T*W*I*S: Illinois Women’s Volleyball & Stanford’s Owen Marecic

Illinois Women’s Volleyball Team

NSR‘s #1 Cool Award this week goes to then-9th-ranked Illinois women’s volleyball squad which took on the much taller and ballyhooed #2 Penn State Friday night and won 3-2.  Granted, they faced off in front of a packed house of 4,141 screaming Illini fans in Champaign, which certainly helped, but the Nittany Lions have practically owned women’s college volleyball for the past three years, including the systematic dismantling of every team in the Big Ten en route to a remarkable 65-match winning streak.  Even so, the women in orange and blue got it done in five games, 17-25, 25-14, 25-19, 14-25, 17-15.   Very cool, ladies.

Our #2 Cool Award is handed out to Stanford University linebacker and fullback Owen Marecic.  That’s right, Owen is the only NCAA DI football player who not only goes both ways for the Cardinal, but he starts at both positions.  Dubbed by Sports Illustrated as “The Perfect Player,”  he  showed his overall prowess this past weekend by scoring two touchdowns against Notre Dame within 13 seconds of play, one as a fullback pushing the ball over the goal line on a dive play then intercepting an Irish pass two plays later and returning it for a score.  A throw-back to much earlier gridiron days, we have to wonder why this outstanding student-athlete, who carries a 3.7 GPA is not high on the Heisman watch lists?  In any case, very cool, Mr. Marecic.