UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, October 11, 1996
3B
Top tennis players not at tournament
By Tommy Gallagher Kansan sportswriter
Caroline Lewis / KANSAN
The Kansas women's tennis team will compete without its top three players against some of the country's best programs when it starts play today at the Arizona State Fall Tournament in Tempe, Ariz.
KU women's tennis player, Julia Sidorova, freshman, will play in the Arizona State Fall Tournament this weekend
Senior Kelly Hunt, junior Christie Sim and sophomore Kris Sell will receive a break until the All-American Championships start in two weeks. Instead the Jayhawks will compete with five players, including seniors Bianca Kirchhof and Amy Trytek, junior Maria Abatioglou and freshmen Julia Sidorova and Brooke Chiller.
Women's head coach Frank Polito said those players would jockey for future position on the team roster.
"We know who our top three players are, but we need to find out in the next month who will be seeded four through eight in the spring season," Polito said. "This tournament will give me an indication of where we are, both physically and mentally, because of the conditions our girls will have to 33-2 plav in."
Extended forecasts for the Phoenix area have temperatures reaching as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Although weather will take its toll on the players, the primary opponent of this weekend's tournament remains a slew of
strong, talented teams from across the country.
Kansas placed 20th at the end of last year, but other nationally
ranked teams in attendance at the three-day tournament include No. 5 Arizona, No. 7 Texas, No. 9 Wisconsin, No. 13 Pepperdine and No. 27
Arizona State. Loyola Marymount and Grand Canyon University complete the eight-team field.
Cross country teams to cross country
By Brian A. Petrotta Kansas sportswriter
They call the sport cross country, and the Kansas men' and women's teams seemed to have taken the name to heart.
The Jayhawks will take their longest road trip of the season when they travel halfway across the country tomorrow to take part in the Murray Keating Invitational held on the University of Maine campus.
Kansas will face another tough field this weekend, after running in one of the most competitive races in the country two weeks ago at the University of Minnesota. Both the men's and women's teams will compete against
three top 25 teams tomorrow.
in the men's race, Stanford is ranked third in the X-Country X-Press coaches poll, Michigan is 15th, and Arizona is 17th. On the women's side, Stanford also is ranked third, while Arizona is 11th, and Boston College is 15th.
In all, 26 teams from 15 colleges and universities will take part in the race. Kansas is the only representative from the Big 12 Conference, but cross country coach Gary Schwartz said he saw this as a plus for the team.
"We try to find good competition in an area we haven't been at," Schwartz said. "We are going up against some strong inter-regional
competition. We'll see Michigan and Boston College again and we get to see Stanford, Arizona and some teams we normally don't run into."
On top of the strong team competition, the women's race will showcase stellar individual talent. Arizona junior Amy Skierzes placed second at the NCAA Cross Country Championship last fall in Ames, Iowa. Stanford sophomore Mary Cobb placed fifth in that same race. Angie Graham of Boston College won the Murray Keatinge Invitational last year, and she will return to defend her title.
The men will face its toughest competition from Bob Keino of Arizona, who finished 11th in the 1995 NCAA Championship, and Greg Jimmerson,
who placed 23rd. Michigan's Kevin Sullivan, who won the Murray Keatinge Invitational last year, is not expected to repeat due to a knee injury.
The top runners for Kansas are juniors Bryan Schultz and Emily Miles. They have been the Jayhawks' top finishers in the first two races this year. Miles' time of 17:44 in the season opener was the fastest time recorded by a Kansas women's runner since the final meet of the 1994 season, a span covering seven meets.
Kansas will run back-to-back weekends for the first time next Saturday when they make a road trip a little closer to home at Iowa State.
Members enter race with perfect record
By Kerry Hillard
Kansan sportswriter
Squeeze into the finish, and keep the catches nice and quick.
the shouts of Kansas crew coxswain Amy Kendal-Ward motivate the members of her eight-man varsity boat.
Kendal-Ward, Barrington, ill senior, and her crew are undefeated. With first place finishes in Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis, they hope to preserve their perfect record in the coming Head of the Kaw Regatta in Kansas City, Mo., tomorrow.
The regatta, to be held near Kemper Arena, will be the team's third. However, it will be the first for 42 Kansas novice rowers.
Coach Mike Amick said winning would not be the main concern at the regatta.
"The strongest team doesn't necessarily always win because there are so many parameters involved," Amick said. "We want our novices to figure out this rowing thing."
With 15 varsity and club crews expected to compete, Kansas will be
focusing on the Texas Longhorns.
Because of warm weather, Texas practices year-round on the water. Klaus Diem, Madison, Wis., sophomore rower, said Texas was a significant opponent.
"We've beaten a lot of the Midwest teams, and we're looking to see what we can do." Klaus said.
Kansas will send three men's and three women's teams.
Crews from Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma will compete in the regatta.
Kansas has been successful in its first two regattas. The men's light eight team finished second in both regattas. The women's light eight finished second in Minneapolis and third in Des Moines with the light four team.
Coach Amick said victories have been a team effort.
"You can't really pick a stand-out; it's such a team sport." Amick said.
He said he was impressed with the team's devotion to conditioning and practice.
Kansas rower Nate Pelsma said he could get past the physical pain of conditioning, practice and competition.
"Seeing the gold medal and seeing the smiles of the team make it all worthwhile," Pelsma said.
VOLLEYBALL
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Hilgers set a freshman team record for assists with 1.537 last season.
Nelson said that Hilgers moved the ball quickly and that she was also a good server.
"They're both really strong defensively," Kreimer said. "They're scrapy teams."
Kansas freshman middle blocker Anne Kreimer said the Jayhawks needed to continue playing sharply this weekend after coming off their best match of the season against Oklahoma.
Both Texas Tech and Baylor are 2-2 in the Big 12 Conference.
The Red Raiders lost its last two matches to conference rivals Texas and Texas A&M last week.
Baylor will be led by freshman outside hitter Elisha Polk who has 242 kills this season. Baylor is 2-1 against the Jayhawks in the all-time series.
Kansas junior right side hitter Kendra Kahler said the Jayhawks will have to communicate on the court and trust each other to win this weekend.
"Coming off this Oklahoma match we're playing really well," Kahler said.