Inside Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Sports Lynn Pride takes her name seriously when she's on the court with the Kansas women's basketball team. Golf wins, loses SEE PAGE 10B The Kansas men's golf team finished first in a tournament yesterday in St. Charles, Mo.; however, the women's team was in last place. Wednesday October 13, 1999 Section: B Page 1 SEE PAGE 3B PHOENIX SUNS Kevin Johnson retires Former Phoenix suns player, Kevin Johnson retired from the NBA yesterday. SEE PAGE 7B Contact the Kansan Sports Desk: (785) 864-4810 Sports Fax: (785) 864-0391 Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS Players ready to rumble on home turf By Mike Miller sports@kansan.com Kansan writerspritter Homecoming was two weeks ago for the Jayhawks, but for the 42 players from Texas on the Kansas roster, Saturday's game against Texas A&M is the real homecoming. "Everybody on the team from Texas circled this game on their calendar a long time ago," said tight end David Hurst, an Austin, Texas, freshman. “It’s hard to get tickets for everybody that wants to come,” he said. For the last few weeks, most of the Texas natives — including starting running backs David Winbush, Moran Norris, safety Kareem High, tight end Jason Gulley, linebacker Chaz Murphy and fastball Tyrus Fontenot — have been trying to scrape together tickets for friends and family. Tickets are a precious commodity for players. Some get more tickets than others, but it's always a rush to get enough. "I'm trying to be reasonable. I only have 15 tickets." Hurst said. "You just trade with other players." Norris said. "I put in the word this summer that I wanted tickets, and started asking for them a couple of games ago." Guard Jason Stevenson, a Killeen, Texas, native has gathered 28 tickets and said that he was excited to see friends whom he went to high school with. They talk trash See KANSAS on page 2B Kansas team to challenge Big 12 leaders By Shawn Hutchinson sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter The Kansas volleyball team will get a shot at derailing a runaway train tonight. The Jayhawks, 13-4 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12 Conference, head to Manhattan, Kan., to challenge the No. 13 Kansas State Wildcats at 7 tonight at Ahearn Fieldhouse. K-State is in first place in the Big 12 and is the only undefeated team in the conference. The Wildcats have won seven-straight matches and have beaten the Jayhawks eight-straight times. "They're as hot as anybody in the country right now," said Kansas coach Ray Bechard. "I don't think we can go as far as to say the same thing about us, but we are playing as well as we have since I've been here." Therefore this match will be a showdown between two of the hottest teams in the Big 12. The Jayhawks are on the brink of the best season in school history having already tied or surpassed the win total of eight former Kansas teams. The Jayhawks are tied for third in the Big 12 and have won three straight conference matches, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Baylor. "We've been in some situations in the last three or four matches where things have gotten a little bit tough, and we haven't panicked," Bechard said. K-State, 12-2 and 6-0, has been clawing teams on its way to first place in the Big 12. During the Wildcats seven-match winning streak, they have scored upsets on the road against nationally-ranked Nebraska and Texas—two teams the Jayhawks lost to this season. Going to Manhattan and leaving with a victory won't be easy. "I think we just have to believe that we can do it." Kansas sophomore setter Molly LaMere said. "They've been playing so well this year, but we've picked it up a lot too. We just have to play our own game and worry about our side of the net." The Wildcats are led by senior outside hitter Dawn Cady, who has 251 kills on the season. K-State also boasts one of the best setters in the nation, sophomore Disney Bronnenberg. Kansas is 31-39 all-time against K-State, which includes two losses last season. The Jayhawks were defeated 3-1 in Manhattan and were swept 3-0 in Lawrence. The Jayhawks will try to make a turn around tonight. "It'll take an excellent game plan that is well executed and just a tremendous amount of determination." Bechard said. Volleyball notes ■ Kansas has hit .370 or above as a team in two straight matches. The Jayhawks set a school record by hitting .377 in a four-game match at Oklahoma last Wednesday, then came home to hit .370 in a sweep of Baylor on Saturday. Record-setting week for soccer By Chris Wristen Kansan sportswriter Hoogveld, a forward from Calgary, Alberta, was named the Big 12 Conference soccer player of the week after leading the Jayhawks to two conference victories last weekend. She is only the third player in Kansas soccer history to accomplish this feat. Many Kansas soccer players stood out this past weekend as various team landmarks were achieved, but none stood taller than sophomore Natalie Hoogveld. "She deserved it," said Coach Mark Francis. "Since we moved her up front she's done very well. She started slow at first, but since the Baylor game she's really picked it up." Hoogweld tied a school record for goals in a game when she scored two in Kansas' 4-2 win against Oklahoma State last Friday and added another when she scored the game-winner in Sunday's 2-1 victory against Oklahoma. She is currently the team Junior midfielder Meghann Haven rewrote the record books by notching the game-winning goal against Oklahoma State and tallying two assists in the game. With that four-point performance (two points for a goal, one point for an assist) she moved into a tie with senior Cynthia Dahle for the school record in career points with 23. In addition, she ran her assists this season to seven and career total to 11, both new school records. Many other Jayhawks stepped into the limelight as well posting record numbers. leader in conference scoring with three goals and is third on the team in total points with eight. Although pleased with the accomplishment, Haven isn't thinking much of it. “It’s not really a goal that I set, but I have been playing hard, giving my all, and I've been given an opportunity to play more.” Haven said. In addition, junior Colleen Colvin continues to climb in the career scoring charts. By notching three More information assists last weekend, she climbed into third on the career assists list with eight and third on the career points list with 22. Colvin led the team in scoring her freshman year with 14 points and has earned eight so far this year. Some team records were accomplished as well. The Jayhawks set a school record for wins in a season (eight), most consecutive home wins (five) and most consecutive conference wins (three). The team also tied records for home wins in a season (five), conference wins (three) and assists in a season (24). More information For additional information about Kansas defender Ashley Gorham See page 3B Kansas also achieved its first regional ranking for the first time in school history this week. The Jayhawks are tied for 10th in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Central Rankings. -- Edited by Julia Nicholson Forward Meghann Haven attempts to control a pass during Tuesday's practice. As a junior, Haven is the all-time career assists leader with 11 and is tied for the record in career points with 23. Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN Wildcat fans take exception to Friday story Last Friday, I wrote a column in the traditional Kansas-Kansas State exchange of rival school columns. I told K-Staters that their team should be criticized for their cupcake non-conference schedule and that the "PowerCat" logo wasn't as cool as they think it was and will one day blind them with its true pure ugliness. It was, of course, in good fun: The Collegian was kind enough to print my e-mail address with the column. Imagine this scenario: I'm checking my e-mail around lunchtime on Friday. I've already received some 30 hate messages from K-State supporters. As I read through the e-mails, most calling me words not fit to print in this column, a new message box steadily popped up. It would read "Attention! New mail. Regarding: Seth Jones — DIE SCUM!!!" Or something to that effect. Anyway, I wanted to share with you some of the funnier e-mails, and some of the more disturbing e-mails. Seth Jones sports columnist sports@kansas.com J o n a t h o n Christopher wrote: "I challenge you to actually make your identity known and see who is the cocky one as you try to defend your comments to our 'Billy Bobs and Guzas as they drive their rusted-out '78 Ford trucks with the Powercat license plates' over what is left of your bloody mangled mess of a torso as a lesson to all the other cocky undereducated 'students' in Lawrence." Jonathon, I made my identity known by putting my picture and name on the column. Speaking about my body being a bloody mangled mess means you need psychological help. Please seek it out. Remember, we're talking about college athletics here, not life and death stuff. Loren Roberts, who said she went to high school with me, said: "Seth, I always knew you were a jerk in high school..." Jeremy Wilson wrote: Just because I stole your lunch money. Loren? The "You are a fag," was a common theme amongst K-Staters. Gay-U was said maybe 20 times, with one person going so far as having an e-mail address that was gay_hawk@hotmail.com. "You are the biggest homosexual (exeptive) that I have ever seen, and do not show your face in Manhattan. Everyone here will find you and beat the hell out of you." Hey, I'm not gay, but I am proud to be a student at a school that anges Fried Phelps and his homophobic church more than every other school in Kansas. Many of the e-mails attacked me supposedly because I called the Wildcats "Cocky." I actually never used the word and could care less if they were cocky. The word "cocky" was in the headline, which was written by a staff-member of the Collegian. Possibly there are some people in-house at the Collegian that think the team is cocky. Bryan Scott Schultz wrote: "I have a lot of friends that go to KU and I don't hate them nor do I hate you despite your close-minded comments. As a matter of fact, if I did see you walking down the road I'd wouldn't think twice about running your rich ass over. Why waste such good break fluid?" Thanks, Bryan. Just a hint, the guy walking down the streets of Manhattan with the purple T-shirt and jeans is me. "I enjoyed your article that was published in the KSU Collegian on Oct. 8. You seem to have a good vocabulary and sharp wit. That kind of writing is what makes rivalries fun." 1 Ty is a rare exception to most of the emails I received. He gets the point. Here is what he wrote: Just when I was about to give up. I discovered intelligent life in Manhattan. Jones is a Mulvane senior in journalism.