MONDAY, MARCH 10,2003
SPORTS
THEUNIVERSITYDAILYKANSAN 3B
Jayhawk tennis takes Nebraska
By Jonah Ballow
jballow@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
For the third time this season, the No. 59 ranked Kansas tennis team played in a different location for a home match.
But the changes did not hamper the Jayhawks Saturday, and they defeated the No. 54 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers 5-2.
"We knew they were going to be very tough," coach Kilmeny Waterman said. "To win the close matches really helps our confidence."
While still changing the doubles lineups, Kansas won all three matches and earned the doubles point.
At No.1 doubles, sophomore Paige Brown and junior Courtney Steinbock defeated Leslie Harvey and Jen Baccarani 8-4. The victory improved the tandem's record to 6-1 when playing together at the No.1 position.
Fighting an array of injuries junior Kristen Steinbock teamed with junior Emily Haylock to defeat Gitte Ostermann and Pamela Castillejos 8-3. Kristen Steinbock and Haylock are now undefeated at 4-0 this season.
Freshman Christine Skoda and senior Kim Lorenz defeated Rose Ketmayura and Anna Oehme 8-5 at the No.3 doubles spot.
In singles play, the matches were a battle at three of the positions. The match came down to Courtney Steinbock with Kansas leading 3-2 and needing only one more win to clinch the victory over Nebraska.
In three sets, Courtney Steinbock defeated Ostermann 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 at the No.1 position.
"I have not played well lately, so I was trying to just stay consistent by keeping the ball in play." Courtney Steinbock said.
At No. 4 singles, Skoda won a close match against Ketmayura 6-2, 6-7, 6-4. Brown is on a four-match winning streak with the victory over Baccarani, 6-1, 6-1 and extends her No. 2 singles record to 6-3.
Kansas improves to 6-4 overall and 2-1 in the Big 12 Conference while Nebraska drops to 7-4 and 0-4 in the Big 12.
The Jayhawks have a border rival match-up Wednesday against the Missouri Tigers, who are undefeated in the conference.
— Edited by Lindsay Hanson
Track qualifiers announced today
By Chris Wintering
cwintering@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas women's track and field distance medley relay had one last opportunity coming into Saturday's Cyclone National Track Qualifier to run in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship.
The team was coming off a great performance at last week's Big 12 Indoor Championships and was preparing to set an automatic qualifying time for next week's championship.
"I think we really came together at the conference meet," sophomore Megan Manthe said.
The team, made up of junior Laura Lavoie, sophomore Kim Clark, freshman Angela Pichardo
and Manthe, finished fourth on Saturday. Although it did manage to set a provisional time by running 11:32.30, it failed to hit the automatic qualify time of 11:19.00.
"I think we all did our best we could've done at the meet, but it is disappointing to know we were right there," Pichardo said.
Earlier in the season, the NCAA set both provisional and automatic times for every event. It then ranks those athletes who beat those times and enters them into the national meet. Today the NCAA will announce the athletes who will make the field.
The NCAA does this by first entering all the automatic qualifiers. Then they rank all the provisional qualifiers and enter the best times or marks into the meet.
Because not enough provisional spots exist, a large number of athletes will not make the cut.
"The distance medley has been real competitive this year around the country, and I don't think our time is going to make it," Manthe said.
Even if the team does not make it, the women were happy with the team's performance.
"All the runners and the field events had a great indoor season," Pichardo said. "I think it shocked me and a lot of other people, and I am proud to be a member of this team."
The Cyclone National Track Qualifier was what is called a last-chance meet. It is an individual's final opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Kansas sent a select number of
athletes to the meet to compete.
The women's 4x400 relay team of sophomore Brooklyn Hann, junior Stacy Keller, senior Shameika McField and Clark finished second. The team's time of 5.39.12 hit a provisional qualifying mark and set a school record.
This increased the team's number of provisional qualifiers to five. The two relay teams along with senior Anson Jackson in the 60-meter hurdles, sophomore high jumper Sondra Rauterkus, senior pole vaulter Jeremy Hull all provisionally qualified.
Junior sprinter Leo Bookman in the 200-meter dash was the only member of the team to run an automatic qualifying time.
Edited by Michelle Burhenn
THREES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
But Miles' shot and a fallaway 25-footer by Kansas senior Kirk Hinrich a minute later, had the crowd turning victory banners into projectiles to be hurled along with colorful insults at the Jayhawks as they left the court.
Hinrich and Miles have grown accustomed to frustrating opposing teams and fans throughout the season, but they were joined by a couple of
With Kansas junior forwards Jeff Graves and Bryant Nash confined to the bench, Graves with foul trouble and Nash with a cut above his right eye, seldomused freshman forward Moulaye Niang found himself an important part of the Jayhawks' closing run. Niang played solid defense and dropped in a turnaround jumper from the middle of the lane, giving Kansas a 65-62 advantage during a crucial back-and-forth exchange between the border rivals. After the game, Niang said he was
unlikely heroes yesterday.
ready for the challenge.
"I like to play," he said. "I'm not afraid of anybody."
Niang's second-team partner, Lee, took another step for the reserves when he made clutch plays at the end of each half. In the closing minutes of the first half, Lee drained a three-pointer from the top of the key despite being run into by Missouri junior guard Josh Kroenke. Kroenke left the game after the collision, but Lee drained the ensuing free throw, stretching a4-point lead to 8. When Kansas senior forward Nick Collision fired an errant
jump shot with 29 seconds left in the game, once again it was Lee making the big play. Lee leaped over Missouri junior guard Ricky Clemons, grabbed the rebound and tossed it to Hinrich for his tiebreaking three-pointer. The rebound and assist likely saved the day for Kansas, but Lee, who finished with 11 points, said he still has a lot of work to do.
"Going into the Big 12 Tour nament," he said, "I know I've got to play a lot better than this."
—Edited by Michelle Burhenn
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