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SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
1B
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2002
Defense takes on new focus
By John Domoney
jdomoney@kansan.com
Kansan sportwriter
Kansas football coach Mark Mangino has issued a new goal for his defense as the Jayhawks prepare for Baylor University this week in practice.
Mangino wants his defenders to stop thinking so much during the play and simply go after the opposing offense with ferocious abandon.
"We've just gotta have the mentality where we're going to come off the ball, and we're not going to think so much," Mangino said. "We not going to worry what our assignments are, we're just going to cut loose and make plays."
So far this year the Jayhawk defense has struggled at times; it has allowed an average of 34 points per game.
Kansas's inability to keep opponents out of the endzone and improve its rush
defense, which gives up an average of 260 yards per game, puts the Jayhawks last in total defense rankings in the Big 12 Conference.
The Jayhawks limited the Golden Hurricane offensive to 19 points through three quarters last Saturday. But the defense had a breakdown late in the game with what Mangino called 'cautious defense,' and the Jayhawks surrendered two late touchdowns to turn a blowout into a close game.
Mangino said his defense could play well and limit the opposing offense to short gains. He said the problem occurred when the defense made a mistake that tended to lead to a series of breakdowns.
"When our defense does make a mistake and give up a play, they've got to get over it," Mangino said.
SEE FOOTBALL PAGE GO
John Nowak/Kansan
Senior linebacker Greg Cole leads the Jayhawks with 47 tackles. Football coach Mark Mangino said he wanted his players to be go after the opposing team more aggressively.
Athlete GPAs lower
SEMESTER GRADE SUMMARY
Sport Fall'01 Spring'02
Baseball 2.055 2.71
Basketball-Men 2.74 2.66
Basketball-Women 2.88 2.86
Football 2.38 2.58
Golf - Men 2.91 2.99
Golf - Women 3.05 3.07
Rowing 3.07 3.91
Softball 3.13 3.05
Soccer 3.06 3.01
Swimming 3.24 3.37
Tennis 3.20 3.25
Track - Men 2.68 2.93
Cross Country-Men 3.11 N/A
Track - Women 3.21 3.20
Cross Country-
Women 3.57 N/A
Volleyball 2.94 2.93
Average 2.83 2.89
Source: University of Kansas Athletic Corporation
By Kelly McNearney kmcnearney@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
University of Kansas student athletes earned a lower grade point average than non-athletes last year by a slim margin.
Student athletes earned an average GPA of 2.83 for Fall 2001, compared to the 2.95 average undergraduate GPA for the Lawrence campus. The student athlete GPA rose slightly to 2.89 for Spring 2002, compared to the undergraduate average of 3.01.
"That's pretty good considering we have, like, four more hours of work per day than students who don't play sports," said Lauren Royall, Tulsa senior and member of the women's rowing team. "Athletes generally find it harder to manage our time for school."
Royall said that student athletes traveled during the week and on weekends, making it more difficult to dedicate time to school work.
Even so, KU boasts 197 Jayhawk Scholars, meaning 51 percent of all athletes earned a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Of these, 22 had a perfect 4.0 GPA.
"It's just making sure you communicate with professors and get work handed in early if you're going to miss class, and making sure you make up everything you miss while you're gone," said Jamie Morningstar, Lawrence senior and volleyball player. Morningstar is a Jayhawk Scholar.
The women's cross country team had the highest Fall 2001 GPA with a 3.57. The lowest was the football team's 2.38 GPA.
In Spring 2002, women's swimming had the highest average of 3.37.Football again had the lowest with a 2.58 GPA.
— Edited by Katie Teske
Smith forges wins for soccer team
Perhaps the crowd of more than 1,500 soccer fans last weekend was the result of relentless promotion. Maybe they came to see the soccer team's successful product.And maybe it was simply the opportunity to watch beautiful girls play rough.
But no matter their reason for coming, every fan probably all left in awe of one player's performance.
her name is Caroline Smith. She's just the baby on the team—a freshman who turned 18 in August—and she's one of four current Jayhawks who had nothing to do with last year's NCAA tournament run Kansas put together. But she's certainly making sure she has plenty to do with a repeat effort this season.
"As a team," Smith said. "I think we're doing really well right now."
And they are. They've played 10 games so far, losing just one. Meghan Miller has been sensational as goalkeeper The defense has been relentless, allowing just two goals the last five games.
Ryan Wood rwood@kansan.com
But the story so far has been Caroline Smith.
"She's gotten off to a good start," coach Mark Francis said. "She's getting more and more confident every game. She's getting better and better."
If that's the case, God help the Big 12. It's in deep trouble.
SEE WOOD PAGE 6B
Volleyball edges past UMKC
Abbie Jacobson, junior, tips the ball over the net. Kansas played UMKC last night at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. She injured her hamstring in the victory.
Courtney Kuhlen/Kansen
Jason Hwang
jhwang@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
"This was a bit disappointing. We had too many service errors, didn't dig the balls or block as well as we had," coach Ray Bechard said. "We didn't have our best effort."
Despite the 3-0 sweep, this is one win the Kansas volleyball squad would like to forget.
The Jayhawks finished their non conference season undefeated (9-0) last night, beating the University of Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos three games to none (30-22, 30-27, 30-25). Kansas extended their winning streak over UMKC to 11 matches. The team's all-time record over the Kangaroos is 22-1.
Bu Beard said the team had won the match 3-0 and finished nonconference undefeated. He planned to concentrate on the rest of the conference season.
Kansas was held to a sub .300 hitting percentage. The team committed 13 service errors, the most this season in a three game match. Freshman Josiane Lima led the team with 13 kills and 12 digs, her fifth double-double this season. Junior outside hitter Sarah Rome was the only other layhawk with double-digit digs with 11. Sophomore Ashley Michaels
SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 6B
Swim team wins annual Lake Race
The Kansas swimming and diving team is looking to make a few waves in the Big 12 after two victories last weekend at Southern Illinois.
"We're going to surprise everybody." Gwen Haley, Carmel, Ind., senior, said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."
By Brian Lotus
correspondant@kansan.com
Kansan Correspondent
The swimmers anticipated moving up in rank and surprising other conference teams with their success. The team gained confidence from new coach Clark Campbell.
By Brian Loftus
"The coaching staff has definitely raised the bar for this program," Campbell said.
"What I've found nice is that I can focus all my energy on the women," Campbell said. "There's so many things you do different in men's and women's like recruiting and coaching
Campbell coached men's and women's swimming and diving for four years at the University of Evansville and was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2000, but he said he liked coaching a single team at Kansas.
Campbell said he will be leaning hard on his senior captains, but they know they will not be the only ones to feel the pressure.
"There are people in every class that will be able to contribute," senior cocaptain Heidi Landherr said.
"Our team is a unit," Haley said. We're a very close knit team."
The Jayhawks defeated Southern Illinois 119-80 in a dual on Friday and 31-59 in the annual Lake Race between the two teams. In the Lake Race, teams were awarded points according to the place it finished. Kansas won five races in the meet with six girls finishing in the top 10.
so it's nice to focus on just one."
The team will have an intrasquad scrimmage at 6 p.m. Friday in the Robinson Natatorium, at the southeast corner of Naismith Drive and Sunnyside Avenue. Campbell thought the scrimmage would be a good test.
"I want to see how they attack a standard college format because last meet was the high school format," Campbell said.
-Edited by Amanda Sears