rourke] did not
turn in an expense report, so
I disqualified him,” Doug
las said. “My side would be
that it was clearly stated in
multiple forms that you had
to turn in an expense report.
That’s why I disqualified him,
because he wasn’t following
the rules.”
O’Rourke argues that the
impact of not reporting that
his campaign spent no money
is negligible, and going against
an overwhelming majority of
voters would bring flaws into
the election system.
“We don’t want the elec
tions to be about null expen
diture statements, we want
them to remain being about
the student body as a whole,”
O’Rourke said.
Beni Kashala, who finished
as runner-up in the unoffi
cial election results but was
declared the winner after
O’Rourke’s disqualification,
said the documents in ques
tion were presented as a re
quirement to run.
“The O’Rourke cam
paign failed to turn in an
expense report and/or a null-
expenditure report,” Kashala
said. “These documents are
deemed ‘necessary’ by the
commissioner, according to
the Election Commission
website. From what I’ve
gathered, candidates getting
automatically disqualified for
not turning in one of those
above mentioned documents
is common procedure in the
election process.”
Douglas said non-existent
expenditure reports are one
of the leading causes of dis
qualifications in races cam
pus-wide.
“The only reasons for dis
qualifications were not at
tending the mandatory meet
ing and not turning in the
report. The vast majority of
expense report disqualifica
tions were from not turning
one in,” Douglas said.
O’Rourke vs. Douglas will
be heard by J-Court at 7:10
p.m. Monday in Rudder 410.