Sports

Matt Damon’s opening line in the movie “Rounders” summed it up well.

“If you can’t spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.”

After the Big 12 Conference teams opened the season 10-2, only seven teams earned wins in the second week.

Losses included Fresno State routing Kansas State and Missouri falling at Troy on Thursday.

The Hickman girls golf team shot a 349 for third at the 22-team Smith-Cotton Classic at the Sedalia Country Club.

When the Missouri football team hit the practice field on Aug. 9 for its first preseason practice, unseasonably cool weather welcomed the Tigers.

Those lower than average temperatures stayed throughout the fall workouts and might have cost the Tigers (1-1) on Thursday night in Troy, Ala., where the Trojans upset Missouri 24-14. The Tigers, ranked No. 19 entering the game, fell out of the AP rankings after the loss.

Missouri and No. 11 Florida traded the lead a few times on Sunday, but as far as the players were concerned the game was deadlocked from start to finish. Each shot was taken like it would be the last and each ball was fought for like there was 30 seconds left.

The Tigers tied the Gators 2-2 at Audrey J. Walton Soccer Complex, but only after two sudden-death overtimes, 47 penalties, and four yellow cards.

The Missouri tennis team hopes confidence away from the court leads to confidence on the court.

Tigers’ senior Katka Svecikova and sophomore Erika Josbena won titles in their flights at the Missouri Invitational Sunday. The finals concluded a three-day preseason tune-up for the Tigers. Illinois State, Murray State and Drake played in the event.

Derrick Peterson remembers when it first hit him.

When Peterson, an 800-meter qualifier and former Missouri track and field standout, walked into the packed Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games, he realized exactly what it means to be an Olympian.

The small cardboard sign along the shoulder of Missouri Route 124, 24 miles from the finish line of the MS 150 Bike Tour, were beacons for the riders as they neared the end of their 150-mile odyssey Sunday.

A smiley face donned the first sign. It read: “2 miles to rest stop.” Another sign was similar, signifying only a mile to go until the rest stop. A final sign was the last bit of motivation riders needed. It said: “Fresh Fruit; Trail Mix; Rest Stop No. 6.”

TROY, Ala. — An embarrassing defeat typically means a great deal of disappointment, but No. 19 Missouri can’t think all is lost.

Although overshadowed by the failures of the offense in the 24-14 loss to Troy on Thursday night, the Tigers defense, in general, showed improvement after its first-week struggles.

For most of the day, it looked like the Missouri volleyball team would have an easy Saturday. Then the Idaho Vandals made things a little tougher.

In the end, the Tigers (4-2) came away with two victories Saturday at Hearnes Center to take second place in the Tiger Invitational behind Creighton.

The first two weeks of the Rock Bridge volleyball season produced one victory. Saturday, the team posted three.

The Bruins won the Rock Bridge Tournament, defeating the Osage Indians in the championship match 25-17, 25-18. The Bruins went 3-1 in the tournament, evening their record at 4-4.

The score: 21-0.

The time: Less than three minutes left in the third quarter.

That was the scenario for sophomore quarterback Logan Gray as he stepped up and made a key play to ensure the Bruins would win.

Everyone waited.

They waited through the first quarter and then the second.

They waited through halftime as Hickman’s boys’ swimming team ran around the field in nothing but Speedos.

Both players managed to beat their defenders, and each fired at the goal and saw the ball sail over the goalkeeper’s head. One watched her shot hit the back of the net, while the other saw her ball bounce off the crossbar.

“The difference was their once in a lifetime shot went in and ours didn’t today,” MU coach Bryan Blitz said.

Even with a shorthanded team, the Missouri women’s cross country team proved Saturday why it deserves to be the No. 12 team in the nation.

Both the women’s and men’s teams routed Southwest Missouri State, but Rock Bridge had mixed results in the high school division in the 12th Annual Missouri Cross Country Challenge held at A.L. Gustin Golf Course.

Rock Bridge tennis coach Ben Loeb has repeatedly said the state tennis tournament goes through Joplin. If that’s the case, the Bruins have to like their chances of making a run at a third consecutive championship.

Rock Bridge defeated Joplin 9-0 on Friday, and also swept Kickapoo 9-0 later in the afternoon in the Columbia Quad Duals. Joplin’s district hosts the state sectional the Bruins could play in this year, setting up a potential rematch later this season.

The Missouri volleyball team looked fine in front of a crowd Friday. It was the match that hardly anyone saw that didn't look so good.

The Tigers split two matches in their own round-robin tournament at Hearnes Center, losing the opener 3-1 (31-29, 16-30, 30-26, 30-28) to Creighton before rebounding to beat Arkansas State 3-1 (30-32, 30-24, 30-28, 30-21).

Both shots were “lucky.” The players managed to beat out their defenders, and as they each fired at the goal and saw their balls sail over the goalkeeper’s head, one watched hers hit the back of the net, while another saw her ball bounce off the crossbeam of the goal.

“The difference was their once in a lifetime shot went in and ours didn’t today,” Coach Bryan Blitz said.

In a battle between two top-five football teams in the state, it took nearly two and half quarters before either side scored a point.

When the game was over, No. 3 Rockhurst outlasted No. 5 Hickman, 14-7, at Hickman High Friday night.

When junior Josh Conyers said he was confident his defense could stop the Smith-Cotton Tigers on Friday, he wasn’t kidding.

The Rock Bridge Bruins improved to 2-0 and held the Tigers’ offense scoreless until the fourth quarter. By then, the Bruins had a big enough lead to leave the field with a 42-14 victory in their home opener.