UE students, faculty, staff, alumni and other Aces fans are welcome to attend the pre-game gathering Friday, March 8, starting at 12:30 p.m. prior to the Aces match up with Indiana State at 2:35 p.m.  Come to the Top Shelf of the Scottrade Center (mezzanine level near section 330) to meet up with other Aces fans, enjoy refreshments, win prizes and get ready for the big match up.  Questions?  Contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations at alumni@evansville.edu or extension 2586.

The TIAA CREF representative will be on the UE campus on Tuesday, March 19 and Thursday, March 21 for individual counseling sessions.  To schedule an appointment, call TIAA CREF at 1-800-732-8353 or 317-706-6200.   The sessions are held in the Clifford Rare Books Room of the University Libraries (Room 158).  If you have any questions, call Carol McCraney at extension 2943

Please join us in Room 170 (Smythe Lecture Hall) in the Schroeder Family School of Business Building, on Thursday, March 14, 6:45-7:45 p.m., for "A Vision for Eldercare: The Heart of it all."

Sister Carolyn Martin, Isp, RN, MSN, NHA, of Little Sisters of the Poor and St. John's Home for the Aged, will be the featured speaker. All UE students, faculty and staff as well as members of the community and Sigma Theta Tau chapter members are invited to attend.  A dessert reception will follow the presentation.

Please RSVP by March 11 to jw395@evansville.edu or call 812-488-2343 and leave a message if you are planning to attend. Thank you!

Sodexo is currently running our Spring Semester Customer Satisfaction Survey. The survey is open to all members of campus and should only take about 5 minutes to complete. In exchange for your time, you will be entered to win an Outdoor Fun Prize Pack consisting of 2 folding camp chairs, t-shirts, beverages from Pepsi & Coke, and a portable MP3 player speaker. To access the survey visit http://vcil.cc/8sx1grp. The link will be open through March 20.

The Office of Development wants to know what does philanthropy mean to you?  In one hundred words or less share what philanthropy means to you and the winning essay author will get $100.  All full time students are eligible and essays must be submitted by March 8th to Liz Riffert at EL37@evansville.edu. The winner will be announced at the start of Philanthropy Week on March 18th. 

University of Evansville freshman Alex Turner (Evansville, Ind./Harrison) carded a first-round 74 to pace the Purple Aces’ golf team in the first round of the 2013 Samford Intercollegiate, hosted at Hoover Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama by Samford University.  Turner currently sits in a tie for 27th individually entering Tuesday’s final two rounds.

Weather was the big story of the day, as early-morning frost forced over an hour delay to Monday’s action, and forced a postponement of the second 18 holes until Tuesday.  Play will resume Tuesday morning with the conclusion of the second round at 8:00 a.m., followed by the final 18 holes of golf in the 54-hole tournament.

Turner made the turn at even-par 36, before carding a 38 on the back nine to record a first-round 74.  Freshman Rick Voyvodic (Windsor, Ontario) and junior Parker Hensley (San Antonio, Texas/Ronald Reagan) both fired 78s in the first round for UE to sit four strokes behind Turner in a tie for 61st individually.  Belmont University’s Ashton Van Horne currently paces the field after firing a first-round 69.  Overall, Evansville sits in 18th place as a team after day one, with a team score of 314.  Southeastern Conference rivals Vanderbilt (287) and Auburn (291) currently sit in first and second place respectively team-wise.

EVANSVILLE’S INDIVIDUAL SCORES FOR THE FIRST ROUND OF THE SAMFORD INTERCOLLEGIATE:
T 27        Alex Turner           36- 38 74
T 61        Rick Voyvodic     36- 42 78
T 61        Parker Hensley     37- 41 78
T 88        Quinn Vilneff       45- 39 84
94           Will Knights          45- 43 88

TEAM SCORES THROUGH ROUND ONE:
1.) Vanderbilt – 287, 2.) Auburn – 291, 3.) Furman – 292, 4.) Georgia Southern – 295, T5.) Montevallo & Winthrop – 296, T7.) Eastern Kentucky & Francis Marion – 297, 9.) Samford – 298, T10.) Western Carolina & Tennessee Tech, 302, T12.) UT Martin & Belmont – 304, 14.) Presbyterian – 307, T15.) Southern Illinois, Murray State & Bowling Green State – 308, 18.) Evansville – 314

The University of Evansville baseball team split a doubleheader with visiting Milwaukee Monday at Braun Stadium, dropping the opener, 5-4, before rebounding to capture a 7-3 win in the nightcap to take the series.

Senior Andy Lasher, redshirt junior Johnny Day and junior David Patton each drove in a pair of runs in the twin bill to lead Evansville (3-7).  Patton finished 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of walks, Lasher tallied four hits in eight at-bats and Day completed the day by going 3-for-9 with three runs scored.  Senior Chris Pearson went 4-for-8 to bolster the Aces’ offense.

On the mound, senior Kyle Lloyd (1-1) and redshirt junior Sam Johns (0-1) each turned in quality starts for UE, with Lloyd earning the win in game two.  Lloyd tossed 6.0 innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on eight hits and struck out seven, while walking just two.  Johns scattered five hits, recorded four strikeouts, issued five walks and surrendered a pair of runs in his 6.0 innings on the hill.

GAME 1 RECAP (UWM 5, UE 4)

In the opener, Milwaukee struck first by taking advantage of a pair of walks and a hit batter to score two runs and take a 2-0 lead.  Ryan Solberg and Nick Unes drew a pair of one out walks, before Derek Peake was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two away.  Michael Porcaro followed with a two-out single to right center that scored both Solberg and Unes.

The game remained 2-0 until the top of the seventh, when the Panthers tacked on another run to extend their lead to 3-0.  Peake led off the frame with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and later scored on an Evansville error.

Milwaukee pushed across two more runs in the top of the eighth to open up a 5-0 advantage, before the Aces manufactured four runs in the bottom of the inning, after the Panthers made a pair of throwing errors and issued three walks.

UE scored all four runs with two outs in its half of the eighth, as senior Jason Hockemeyer drew a walk and Day reached on a fielder’s choice, after an error by the Milwaukee shortstop kept the inning alive.  Pearson walked to load the bases and Patton was credited with an RBI after coaxing a bases-loaded walk.  Two more runs scored on a second Panther error of the inning and Lasher followed with Evansville’s only hit of the frame, driving in Patton to make it a 5-4 ballgame.

Freshman Brent Jurceka kept the Aces’ chances alive by tossing a perfect top of the ninth and the Aces put the tying run in scoring position when Hockemeyer walked and stole second with two outs, but Milwaukee’s Joshua Uhen earned the save, when Day lined out to left to end the game.

GAME 2 RECAP (UE 7, UWM 3)

In the nightcap, the Panthers once again got on the board first, scoring a run in the top of the first on an RBI single by Will Fadness, but Evansville took its first lead of the day in the bottom of the inning, getting RBI singles from Hockemeyer and Pearson to take a 2-1 lead after one complete inning.

The Aces’ big inning came in the bottom of the second, when UE scored four runs on three hits to open up a 5-1 lead.  Evansville’s rally started when Lasher drew a leadoff walk and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by redshirt sophomore Kevin Kaczmarski, before later scoring on a wild pitch.  Sophomore Kyle Pollock walked and junior Jake Mahon was hit by a pitch to load the bases, before Milwaukee pulled starter Eric King and replaced him with Justin Jaquish after just 1.1 innings.  Day came through with a two-out, bases loaded single to score a pair of runs and two batters later Patton singled home Day four the Aces’ fourth and final run of the stanza.

Milwaukee countered by scoring single runs in both the third and the fourth innings to cut UE’s lead to 6-3 after four full innings.

In Evansville’s half of the sixth, Lasher delivered an RBI single that scored Day, who tallied a one-out base hit earlier in the inning, to push the Aces’ margin to 7-3.

Senior Josh Biggs took over for Lloyd on the mound to start the seventh, getting through the seventh and eighth with relative ease, before running into trouble in Milwaukee’s half of the ninth.  Biggs plunked Peake to start the frame, before issuing a walk to Michael Porcaro to put runners on first and second with no outs.  Senior Jake Naumann took over for Biggs and retired the next three Panther hitters in order to earn his second save of the year.

Evansville will be back on the diamond Wednesday, March 6, when it travels to UT Martin to take on the Skyhawks for a game that was postponed earlier this season.  The first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.

A rematch of the Senior Day game in Evansville will take place on Friday in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as the Purple Aces will take on Indiana State.

Set for a 2:30 p.m. start, the contest will feature the Aces, who clinched the No. 4 seed in the tournament while the Sycamores enter Friday’s tilt in the fifth spot.

The Aces ended a 4-game slide to the Sycamores on Saturday, taking an 84-68 win.  Evansville finished the regular season with an 18-13 mark and a 10-8 league record while Indiana State was 17-13 and an even 9-9 in the MVC.

All games in the event will take place at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.  The 7th through 10th seeds play on Thursday with two games while the action continues with four games on Friday.  The final four squads face off on Saturday with the championship game slated for Sunday afternoon.

Tickets are still available by calling the Carson Center Ticket Office at 812-488-ACES.

Mackenzie Powell was one of 12 University of Evansville student-athletes named to the Missouri Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete Team on Monday.

Powell posted a GPA of 3.96, which is tied for the sixth best out of the 52 student-athletes on the list.  Scholar-Athlete honors require athletes to have completed at least one year and maintain either a 3.2 grade-point average and obtain all-conference honors, achieve a 3.5 grade-point average and finish top sixteen in an individual event at the conference championships, or maintain a 3.8 grade-point average and participate in the MVC championship.

Fifty-two student-athletes qualified for the Valley 2013 Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete team, with three student-athletes averaging a perfect 4.00 GPA and twenty-two student-athletes above an impressive 3.8 grade-point average.

Aside from Powell, four other Aces posted a GPA above 3.8 to take Scholar-Athlete honors.  Melissa Ball tallied a 3.91 while Jill Enge and Abigail Yenzer each hold a 3.85.  Jordan Van Wyn stands at a 3.83.

Others UE swimmers named to the team include: Merri Schmitt (3.78), Taylor Shotwell (3.78), Michelle Tipton (3.67), Samantha Montgomery (3.60), Caitlin Harty (3.52), Melissa Thurman (3.52) and Sadie Wells (3.39).

For Jill Enge and Sadie Wells, it marks their third time on the Scholar-Athlete Team.  Both earned the honor each time they were eligible.  This marks the second time on the list for Melissa Thurman, Merri Schmitt and Melissa Ball.