CONE RETURNS
New York Yankees pitcher David Cone returned from shoulder surgery to throw seven no-hit innings against the Oakland Athletics yesterday. Less than four months after surgery on a small aneurysm in his pitching arm that left his fingers numb and blue, Cone and Mariano Rivera came within two outs of the first combined no hitter in nearly six years.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Story on Page 3B
SPORTS
BIG 12 FOOTBALL UPDATE
Koy Detmer, who three touchdown passes in Colorado's victory against Washing-on State on Saturday, was named Big 1.2 offensive player of the week. Kansas State
defensive end nyle Wiren was named top defensive player in the first week of action for the new league. The choices were made by a panel of sports writers who cover the Big 1.2.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1996
The Chiefs, who last season made a habit of winning in the fourth quarter, got two first-
CHIEFS UPDATE
hall-town down passes from
Steve Bono then held off
state Dolton荫润 held on the Houston Oilers' late challenge for a 20-19 win on Sunday, Kansas City, which had the NFL's best regular-season record at 1.3-3 last season, got its seventh straight opening-day win
The Oilers got to within one point of the Chiefs on a 22-yard field goal by Al Del Greco with 3:41 left in the game. But quarterback Chris Chandler was intercepted on Houston's last-ditch offensive effort.
SECTION B
Fast BREAKS
KU basketball player scores in Junior Nationals Kansan staff report
Kansas freshman basketball player Lynn Pride scored 10 points for the USA Women's Junior National Team in its win over Costa Rica 97-35 on Wednesday night. Pride scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds the following night as the USA Women's Junior National Team defeated Mexico 79-47 and advanced to the semifinals of the Confederation of Pan American Basketball Associations (COPABA) Women's Junior World Championship Qualifying Tournament in Chetumal, Mexico. The tournament qualifies the top three teams for the 1997 International Basketball Federation (FBA) Women's Junior World Championship in Brazil, Pride, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward, played high school basketball at Sam Houston High School in Arlington, Texas.
Graf defeats Russian, makes the quarterfinals
NEW YORK — Top-seeded and defending champion Steffi Graf delayed the ascent of the future of women's tennis, defeating 15-year-old Anna Koumikova of Russia and
advancing to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Graf dropped her serve to begin the match, then methodically thrashed her young foe 6-2, 6-4 in 51 minutes.
Earlier, another 15-year-old, Martina Hingis of Switzerland, upset third-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in a fourth-round match.
In men's third-round matches, it was France's Guy Forget over Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 4-6; Andre Medvedev of the Ukraine over Czech Petr Korda 6-2, 6-4, 6-3; top-seeded and defending champion Pete Sampras over Russia's Alexander Volkov 6-3, 6-4; Coratia over Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4; and No. 4 Goran vanisevic of Croatia over Germany's Hendrik Dreekmann 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (13-11).
In other women's fourth-round matches, No. 2 Monica Seles stopped France's Sandrine Testud 7-5, 6-0; No. 4 Conchita Martínez of Spain defeated Sweden's Asa Carlsson 6-2, 6-1; and Amanda Coetzer of South Africa downed American Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-1.
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Neither rain, nor throat pain, nor lack of sleep can keep President Clinton from a round of golf.
Clinton shot 18 holes at Rebsamen Park municipal golf course after church Sunday despite the threat of rain and his own fatigue from more than a week of frenetic campaigning.
While on the road, Clinton has gotten only a few hours of sleep and has experienced another bout of hoarseness. Aides canceled his planned trip to Pittsburgh on Tuesday so he could rest.
Golf provides relaxation for travel-weary Clinton
But on Sunday Clinton was upbeat as he putted along with Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., U.S. District Court Judge Richard Arnold, and his cousin, Lisa Cornwall.
No one, however, would reveal how well — or badly — he played. "The president always wins," Arnold said.
Soccer team loses opener
Geoff Krieger/KANSAN
Amanda Helton, senior midfield of Evansville, heads the ball toward the goal as Amy Dykstheruis, junior midfield; Mary Jones, junior midfield; and Jennifer Fecke, freshman goalkeeper; of Kansas try to stop her. Kansas lost to Evansville 3-1 on Saturday at the SuperTarget Field.
KU women beat Creighton,but fall to Evansville
By Brian A. Petrotta Kansan sports writer
The KU women's soccer team began its season by playing two tough games during Labor Day weekend. On Saturday, the Jayhawks scored the first goal, but fell to the University of Evansville 3-1. In yesterday's game against Creighton, Kansas again scored the first goal.
but this time the team hung on to win 2-0.
The Evansville Purple Aces had dominated the Jayhawks last season, but the second-year program was not intimidated. Cindy Dahle, Anchorage, Ala., freshman, scored the first goal of the season 17 minutes into the first half. Kansas continued to control the Evans-
no intentions of letting Kansas jump ahead once again. The Blue Jays were dominant for the first ten minutes of the game, using crisp passing and ball control to fire three shots on goal.
They were no match, however, for Burnsville, Minn., freshman Jennie Fecke, who made only her second start in goal. Not one of the three shots early in the game could get past her, and her solid goal keeping gave the Jayhawks the confidence it needed to begin their attack.
"Defense will always win games for you. Today, Fecke came up big a couple of times," said head coach Lori Walker.
The offense also came up big. Sophomore mid-fielder Shana Teutsch fired in
vilie team throughout the first half. However, the Aces rallied after the intermission. scoring three goals.
"In the first half we were clicking, but in the second half we got tired and kind of lost our heads for awhile." Dahle said.
Cook was ready to go for yesterday's game, but the Creighton Blue Jays had
Contributing to the fatigue was the loss of sophomore mid-fielder Denise Cook. Cook led the Jayhawks in scoring a year ago, but was forced to serve a one-game suspension for a red card she received during the final game of last season.
a rebound off a shot from Dahle. This gave Kansas the 1-0 lead in the first half. But unlike the previous game, the Jayhawks were not content.
"You can't let a 1-0 lead bring you through," Fecke said.
And Kansas did not let it. Sophomore co-captain Jackie Dowell supplied the tough defense, and sophomore forward Jen
Silvers scored the final goal on a cannon shot with 20 minutes left in the match. Fecke recorded her first shutout by stopping 10 balls, and Kansas recorded its first win.
The Jayhawks' next game will be at 4 p.m. Thursday, at SuperTarget Field, south of Allen Field House. Kansas hopes the solid play will continue through the next game.
"I hope our momentum will carry into the future. Our competition with Oral Roberts is pretty fierce," Silvers said.
Women's tennis coach quits
By Tommy Gallagher Kansan sports writer
Merbzacher accepted an offer on Wednesday to become the women's tennis coach at Ohio State University in Columbus. His hometown of Findlay, Ohio, is 95 miles northwest of Columbus. Merbzacher said he had many friends and family scattered throughout the state, and although returning to his family played a huge role in leaving Kansas, the decision was not an easy one.
After coaching the women's tennis team to four consecutive Big Eight Conference titles in four years, Chuck Merzbacher resigned Friday to return home.
"I would never have left KU for any other school except to go home for family reasons," Merzbacher said. "In late August I showed interest in them and they showed interest in me, but moving my family before the season was a tough decision to make."
Serving as interim coach will be Frank Polito, who served as assistant coach last spring in his first year at the University of Kansas. A search for a permanent replacement will begin after the spring semester.
Merzbacher will start at Ohio State today, with practice beginning Sept. 17 for the Buckeyes.
"I'll dearly miss the team, the people and the community of
Lawrence because they gave me a great opportunity here at KU. I couldn't ask for anything more because these have been the best four years of my life."
He was offered the job by Ohio State on Aug. 26 and promptly accepted the job two days later. Later that day, Merzbacher surprised the women he coached with the news of his departure at a team meeting.
"We were all shocked," senior Bianca Kirchhof said. "We were totally surprised because we didn't expect him to go anywhere with the season around the corner, but we must go on."
See TENNIS, Page 6B
"I wasn't expecting anything like
Choosing a quarterback is a competition not a controversy, explains Coach Mason
By Dan Gelston
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas coach Glen Mason can be excused if he thinks there's an echo wherever he goes.
Because the same question is being asked everyday—who's your starting quarterback?
"There's nothing controversial about it," Mason said after Kansas won 35-10 against Ball State on Thursday.
But Mason also can be excused if he sounds like a skipping record.
Junior Matt Johner started for the Jayhawks and did everything he was supposed to do. He hit the open receivers and led three of the five Jayhawk scoring drives.
There's a quarterback competition, he says, not controversy.
Johner was 14 of 20 for 147 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions in 2 1/2 quarters of play. He connected with senior wide receiver Andre Carter for a 32-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.
Senior Ben Rutz was three of six for 51 yards with a 31-yard touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver John Gordon in the third quarter.
Mason is in no hurry to make his
"I glad we got them both both a chance to play," he said. "I like some things Johner did and I liked some things that Rutz did. Sometimes I liked Johner more and sometimes I liked Rutz more."
decision. He has plenty of time and practices to evaluate the quarterbacks further. The Jayhawks don't play again until a Sept. 14 game at Texas Christian.
Mason said both players performed well.
Both quarterbacks tried to downplay the situation.
"The coaches will make their evaluations and whatever happens, happens," Johner said.
Rutz, who was listed No. 1 on the preseason depth chart, is still recovering from an off-season knee injury.
"It hasn't crossed my mind," Rutz said about starting. "I'm still not 100 percent, but that wasn't a surprise to me. I'm still getting myself physically able right now."
Kansas junior quarterback Matt Johner is competing against senior quarterback Ben Rutz for the starting position.
Carter, who caught four passes from Johner, said both quarterbacks give the Jayhawks equal opportunity to win.
"I'd say there's no difference," he said. "They both have very strong arms, they both have great work
ethics. That's the bottom line. We can win with either of 'em."
Rutz said he's prepared to split time if he has to, but a final decision would be good for both players and the team.
"That's strictly up to the coaches," he said. "They'll make the decision and we'll go from there."
I feel it's my civic duty as a Jayhawk to point out several reasons why Wildcat backers shouldn't be starting the "We want Nebraska" chants.
Season too early to be celebrating
Even though I've heard arguments to the contrary, I was impressed with the Kansas vic-
the victory, which could one day be viewed as groundbreaking for their program.
Now that the dust has settled from the first full weekend of football, I've got a lot of thoughts to get off my chest in my inaugural column. Here goes:
told against Ball State on Thursday. Don't forget this was an August game, and everybody's bound to look sloppy this early.
SPORTS COLUMNIST
The 'Hawks did what they were supposed to do. They kept the ball on the ground, and
they pounded a smaller opponent into submission slowly. To the best of my memory, Thursday's win was more impressive than last season's opening nailbiter against Cincinnati.
I'll give credit where credit is due; the Wildcats' defense showed incredible fortitude in the second half. After being on the field almost the entire half, K-State's defense had just enough left in the tank to pull out
I think it's safe to say that Johner now has more passing yards than one of my sports cohorts at the Kansan, who questioned that last week in a column. If Johner continues to play the way he did Thursday, you better believe there will be a quarterback controversy.
I'm sure purple pride is running rampant since the Wildcats performed an escape act Saturday against Texas Tech that would have made Houdini proud.
Even though most of Texas Tech quarterback Zebbie Lethridge's passes looked like he was throwing infield practice for the Red Raider baseball team, the Tech offense marched up and down the field all afternoon only to self-destruct time and time again.
Fortunately for the 'Cats, it appears as if former Tech kicker Lin Elliott has been hanging around Lubbock tutoring current kicker Tony Rogers, who missed four field goals.
Now don't get me wrong. As I said earlier, everyone will look a little sloppy this early in the season. However, with an upcoming state featuring Indiana State, Cincinnati and Rice, and a likely 4-0 start, I'm sure we'll hear K-State fans drumming the "This is our year to break through" beat again. However, K-State's annual search for some national media respect will be drowned out when they get smoked by Nebraska Oct. 5.
It's also time for Chiefs' fans, myself included, to settle down. I haven't been on this year's Super Bowl bandwagon yet and I'm not going to be anytime soon. While K.C. is one of the AFC favorites, I've had my heart ripped out by the Chiefs at playoff time every year of the Marty Schottenheimer era.
I see no reason to believe this season will be any different. After this many years, the Super Bowl curse that hangs over Marty's head will be with him for the rest of his career.