SPORTS
JAYHAWKS TO HOST TENNIS COMPETITION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The Jayhawk Invitational provides practice and experience for the team this weekend. TENNIS | 5B
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KU JOCKS TALK Three athletes describe their dream jobs and favorite Lawrence eateries. FRIDAY GRIDLOCK | 6B
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2008
TEAM GETS OFFENSIVE
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Coach hopes offensive explosion carries over
BY ANDREW WIEBE
awiebe@kansan.com
It sounds obvious. Score goals and victories will follow.
But it's the application that tricks. In 2007 Kansas found that out the hard way.
After eight games, the Jayhawks had mustered three goals. Predictably, they had only one victory.
Geha
Eight games into 2008, Mark Francis' team has engineered an offensive turnaround. No. 25 Kansas is 6-2
behind an explosive attack that has already found the back of the net 20 times — three less than their total for all of 2007.
"This year the forwards that we have kind of click," junior forward Shannon McCabe said. "We play really well together, and we have a lot of movement off the ball."
That budding offensive chemistry becomes even more important this weekend when Kansas begins Big 12 conference play with two games on the road. The Jayhawks travel to Lincoln, Neb., today to face Nebraska (4-4-1) followed by a showdown with Iowa State (4-4) in Ames, Iowa, on Sunday afternoon.
Francis' team defeated both the Cornhuskers and Cyclones on their way to a second-place conference finish a year ago. But both programs made coaching changes in the offseason, and Kansas can't afford to overlook either game as the 10-game sprint
toward the Big 12 championship begins.
"After playing two seasons here, I know anything can happen in the conference," McCabe said. "The team at the bottom can beat the team at the top any day of the week. We have to show up every game like we are facing the Texas A&Ms."
The Jayhawks will need their flowing attack to carry them through their second straight weekend away from home. Though freshman forwards Emily Cressy and Kortney Clifton have shouldered much of the early scoring load combining for eight goals, junior midfielder Monica Dolinsky's return to form has helped give Kansas the explosiveness it lacked in 2007.
Dolinsky and Cressy are tied for the team lead in points with 11, and the Carmel, Ind., native, Dolinsky, scored four goals and three assists are closing in on the numbers she put up as a freshman.
This season Kansas is averaging 2.5 goals per game compared with 1.05 in 2007. Dolinsky said the reason for the offensive turnaround from a year ago is the confidence the team has in each other to make plays in the attacking third.
"I think it's just our overall team's mentality about going forward and creating chances for ourselves," she said. "I have been lucky, and girls have been able to finish my passes."
The veteran midfielder isn't afraid to drive a shot from deep, either. Dolinsky leads Kansas in total shots and shots on goal this season, and Francis said her ability to strike the ball with power and keep it on target creates chances for her teammates as the game goes on.
But luck has little to do with it. With Dolinski floating behind the front line waiting to attack space or spring a teammate, McCabe said the forwards simply have to get themselves in the right positions and wait for her to pick them out.
"I think sometimes when you take a couple of shots, the next time someone will step to you and allow you to slot somebody else in," Francis said. "So it kind of keeps the opposition on their toes."
"I feel like we know each other's strengths and what the other is going to do," she said. "She is a really active player, and it's really important to have someone like that in the middle because it's really important to combine to create chances."
GEHA AVAILABLE THIS WEEKEND
Senior midfielder Missy Geha, out with an undisclosed illness since Kansas' opening game against Purdue, was cleared to practice this week, coach Mark Francis said.
"Hopefully we can get her into some of the games this weekend and see how she does." Francis said.
Geha started 59 of 60 possible games during her first three seasons in crimson and blue.
He said the training staff was easing Geha back into fitness, but that she could get a look this weekend against Nebraska and Iowa State.
— Edited by Arthur Hur
Jerry Wann/KANSAN
Junior midfielder Monica Dolinsky tries to keep the ball away from her opponent during a game against Loyola Chicago on Sept. 14 at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex. Kansas has scored almost as many goals this season as they did in all of last season.
COMMENTARY
Emporia native Clint Bowyer brings Jayhawk pride to NASCAR
NASCAR driver Clint Bowley sits in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Camping World RV 400 Spirt Cup Series auto race at Dover Intermediate Speedway in Dover, De., Sept. 19.
Leave it to a Kansas boy to up the ante at the state's biggest sporting event of the year.
Clint Bowyer, an Emporia native, will take to the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., this weekend in front of 80,000 fans and race for NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. For those of you who aren't familiar to the sport, the Sprint Cup is the big leagues and Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart are all part of the Show. These guys will see the race as another stop along the way, but Bowyer sees things a little differently.
Leading the Chase for the Sprint Cup is Carl Edwards, a native of Columbia, Mo. Bowyer, who is in sixth place in the standings, happens to be a lajawk fan. With that said, this is all about the rivalry.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"It's going to be a lot of fun to go back there and be racing against Carl for the championship. It's kind of a Kansas-Missouri border war," he told Motorsport.com this week. "I remember going to the KU-MU game at Arrowhead Stadium last year, and this kind of reminds me of that. It's the Kansas boy against the Missouri boy. Hopefully, we'll put it on them."
Bowyer, who lives in Clemmons, N.C., has not shied away from showing his love for the Jayhawks this season. Before Kansas played North Carolina in the final Four in men's basketball in April, he was down in Texas for a couple of races. With basketball on his mind, he swore his allegiance to Kansas.
Looking back on things, the Jayhawks certainly didn't let Bowyer down. But Bowyer hopes not to let down his state this weekend.
"Being from Kansas and living in North Carolina and with Roy Williams being out there, I've definitely been trash-talking," he told the Dallas Morning News. "Hoeffely, they don't let me down."
"It's an important racetrack for me," he said in a press release this week. "You always want to go back and run well in front of the hometown crowd."
Although he has never won at the Kansas Speedway, he has done well in his
In a wild race full of three hours of rain delays and multiple crashes, Carl Edwards included, Bowyer nearly won. In a controversial call, Gregg Biffle was waved through at the finish line as the winner even though it looked as if he was out of gas and could not keep up to pit road speed. As the field drove through the checkered flag to signal a finish, Biffle
two races for the Sprint Series. In 2006, Bowyer had a ninth place finish after starting sixth, but came closer the next year.
With eight out of 10 races left until the Sprint Cup champion is named, a win would bring Bowyer closer to the 106 points he trails behind Edwards. It would also give the Kansas boy something a little more meaningful in the area: bragging rights.
slipped to third. Under league rules, since Bifle did not maintain pit road speed through the flag. Bowyer should have been credited with the win.
- Edited by Kelsey Hayes
VOLLEYBALL
KU prepares for yet another top 10 team Jayhawks use Nebraska game to prepare
4. 2006.11.18 10:43 AM
BY JOSH BOWE
jbowe@kansan.com
One top three team down, only one more to go.
Not a lot of teams in the country can say that about their schedule, but the Big 12 conference is not exactly a weak conference, to say the least.
Noyes
Coming off a 3-1 loss to the second-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers, Kansas goes right back at it Saturday night, fac
ing the third-ranked Texas Longhorns at 7 p.m. at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. Coach Ray Bechard wants to take any moral victories he can from Wednesday night's match, in preparation for Saturday.
"You take your little victories as they come," Bechard said. "You take your lessons as they come, and that's what we'll do."
http://www.163.com/vip
One lesson in particular for Bechard's team is to regain the killer instinct it had during its comeback against Iowa State. Kansas did not let any momentum slip away after winning two sets in a row to force a fifth set, winning that final set decisively. Against the Cornhuskers, the Jayhawks stumbled out of the gate after their match-extending win in set three, falling behind big.
"We talked after the match about how could we have attacked set four", Bechard said. "We didn't make them play under any pressure in a set that would send in to set five."
And to the Jayhawks' credit, not a lot of teams can say they have made the Cornhuskers play under any pressure, being only the fourth team to take a set from Nebraska this season.
And to make matters worse, the Longhorns have four returning All-Americans from a year ago, including junior outside hitter Destinee Hooker, averaging more than four kills a game.
Unfortunately for Kansas, one of those other three teams just happens to be Texas.
That, combined with Texas dismantling Iowa State in three sets Wednesday
night, the same Iowa State team that Kansas defeated in five, could leave the lavhawks a little weary.
boost for the NCAA tournament.
But a victory tomorrow would even up both teams' conference record at 2-2, and not to mention a be huge resume boost for the NCAA.
"They are more athletic in some areas," Bechard said comparing Texas with Nebraska. "There are matchups we'll look at, there will be things we can control and
Hooker
things we can't, and we'll spend most of the time, obviously, on things we can"
But with all the positive talk coming from a loss, senior middle blocker Savannah Noyes along with her teammates will only be content with victories, and that is what matters.
"We need the whole match," Noyes said. "With Texas, I don't want to be satisfied with just one or two sets, we want to compete to win that match."
As for what Kansas needs to do for that match, an improvement in the passing game will be the first order of business. Against Nebraska, Kansas was not able to take advantage of "free balls" that the layhawks could reach without having to dig out a kill attempt. It clearly showed in the box score, with a hitting percentage under .100 for the entire match.
"If they (Nebraska) sent us an easy ball, we did not terminate that play," Noyes said. "There are times when there is just a crazy ball, and we need to make something out of that."
However, a huge advantage the Jayhawks will be able to have for this match is playing in the comforting confines of the Horesji Center. Kansas has picked up four of its seven victories at the arena, with its only loss being to then-No. 13 Oregon.
Noyes said he hoped the home court would lead to a better start this time around.
"I just want us to come out with the fire that, our goal is not to take one set from them but to actually beat them," Noyes said. "To not be afraid and to come out and play at a high level from start to finish.
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