I Bleed Blue and White

Brian Lynch was a bit before my time, but a few friends have been talking about him at the U.S. Open this week. For those of you who don’t know, Lynch married tennis star Kim Clijsters and has been all over the TV this week during his wife’s matches.

For those who do not follow women’s tennis, Lynch changed the landscape will a single question. This is the man who took Clijsters out of professional tennis after their marriage following her winning the U.S. Open in 2005. Yep, that’s right. Brian Lynch has took a tennis star in her prime out of the game for 4 years. Only a Villanova man.

Lynch took his game to Europe after 'Nova.

So if you’ve been missing Brian Lynch, or just want to find out who exactly this man is, turn on CBS this Friday.

• VUHoops is all over the Brian Lynch phenomena by noticing he is #11 on Google Trends. No, seriously. He really is.
• Sticking with the alumnus theme, Mike from VUHoops let us know that former Villanovan Andrew Sullivan is captaining Great Britain at Eurobasket 2009.
• Villanova By The Numbers is looking into Scottie Reynolds’ bid to become the all-time leading scorer at Villanova. He is 623 points shy of Kerry Kittles’ record of 2,243. According to stats-guru greyCat, he would need to average roughly 20 points per game in his final year to hit the mark.
• VUHoops has posted the recap of their Wisdom of Crowds experiment for the guards. It’s an interesting look into things, although like Ed suggests over there, I have a hard time figuring out how the masses figure Reggie Redding’s minutes per game will decrease by nearly 5 minutes.
• Villanova Golf Coach Will Reilly and sophomore Eddie Ryan are helping inner-city youths learn life skills through the game of golf. The pair teamed with the Northeast Philadelphia Boys & Girls Club to create the program.
• Field hockey players Steffi Caniglia and Dana Ramsden were selected to the Big East Honor Roll for their performances over the weekend.
• Goalie Chris Bresnahan was selected the Philadelphia Soccer Six Player of the Week.
• And for the second time in the season’s first three weeks, freshman Heidi Sabatura was named the Big East Rookie of the Week for women’s soccer.

A glorious Labor Day weekend. I was lucky enough to be up at Lake Sabego in Maine (many thanks to our hosts Tom and Jackie) where a great weekend with absolutely picturesque weather ensued. Alas, we’re no longer labor free. So for me, back to obsessing over ‘Nova sports. I hope everyone’s weekend was great!

Yako won it for 'Nova as time expired.

Here’s a look at how the ‘Nova programs fared over the weekend.

Football (1-0)

• WR Brandyn Harvey and K Nick Yako earned CAA honors following the team’s 27-24 victory over Temple. Harvey was named the Offensive Player of the Week while Yako got the nod as Special Teams Player of the Week. The team returns to action this Saturday when they host Lehigh at 7:00 p.m.
• Following their win to start the season the football team moved up 2 spots to #3 in the country in the latest FCS poll.
• Darrel Young was cut by the Washington Redskins, but then later reassigned to their practice squad.

Field Hockey (2-1)

• Junior Meg Ryan scored two goals as the Wildcats defeated Ball State 4-1 on Friday in a tournament at Fairfield University. Senior Captain Emily Donaldson and junior Dana Ramsden also scored for ‘Nova.
• In their 2nd game of the weekend, the team picked up its second win by beating Fairfield 3-1 on the strength of goals from Lauren Wuzzardo, Sam Haas and Dana Ramsden.

Women’s Volleyball (5-2)

• The girls started out the weekend by winning their 5th straight to start the season over LaSalle in The Big 5 Tournament. Maggie Mergen and Morgan Petkovich led the way with 19 and 15 kills, respectively.
• In their 2nd match of the weekend they fell to Temple 3-2, and they also dropped the weekend finale 3-2 to Penn. Kim Maroon picked up a consolation by being named to the All-Tournament Team.

Women’s Soccer (4-0-1)

• The girls started the weekend off right by crushing Davidson 4-1 as Erin Byrnes, Megan Verdeur, Heidi Sabatura and Katie Ryan all found the net.
• On Sunday the team found itself in a dogfight as Charlotte came back to tie the game twice before Amy Greco sent ‘Nova into the lead on 70 minutes for a 3-2 victory. Goals from Grace Hawkins and Rachel Breton helped ensure the women’s soccer team (4-0-1) remained undefeated in the young season.

Men’s Soccer (1-1-1)

• Against Temple on Friday, the team went down 2 goals early before Matt Margiotta took one back on 76 minutes, but it wasn’t enough as the team fell 2-1.
• Sunday gave a better result as the team drew Penn 0-0. Adam Amann almost won it for ‘Nova with 4 minutes left in regulation, but his shot rattled the bar.

It was a busy weekend for both the women’s soccer and volleyball teams, and both performed admirably. Plus, the field hockey team got their season underway while a former Villanovan brought home some impressive hardware from Europe.

• Senior Kelly Eagan scored with just over a minute left in double-overtime to help the women’s soccer team defeat Virginia Tech 2-1 on Friday. It was the 5th game-winning goal of Eagan’s career.
• The late game heroics didn’t end there for the women’s soccer team, however, as sophomore Katie Ryan scored with less than 9 seconds remaining tie the game 2-2 vs. Nebraska on Sunday before the teams played to a stalemate in overtime. The women’s soccer team is now 2-0-1 on the season.
• Former Villanova rower Megan Walsh won a silver medal this past weekend at the World Championships when her team finished 2nd in the women’s quad race. Walsh rowed bow, and her team finished just 3 seconds off the pace.
• The field hockey team began their season with a 7-1 loss to #16 Old Dominion. Dana Ramsden had the lone goal for the Wildcats in the opening stages of the game.
• The women’s volleyball team won the Maryland Invitational this past weekend by winning all 3 of its matches. First, they defeated Youngstown State 3-1 on Friday before holding off Stony Brook 3-2 on Saturday. And finally they swept Maryland 3-0 on Sunday. Sophomore Megan Petkovich was named Tournament MVP while classmate Maggie Mergen and Kim Maroon earned a spot on the All-Tournament squad.

Finally, here’s a very heart warming story about senior LB Osayi Osunde, and what he and his family have gone through that has helped make him the man he is today.