Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Kansas men's soccer club played archrival Kansas State at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium Saturday.
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SEE PAGE 4B
Jose Maria Olazabal pulled away from the pack and won the Masters in Augusta, Ga., yesterday.
The Kansas
Monday
April 12, 1999
Section:
B
Page 1
Golf
Page 1
The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1 Sunday, completing their first sweep of the season.
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Kansas tennis player Rodrigo Echagarray attempts to return his opponent's shot in his game against Texas A&M's Jarin Skube. Echagarray skated Skube 6-2, 6-3. Photo by Briken Noguera/KANSAN
Men lose five in home match, honor seniors
By Melinda Weaver sports@kansan.com Kansan saintwriter Kansan writer
Despite senior Kenny Powell's heart-filled performance in his last home match, the Kansas men's tennis team could not produce a win against No. 21 Texas A&M, 14-3 overall, 6-0 in the conference.
The No. 40 Jayhawks, 10-5 overall, 2-3 in the conference, played two of the top teams in the Big 12 Conference this weekend, losing to No. 5 Texas 5-2 and Texas A&M 5-2.
However, Kansas kept the two teams in close range. The team lost a total of five tie-breakers this weekend, two against Texas and three against Texas A&M.
"We played two pretty good matches this weekend," Coach Mark Riley said. "The big thing is we lost five tie-breakers. We have to learn from that. We have to be more aggressive in tough matches. The top teams keep playing tough, and we can't back off."
The Jayhawks continued to struggle in their doubles matches, losing the doubles point in both contests and using solid singles to keep the scores close.
Against Texas, 15-5 overall, 40 in the conference, the two points came from freshmen Quentin Blakeney and Rodrigo Echagaray at No. 5 and No. 6 singles.
Blakeney's winning streak of 11 games, the longest streak for any freshman in the '90s, ended yesterday in a three-set loss to Texas A&M'S Juan Aramburo 6-4.3.6.4.
I hate to see Quentin's streak end," Riley said. "He plays great tennis. He's easy to coach. He takes what I tell him, and he tries to do it. He's open to advice, even under pressure, which is hard."
Before the singles' matches against Texas A&M, Riley hon
ored seniors Luis Uribe and Powell for their achievements during their Jayhawk careers.
Powell ended his last performance on the Robinson courts in style, defeating Brent Horan 6-2, 6-3.
"It has just hit me these last two days because things have gone by so fast," Powell said. "It seems like just yesterday I was a freshman at Georgia Tech. I keep telling the freshmen, don't miss any of it because it flies by. It's hard to believe this is my last match at home."
Powell transferred to Kansas as a junior from Georgia Tech.
Powell has posted a 63-42 career singles record and a 52-38 career doubles record. Powell is 10-5 in singles this spring after making the jump from No. 4 to No. 2.
"I think it's a lack of self-confidence right now," Uribe said. "It has been getting better, but I've got to get it together. This stretch at the end of the semester is the most important part of our season."
No. 18 Uribe continued to struggle, losing in straight sets to Shuon Madden 7-6, 6-3.
"I feel very comfortable with our No. 1 and No. 2 players," Riley said. "It has been a while since the two of them have won together, but when we do, we will do some damage."
Uribe has won 102 singles matches in his career, fourth in Kansas history, and 91 doubles matches, fifth in Kansas history.
Overall, Powell said he was pleased with the team's performance this weekend, proving it could compete with the top Big 12 schools.
Echagaray had another victory against Texas A&M, defeating Jarin Skube 6-2, 6-3.
The Jayhawks look forward to more tough matches as they face No. 8 Baylor and No. 28 Texas Tech next weekend.
Edited by Darrin Peschka
Receiver trades hoops for field
Former basketball standout shines in football practice
by Michael T. Rigg
sports@kansan.com
Kansas writer
Standing at 6-5 and weighing in at 185 pounds, Kansas wide receiver Anton Paige said head football coach Terry Allen wasn't the only Kansas coach impressed by his athletic ability and tall stature.
"Roy [Williams] and his staff called me and said to give basketball a try," said Paige, who up until his senior year of high school was known more for his skills on the basketball court than the gridiron. "But the football coaches said I couldn't do it."
The transition would come easily for Paige. At Wellington High School in Royal Palm Beach, Fla., Paige didn't even play football until his senior season. Instead, he was named honorable mention all-state for the basketball team, averaging a teambest 16 points, seven rebounds, and three assists a game. These stats impressed the Palm Beach Post enough to name him that newspaper's 1997 Basketball Player of the Year.
When he finally decided to strap on pads in 1996, Paige dominated the field, leading his county with 29 receptions for 587 yards en route to being named third team all-state in football.
Why the sudden transition into a two-sport athlete? "I wanted to try as many sports as I could while I still had the chance." Paige said.
Paige was given several offers to play basketball after high school, including schools such as North Carolina State, he said. The fact that he was even looked at by college football recruiters came as a surprise to him.
"It was surprising," Paige said. "I was very impressed with what I had done when I started getting offers for football."
Becoming the first football/basketball dual athlete at Kansas since Robert Reed attempted it in 1994 proved to be too tall an order for the lanky Paige, but Allen already is looking for Paige to do big things on the football field this season.
Having already been tabbed one of the major surprises of spring practices after redshirting last season, Paige has moved from a relative unknown to running patterns with the first team.
The impressive spring showing so far hasn't been imored by Allen and his staff.
"We've talked about him on several occasions," Allen said. "He's been one of the pleasant surprises in the spring."
Paige said he brought some size to the receiving corps and loosened up the defense, both of which worked to the Javhawks' advantage.
"I force the defense to change," said Paige. "If I make the defense double-team me, someone else is open."
Spring Football Notes
- Kansas held a full scrimmage, complete with officials, for the first time this spring Saturday, consisting of 109 plays.
One touchdown and a field goal were scored by the respective offenses, with wide receiver Eric Patterson outrunning the defense for the touchdown, and place kicker Joe Garcia connecting on a field goal.
Overall, Allen was impressed by his team's effort. "I think it went pretty well," said Allen. "We staved relatively injury-free, which is a positive."
Allen said the scrimmage directly coincided with his major goals of this season.
"Going into the year, I said that there were three things we really needed to do a better job of," Allen said. "We need to get better players, do a better job of coaching and eliminate the little things."
The "little things" were enough to worry Allen after the scrimmage, as he said he was disappointed with the 11 penalties his team committed.
The Jayhawks, however, did not stay completely injury-free during the scrimmage. Linebacker Mitchell Scott injured his knee during one of the last sets of plays, but Allen said the injury was not serious.
Scott has a history of knee problems, and had surgery last year to repair torn cartilage in his knee.
■ Linebacker Algie Atkinson turned heads on Saturday when he jumped over the line for a sack. Allen said the athletic play of Atkinson was why he was competing to be a starter this season.
"Algie showed today the things that we get excited about him as far as his athleticism out there, being able to jump around," Allen said.
Darrin Peschka
Kansas wide receiver Anton Paige looks back for a pass during practice. A high school basketball standout, Paige opted to play football at Kansas. Photo by Matt J. Daugherty/KANSAN
Jayhawk baseball team swept by Tigers
Tourney hopes fade with continued losses
By Matt Tait
By Matt Tall
sports@kansan.com
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
It wasn't exactly the way the Kansas baseball team wanted to start this stretch of the season, but the Jayhawks traveled to Missouri this weekend for a three-game series and were swept — 7-4, 9-1, 14-12.
The losses push Kansas' losing streak to nine games and put a serious damper on the possibility of earning a berth in the Big 12 tournament.
Sunday's game saw the Jayhawks jump out to an early 6-0 lead. The 'Hawks managed three hits in the first inning, but capitalized on three Tiger errors and scored six runs.
The runs all came with two outs and
were manufactured by putting together singles, doubles and triples.
the outburst in the first was the last time the Jayhawks threatened until the ninth.
Trailing 14-6 going into the ninth inning, the Jayhawks rallied for six more runs, all earned, but fell short of a comebreak, losing 14-12. Tiger pitcher Mitch Kiler came into the ninth and earned the first save of his career.
Third baseman Ryan Klocksien and first baseman Chad King provided most of the offense for the Jayhawks. Klocksien had three hits, scored two runs and drove in another, while King had two hits, scored two and knocked in three.
The final loss of the sweep dropped Kansas' overall record to 10-27 and 4-17 in Big 12 play. The Tigers have won eight straight and have moved into the eighth and final postseason spot with a record of 22-13, and 6-9.
In Saturday's game Kansas was dominated from start to finish. The Tigers cruised out to an early 7-0 lead and never looked back. Tiger starter Chris George held Kansas to one run on seven hits in the complete-game win.
Kansas starter Brian Schriner only gave up six hits in five innings, but allowed seven runs. Peter Smart came in and pitched the final three innings, holding the Tiger bats down, but the Jayhawk offense never woke up and they were defeated 9-1.
Catcher Shane Wedd had two hits, including a double, and second baseman Brandon O'Neal also delivered a
"We did some good things today." Randall said. "We hit a lot of balls hard, but right at them. Pete Smart came in and did some nice things in relief, but Chris George pitched a great game for them."
Despite the loss, coach Bobby Randall managed to see something positive in an otherwise negative situation.
In Friday's game, every Jayhawk starter recorded a hit, and four Jayhawks — shortstop John Nelson, three, outfieldder Doug Dreher, two, Wedd, two and O'Neal, two — had multiple-hit games.
single and a double.
Kansas made a rally, but fell short losing 7-4.
The Jayhawks, who are in 10th place in the Big 12, will face Wichita State at Hoglund Ballpark Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
Juan H. Heath
Women's tennis improves regional standing
By Amanda Kaschube
Kansan sportswriter
The windy conditions at Saturday's tennis match caused chairs to blow onto the courts and serves to fly over fences. Despite these conditions, the women's tennis team convincingly defeated Central Region foe Tulsa 6-3 before heading into the doubles portion.
The Jayhawks improved to 5-2 in the Central Region and extended their winning streak to four against Tulsa.
The Jayhawks won five of the six singles matches for the third time in the last four matches.
Coach Jenny Garrity said the match was a must-win and said the team did a good job of taking care of business.
"They knew the match was important and they did a good job of preparing for it." she said. "Monica
(Sekulov) and Brooke (Chiller) really pulled out their matches."
"I'm really happy Brooke pulled out her
Brooke Chiller won at No. 2 singles 6-1, 7-6 (0), despite battling a slight case of tonissitis. She now has won five of her last six matches.
singles match in two sets because I knew she wasn't feeling well, "Gar
Garrity: Preparation helped team gain victory.
Monica Sekulov pulled out a three set victory at No. 4 singles to Tula's Jana Sdivec, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5.
Garrity said she was really proud of Sekuloy's play.
rity said. "Her play today showed how important the team is to her because she kept battling for us."
Cheryl Malliaah won her fourth consecutive match at No. 3 singles, 7-6, 7-5. She is now 19-17 overall.
Van Exel, ranked No. 11 nationally,
defeated Sell, No. 23, in two sets, 63, 6
The match also featured the top two Central Region players in Kansas' Kris Sell and Tulsa's Anousjka van Exel.
"I feel a lot more confident out there on the court now," Malliaiah said. I'm playing better because I fight for more of my points."
2. Sell is now 23-13.
Last fall, van Exel also defeated Sell in the finals of the Central Regional in three sets.
Julia Sidorova and Lisa Malliai also improved their records by winning at No. 5 and No. 6 singles respectively.
Assistant Coach Amy Hall was out of town for personal reasons, so men's coach Mark Riley filled in for her.
"He definitely helped Brooke and Monica in their matches," Garrity said. "He helped Brooke stay focused and kept Monica's head in the match."
The Jayhawks will face in-state and conference rival Kansas State at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at Robinson Courts.
—Edited by Juan H. Heath