Latest news with #MightyMacs
Chicago Tribune
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
After four years away, Quinn Arundel scores 25 goals for Mother McAuley. In the regional? ‘Just had to finish.'
Quinn Arundel quit playing soccer in seventh grade, deciding to put all her athletic focus into basketball. That has paid off for Arundel, who has been a three-year varsity starter for Mother McAuley and topped 1,000 career points during her junior season over the winter. But Arundel missed soccer and longed to experience the feeling of scoring goals again. So, she decided to make a comeback this spring. 'I didn't want to have any regrets about not playing soccer,' Arundel said. 'I only had two years left of high school so I decided I should just try it my last two years. 'I just like being outside. It's a lot different from basketball. I kind of like playing offense and not really defense and in basketball you have to do both.' One thing is the same in both sports — Arundel knows how to score. The junior forward came through with two goals and an assist Tuesday night as the host Mighty Macs rolled to a 5-0 win over Bloom in a Class 3A Mother McAuley Regional semifinal in Chicago. Abigail Covarrubias, Gabriella Del Bosque and Avery Wiselogel each added goals for sixth-seeded McAuley (10-11-2), which will play at 5 p.m. Friday in the regional final against second-seeded Lincoln-Way Central (15-3), a 9-0 winner over Shepard. Peyton Wagner and Liliana Almanza each contributed an assist for the Mighty Macs. Lucy Gray made three saves for the shutout, getting plenty of help from a defense led by Angie Marquez, Valerie Hernandez, Jane Jacobsen and Olivia Martin. Raquel Cisneros made two saves and Josie Ayala had two shots on goal for 10th-seeded Bloom (20-3). Less than 50 seconds after Covarrubias put the Mighty Macs ahead on a free kick in the 12th minute, Arundel got behind the defense on a breakaway off a pass from Wagner and finished with a goal for a 2-0 lead. 'Peyton really stepped up and I think she's doing a really good job playing through balls,' Arundel said. 'She got that ball to me and then I just had to finish.' Arundel later made a nice pass to set up Del Bosque's goal. Arundel scored her second goal of the game — and 25th of the season — in the second half. Not bad for someone who took four years off from soccer. McAuley coach Megan McCauley, though, had no doubt Arundel could make a difference on the soccer field. 'Quinn's just a gamer,' McCauley said. 'On the first day of tryouts, probably in the first two minutes, she scored a goal. Everything she does is just all effort. She's somebody you'd want to be a part of any team you have.' Arundel said there have been obstacles, however. She still does not think her form with the ball is the finest. 'The footwork definitely was a challenge,' she said. 'I feel like I forgot how to do it all. 'After our first couple games, I kind of got it. But I don't really do any moves and I don't really dribble that much. I kind of kick it in front of me and run.' It sure has been effective, though. 'She's just a competitor and she knows what it's like to be a part of a team,' McCauley said. 'She's going to work hard for anybody next to her.' Jacobsen, meanwhile, one-ups Arundel in one way. She had never played soccer before this season. But the junior defender did her job shutting down Zenaida Esquivel, Bloom's 40-goal scoring freshman. 'She's really fast and she's really good,' Jacobsen said. 'I just had to keep up with her.' As for McAuley's opponents, keeping up with Arundel is easier said than done. 'The season's gone better than I expected,' Arundel said. 'I was kind of nervous about playing at first, but the team is really fun to be a part of and we get along really well.'
CBS News
21-03-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Legendary Mighty Macs player remembers winning national titles for Immaculata: "We should've never won"
A big piece of March Madness history traces back to a college team in Chester County, Pennsylvania. On Thursday, Theresa Shank Grentz was back on the court. "G-Ma," as her grandkids call her, shows she's still got it when she shoots from the free throw line. "When we played, we had an expression: 'To play the game is great, to win the game is greater, to love the game is greatest,'" she said. The love for basketball grew at Immaculata University. The winning and playing parts did, too. "They'll bury us with this story," Grentz said with a laugh, her grandson, Liam, smiling beside her. That story started over 50 years ago. "It's a story that we should've never won. This should've never happened. This is divine providence. The older I get, the more I believe it," she said. No. 12 remembers it well: March of 1972. The Immaculata University women's basketball team was bound for the tournament in Illinois. "We didn't have any money. There was no budget for post-season tournament," Grentz said. The team sold toothbrushes to fund their trip, which proved to be worthwhile . The underdogs won the entire thing, beating West Chester and cementing themselves in the history books as the first women's college basketball national champions. "There was this crowd of people waiting for us. I'll never forget that. When I got off that plane after winning that national championship, my life changed," Grentz said. The story for this team did not stop there. A second title came in 1973, and a third in 1974. She remembers telling her teammates early on — many she knew from the Philadelphia Catholic League — this was their destiny. "I said to them, listen, we're going to play four years together, we're not losing any games, and they were like OK, sounds good to us! We lost two. And I'm still ticked," Grentz said. Great Valley will always be home for the soon-to-be 73-year-old famed player, coach and hall of famer . She says she still keeps up with the tournament. "I do watch it. I watch it and I never put the brackets though," she said. On the rise in popularity of women's basketball recently, she said it's players like Caitlin Clark who change the game. "What's amazing to me now is her star power," Grentz said. "I was down last winter, playing golf in North Carolina, and here were these four gentlemen, they had just finished their round, having lunch and they're talking about Caitlin Clark and women's basketball, and I'm thinking, 'That doesn't happen!'" Back at Immaculata, current players say the "Mighty Macs" are an inspiration. "We all think of the legacy of the national championships in the 1970s. There's something we all think about every time we step on the court," Reese Mullins, a senior on the team, said. The story of the Mighty Macs is one Grentz is proud to have helped write. "We've lost a few, but we are so connected and so tied in," she said. "It's unbelievable and it continues. It's never stopped."
