Metro Sports Report

West hands Warrior girls 1st MVC loss

The fifth-ranked Washington girls soccer team dropped a heart breaker to No. 4 Iowa City West on Thursday night at Kingston Stadium.

After 100 minutes couldn’t separate the two teams, the Women of Troy (10-1, 8-1 MVC) prevailed in penalty kicks 4-2 to take the 1-0 victory.

It is the first time this season that Washington (9-2) lost in overtime, going 3-0 in penalty kicks going into Thursday night's game. Luck finally caught up to them.

“We got really lucky is what it comes down to,” Morgan Bjornsen said of the previous PK victories. “When it is a PK shootout it is 50-50 for both teams. We just got really lucky and this game we didn’t.”

But despite the poor outcome for the Warriors, the team is still pleased with the way they played through regulation and overtime.

“We can’t feel too bad,” Washington Coach Sean McCoy said. "We sat in and defended and we knew that was going to be the way it went. We were going to coincide possession, let them have it for 75 percent of the game and be okay with it as long as we were organized and I thought we were really organized.”

Gabe Christianson earns Iowa Gatorade honor

CHICAGO -- Kennedy junior Gabe Christianson has been chosen the 2011 Gatorade Iowa Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

Christianson is the third Metro prep to earn a Gatorade award this school year. Linn-Mar's Kiah Stokes was the girls basketball player of the year and Jefferson's Jarrod Uthoff the boys basketball player of the year.

Christianson is the second straight Kennedy player to win the award. Erik Boyer won last year. He is the fourth Cougar to win it. Adam Zenor won in 2001 and Jake Settle in 2003.

Winning the award makes Christianson eligible for the National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award, to be announced later this month.

Schuver, Velvick are big part of Coe's success

The Coe College baseball team claimed its first Iowa Conference title in school history this season and has broken the club record for victories heading into the league tournament Thursday.

Kevin Schuver and Ryan Velvick, two former Metro high school stars, have been a big part of the team's success.

Schuver, a catcher from Marion High School, is hitting .333 with three homers and 34 RBIs and leads the Iowa Conference in picking runners off base.

Velvick, a third baseman from Prairie High School, is batting .328 with one homer and 17 RBIs.

The Kohawks (29-10) are the No.1 seed for the Iowa Conference tournament and will face Luther or Simpson at 7 p.m. Thursday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Coe finished 18-6 in the league standings, a full two games ahead of Buena Vista and Wartburg, giving the Kohawks their first regular-season title since joining the Iowa Conference 14 years ago.

Xavier's Miller hoping to help Eagles to national tourney

McKenna Miller is determined to succeed with her softball career.

She was determined at Xavier High School, where she overcame a serious injury to become one of the top sluggers in the state. And she's determined at Kirkwood Community College, where she's helped the Eagles enjoy a banner campaign.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Miller had surgery for a torn labrum and torn rotator cuff during her freshman year at Xavier in 2007, but she rebounded and tied for third in the state in home runs last season with 13 as a senior.

She did not begin her freshman year at Kirkwood this season in the starting lineup, but she got a chance and is hitting .317 with six homers and 28 RBIs heading into the district tournament in Columbus, Neb., on Thursday.