SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1994
SECTION B
THE HEAT IS ON
The Kansas football team faces the Oklahoma State Cowboys in a must-win showdown tomorrow at 1 p.m.
Kansas senior defensive tackle Sylvester Wright, senior strong safety Gerald McBurrows and junior middle linebacker Ronnie Ward force a fumble by Oklahoma tailback James Allen. Kansas played Oklahoma Saturday.
Jay Thornton / KANSAN
By Matt Irwin
Kansan sportswriter
Mason has had to motivate a team that lost a close game Saturday to Oklahoma when a win could have meant an easier track to a bowl game.
Kansas football coach Glen Mason may be approaching the end of his toughest week of coaching this season.
After losing 20-17 to the Sooners, the Jayhawks now need three victories in their final four games to get the six Division I-A victories necessary for bowl qualification. And Kansas still must play Colorado and Nebraska.
Mason said it would be tough to convince his team that the season was not over.
Mason has been trying to improve the morale of Kansas for its game at 1 p.m. Saturday against Oklahoma State at Memorial Stadium.
The Jayhawks enter the game with a 4-3 record overall and a 1-2 Big Eight Conference record. The Cowboys are 3-3-1 overall and 0-2-1 in the conference.
Mason said that the Jayhawks hadn't always played up to their potential this season but that their mistakes could be corrected.
"I still maintain that we're capable of being better," Mason said. "What I see that has needed to be fixed can be fixed."
Mason said that coaching was easier this season compared to last season when injuries disabled many of the team's starters.
Although there have been less injuries overall for Kansas this season, the Jayhawks will be without two former starters when they face the Cowboys. Junior offensive tackle Mark Allison has severe tendon damage in his ankle, and sophomore cornerback Tony Blevins has a knee injury. Both will be out for the sea.
Mason might not have to worry too much about injuries, but he has been very troubled by third-down situations. Kansas' opponents have converted half of their third-down situations.
Jayhawk Football Listed are the starters for Kansas' offense and defense
ed players." Mason said, and then praised the Cowboy's quarterback. "Tone Jones is a good player. Is he as consistent as they would want him to be throwing the ball? Probably not."
Despite Kansas lack of success defending on third down, Oklahoma State is impressed by the Jayhawks' defense and their ability to cause turnovers.
"They play an aggressive attack-
"We've got to stop them
from converting on third and long." Mason said. "You play for that situation. The percentage should go up for the defense.
Oklahoma State has rushed for 1,456 yards and passed for 911 yards this season.
Many of the Jayhawks' opponents this season were predominately running teams.
"It's not what we are doing. It's our execution. It's our inconsistency."
"Oklahoma State has some talent-
Glen Mason Kansas football coach
Micah Laaker / KANSAN
said Tim Reynolds, Oklahoma State running back's coach. "They chase the ball well."
Kansas leads the conference in turnover margin, averaging more than 1.4 turnovers a game. Reynolds said that the Cowboys had been worrying about turnovers
more than usual in practice.
Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones said he thought the game would be intense.
"Kansas looks like a very sound football team," he said.
"That's something you have to practice," Reynolds said. "You always work on that."
"Defensively, they are tough against the rush. I would think it would be a fairly physical football game."
Kansanstaff report
Kansas cornerback Tony Blevins will miss the rest of the 1994 football season. The 6-foot-0, 170-pound sophomore suffered a knee injury during practice on Tuesday.
Freshman cornerback Avery Randle will start in place of Blevins against Oklahoma State at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Kansas' starting cornerback suffers season-ending injury
Blevins had started all 19 games the Jayhawks have played since he joined the team. In seven games this season, Blevins had 39 tackles, including 31 unassisted tackles.
Blevins was selected as the defensive freshman of the year by Big Eight Conference coaches last season. Blevins attended Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo.
VOLLEYBALL
Losses affect morale of scrappy team
Coach and players say 'Hawks have the potential to improve
By Chesley Dohl
Kansan sportswriter
When the Kansas volleyball team upset the Oklahoma Sooners in three games Oct. 1, Kansas coach Karen Schonewise said it was a turning point in the season.
But it seems the season took a turn for the worst.
Kansas hasn't won a game, let alone a match, in weeks. The Jayhawk's record, 4-16 overall and 1-5 in the Big Eight Conference, is suffering. In Kansas' match Wednesday, the team lost in three games to Iowa State.
"It really is just a matter of time for us to put everything together," Schonewise said after the game. "We were able to put it together for the Oklahoma match. We just needed to do it for this one. I really thought we were going to win the second and third games."
There were moments in Wednesday night's game when Kansas' aggressive serving made the Cyclones' passing game fall apart. Kansas had nine service aces in the match. Iowa State had six.
"It's not that we don't have the ability," Schonewise said. "We feel good enough about the talent we have on our team that we can go out and win matches."
Other coaches agree. Iowa State coach Jack Ninece said that Kansas was a very scrappy team with obvious athleticism and that it was well coached under Schonewise.
But she said Kansas was sporadic in putting together a solid match.
Remaining Matches (regular season)
Nov. 2
Missouri
"It's not that Kansas is not capable of generating a lot of good things," she said. "We had to come in here intense and ready to play. Kansas is not a team anyone can take lightly. They proved that against Oklahoma."
Nov. 9 at Nebraska
Nov.12 Colorado
Nov.16 Kansas State
Nov.19 at Missouri
"They're still getting used to the system. We were 9-19 last year. I completely empathize with what Kansas is going through. They're probably trying a lot of new things that haven't jelled yet. This spring it will happen for them. That's when it happened for us."
Kansas has proven that it has the potential to beat big Eight Conference opponents. But when it appears that Kansas is on the brink of winning a match with solid blocking, serving and hitting, it has breakdowns.
Kansas' record might be suffering, but the uncomfortable silence in the media room after the Iowa State match Wednesday night hinted that the Jayhawks morale also might be suffering.
That is what makes this season so hard to accept, said junior outside hitter Jenny Larson.
"We just need to work on being more consistent in every area of the game," she said.
Freshman setter Trisha Lindgren said there were times when it had been hard to keep an upbeat attitude in practices and games.
"It has been a very challenging season — just losing." Lindgren said. "There has been a lot of tension on the team. There are times when we think I can't take this anymore.' But we can, and we are getting better."
Kansas plays Missouri at home Nov. 2. It will be a chance for Kansas to prove that it can win.
"Just wanting a win puts a lot of stress on team unity," Lindgren said. "But we know that if we keep working hard it will all pay off."
Cross country team has chance to prove talent again
Women's team hoping to improve tomorrow on last year's Big Eight meet
By Kent Hohlfeld
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas' 17th-ranked women's cross country team is trying to improve on last year's season that included several team firsts. Kansas will get its best chance to do that tomorrow at the Big Eight Conference meet in Manhattan.
Last year's squad finished fifth in the Big Eight meet, then won the district meet a week later against many of those same conference teams. The victory at the District V meet gave Kansas its first-ever bid to the NCAA meet.
Danielle Daggy and Julia Saul. Saul was the first cross country All-American in team history.
Despite the loss of some talent, senior team co-captain Melissa Swartz said she thought this team had the ability to finish better than last season's team.
This year's team has only three upperclassmen, but has five returners from the 1993 team that finished 22nd in the nation.
Gone from that squad are seniors Ashley Ace.
"The younger runners are really excited," Swartz said. "I think that excitement will take them through the next three meets."
She said that leadership shouldn't be a problem at this point in the season.
"At this point the younger runners are ready for any race," Swartz said. "Right now we're just trying to focus on each individual race."
Lack of senior leadership may be a problem this weekend because of an injury to senior co-captain Kristi Kloster. She is one of only two seniors on the team and has been the team's sec-
Co-captain Swartz said that the team was trying to focus on the race ahead. Kansas is coming off one of its best performances of the season with a fourth-place finish at the Penn State Invitational.
ond-leadingrunner.
"She sprained her ankle," said Kansas coach Gary Schwartz. "Right now we're looking at her condition as day-to-day."
Kansas defeated Nebraska by 24 points at Penn State. The Cornhuskers were ranked above the Jayhawks in the District V poll.
"That victory is going to give us a lot of confidence." Swartz said.
Colorado enters the meet as the league favorite and is ranked No. 3 nationally.
"Then we had a bunch of our runners go down with the flu, and we finished third."
"We had the best team last year, too," Colorado coach Jerry Quiller said.
Schwartz said the women's race would be the most competitive from top to bottom.
He said that the women's competition wasn't as tough as the men's, and that the talent was more evenly spread throughout the conference.
"Last year we needed a miracle to win," Quiller said. "This year I think we're deeper, but so are other schools in the conference."
He said that even teams expected to finish in the lower division had aspects that could make them competitive.
Swartz said that it was important for Kansas to keep the meet in perspective.
Missouri has 10 runners back from last year's sixth-place team.
"With all the people Missouri has returning, they have good familiarity with the talent level in the conference," Schwartz said.
"We want to prove that we can do better than last year," she said. "This meet is the first step in doing that."
1993 Cross Country results at Columbia, Mo.
Team points
Nebraska: 57
Kansas State: 72
Colorado: 78
Oklahoma: 89
Kansas: 90
Missouri: 126
Oklahoma State: 181
Iowa State: 226
Individual Champion:
Kay Gooch, Oklahoma,
Note: The low score wins in
cross country competitions.
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KANSAN