THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2012
SOFTBALL
PAGE 9
Missouri's pitchers pose challenges for team
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Senior infielder Marissa Ingle throws the ball to first for an out during the fifth inning of the game against Wasburn last fall as part of the KU Fall Invitational. Kansas won 4-0. The softball team will head to Missouri Friday night for the final game between the two teams.
LALEC TILSON
atilson@kansan.com
All season, the Kansas softball team has focused on ignoring the name on the opposing team's uniform, trying to concentrate only on its own game. Beginning with conference play this weekend, that task becomes all the more difficult.
Kansas (20-2) begins Big 12 competition tonight with the first game of a three-game series against No. 12 Missouri (17-3) in Columbia, Mo.
Riding a 20-game win streak to end non-conference play, the Jayhawks will face a talented Missouri pitching staff led by junior SeaTea Thomas, whom coach Megan Smith referred to as "one of the best pitchers in the country"
Last season. Thomas (8-1) won 32 games, was a First Team All-American and finished as one of three finalists for USA Softball's National Player of the Year Award. She finished fourth in the country in strikeouts
(397) and held Big 12 opponents to a .155 batting average in league play.
Kansas lost one-run games in both meetings against Missouri in Lawrence last year. Smith has faced Missouri four times since becoming Kansas' coach, and three times Kansas lost by a single run.
Senior infielder Marissa Ingle admitted last year's games were still in the front of her mind.
"It's a whole other type of game," Ingle said, "the speed of the game, the endurance you need mentally and physically. Big 12 is just a lot more mentally demanding on you."
It will be the final meeting between the two schools as members of the Big 12 Conference. It is not surprising that sophomore pitcher Kristin Martinez said the team wants to send the Tigers off on Kansas' terms.
"We're definitely rivals," Martinez said. "This is the last time we're going to play them, so we want to give them something to remember."
As a senior, Ingle said she hoped to beat Missouri in her final year on the team and said this group has the ability to do so.
"I'm from Missouri, and I just want to beat them so bad," Ingle said.
Whatever Kansas hopes to do, it will have to happen in Missouri's backyard, as the Jayhawks play their 23rd consecutive road game to start the conference season.
Smith said playing on the road has become part of the team's identity.
GOLF
"It's something we take pride in," Smith said. "We go on the road and we work. That will be no different this weekend."
The teams will play Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at noon. Kansas will then travel to Missouri State for a doubleheader on March 20 before returning to Lawrence and resuming conference play.
Border Olympics need cohesion from team
— Edited by Bre Roach
TREVOR GRAFF
tgraff@kansan.com
The men's golf team will travel to Laredo Texas, to participate in the Bender
Olympics this weekend
The Jayhawks start the busiest stretch of their season with the two day event. After the Border
McClure
Olympics, the Jayhawks travel to Goodyear, Ariz., for the Goodwell Shootout March 22 to 24.
At the Louisiana Classic on March 5 and 6, freshman Dylan
McClure led the Jayhawks, tying for 17th.
"From his sixth hole through 54, Dylan played very solid golf," coach Kit Grove said.
Junior Chris Gilbert struggled in Louisiana, carding a 69 alongside an 80.
"Golf's a tough game, and everybody has their off days, but to have Chris shoot two poor scores in the same week is very strange," Grove said. "Hopefully, he was just getting some of the rust off of getting back into tournament mode."
"Our conversion rate in the
The Jayhawks look to improve their consistency after the wind issues of last week's tournament.
scoring zone of 50 to 100 yards was just awful last week," Grove said. "Our putting average per player was probably a full putt to two putts higher than where it needs to be, so we focused on that this week"
Grove is happy with the depth of this year's team; five golfers are capable of a top 20 finish at any tournament.
"I think the big thing we need to do is put it all together," Grove said. "I can't think back to where we've had five guys that can shoot as low as these five guys can each shoot individually at any given time, and they just haven't put it together yet."
The Jayhawks head to Laredo
with a solid knowledge of the Border Olympics event.
"The good thing is that Chris played very well at Laredo last year," Grove said. "Three of the five guys have played there, and Dylan's coming off his best week. If they can get the ball rolling in the right direction, we have enough talent on this team to be competitive with a lot of teams in the country."
The layhawks play 36 holes today, with the final round Saturday.
Edited by Taylor Lewis
MEN'S NCAA TOURNAMENT
Refs cause controversy in Pittsburgh
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITTSBURGH — Syracuse was missing its starting center. North Carolina-Ashville thought the Orange got help from three men in striped shirts.
UNC-Ashville's Jaron Lane, left, and Syracuse's Bake Keita, reach for a loose ball in the first half of an East Regional NOW tournament second-round college basketball game on Thursday, in Pittsburgh. Syracuse won the game 72-65.
With Syracuse face the kind of NCAA tournament history no team wants to make, the top-seeded Orange rallied for a 72-65 victory Thursday in the second round of the East Regional.
Two calls by the officials had the sellout crowd of 18,927 at Concol Energy Center — except for those wearing orange — booing throughout the final minute but it didn't matter.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Syracuse made it 109-0 for No. 1 seeds against No. 16s since the NCAA went to a field of 64 in 1985.
"I don't think luck had anything to do with this game today," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said, "and I think the better team won."
The Orange were staring at NCAA tournament history. A No. 1 seed has never lost to a No. 16 seed, and they were trailing North Carolina-Asheville with just over 6 minutes to play.
"We gave it everything we had.
We battled the best that we could," Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach said. "These guys are great. They deserved a better fate than they had today."
Syracuse, which won the national championship in 2003, had already made negative history in the tournament, becoming the first No. 2 seed to lose to a 15 when it fell 73-69 to Richmond in 1991.
The Orange managed to avoid adding another black mark by holding Asheville to one field goal over the final minute while they went 6 of 7 from the free throw line.
Syracuse was playing without 7-foot center Fab Melo, who was declared ineligible for academic reasons by the school and will miss the tournament.
"The fact that this game was close had nothing — nothing — to
Syracuse (32-2) will play eighth-seeded Kansas State in the third round on Saturday. The Wildcats beat Southern Mississippi 70-64.
They led 34-30 at halftime — the third 16 to do that — but the Orange took the lead for good with 6:17 left on a turnaround jumper by reserve James Southerland, who had 15 points and a seasonhigh eight rebounds.
The Bulldogs (24-10), who talked Wednesday about pulling off the upset, were led by J.P. Primm's 18 points.
do with the center position." Boeheim said.
"James has to continue to make the shots and I think he will," Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine said. "I'm happy for him because he's a big part of our offense and today he showed it."
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Southerland, who scored 13 points in the second half, had three of the Orange's five 3-pointer.
"James came in, gave us a huge
lift off the bench," Boeheim said of the 6-foot-8 junior.
The first call that caused the crowd to react was a lane violation with 1:20 left. Jardine missed the front end of a 1-and-1 but Primm was called for passing the head of the key before Jardine let the shot go. Jardine got to shoot the front end again, made it, and made the second for a 64-58 lead.
The Bulldogs got within three points three times in the final 1:04 but could get no closer as Syracuse made its free throws and the officials made a couple of controversial calls.
"They gave me a second chance to make the shot and I made it," Jardine said. "I got myself into a rhythm. I made every free throw from there on out because I do what I practice and believed in myself at that time and made the shots for us."
Primm said: "They showed it on the replay, I think the crowd let
him know that it wasn't the right call. ... Like I said, when it gets crunch time like that, like I say, everyone is human.
With 35 seconds left and the Orange leading 66-63, the ball appeared to go out of bounds off Syracuse's Brandon Triche but the officials pointed the other way and gave it to the Orange. Jardine made two free throws a second later.
Coordinator of Officiating John Adams said he would have given the ball to UNC Asheville on the inbounds play.
"The out of bounds is not reviewable and it is not a play we would discuss," official Ed Corbett told a pool reporter. "I'm not going to comment further because it is a judgment call. It was a clear (lane) violation. The player released early, before the ball hit the rim. We've since watched the replay 20 times and it was the right call."
TENNIS
TARA RRYANT/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Junior Victoria Khanevskaya watches her return of the ball in her singles match against Oklahoma State Sunday afternoon at the Jayhawk Tennis Center. Khanevskaya was defeated 6-4. Tennis will travel to Las Vegas this weekend for a tournament.
Nevada tournament allows for redemption
Team looking to get three victories
CORBIN MIHELIC
cmihelic@kansan.com
After four consecutive losses to ranked opponents, the tennis team may catch a break this weekend in Las Vegas.
The Jayhawks will travel to Sin City today to play three matches over the weekend against midmajor schools. Play begins Saturday against Houston, and the team will face Idaho on Sunday and Bowling Green on Monday.
"It would definitely be a big confidence booster to come out of the weekend winning all three," coach Amy Hall-Holt said.
Houston travels to Las Vegas with a 6-4 record for the season with its most recent match being a 4-3 loss to Marquette. The Cougars of Conference USA are led by No.1 singles player Giorgia Pozzan, who holds an 8-3 singles record for the season.
Idaho is 11-5 for the season and went on a four-match winning streak before its 4-3 loss to New Mexico State in the Western Athletic Conference opener. Bowling Green takes a 4-3 spring record into the weekend and hasn't played a dual match in more than three weeks.
"We played Houston last year and they were pretty good," junior Victoria Khanevskaya said. "We are bringing it to the next teams so we can keep it up against Big 12 schools."
Freshman Maria Belen Luduena leads the Jayhawks into the weekend with a 10-1 singles record for the season. Her only loss came in the team's 7-0 defeat to Tulsa two weeks ago.
"My footwork is better now because on clay court you can slide, but on hard court you have to take little steps," Ludueña said. "That in the beginning was difficult, but it's normal now."
The weekend in Las Vegas marks a hiatus in Big 12 play, which began last weekend with Kansas losses to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Kansas will continue conference play March 24 against Baylor in Lawrence.
"I'm so excited," Khanevskaya said of the trip to Las Vegas. "We have to have fun there and enjoy it besides playing tennis. It should be a great experience."
All of this weekend's matches will begin at 1 p.m.
Edited by Bre Roach