Section:
B
Yesterday in sports St. Louis completed the regular season with a 6-2 win against the Reds, securing home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2000
Inside: The softball team began exhibition play this weekend going, 2-2 against community college teams.
SEE PAGE 6B
For comments, contact Melinda Weaver or Jason Walker at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Inside: Two cross country freshmen women had collegiate career-best times at a meet in Oklahoma.
SEE PAGE 5B
Jayhawk turnovers boost Sooners
Kansas quarterback Dylen Smith gets stumped by Oklahoma's Dan Cody during Saturday's game in Norman, Okla. Although Smith threw for a career record 258 passing yards, five of his passes were picked off by the Sooner defense. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
Interceptions fumbles mar solid first half
By Jason Franchuk sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
NORMAN, Okla. — Just like Kansas' play selection in its 34-16 loss at No. 14 Oklahoma on Saturday, there was very little middle ground for quarterback Dylen Smith. He was either incredibly good or incredibly bad.
Remarkably, Smith managed sometimes to buy time to survey the field when he should have been sacked. But then he would throw an errant pass. He showed his arm strength with deep bombs that sailed high and far, but too often they were intercepted. Smith's gifts often
turned into his worst enemies
worst enemies
"Nobody's
ever
questioned
his
potential,
said
junior
receiver
Harrison Hill.
"He
made
some
mis-
receiver Roger Ross gave Kansas a 6-3 lead and provided the Jayhawks some hope that they were not going to fold just because they were on the road again.
takes. But everybody made mistakes."
"We came here to win. We're not satisfied at all." Harrison Hill wide receiver
Kansas eventually led 16-10 early in the second quarter, but Smith's accuracy disappeared. He had already thrown his first interception on Kansas' opening possession. Plenty of mistakes followed, and they were costly.
With 11 minutes left in the first half, Smith fumbled on Oklahoma's 12-yard line. The Sooners marched 82 yards on eight plays to take a 17-16 lead.
Smith was quick to accept the brunt of the blame for the turnovers, six of which resulted in Oklahoma scoring drives.
"If we don't have those we're in the game." Smith said. "The first couple, I was trying to forget. But when you have five interceptions and two fumbles, it's kind of tough to forget."
Kansas was obsessed with the long ball. After Ross' touchdown
He completed 12 of 29 passes for a career-high 258 yards and one touchdown. A 77-yard first-quarter strike to junior wide
What Smith will question for a while is some of his choices — he had seven turnovers. Five came on interceptions and he also fumbled twice while trying to scramble. When he was on — which was often in the first half
— he showed an ability to run and pass effectively in heavy pressure and complete critical third-down passes, which kept drives alive and silenced the rambunctious Oklahoma crowd of 74,811.
grab,
the Jayhawks
continued to go
for the jack-
pot.
Kansas
coach Terry
Allen said it
was the plan.
Kansas needed
to put up
points to keep
up with Oklahoma's high-scoring offense, and Allen saw a vulnerable Sooner secondary.
"We said that we had to go for the big play," Allen said. "That was the nature of their defense."
The nature of Kansas' defense was to not nurrender. There were plenty of times it could have caved for all the time it was on the field. Often it was forced to return to action after short Kansas drives that ended in turnovers. But the defense kept Kansas in the game, even without junior defensive end Ervin Holloman, who left the game late in the first half because of an injured knee.
Oklahoma quarterback Josh
Heupel completed 29 of 43 passes for 346 yards, but he only had one touchdown pass and the majority of the yards came on devious shovel passes and short looks downfield.
"We figured we'd take their passing game away," said Kansas junior linebacker Marcus Rogers. "Then they went into trick plays."
Now Kansas must try to excavate any positives it can from another crumbling road loss. It
More information
More information
For more information about Kansas' loss to Oklahoma,
including game stastics,
See page 3B
For more photos from the game,
go to www.kansas.com
remained competitive with a nationally ranked team on the road, where Kansas is 1-16 under Allen and winless agains
Big 12 opponents.
"We had a chance," Allen said. "We did some good things offensively."
The schedule offers no breathers, because Kansas State visits Memorial Stadium Saturday. Kansas is now 2-2, and Hill said the team would not accept any moral victories.
"We came here to win," Hill said. "We're not satisfied at all." Edited by J. R. Mendoza
Soccer team splits weekend matches
Senior midfielder Megan Haven defends against a Nebraska pass yesterday. Last year Haven was third on the team in overall scoring with 12 points. Photo by Justin Schmidt/KANSAN
By Yoishikaka Ebisawa sports@kansan.com Kanson sportswriter
Although coach Mark Francis didn't like how the Kansas women's soccer team played Friday, Kansas still defeated Iowa State 3-1 at SuperTarget Field in Lawrence. Yesterday, Kansas performed well against No. 3 Nebraska but lost 3-0, again on the Jayhawks' home turf.
Playing well doesn't necessarily mean winning.
"I was worried about their speed up front but I think I played hard and respected their talent, and we played really well against them," she said. "I'm proud of the team."
But the Cornhuskers, 12-0 and 3-0 in the Big 12 Conference, were too much
"The they are a physical team, very aggressive and very fast," Francis said of Nebraska. "And I thought we really matched that rhythm today."
Sophomore defender Pardis Brown agreed.
Kansas came close to scoring in the 77th minute when senior forward Colleen Colvin fired a solid shot in the Nebraska penalty area, but Nebraska goalie Karina LeBlanc dived and stopped the ball. LeBlanche hasn't allowed a goal in more than 600 minutes.
for the Jayhawks. Nebraska outshot Kansas 25-8, and outcornered the Jayhawks 16-0.
"I like the win, but I didn't like how we played," Francis said. "We've played ten times better than that this season and lost. We've done that two or three times."
Friday's 3-1 victory against Iowa State was the opposite situation — a solid win with poor play.
The first goal came after Colvin went up against the Cyclones' defenders in the Iowa State penalty area and the ball popped in. Senior forward Lindsey Horner was there to finish.
"I was glad to get ahead early especially against Iowa State," she said.
Kansas built a comfortable lead in the first half.
"This is a really important game for our team."
Less than a minute later, Horner sent a cross pass to sophomore forward Carmel Kaplinger, who drilled it into the Cyclones' goal with her head. Colvin, with junior midfielder Melanie Schroeder's assist, added a goal in the 24th minute and made it 3-0.
Friday's victory made Francis the all-time winningest coach in the program's six-year history, with a 14-15-1 overall record. But he said that winning eight games last year and six so far this year didn't represent the success of the program.
"If we win more than eight games this year, then I'll think it was a big deal." Francis said.
Kansas will return to SuperTarget Field this weekend when it faces Texas Tech at 4 p.m. Friday and Colorado at 1 p.m. Sunday.The matches will be the Jayhawks' final appearances to a home crowd this season.
Sports Columnist
Edited by John Audihelm
'Hawks lose chance for turnaround
NORMAN, Okla. — Kansas should be 3-1, possibly ranked and in a pretty good position to tackle Kansas State this weekend after its game against Oklahoma on Saturday.
Instead, the Jayhawks are 2-2 and hobble into next Saturday's game against the No. 4 Wildcats in Lawrence.
Kansas was on the verge of breaking a long Big 12 Conference road-losing streak against Oklahoma in the second quarter. The Jayhawk offense was producing early for a change, including a pretty 77-yard, first-quarter touchdown pass from Dylan Smith to Roger Ross. Although Smith's three first-half interceptions didn't help the situation, the Jayhawk quarterback was predominately on target to his receivers before halftime.
The Kansas defense was making its NCAA-leading pass defense ranking legitimate against a potent Sooner offense. Pass-happy Oklahoma had 88 passing yards and just 5 rushing yards in the first quarter. The 'Hawks were still keeping Oklahoma in check in the second quarter when Carl Nesmith recovered a fumble on the Oklahoma 26.
The offense progressed to the Sooner 18-yard line leading 16-10 in the second quarter, and the inevitable repetition of "Boomer Sooner" suddenly wasn't flowing from Oklahoma band instruments.
Then came a Smith fumble. The momentum had shifted, and Oklahoma scored the game's remaining 24 points. That fumble spelled Kansas' fate.
Turnovers were obviously devastating for the 'Hawks. Although the Jayhawks battled the nation's No. 14 team throughout the game, seven turnovers wore them down. Kansas had 216 net-passing yards in the first half, but could only muster 42 in the second half.
Oklahoma was primed to start its return to prominence with its Big 12 opener against Kansas. The 1950 national championship team was honored during the game, as was the 1985 championship team a week ago against Rice.
Even former Sooner coach Barry Switzer, who led Oklahoma to NCAA titles in 1974, '75 and '85, watched the game from the press box Saturday.
Kansas was supposed to be another Oklahoma victim on its way back to the success of the Switzer era. The Jayhawks served that purpose well, but Oklahoma didn't have to put much effort into it. Turnovers ruined a career-high 258 yards for the versatile Smith and an opportunity for the Jayhawks to be noticed nationally.
Now, a wounded Kansas team must regroup and use what tools it had against Oklahoma in the Sunflower Showdown against K-State.
After the loss to the Sooners, the Jayhawks will probably be regarded as just another meal on K-State's menu at Memorial Stadium this Saturday.
But if resilient, the 'Hawks proved against Oklahoma that at least they might give the Wildcats indigestion.
Linenberger is a Washington, Kan., senior in journalism
Kansas volleyball falls against stellar Texas Tech team
Two Lady Raiders challenge Jayhawks
By Sarah Warren
sports@kansas.com
Kansas sportswriter
By Sarah Warren
Texas Tech found itself head and shoulders above Kansas on Saturday night at Horeisi Family Athletic Center.
The Jayhawks fell in five games to the 15-1 Red Raiders, feeling the sting of Tech's 6-foot-7 Colleen Smith. Smith, a senior middle blocker and outside hitter, recorded a match-high 24 kills.
her," said Amy Myatt, senior outside hitter for the Hawks. "You can't go over or through her."
"You pretty much just have to go around
Myatt played keep-away with Smith all night.
"We were trying to stay away from their tall girl (Smith)." Myatt said. "And she was always hanging around on my side."
Smith's overpowering presence kept Myatt from being a factor in the first game — Myatt found herself with only one kill at the beginning of game two. However, her lone first-game kill proved to be the 700th of her career, and she racked up enough in the next four games to finish with a team-high 19 kills.
But Smith wasn't the lone star for Texas Tech. Sophomore outside hitter Melissa
"We played well, and we got an opportunity in game four, but we faded."
wefaded."
Ray Bechard
Kansas volleyball coach
McGehee came off a seriously turned ankle in the first game to pull out 23 kills and a .543 hitting percentage.
"We forced her (Smith) into some errors, but McGehee was the one that really cost us," said Ray Bechard, Kansas coach. "McGehee came back from that injury right away."
Danielle Geronomy, senior middle blocker, agreed that game four was the key.
"We played well and we got an opportunity in game four, but we faded." Bechard said.
McGehee turned in eight kills in game four when Kansas had the game lead at 2-1, putting the match into a fifth game and rally scoring.
"In the fourth game we just couldn't finish," Geronymo said. "We just have to find a way to finish in those difficult games."
"I just want to get well to help the team," Geronov said. "I feel that if I could get a
Geronymy, however, did a great deal of finishing for Kansas, recording a season high 18 kills — along with 17 digs and eight blocks — all the while playing with a persistent abdominal injury.
little bit better then I could help so much more."
Although the 'Hawks now fall to 11-4 and 2-4 in the Big 12 Conference, Geronymo said she saw a solid competitive effort from her teammates during their second five-game loss in three days.'
"I think we did a great job passing, even though they are a strong serving team." Geronymo said. She said it was the tiny errors that hurt the team.
Those tiny errors will have to become even smaller Wednesday when the Jayhawks travel to Manhattan to take on No. 22 Kansas State at 7 p.m. at Ahearn Field House.
— Edited by Clay McCuiston