WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN =17
SPORTSCOLUMN
Don't let soccer fever die after World Cup
This Friday, while many of you will probably be sleeping still, history could be made on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
COMMENTARY
The U.S. World Cup team will face Germany at 6:30 a.m. in Ulsan, South Korea after defeating Mexico, 2-0, Monday in South Korea.The match will be the United States' most important game on the pitch ever—the team's first quarterfinal competition since the inaugural World Cup in 1930.
Levi Chronister lchronister@kansan.com
Germany, which defeated the United States, 4-2, in March, is a three-time World Cup champion and will provide quite a challenge for the Americans, but the United States has proved it can beat top teams, defeating fifth-ranked Portugal 3-2 in stage one.
The match will follow another outstanding face-off — Brazil and England at 1:30 a.m. Fridav.
Don't let that soccer fever die between the end of June and the end of August, though.
The Kansas soccer team, fresh off a program-high 13 wins and a first trip to the
So take a long nap Thursday afternoon, go out and enjoy the evening then stay up after closing time and watch these two great World Cup match-ups. Besides, it'll be Friday and what better way to start a weekend than by watching the U.S. and three of the world's greatest teams in the world's greatest sporting event?
Brazil, with four Cups, and England, with one, is the marquee matchup of the tournament so far, pitting the best chance for a European team to win a title outside of its home continent for the first time against the most-storied World Cup side and the only Latin American team remaining.
NCAA tournament, will begin its season Aug. 23 in Springfield, Mo., against Southwest Missouri State and will play its first home game a week later against UNLV at SuperTarget Field.
Mark Francis, the central region's Coach of the Year last season, will miss Hilla Rantala, the Finnish wonder who had 10 goals and 12 assists for a school-record 32 points as a senior last season, but talented sophomore forwards Monica Brothers (nine goals) and Rachel Gilfillan (eight) should see more playing time and help soften the loss.
Even more important to the Jayhawks could be the maturation of sophomore keeper Meghan Miller. The Seattle native saved 72.4 percent of the shots she faced last year and allowed just 1.4 goals per game. With a year of college competition behind her, she should be even better this fall.
With the national team reaching new highs in international competition, soccer could reach new highs in terms of national attention for the next couple weeks. Hopefully, students will keep that focus through July and put it on the Jayhawks this fall.
Chronister is a Lawrence senior in journalism.
FROM THE COURT TO THE FIELD
LAURIESISK/KANSAN
Former KU basketball player and now Dallas Mavericks player fields a play at first base during the Jock's Nitch Softball Tournament Saturday in Pittsburg. Manning has been a regular fixture at the tournament for several years. This year, his Kaw Valley Bank Sidewinders from Eudora finished second in the 64 team Division 1 class.
BASEBALL
Stanford eliminates Notre Dame from series
The Associated Press
OMAHA, Nob. — Sam Fuld and Carlos Quentin homered and Stanford held off Notre Dame 5-3 Tuesday night and eliminated the Fighting Irish from the College World Series.
The Cardinal, CWS runners-up the last two years, improved to 40-0 this season when holding the lead after eight innings.
Stanford (47-17) will play Thursday against Texas in a rematch of the Longhorns' 8-7 win Monday that put the Cardinal in the elimination round. Texas needs just one win to reach Saturday's championship game of the double-elimination
The Fighting Irish (50-18) had 22 come-from-behind wins this season, but could not come up with one more after Stanford added an insurance run on Andy Topham's squeeze bunt in the ninth.
Steve Stanley was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a stolen base and scored a run for Notre Dame.
Dan Rich got his sixth save when he struck out Joe Thaman to end the game. Rich relieved John Hudgins (10-1) who allowed two earned runs and six hits over 52-3 innings.
Peter Ogilvie (7-5) recovered well after being down 2-0 on just three pitches, but didn't get the run support he needed. Ogilvie also went 5 2-3 innings, allowing
The Cardinal took a 2-0 lead on Fuld's second homer of the CWS and held on to it the rest of the way, although Notre Dame never fell behind by more than two runs.
four runs and seven hits.
After Stanford went up 4-2 in the sixth on an RBI single by Jason Cooper, the Irish came right back with a run in the bottom half of the inning. Brian Stavisky led off with a single and scored when Quentin bobbled the ball right after a single by Paul O'Toole.
The Irish had runners at first and second with two outs later in the sixth when Hudgins was lifted for Rich, who got out of the inning on a nice play by Topham.
Topham ran from shortstop to left field and caught Javier Sanchez's pop-up while sliding on his knees in foul territory.
The Irish had another great opportunity in the fourth with the bases loaded and no outs, but got just one run. Thaman popped out to second, Stanley hit a sacrifice fly to score Matt Bok from third and Steve Sollmann grounded out to short to end the inning.
Carter hit Ogilvie's first pitch of the game for a single to right, then Fuld quickly followed with the homer to left that just carried over the wall. Quentin added a solo homer in the second, his 12th of the season.