PAGE 10
FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TENNIS
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Team travels to Iowa looking to break streak
Junior Victoria Khanevskaya jumps up for her serve against her Bradley opponent, Saturday afternoon at the Jayhawk Tennis Center.
CORBIN MIHELIC
cmihelic@kansan.com
After a ten-day break from competition, the Kansas women's tennis team hopes to rebound from four straight losses in today's Border Showdown against Missouri.
"The girls know that this is a huge 'W' if we can get it this weekend," coach Amy Hall-Holt said. "It's right there with the way the girls have been playing and their intensity level. I think having last weekend off has built their enthusiasm and their drive a little more."
The Jayhawks travel to Columbia, Mo., this morning for their match versus their longtime rival. As of April 10, the Tigers were No.45 in the ITA Women's National rankings, sitting at 8-8 on the season.
"They're still Missouri. It doesn't matter what sport it is, just the name Missouri—that's the rivalry already," junior Victoria Khanevskaya said. "In basketball, football, or just tennis, we still want to beat them really bad."
Missouri comes into the match on a four-match winning streak, although none of those victories came against Big 12 teams. The Tigers are currently 1-4 in conference play, with the only win coming over unranked Iowa State last Friday, 6-1. None of Missouri's roster is ranked individually in singles or doubles play.
After playing in Columbia, Kansas travels to Ames, Iowa to take on Iowa State for a battle between two of the Big 12's three unranked teams. At 3-15, the Cyclones are also winless in conference play, and will play Kansas State on Friday.
The Jayhawks' match against Iowa State is set to begin Sunday at noon, but if it rains the match will be moved indoors. The last
match of the regular season for Kansas will be at Kansas State on April 15 before the Big 12 Championships begin April 26 in College Station, Texas.
"The teams we've played have been so tough," sophomore Claire Dreyer said. "Our conference is tough, but we're right there with
every single one of them. We've just got to keep fighting. I know it's discouraging looking at that, but we just seriously need to startling getting at it. We're capable of doing this, we just have to believe for real."
Edited by Anna Allen
NHL
Rangers open conference series with a 4-2 victory
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Rangers' Brian Boyle reacts after scoring a goal during the second period of Game one of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Ottawa Senators Thursday in New York.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Marian Gaborik and Brian Boyle scored minutes apart in the second period to break open a tight game, and the top-seeded New York Rangers opened their first-round Eastern Conference series with a 4-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
The Rangers, the No. 1 seed in the East for the first time since they won the Stanley Cup in 1994, shook off their 1-2-1 regular-season mark against the Senators and easily dispatched them in Game 1.
Ryan Callahan scored in the first period, Gaborik and Boyle pushed the lead to 3-0, and Brad Richards added a goal in the third for the Rangers. New York will host the No. 8 Senators again on Saturday night before the best-of-seven series shifts to Ottawa for Games 3 and 4.
Henrik Lundqvist was sharp early, stopping Jason Spezza on a partial breakaway and then turning aside Jim O'Brien, who weaved his way through the New York defense before getting off an in-close drive that was knocked away.
Lundqvist's only blémises came in the third period. Daniel
Redfredsson wrecked his shutout bid at 10:05, and Erik Condra made it 4-2 with 2:19 left. Lundqvist finished with 30 saves.
Craig Anderson stopped 27 shots, but it wasn't enough for him to maintain his perfect mark at Madison Square Garden.
The Senators dominated play throughout the second period, but a couple of late lapses turned a tight
game into a virtual runaway.
Ottawa kept up constant pressure in the New York end. It just didn't produce any results. The Senators hemmed in the Rangers several times and forced a handful of icing calls. It got so bad in the middle of the second that New York coach John Tortorella was forced to use his lone timeout just to give his guys a breather after back-to-back icings.
ZENGER FROM PAGE 12
While Zenger's life appeared to be a huge blur in his first months at Kansas, the athletic director won't look at it that way. He frequently says he's not a victim, and what he did was just part of the job. But during that coaching search, Zenger did more than the usual parts of the job.
"It was a grueling, grueling day," Weis said of the interview process as he was introduced as Kansas' coach.
When he returned to Kansas on Dec. 11, 2011, Zenger had Charlie Weis by his side as Kansas' new football coach. And while Weis, the former coach at Notre Dame, has a resume that looks impressive, Zenger did not give the coach any breaks as he looked for the program's perfect fit.
Soon after Weis got settled in, conference play began for basketball. Both times Kansas played Missouri, Zenger and company had to answer questions about if Kansas would ever play Missouri again. The answer, for the time being, is no, a decision Zenger said was made at his desk.
And then came the Sweet Sixteen run for the women's basketball team, and the Final Four run for the men's basketball team. Zenger said the experience was a shot of confidence in the arm of Kansas Athletics.
Kansas coach Bill Self had high praise for Zenger, as Self complemented him at the Basketball Awards Ceremony on Monday night.
"We're on a serious uptick in our Athletic Department," Self said. "And Sheahon and his staff deserve a lot of credit."
Zenger, the man in charge of Kansas Athletics, started his career off on the high dive, dealing with experiences and pressures that he had never faced before.
"You just had to jump in and swim," Zenger said. "And hopefully in the right direction."
Edited by Max Rothman