As a midfielder in lacrosse and a center in ice hockey, Naperville North senior Helena Siska likes to be in the middle of the action. She did just that on Wednesday night from the very beginning of the Huskies’ 14-5 win over rival Naperville Central to claim the first DVC Tournament title at Neuqua Valley.

Siska scored the game’s first two goals less than 2 minutes into play, then came away with a steal that set up teammate Merian Giese as North claimed a quick 3-0 lead that grew to 6-1 after one quarter and 9-2 by halftime. Siska finished with 4 goals as the Huskies improved to 10-6 on the spring one week ahead of the sectional seedings.

“I’m proud of us,” said Siska, who helped her team rebound from a tough 12-10 loss Monday to Glenbard West. “I feel like we played really well. We came out strong, and it was really important to jump on them from the start.”

Siska has been a key contributor for the Huskies’ balanced attack, but she’s not used to scoring as much as she did in Wednesday’s win.

“Today was a little extraordinary. I don’t score four in a game usually,” said Siska, who will play hockey next year at College of St. Benedict in Minnesota. “That [first Central] game was pretty close. We just won by 4 goals. It definitely was not our best game, so it was good to come back strong and beat them by a little more this time.”

Five different North players tallied goals in the first half and seven all told in the win. Giese, who has been one of the team’s top scorers all spring, had 3 goals against the Redhawks.

“This is a really fun game for us. I know there’s a crosstown rivalry, but a lot of these girls play club with girls from Central,” said North coach Jessica Hogan. “There’s no bad blood. We just always want a good game between the two schools, so it’s kind of fun.”

The Redhawks, who are having one of the program’s best seasons ever under first-year head coach Brandon Moriarty, started four freshmen in the DVC Tournament final including goalie Giselle Sevilla, who stood tall against constant pressure.

“We came off a tough loss yesterday to Downers Grove North, a good program,” said Moriarty, whose team is now 13-5 with two regular-season games left. “And Anna Schatz was out, one of our leading goal scorers. When we faced this team the first time, it was 0-0 after one quarter … it’s a long season. We need to work on building up our stamina, but I couldn’t be prouder of the girls.”

The Redhawks goals were scored by Emily Moran, Raquel Iampaglia, Tessa Williams, Kendall Albertini, and Brooke Liska.

In the third-place match, the Waubonsie-Metea Valley team jumped ahead 7-0 after one quarter and hung on to beat the host Wildcats 16-9. Ella Guzaski had 5 goals to pace the winners and Sydney Shield and Katie Madden each added four scores. Neuqua Valley got 4 goals apiece from Addison Tedrow and Kaylie Gilmartin.

Break out the shovels.

The Grand Sierra Resort’s request for tax-increment financing passed Wednesday by a 5-2 vote of the Reno Redevelopment Agency Board, paving the way for a groundbreaking on a $435 million arena that has been described as “transformational” for the region and Nevada athletics, which plans to play its men’s basketball games in the state-of-the-art 10,000-capacity starting in fall 2027.

The TIF approval was the final major hurdle required for a groundbreaking on the project that was first announced almost 600 days ago in September 2023. A groundbreaking is now expected next month with the project scheduled to be completed in summer of 2027. GSR Arena has already gained a conditional use permit from the Reno City Planning Commission to get permits for construction of the 295,000-square-foot arena; a 45,000-square-foot ice rink; and parking garage with 2,800 spaces.

Wednesday’s 5-hour meeting kicked off with 2 hours, 20 minutes of public comment from 51 members of the community, including 50 who were in favor of the project getting tax money. Those supporting the project included Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez; Nevada basketball coach Steve Alford; Wolf Pack player Amire Robinson; construction workers; business owners; local educators; Reno Ice/hockey families; UNR students and teachers; GSR employees; and Wolf Pack fans. There were 639 online comments with 606 in favor, 30 against and three who voiced concerns.

“I think Reno deserves a venue like this and deserves this national attention,” Nevarez said.

Added Alford on GSR owner Alex Meruelo: “With Alex and his team, we have a lottery pick.”

The lone dissenter was McDonald Carano attorney Josh Hicks, who is representing six other local gaming properties.

“This would be an unprecedented use of TIF for a private arena,” Hicks said.

Among the speakers during the meeting were Reno’s revitalization manager Bryan McArdle; Meruelo; Andrew Diss, the chief strategy officer and senior vice president of Meruelo Gaming; Wolf Pack athletic director Stephanie Rempe; University of Nevada president Brian Sandoval; and Mike Thiessen of Hunden Partners, a firm that did an economic analysis of the project.

“This is my legacy,” Meruelo said. “It’s what I want to give back to Reno. I could invest here or I could invest in Vegas, and I’ve been asked many times, ‘Why don’t you put the money in Vegas where it’d be a better investment?’ And that’s a true statement. But I love Reno and want to be here, period.”

The Reno Redevelopment Agency Board panel that voted in favor of the project included all seven members of the Reno City Council, including Mayor Hillary Schieve and council members Kathleen Taylor, Naomi Duerr, Miguel Martinez, Meghan Ebert, Devon Reese and Brandi Anderson. The 5-2 vote included “yeses” from Schieve, Reese, Anderson, Duerr and Martinez with the “noes” from Taylor and Ebert.

“This is the most significant decision most of us will make during our time on council,” said Reese, adding Sandoval vouching for Meruelo made a big impact on him. Reese added that it is a gamble with “Meruelo’s money.”

Schieve repeatedly made the case for approving the project’s public money in an effort for Reno to stay “relevant” and seen as an “innovative” city. Taylor said her “no” vote was a result of talking to her constituents and how moving men’s basketball games out of Lawlor would hurt those surrounding businesses in addition to feedback from Wolf Pack Hall of Famers who were against moving the men’s basketball team off campus.

The board approved No. 2 of three options, which includes the GSR getting 90 percent of the city of Reno portion of the increased property tax — that’s 26 percent — from the time the project is completed through 2035. That’s projected at $61.3 million in property taxes that would be abated before the full amount of property tax goes to the city starting in 2036. Additionally, 10 percent of that TIF from 2025-35 would retained by the redevelopment agency ($6.8 million) and fire station 21’s lease would continue at market rate with the city or agency holding the option to purchase fire station 21 site in future. The city currently leases that land for $22,500 per month.

In his closing comments, Meruelo said he would also give 5 percent of his TIF abatement — roughly $3.4 million — to Ward 3 represented by Martinez for youth sports and recreation.

Phase one of the GSR’s planned $1 billion redevelopment includes the construction of the arena, an ice rink, an eight-story garage, a multi-story lakefront golf driving range and fan zone central plaza outside the arena. That phase is estimated at $785.7 million with the arena and parking garage expected to be completed first. Further phases could include 300 affordable housing units and a new 800-room hotel wing.

That arena is expected to be home not only to Nevada men’s basketball home games but also a minor-league hockey franchise (Meruelo owns an AHL team in Tucson that could relocate to Reno). The arena is expected to host 95 events annually and could upgrade the quality of entertainments options coming to Reno with an estimated addition of five major concerts and seven minor concerts.

Sandoval and Rempe were two of the most prominent voices in favor of the arena project and were among the speakers at Wednesday’s meeting. Before the vote, Rempe said GSR Arena was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Nevada athletics couldn’t pass up.

“For us, it is about our opportunity as an athletics program to move forward,” Rempe said. “And this is something that allows us to do things that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. You’ve heard me say this forever — it’s about creating a college town and getting this community behind it, behind us. There’s nothing that brings a community together like sports, and it helps us move the needle. We need to perform at a high level, and that’s on the horizon, and I think this helps us.”

The Wolf Pack would sign a lease to play around 17 men’s basketball games per year at GSR Arena (the Wolf Pack women’s team would remain at the 41-year-old Lawlor Events Center). Rempe projected the Wolf Pack would create between $3 million and $5 million in additional revenue thanks to enhanced premium-seating options for Nevada’s top revenue creator, men’s basketball ticket sales. Rempe said the new arena also would improve the fan experience of those who attend Wolf Pack games.

“There’s a lot of things that it does for us,” Rempe said. “Some of the things are the day-to-day stuff that people struggle with when we play at Lawlor, whether it’s traffic or parking. There is the food and beverage experience that GSR will be aligned and be providing that will be exceptional. The in-game experience. Lawlor hasn’t been touched in so many years. And so having a state-of-the-art sound system, video boards, all of that in terms of the game experience.

“This experience between the suites and the club and the loge boxes and the floor seats and the different club experiences where people have access to, that is what our industry is going to all over the country. People are adding more premium spaces to their venues, and this does it right away, which allows us to have more tickets that have a premium experience that in the end generate a lot more revenue for us.”

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Highlighted by a school-record eight programs logging perfect single year APR scores, all of Kansas State’s athletic teams met and exceeded the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate single and multi-year standards for the 14th straight year as the NCAA released its latest Division I APR data from the 2023-24 academic year.

Men’s cross country, men’s golf, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, women’s golf, soccer, tennis and volleyball all recorded perfect 1000 marks for the 2023-24 season. The eight perfect scores outperformed the 2017-18 cohort, which saw seven teams achieve perfect status.

 

In addition, the multi-year scores (2019-20 through 2023-24) from football (990 – third in Big 12), women’s golf (1000 – first), rowing (992 – fifth), tennis (1000 – first) (995- sixth) and volleyball all were among the best in the Big 12.

 

The Academic Progress Rate measures the eligibility, retention and graduation of student-athletes competing on every Division I sports team and also serves as a predictor of graduation success. Each year, the NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I team through the annual scorecard of academic achievement, known as APR. The score measures eligibility and retention each semester or quarter and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.

For more information on the Academic Progress Rate, please visit the NCAA website at www.ncaa.org.