The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee opened up league play in Chicago with a three-game sweep of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

It was business as usual for senior Jamie Gabrielsen who led the team in kills as the Panthers won impressively, 30-23, 30-19 and 30-25.

>> Full Story

Fantasy football is just as important as the regular football season to some fans. Before the season starts leagues start to pop-up and everyone gets ready to be a coach of their own team. Everyone should play fantasy football at some point in their life, but the fact is that winning a fantasy football league is harder than it appears.

In the history of my fantasy football career, which just entered its seventh season, I have seen all there is to see in the world of trading, adding, smack talk, dropping and the crucial decisions behind who to play and who to sit.

>> Full Story

We all know the scene. Family on a road trip, sitting in the car, kids squabbling in the back seat, and dad keeps losing patience. He grips the steering wheel tight, his knuckles getting whiter with every passing second. Dad’s blood vessel on his temple is visibly thumping, blood rushing to his face. He’s losing his composure, and after awhile, even mom has given up trying to calm him down before he explodes on the kids. One kid goes a little too far, and pushes dad right over the edge.

“Do I have to turn this thing around?!”

>> Full Story

Just as most people cannot recall who won last year’s World Series, you may not remember who won the 2006 Nextel Cup – Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Johnson is on the fast track to winning his second Cup in two seasons.

The last driver to win back-to-back Cups was Johnson’s teammate Jeff Gordon in the 1997-1998 season, but it looks inevitable that Johnson will earn his second crown with only two major threats at his backdoor, Gordon, in the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, and Tony Stewart, cruising in the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet.

>> Full Story

Has anyone noticed that this summer was a mess of tragedies and let downs in the world of professional athletes and their mental health? How can coaches or teammates, or even the general public ever guess at what these athletes are capable of? How can this be prevented?

Doing a little of my own research and just a few common sense suggestions, maybe after the stress of being up on a pedestal there should be something like a quarterly psych evaluation.

>> Full Story

Put simply, Ryan Braun deserves to win the National League Rookie of the Year award.

Other rookies continue to produce impressive stat lines such as Astros rookie Hunter Pence, Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who plays a pivotal position, or Chris Young of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who competes on a team with a better record and also happens to roam centerfield, a more defensively important position than the hot corner, where Braun resides.

>> Full Story

The Green Bay Packers opened the 2007 campaign by defeating perennial NFC East winner Philadelphia 16-13 at Lambeau Field on rookie Mason Crosby’s 42-yard field goal with two seconds remaining. Here are some observations I made from my usual seat in section 135 in the south end zone of Lambeau.

RAVE: The defense has heads turning around the National Football League. Constantly in the second half, the Packer offense put the defense in a tough spot, but the defense only allowed three in the final two quarters.

>> Full Story

Looking into the upcoming Packers season, it seems that a strong defense will have to make up for a lackluster offense, particularly when it concerns the run game.

Does this mean the Packers are guaranteed to be heading down a path that leads them short of postseason play for the third consecutive year? Certainly not. Remember in the championship year of 1996, the Packers did not feature a 1,000 yard rusher.

>> Full Story

After just a few weeks of play in the NFL’s minor league...er... college football, there have already been some major surprises. In one of the biggest upsets in college football history, Wisconsin managed to knock off perennial powerhouse UNLV in the waning moments of the contest.

Oh, and No. 5 Michigan lost to Appalachian State, marking the first time a Division I-AA team has ever beaten a ranked Division I-A foe.

>> Full Story

With just two weeks remaining in the Major League Baseball season, it has officially become a two-team race in the National League Central Division. The Brewers and Cubs have done nothing short of putting their fans through an exciting yet nerve-wracking last two months. This epic divisional race is one of the tightest in recent memory.

The last two weeks will surely be filled with a lot of emotion and intense moments. Entering play on Friday, the Cubs are a half-game ahead of the Brewers. However, I say the Brewers are going to win this division and bring Milwaukee back to the playoffs for the first time in a quarter century. The reason? The last week of the schedule.

>> Full Story

Women’s tennis coach Matt McCaskill said that he believes he did an okay job recruiting both last year and this year. He couldn’t have been more wrong about that statement.

Freshman Jenna Flesher, Sammi Schoen, Martina Schnapp and sophomores Kari Kastenholz and Kelly Drvaric are much more than “okay.”

>> Full Story

Building momentum going into the conference season later this month, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s soccer team came into the weekend 3-1 on the year. The Panthers had gone 1-1 the previous weekend, falling to Boston University in a squeaker and knocking off UC-Santa Barbara in the Wisconsin Soccer Classic. Coach Michael Moynihan and the Panthers were looking to head into Boston and pull a sweep this weekend, but came away disappointed. After being narrowly defeated by No. 8 nationally ranked Boston College 1-0, Milwaukee dropped another heartbreaker to Harvard, 1-0.

Boston College turned out to be an equal adversary for the Panthers, but Milwaukee missed their scoring opportunities, including one in the very first minute. Pam Shipway stole the ball outside the box, sending in a pass to sophomore Erin Kreuser. When Kreuser tried to put the ball in the net from five yards out, BC keeper Sarah Buonomo got a piece of it and saved the shot.

>> Full Story