SPORTS
21
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, November 11, 1992
Seniors to play last home volleyball game
Kansan sportswriter
Kim DeHoff and Julie Larkin, the two seniors on this year's Kansas volleyball team, will play their last home match as Jayhawks tonight at Allen Field House against Kansas State.
DeHoff and Larkin said they had thought about tomorrow night's match from two different perspectives. Both said that it would probably be an emotional night for them, but both said that they would focus more
on their opponent.
"I'm excited about it, but I'm thinking more about K-State," Larkin said. "They'll be out to get us, and we're always out to get them, so it should be a really good match."
DeHoff said she did not know how she would react when her name was announced in the field house for the last time.
"It hasn't been set in yet," DeHoff said. "Last year I was really sad before the seniors' last match and got kind of teary-eyed. I hope we beat them, and I
hope it's a fun one."
DeHoff, a team co-captain, is currently leading the team in kills with 283, already surpassing her total of 230 kills from last season. She also is second on the team in service aces with 34. DeHoff has served more aces this season than she had her previous three.
Larkin, the other co-captain, has 107 kills entering tonight's match, and 25 aces. She has contributed defensively with 151 digs.
The Jayhawks defeated the Wildcats earlier this season 4-1, and Kata is ranked last in the Big Eight Conference with a 7-19 overall record and a 0-9 conference record. The Jayhawks are 18-13 overall and 2-7 in the conference.
"They always play really well against us," DeHoff said. "Last year they took us to five games, so we really can't afford to overlook anybody. Hopefully, we'll come out fighting."
Kansas won last season's home match with the Wildcats 3-2
Kansas coach Frankie Albitz said
"If they get on an emotional high, they're really hard to stop," Albiz said. "But they're really very young, so I think they're an up and down type of team. They do some nice things, so we just can't let them have any momentum."
that the Wildcats might be ranked last, but that they were dangerous.
"It would probably knock them out of contention and put it between us and Missouri," Albitz said. "But that's a really tough call because our records are about the same. I think the thing that might help us get accepted into the tournament is that we've been playing better at the end of the season. If we can maintain what we have been doing lately, that should really help us."
Abitz said that Kansas still had a chance to play in the National Invitational Volleyball Tournament in early December, but that a victory against K-State was vital.
The match begins at 8 tonight in the field house.
Scrimmage prepares women's team for season
Members of the Kansas women's basketball team fight for a rebound during its first scrimmage at Allen Field House. The team prepared yesterday for its first contest of the season, an exhibition game against Czechoslovakia on Nov 21, at the field house.
Two players sit out with injuries; freshman adjusts to Kansas game
By David Bartkosn
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas women's basketball team played its first intrasquid scrimmage of the season last night at Allen Field House, and the white team defeated the blue team 73-47.
The white and blue teams did not have set rosters as many of the players switched teams at different points in the scrimmage.
Kansas coach Marian Washington said she was glad that her team made it through the 40-minute scrimmage.
"I saw us running the floor, at times,
the way I know we can," she said.
"Defensively, I didn't see a lot of
aggressiveness."
Washington said she was encouraged to see junior center Lisa Tate playing with the Javhawks.
Senior guard Shannon Kite scored eight of the first nine points for the white team.
"I was getting the ball early," she said. "There were nice passes and big screens from my teammates."
Two of her first three baskets were three-point shots.
Every member of the Kansas team, except for junior guard Michelle Leathers and freshman guard Diana
Williams, played in the scrimmage.
leathering. Leathers was being tested yesterday for chest pains, and Williams had been having some trouble with her knees. Washington said.
The players were kept out of the scrimimage as a precautionary measure.
Freshman guard Charisse Sampson played in her first scrimmage with the Jayhawks.
She said she was nervous at the beginning of the scrimpage.
"It was kind of scary playing at my first real competition at the college level," she said. "I always have a bad first couple of minutes."
"I like the easy baskets. I hope I'm the one to make the long pass so I don't have to run so far," she said.
Sampson said she enjoyed the opportunities created by Kansas' uptempo game.
Washington had compliments for each one of her players after the scrimmage.
"With every scrimmage, they're going to get more comfortable," she said. "We'll scrimmage again on Nov. 16."
The Jayhawks will play an exhibition game against Czechoslovakia on Nov. 21 at the field house.
They open their regular season against Minnesota on Dec. 1 at Minneapolis.
Giants won't be leaving; Florida city threatens suit
The Associated Press
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Baseball owners yesterday rejected the Giants' proposed move to St. Petersburg, Fla., and decided to keep the team in San Francisco.
"In doing so, the league reaffirmed baseball's long-established preference for the stability of its franchises," said Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers, head of baseball's executive council.
National League president Bill White said the proposed $115 million sale to a group headed by Vincent Naimoli was rejected decisively, getting only four votes among the 13 cast. The league did not consider the $100 million offer from a Bay area group headed by Safeway Inc. executive, Peter Magenaw.
Giants' owner Bob Lurie said that Magowan's group had asked him to become its largest single investor, and that the group had given him 10 days to review the Bay-area offer.
"I have always respected baseball's rules, which require a vote of all owners to approve the sale and relocation of teams," Lurie said. "I made a commitment to abide by baseball's decision in this matter, and I intend to honor that commitment."
Naimiol's group announced its agreement in principle with Larie on Aug. 7, following the fourth failed proposal for a publicly financed replacement for windy Candlestick Park. Lurie, who bought the team for $8 million in 1976, was frustrated with conditions at Candlestick and in June was given permis
sion by then-commissioner Fay Vincent to explore all his options.
It was the first formal rejection of a move that baseball officials could remember. In all previous instances, shifts were stopped before a formal vote was taken.
"The NL did what it thought was right," Seigl says. "You're damned if you, do you're not."
Kansas junior running back George White (2) gets tripped up by Nebraska's Matt Penland (52). The Hawkins will face No. 13 Colorado Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
The vote came after a series of meetings that lasted seven hours at the desert resort where the Giants are based each spring.
The city of St. Petersburg has threatened to file lawsuits against the city of San Francisco, Magowan's group and the baseball leagues for interfering with their deal.
"I can understand their frustrations," Selig said.
"I feel badly for the people of St. Petersburg, who were eagerly looking forward to having major league baseball in their area," Lars said.
The Florida Suncoast Dome was opened in 1900 despite the lack of a commitment from a major league team to play there. Tampa Bay officials thought they finally had one in the Giants, who along with the Los Angeles Dodgers, pioneered baseball's move west after the 1857 season.
Tampa Bay previously had failed in bids to hire the Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners. The area also failed last year to get a National League expansion team.
Mason, other conference coaches reflect on Nebraska's performances
The Associated Press
But slowly, Kansas coach Glen Mason started coming out of the funk Nebraska put him and his football team in Saturday night in Lincoln.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — He moped around and started feeling sorry for himself, and who wouldn't? Getting trounced 47- in one “big game” would dampen anybody's spirits.
"To be honest with you, driving back to Lawrence, I had a heck of a time with it." Mason said Monday. "Sunday when I got up, I felt really terrible. I watched film and felt extra down because we didn't do a very good job in any way, shape or form."
Then, slowly, he started talking himself out of his funk.
"The thing about it is, self-pity is defeating." he said. "That's why you feel bad. You feel sorry for yourself. Heck, Colorado doesn't feel very happy about the way it played against Nebraska either."
After beating Colorado and Kansas by a combined score of 101-14, the 7. Huskers have persuaded many observers to declare them the greatest team Nebraska ever had
Iowa State coach Jim Walden, who must face the Big Eight's most powerful team this week, was a 'Husker assistant when Bob Devaney's teams were winning national championships in 1970 and 1971.
"I thought we were pretty good in the late '60s and early '70s," Walden said.
Walden declines to draw any comparisons between the *Husker* teams of the past and
Tom Osborne's 1992 edition.
"I don't think that would be fair to Tom," he said.
One of the more amazing statistics the Tuskers have rung up recently concerns turnovers. They don't have any. It's been 18 quarters since a Nebraska player coughed up the ball.
"There aren't very many people hitting their backs real hard," Walden said. "That's exactly what it means."
Oklahoma coach Gary Gibbs said quarterback Cale Gundy, out with a separated shoulder, continued to be day-to-day. Many observers thought the Sooners looked more comfortable running the option Sunday behind senior Steve Collins, who was beaten out by the pass-oriented Gundy.
Could it be that Oklahoma's linemen and backs feel more comfortable running an option game rather than a passing game?
"Any time you have success,you look more comfortable," Gibbs said. "It just bolsters your confidence."
BRIEFS
Taylor could reconsider retirement
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Lawrence Taylor underwent more than an hour of surgery yesterday to repair the tear in his Achilles' tendon. Doctors said afterward that all had gone well, and that Taylor might be able to begin running in four months.
Russell Warren, who performed the surgery, said in a statement released by the Giants that the tear was one and one-quarter inches above the heel. He said the tendon was stitched back together, and Taylor would begin rehabilitation in two weeks. Taylor, 33, in his 12th season, announced Oct. 7 that this would be his last season. However, he told Beasley Reece, a former teammate, that the injury might cause him to reconsider
The 10-time Pro Bowl linebacker and the 1986 NFL MVP was injured in the third quarter of the New York Giants' 27-7 victory against Green Bay on Sunday.
Appier: Royals pitcher of the year
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kevin Appier, the young right-hander who led the Kansas City Royals with a 15-8 record, was named the team's pitcher of the year for 1992 yesterday.
Appier, 24, compiled a 2.46 earned run average in 30 starts but did not pitch after Sept. 9 when he suffered tendonitis in his right shoulder. He was second in the American League in ERA.
"Back in spring training when I asked Kevin if he wanted to be the number one pitcher on our staff, all he said was yes, but I knew by the look in his eyes he was ready and he meant it," manager Hal McRae said.
Appier was selected the team's top pitcher in balloting by the Kansas City chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
The award will be presented at the annual awards banquet Jan. 23.
Recruits will sign letters of intent
Kansan staff report
The weeklong early signing period for Kansas men's basketball begins today, and all four of this year's recruits have verbally committed, indicating that they would sign letters of intent later this week.
Scot Pollard is a 6-foot-11 center from Kennewick, Wash., who said he liked to run the fast break and was quick and agile for a big man.
Nick Proud, at 6-10, is capable of playing center or power forward and should be a good complement to Pollard. Proud is from Sandy, Utah.
Jacque Vaughn, a 6-0 point guard, is projected by recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons to be one of the best high school point guards in the country.
B.J. Williams, a 6-7 forward from Wichita South High School, is said to be the top high school player in Kansas this season.
Washington declares player ineligible The Associated Press
SEATTLE — Quarterback Billy Joe Hobert was declared ineligible to play intercollegiate sports by the University of Washington yesterday. Athletic director Barbara Hedges said an investigation determined that $50,000 in loans which Hobert received last spring were improper. The father-in-law of a friend loaned Hobert, most valuable player in the '92 Rose Bowl, the money, Hobert, a junior, was suspended last week, and he missed last Saturday's 16-3 loss to Arizona, which snapped Washington's 22-game winning streak. The suspension announced yesterday is indefinite, Hedges said. The next step will be to decide whether to restore Hobert's eligibility, she said. A review committee will decide the university must forfeit any of the eight games Hobert played in this season.