even before she hits a shot a even before she hits a shot a | Forum
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Feb 28 '19
(STATS) -- As the FCS heads toward its final full weekend of the regular season, some head-to-head matchups within the STATS FCS Top 25 stand out for whats riding on them. Stan Smith España .It starts with No. 1 Sam Houston State and No. 2 Jacksonville State, which held those spots for the fifth straight week on Monday.Both teams will play the other top team in their respective conference, with an outright championship and automatic bid to the FCS playoffs at stake. In the MEAC, an outright title and a spot in the Celebration Bowl are on the line.Sam Houston State (10-0), which gained 108 of the 160 first-place votes and 3,873 points in this weeks national media poll, will host No. 11 Central Arkansas (9-1) in a matchup of unbeaten Southland Conference teams.It feels great to be 10-0, have a conference championship game coming up this weekend, Sam Houston coach K.C. Keeler said. As a player, as a coach, you dream about playing in a conference championship game. We get the chance to play in one.Jacksonville State (9-1), which has won 23 straight games in the Ohio Valley Conference, will try to complete a third straight unbeaten campaign in the conference when it hosts UT Martin (7-4), which is two spots outside the Top 25. A UT Martin win would create a shared title between the two teams.Supremacy in the MEAC will be decided when No. 9 North Carolina A&T (9-1) makes the short 55-mile trip from Greensboro to No. 24 North Carolina Central (8-2) in Durham.The three big matchups will help cap a memorable FCS regular season, which includes 10 teams posting wins over FBS opponents and more trying this weekend. The NCAA will announce the pairings of its 24-team FCS playoffs Sunday morning.The top six teams in the Top 25 held their rankings after each won a conference game by double-digits. After Sam Houston State and Jacksonville State, Eastern Washington (9-1) was third, five-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State (9-1) fourth, The Citadel (10-0) fifth and James Madison (9-1) sixth. The Citadel (Southern) and JMU (CAA Football) have clinched outright conference titles and automatic playoff bids.The Top 10 was rounded out by Richmond (8-2), South Dakota State (7-3), North Carolina A&T and North Dakota (9-2).After Central Arkansas, Chattanooga (8-2) fell five spots to No. 12 following a loss. Then it was Villanova (7-3), Charleston Southern (6-3), Youngstown State (7-3), Coastal Carolina (8-2), Grambling State (7-1), Samford (7-3), Lehigh (8-2) and Wofford (7-3), which beat Chattanooga and entered the rankings for the first time since Nov. 11, 2013.Cal Poly (6-4) slipped to No. 21 and was followed by Montana (6-4), Western Illinois (6-4), North Carolina Central and Saint Francis (7-3). N.C. Central and Saint Francis, the Northeast Conference champion, both reached the rankings for the first time in program history.New Hampshire, Harvard and Liberty fell from the Top 25 following losses. Three conferences tied for the most ranked teams with four -- the Big Sky, Missouri Valley and Southern.A national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries select the STATS FCS Top 25. In the voting, a first-place vote is worth 25 points, a second-place vote 24 points, all the way down to one point for a 25th-place vote.The Top 25 is released on Monday afternoons during the regular season, but next weeks will be out Sunday morning prior to the announcement of the playoff field.A final Top 25 will follow the FCS championship game, to be held Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas. Stan Smith Baratas Online . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. Stan Smith Baratas Rebajas . The native of Mont-Tremblant, Que., captured a World Cup downhill event Saturday, his second this year and fifth career victory on the circuit. http://www.stansmithbaratas.es/ .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. It is often the finest of margins that differentiate the good from the great. For a while, it looked as though Ariya Jutanugarn was headed for the former.But after becoming the first golfer from Thailand -- male or female -- to win a major championship, it seems as though there is nothing stopping her from eventually evolving into a master of the game.Born to parents who own a golf pro shop in Bangkok, Jutanugarn picked up the sport when she was only 5 and started to raise eyebrows when she broke Michelle Wies record as the youngest player to qualify for an LPGA Tour event.That happened in 2007 when she qualified for the Honda LPGA Thailand at the age of 11 years, 11 months and two days. Her mark stood until Lucy Li played her way into the 2014 U.S. Womens Open.From then on, it seemed only a matter of time before Jutanugarn would crack the big time, especially given her aggressive and bold approach.She went on to win the U.S. Girls Junior Championship in 2011 and was a two-time American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year, but the first real resistance to her rise came in 2013 due to a shoulder injury brought about by a freak accident.Following surgery, Jutanugarn embarked on the long road to recovery, but she then approached her next hurdle in the form of a disappointing 2015, where she missed the cut at ten consecutive tournaments.The turning point looked to have arrived at the first major of 2016, when she held a two-stroke lead with three holes remaining at the ANA Inspiration, only for a stunning collapse that saw her close with successive bogeys and ultimately finish fourth.Still only 20 at the time, and with the possibility of yet another futile year ahead, she could have buckled under the pressure. Stan Smith Rebajas. But Jutanugarn is made of sterner stuff.Just three weeks after that meltdown, she landed her first LPGA Tour title when she won the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic.A fortnight later, she won the Kingsmill Championship and, immediately after, another triumph arrived in the form of the LPGA Volvik Championship. That made her the first player in LPGA history to win her first three titles in consecutive starts.With no more doubts hanging over her, Jutanugarn then claimed the biggest prize of her career thus far, producing four rounds of consistent and composed golf to win the Ricoh Womens British Open by three strokes.The victory capped off a stunning turnaround in fortunes, but it appears that the secret to her success was little more than a mind trick.In several interviews, Jutanugarn has said that she now focuses on being happy even before she hits a shot and is more in control of her emotions.Being destined for a sport from a young age is one thing, but learning to love it is another.Since that major triumph, Jutanugarn, now 21, claimed the Canadian Pacific Womens Open and finished the year ranked No. 2 in the world while topping the money list with over US$2.5 million in winnings.She will head into 2017 brimming with belief and confidence.Only time will tell what she ultimately achieves in her career, although there can be no denying that Jutanugarn has taken the correct direction after approaching a fork in the road -- and is now on the path to greatness. 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