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SPORTS
1B
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2002
Records fall as volleyball team opens with road win
By Jason Hwang Kansan sportswriter
A two-year-old record was broken in a match between two blue birds Saturday night, as the Kansas Jayhawks easily defeated the Creighton Blue Jays.
In the season opener, Kansas' volleyball team swept Creighton in three games, 30-22, 30-25, 30-15.
Three Jayhawks recorded double-digit kills, including sophomore middle blocker Ashley Michaels, who tallied 11 kills in 12 attempts.
Michaels set the Kansas single-game record with a hitting percentage of .912. Hitting percentage is kills minus errors, divided by total attempts.
"I was really surprised when I was told of the record the next day," Michaels said. "I wasn't even thinking about the record during the match. I was playing my best for the team."
The previous record was held by Nancy Bell, who set the mark her senior season with a .833 hitting percentage against Wichita State in 2000.
Abbie Jacobson, junior outside hitter, tallied a match-best 16 kills, and fellow junior outside hitter Sarah Rome had 10.
Coach Ray Bechard said he was impressed with the team's effort to cut down on mistakes.
Bechard said he was ecstatic about his team turning in a.385 hitting percentage, which was more than twice as efficient as Creighton's.164.
"This is a really good way to start the season." Bechard said.
In her first game in the United States, Josiane Lima, freshman transfer from the University of Sant'Anna, Sao Paulo, Brazil, led the team with 13 digs. Senior defensive specialist Jennifer Kraft registered 10 digs.
In their attempts to fill the void at setter's position, freshman Andi Rozum earned 35 assists while sophomore Ashley Bechard marked 10.
"Both of our setters did a tremendous job distributing the ball," Jacobson said. "The win is a nice confidence builder for our team and we are all looking forward to this Saturday to the tournament in New York."
Michael's said the first game is always crucial for progress to a successful season.
"This win sets the tone of what this team is all about," Michaels said. "We made this win happen with no hesitation and no fallbacks."
The Jayhawks' next matches are in the Hofstra Tournament in Hempstead, N.Y., this Friday and Saturday.
The Jayhawks' first match is Friday against Morehead State.
On Saturday, they will take on St. Peter's, followed by tournament host, Hofstra.
Contact Hwang at jhwang@kansan.com This story was edited by Adam Pracht.
Eric Rowley/Iowa State Daily
Kansas quarterback Zach Dver, right, fights off a sack from an ISU defender while Jayhawk Reggie Duncan tries to block during Saturday's game.
Cyclones' rout spoils Mangino's opener
By Ryan Malashock
Kansan sportswriter
AMES, Iowa-Nick Reid's surprise insertion into the lineup and subsequent success supplied the only bright spot Saturday for a Kansas football team desperately searching for a new identity.
Reid—a true freshman linebacker who switched from quarterback to safety to his current position—made his collegiate debut in the second quarter when sophomore Banks Floodman injured his right knee, and
Reid made his presence felt on nearly every play.
His performance was not one for the ages as he registered four tackles and two sacks, but his mere presence represented something far more significant—the future.
"I expected to get some reps, but I had no idea I would do this," Reid said. "I just did my best trying to fill in for Banks. The speed of the game was the big difference, but I just tried to do my best out there."
Reid's best was the only glimpse of new in Mark Mangino's debut as Kansas
coach. Everything else reeked of old in Kansas' season-opening 45-3 loss to Iowa State before 40,026 at Jack Trice Stadium.
The entire Kansas offensive line shuffled early on the first play of the game, causing a false start penalty and foreshadowing a long day. Kansas mustered just 150 total offensive yards, completing 10 of 32 passes and averaging 2.3 yards per play. The Jayhawk defense allowed more than 500 yards of total offense.
Encouraging points were
hard to identify, but Mangino was convinced he could place a positive spin on Saturday's game.
"There was no letup, physically, at any time." Mangino said. "I went in the locker room, and those kids are strong. There was nobody in there crying, feeling bad for themselves. They know we're in this for the long haul. We have nothing to be mad about except that we didn't play better."
No rebuilding process
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 6B
Rutland claims hairdo gave edge
By Doyle Murphy
Kansan sportswriter
Don't blame the Kansas defense for giving up 277 rushing yards in Saturday's game against Iowa State.
Iowa State running back Hiawatha Rutland said he had an unfair advantage — his haircut.
"Those guys started laughing once my helmet fell off," Rutland said. "And that when I started racking up more yards, because they weren't very focused after that."
Rutland owns a five-inch-tall flat top.
"It's an old-school haircut. I'm just paying homage to the '80s style." he said.
Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace said Rutland could be successful.
"He's big and he's agile," Wallace said. "He can put a move on you or he can run right through you."
Players definitely noticed the hair. Wallace said.
"When his helmet came off, everyone was real surprised by his haircut," Wallace said. "They were probably looking at him like 'Oh man.'"
SEE RUTLAND ON PAGE 6B
Shauna Stephenson/iowa State Daily
Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace weaves between Kansas defenders.
Kansas freshman Kim Karfonta, right, shields off a UNLV defender during the Jayhawks 2-2 home-opening draw at SuperTarget field Friday.
Overtimes test soccer team
JARED SOARES/KANSAN
By Nikki Overfelt Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas soccer team opened its season this weekend with two double-overtime games, coming away with a record of 1-01.
On Friday, the team could not hold on to an early 2-0 lead against the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, as the Rebels battled back to end the game in a 2-2 tie.
Kansas jumped out to an early lead in the game's first minute, with a goal by sophomore forward Monica Brothers off an assist by freshman midfielder Holly Ryder.
Freshman forward Caroline Smith scored the team's second goal off a pass from senior midfielder Brooke Jones 15 minutes into the game.
But the rest of the game's scoring would belong to UNLV. In the 36th minute, Annil Magliulo scored UNLV's first goal off a free kick from Tania Lee. UNLV would then tie the game in the second period with a header by Michelle Cowles off a pass from Kelly Janke.
Both teams then battled through two scoreless overtimes to finish their openers with records of 0-0-1.
Kansas coach Mark Francis was
disappointed with the way his team allowed UNLV to battle back and tie the game.
"We kind of blew it," Francis said. "We dominated in the first 15 minutes. That was it. We gave up and they kept going. We've got to learn to finish teams off."
Brothers agreed with Francis.
"People just got a little comfortable," she said. "That can't happen. You have to play 90 minutes or letdowns like that happen."
But the Jayhawks' game on Sunday against Boston was a different story.
SEE SOCCER ON PAGE 3B
Andy Samuelson asamuelson@kansan.com
Kansas hopes UNLV won't put out lights
The University of Nevada-Las Vegas wasn't the only football team to suffer a power outage this past weekend.
"We learned a lot about our personnel, our weaknesses and our strengths," Mangino said.
The lopsided loss to ISU was expected, but not even Mangino could provide a positive spin on the Jayhawks' 45-3 season-opening debacle.
But unlike UNLV — which had its Stadium lights go out, causing an early end to its 27-7 loss to Wisconsin Saturday — Kansas needed a generator from the start during coach Mark Mangino's dubious coaching debut Saturday against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.
Yeah, he learned that there aren't many. if any. strengths.
The weaknesses were all too obvious.
The weaknesses were all too obvious On Saturday, neither starting quarter. back Zach Dyer nor backup Bill Whittemore showed why they should be starting
one answer why they may be bad
The running game was equally bad
Junior Reggie Duncan beat out freshman Clark Green in practice for the top spot. But on Saturday, Green beat Duncan for rushing yards in a whopping 31-21 battle as each carried the ball nine times.
The offensive line didn't provide much running room when it couldn't plug holes and the defensive line struggled to create any cavernous Cyclone openings.
True freshman Nick Reid provided a light at the end of the tunnel with two sacks. But his play was overshadowed by the fact that he had to fill in for an injured Banks Floodman.
The sophomore linebacker, who was one of Kansas few bright spots on Saturday, may be lost for the year with a knee injury.
The defensive played decent early but seemed to even let up at the end of the game when Iowa State's third-string running back Brian Thompson was allowed to score his second touchdown of the quarter with six seconds to play.
That definitely goes against Mangino's preseason motto of playing hard all the way until the game's final seconds expire.
The rookie coach also had a major miscue when he chose to punt in the second quarter instead of giving star kicker Johnny Beck the opportunity to cut Iowa State's lead to seven.
"I never thought that it would be easy to get the program up and running," Mangino said. "Was I disappointed in Saturday's performance? Yes, Discouraged? Absolutely not."
Despite last Saturday's eerily familiar lack of success, the Jayhawks have 11 more opportunities this season to get the rebuilding process going in the right direction.
Iowa State, which wasn't ranked in either top 25 poll this week, definitely deserves to be, and the Cyclones may even be a Big 12 title contender.
If Iowa State can live up to that pedigree then this loss won't look so glaring for Kansas.
But no matter how you look at this season's team, there will be games where the Jayhawks will look like they're playing in the dark with nothing more than a mini Maglite lighting their path.
Mangino shouldn't have to flip the breakers this week in Vegas to give Kansas a chance to be competitive against UNLV, which went 4-7 and is in similar bad shape as the Jayhawks.
"I want to find out where the switch is, and I'll let you know if I plan on shutting them out or not," Mangino joked Monday about the Runnin' Rebels' power problems Saturday.
If Kansas looks as inept Saturday as it did against Iowa State, it could be lights out for good for Jayhawk football fans.
Samuelson is a Wichita senior in journalism