THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009
SPORTS
WOMEN'S GOLF
9B
3rd place at invitational signals a powerful start
BY ANDREW WITUSZYNSKI
awituszynski@kansan.com
One tournament down and the KU women's golf team is already fulfilling its goal of placing better than last year. It finished third out of 14 at the Chip-N Club Invitational in Lincoln, Neb.
A year ago, it finished sixth at the same tournament.
Coach Erin O'Nell said she was happy with the team's effort.
"Across the board it was a great start to the year," O'Neil said.
Kansas totaled 895 strokes for the three-round tournament: finishing behind Nebraska, which ended in second place with a score of 889, and Missouri, which achieved first place with a score of 878 strokes.
Emily Powers, Quincy, Ill. seni-
lor, lead the Jayhawks, Powers
Follow Kansan golf writer Andrew Witususnski at twitter.com/ amw311.
scored a total of 213, finishing just three strokes behind the leader Amy Anderson from North Dakota State.
"I was happy to come in second place in this tournament and am happy with the way the whole team played," Powers said.
O'Neil praised Powers.
"What a great start to Emily's senior year," O'Neil said. "She was very impressive."
Powers is not the only player to return to the team. For the first time in the past few years, there are no newcomers in the rotation.
"We've been so young for so long," O'Neil said. "It's nice to finally have some experience on this year's team and it really paid off in this tournament."
Powers agrees.
"Since I was a freshman, we've been very young," Powers said, "but now we have everyone returning and that takes the jitters away. Everyone knows how to practice right and how to play in tournaments."
The team achieved other goals this tournament as well. O'Neil challenged the women to shoot a sub-300 score in one of the rounds.
"We actually did it twice which was very positive to start the year of," O'Neil said.
Edited by Brenna M. T. Daldorph
Serbia's coach Dusan Ivkovic, left, and his team celebrate during the European Basketball Championships match between Serbia and Lithuania in Lodz, Poland Wednesday. Salina
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FOOTBALL
Spain never trailed, and guard Juan Carlos Navarro scored 23 points while Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol added 20. American-born point guard David Logan led Poland with 20 points.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spain, Serbia head to quarterfinals
. Spain routed Poland 90-68 and Serbia used a late run to defeat Lithuania 89-79.
"We had a good performance today," Gasol said. "We are growing as a team and we are very much alive in the tournament."
Oklahoma was ranked third in the preseason, but lost to Brigham Young in its opener. Oklahoma State, with its highest ranking in 24 years, lost to Houston last week. Kansas State couldn't beat Louisiana-Lafayette on the road. Colorado can't beat anyone.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For a conference that entered the season with so much hype, the Big 12 has had a rough couple of weeks.
Does this mean the end of the Big 12's rise to the top of college football? Not quite yet, the
FOOTBALL Big 12 teams not living up to lofty expectations
Spain, looking for its first European title after finishing runner-up six times, faces a stiff test in the quarterfinals on Thursday
"It's a long season, it's a 12-game season, it's a grind. I wouldn't judge the Big 12 the first couple of weeks," Kansas coach Mark Mangino said Monday during the Big 12 coaches' call.
coaches insist. It's still too early to tell.
against France. Led by San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, the French team cruised through the first two rounds undefeated.
BASKETBALL
LODZ, Poland — World champion Spain and Serbia clinched the final two spots in the quarterfinals at the European basketball championship on Wednesday.
Point guard Milos Teodios scored 20 points and had 12 assists
"Sure, there's been some games where we've gotten beat where perhaps we were favored in the conference, but I think you've got to look at it at the end of the season and the whole body of work because this is a pretty darn good conference."
to lead five Serbian players in double figures. Center Nenad Kristic, who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder, had 16 points and four rebounds.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when the Big 12 wasn't in the discussion about which
conference is best. There was Texas and Oklahoma — Nebraska before that — at the top, playing for national championships, with teams like Colorado or Kansas State occasionally putting together impressive seasons.
Serbia moves on to play defend
The conference's depth has improved over the past couple of years as most of its teams converted to wide-open offenses that no one can seem to stop. Kansas, Missouri and Texas Tech have each made national title bids and the rest of the teams have gotten better. At the least, the Big 12 is one of the deepest conferences in the country.
Associated Press
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