MONDAY, OCTOBER 11,2004
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
'Kansan' falters in 7-5 performance
What a weekend for college football.
The fact that Kansas beat Kansas State is enough to lessen the blow I should be feeling after a week when I went 7-5. That's absolutely terrible. Honestly though, two of my losses were by just the tiniest of margins, and three were by less than a touchdown.
I think the problem with this week's games was that I looked too much at how the two teams have fared this season, and not enough at their head-to-head records over years past.
The closest losses I suffered this week were University of Texas-EI Paso over Fresno State and Michigan over Minnesota.
Who could have predicted that Fresno State, which beat K-State handily, and Minnesota, which handily beat all of its first
opponents would fall to that competition?
Fresno State is one of those teams that went from media darling to nothing in the blink of an eye.
After a screaming start that included the win over K-State, pundits and analysts from ESPN to The Kansas City Star were all predicting that the Bulldogs could make a run at a Bowl Championship Series game. My, what two weeks will do for a team.
KICK THE KANSAN
I suppose Minnesota falling to Michigan should not have surprised me too much. I mean, it's the Wolverines, and they're capable of beating anyone on any given Saturday — not to mention, the game was played in Ann Arbor. Mich.
JONATHAN KEALING
jkealing@kansan.com
But if I should have given more credit to the Michigan game, I should have given less emphasis to a game being played
in Columbus, Ohio.
When I pegged Ohio State over Wisconsin, I based my decision almost exclusively on OSU having home field advantage.
Ohio State, however, is completely rebuilding its team this year and is going to struggle with every major opponent in the Big Ten Conference.
Big picks for me this week included the KU-KSU game, which some 40 of you also picked, as well as picking Texas Tech over Nebraska.
The Red Raiders slaughtered Nebraska, 70-10.
If you were to look at how close Kansas played both of those teams, you can't help but wonder what might have been for the Jayhawks.
Highlighting those contests will be Missouri at Texas and Texas A&M at Oklahoma State.
In the week ahead, there's a pretty good slate of games, which includes all five of the Big 12 games.
This week, just one person recorded a 10-2 record, overall. Abbey Sorem selected Texas to beat Oklahoma and also got fooled by Fresno State versus UTEP.
Kansas State will have to try and recover from this week's loss with a visit from Oklahoma.
Keating is a Chesterfield, Mo. sophmore in journalism and political science.
Volleyball has rocky showing in Colorado
BY BILL CROSS
bcross@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWITTER
The Kansas volleyball team which dropped out of the USA Today/CSTV Top 25 poll a week ago, has now lost five straight matches. It lost to Colorado Saturday, 3-0.
The -loss dropped the Jayhawks' Big 12 Conference record to 1-6.
"This is not a good position for us to be in, but we have to keep fighting," Kansas coach Ray Bechard said.
He said he thought the NCAA selection committee would go deep into the Big 12 when choosing teams for December's championship tournament. But the Jayhawks, currently ranked 10th in the conference, will probably have to move up three or four places before the end of the regular season on Nov. 27.
On Saturday, poor passing led to poor offense, as the Jayhawks' hitting percentage — the difference between kills and errors, divided by total attempts — was a dismal .114. Bechard said he wanted the team to hit about .270 in every match.
In the first game, Kansas hit
.244, but that number declined rapidly.
The Jayhawks hit .083 in the second set and .000 in the final game. The Jayhawks lost the games 30-23, 30-22, 30-21
LIMA
The offense had no rhythm, Bechard said.
But Kansas' main problem was finding a way to defend Colorado's attacks. Three Colorado front line players hit better than .420, including .733 by middle blocker Lara Bossow. She had no errors on the night.
"Colorado played like a great team tonight." Bechard said.
Freshman opposite hitter Emily Brown led the Jayhawks with nine kills but also had a team-leading eight attack errors. Senior middle blocker Ashley Michaels had seven kills, and junior middle blocker Josi Lima added a personal season-low six kills.
Senior libero Jill Dorsey had a personal season-law nine digs, but led the team in that category.
Kansas was unable to build
VOLLEYBALL BREAKDOWN
Kansas ATTACK No. Name Kills Percentage Attempts Errors
2 Michaels, Ashley 7 .100 6 0
4 Correa, Jana 5 .200 0 2
7 Brown, Emily 9 .043 0 3
8 Caten, Paula 5 .077 0 1
9 Rozum, Andi 3 .222 0 2
10 Lima, Josi 6 .143 2 2
1 Dorsey, Jill 0 .000 0 0
5 Bechard, Ashley 0 .000 0 0
6 Mathewson, Jamie 0 .000 0 0
12 Wittman, Dani 0 .000 0 0
Totals 35 22 16 2
BLOCK
Colorado ATTACK No. Name Kills Percentage Attempts Errors
2 Nu'u, Ashley 4 .375 4 0
4 Santillana, Maragda 13 .423 1 0
7 Zimmerman, Austin 13 .579 6 2
9 Griffin, Allie 7 .042 4 0
10 Carr, Nicole 6 .042 1 1
11 Bosow, Lara 11 .733 4 0
5 Barnes, Allison 0 .000 0 0
6 Masumiya, Kelly 0 .000 0 0
16 Vinal, Therese 0 .000 0 0
Totals 20 .293 20 3
on momentum started by last week's close loss to No. 16 Kansas State, which players said was a step in the right direction.
Kansas will be in action next at
7 p.m. Wednesday at Iowa State.
The Jayhawks return for a home match at 7 p.m. Saturday against the Missouri Tigers.
- Edited by Steve Schmidt
BY KELLI ROBINETT
krobinett@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Soccer continues to roll in Big 12
The University of Kansas football team wasn't the only program to record victory over its rival this weekend. The Kansas women's soccer team won at Missouri 3-1.
Senior midfielder Amy Geha scored a goal and had an assist, helping the No. 10 Jayhawks win the first game of the 2004 Border Showdown at the Audrey J. Walton Soccer Complex in Columbia, Mo., on Friday.
It was the fourth win in a row for the Jayhawks, who now sit at 12-2 on the season and 4-1 in conference play.
Kansas got on the board first in the 14th minute when Geha scored her second goal of the season. Missouri tried to clear the ball away from their own goal following a KU corner kick, but Geha intercepted the ball and fired a line drive that made it past Tiger goalie Laura Buehrig giving Kansas a 1-0 lead.
"We were happy to get the win because Missouri is a good team," Kansas coach Mark Francis said. "We created a lot of chances, but we missed a lot of chances to bury them."
The Tigers helped the Jayhawks score their next goal. Just before halftime, junior forward Nicole Braman drove in on the left side of the net and sent a shot wide of the net, only to
have a MU
def en d er
deflect the ball
into the goal.
In the first half, Kansas managed to get off only five shots, compared to Missouri's six. But Kansas
capitalized on its chances, and with senior goalkeeper Meghan Miller turning in another solid performance, the Jayhawks held a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Miller made eight saves in the game, but Missouri spoiled her chances for a shutout in the 82nd minute, when Jennifer Nobis scored her sixth goal of the season.
With Missouri back to within one goal of tying the game, junior forward Kim Karfonta sealed the victory for Kansas. In the 89th minute she took a pass from Geha and headed the ball past Buehrig, pushing the KU lead to 3-1.
"Overall, it was a good team effort in a tough place to play," Francis said.
With the loss Missouri dropped to 5-7-1 overall and 2-3 in the Big 12, while Kansas waits to see if it moved up in the rankings.
The soccer team will be back in action next weekend when they travel to Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, starting on Friday.
Edited by Steve Schmidt
SOCCER BREAKDOWN
Goals by period
SCORING SUMMARY:
School by point 1 2 Total
Kansas 2 1 3
Missouri 0 1 1
GOAL Time Team Goal Scorer Assists
1 31:39 KU Geha, Amy (2) Corner kick
2. 43:15 KU OWN GOAL (unassisted)
3 82:05 MU Nobis, Jennifer (6) Gibbs, Ashley
4 89:27 KU Karfonta, Kimberly (2) Geha, Amy
4 89:27 KU
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The biggest gripe about NASCAR's new 10-man chase for the Nextel Cup championship was that the drivers not in the title battle would be ignored.
Speedway.
"The guys in the championship chase have more to lose than we do," Nemechek said. "We're on the offense, not on defense."
Nobody could ignore Joe Nemechek on Sunday after he held off Ricky Rudd to win the Banquet 400 and finish off a weekend sweep at the Kansas
'Chek'-ered flag: Nemechek wins at Kansas Speedway
This one was almost as close as his half car-length victory over Greg Biffle in the Busch Series event Saturday, with Nemechek and Rudd racing side-by-side and bumping once with a lap to go before Nemechek took control again and beat Rudt to the
Source: kuathletics.com
"There at the end I was trying to save gas and here come Ricky Rudd out of nowhere," Nemechek said. "I was like,
Nemechek, who did a backward victory lap on the 1 1/2-mile oval to honor the memory of his brother, John, killed in a truck race in Homestead, Fla., in 1997, was relieved to win after nearly getting too conservative at the end.
finish by 0.081 seconds _ about 1
1/4 car-lengths.
'Holy Moley.' I had to get back on it. He got beside me one time, but I wasn't going to let it happen."
"The end off the race was pretty neat," said Rudd, who drove onto the apron and nearly spun out on the late restart before breaking out of the pack to chase down Nemechek.
"I got hung up in traffic and Joe had a half-a-straightaway lead on us," Rudd added. "I caught him somehow and I got
to his door, but my car was slipping and I had to ease off so I didn't take us both out. Joe and I, neither one, needed that type of ending to a great day for both of us."
Rudd raced to only his second top-10 finish of the year, both coming since being reunited with crew chief Michael "Fatback" McSwain in August.
Nemechek was among a group of 10 drivers who stayed
on track when cars ahead of them pitted during a caution period late in the race, moving from 14th to fourth.
Biffle and Jeremy Mayfield, who were 1-2 at the time, were among the leaders who did pit.
"I was getting really, really good gas mileage and we elected to stay out when those other guys pitted for a splash of gas," Nemechek said. "It worked out just perfect for us."
Truckloads of Frames to choose from!