10A SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2006
Men's lacrosse expects success during this season's schedule
BY KAYVON SARRAF
The University of Kansas men's lacrosse club team has high expectations after a disappointing campaign a season ago.
》 CLUB SPORTS
"Last year we really weren't meshing well," Mark Barrath, St. Louis senior and club president, said. "We're coming together as a team real well this year, so expectations are a lot higher than we would've anticipated."
This season the team welcomes a Division I transfer and a talented group of freshmen. The current team has 35 members with nine on the field at a time. It routinely rotates in three lineups per game, but from time to time will work in a fourth or fifth.
and for the older guys to shake off the rust from not playing over the summer," Barrath said.
The Jayhawks kicked off their fall exhibition season Sunday with their annual alumni game. The game saw 15 former Jayhawks come to town from as far away as Florida and New York to take part in the scrimmage. The current team held off the alumni 5-2.
Barrath said that lacrosse was an extremely physical game. The ability to take a hit and to constantly run are some of the most important qualities of a successful lacrosse player. While most of the team played lacrosse at some level in high school, several of the team members never touched a lacrosse stick prior to joining the team.
"With a lot of work, you're able to pick up the game real fast," Barrath said.
Games against Missouri, Kansas State and Washington University in St. Louis are on tap for the rest of the fall exhibition season. In the spring, the team will play 13 to 16 games and is focusing on performing well at the Big 12 tournament, which will be held in nearby Kansas City.
Last year, the team traveled to Plano, Tex. for the tournament, in addition to a tournament at the University of Illinois.
"The whole fall is basically a tune up for the whole team. The new guys are able to get a taste of what games are really like," Barrath said.
Kansan sportswriter Kayvon Sarraf can be contacted at ksarraf@ kansan.com.
Edited by Travis Robinett
"The alumni gave us a good battle. It was a chance to get the new guys some real game experience
BIG 12 FOOTBALL
K-State football player arrested Sunday
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MANHATTAN — Tight end Rashaad Norwood, the leading receiver for the Kansas State Wildcats, has been suspended for Saturday's game against No. 8 Louisville.
Norwood, a junior, was arrested early Sunday and charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and obstruction of the legal process.
Coach Ron Prince said he anticipates Norwood will return this season but did not say whether the suspension will last longer than one game.
"I'm disappointed in what happened, disappointed in the circumstances that would lead to such an event," said Prince, whose 3-0 Wildcats face their stiffest of the season against undefeated Louisville. "Right now all I'm saying is he won't play this weekend."
University police Sgt. Richard
Norwood, who often found himself in the ill graces of former coach Bill Snyder, leads the team with 13 catches for 143 yards. The 6-foot-3, 229-pound tight end had 14 receptions total the past two seasons.
Jeron Mastrud, a redshirt freshman from Beaverton, Ore., was listed as the starter on the depth chart released Tuesday. Michael Pooschke, a junior college transfer from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, was listed as the back up.
The timing couldn't be much worse for Kansas State, which welcomes the highest-ranked nonconference opponent to Bill Snyder Family Stadium since No. 6 Texas A&M — then members of the Southwest Conference — defeated the Wildcats 10-6 in 1975.
But Louisville will also be without two of its top offensive weapons in running back Michael Bush and quarterback Brian Brohm. Bush broke his leg in the Cardinals' season-opener against Kentucky and will miss the rest of the season, while Brohm will miss at least a month while recovering from surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right (throwing) hand.
said.
RYDER CUP
U.S. golfers have fun with bad weather
"He has been a very big contributor, but we have a lot of players that are ready to step up and that will be our expectation," Prince
BY DOUG FERGUSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dollar Menu i'm lovin' it
Norwood's bond was set at $750. A court date was set for Oct. 3.
STRAFFAN, Ireland — There are times when the Americans just can't win, such as the Ryder Cup.
And sometimes, they don't even have to wait for the matches to get under way.
rrerrman said Norwood was among two groups of people involved in an argument in a parking lot south of the university's student union. When the groups were asked to leave, Norwood did not stop shouting at the other group, Herrman said.
The weather turned so nasty Wednesday morning, with 40 mph gusts that toppled a few trees and brought the rain sideways, that The K Club was closed to the public for nearly three hours. U.S. captain Tom Lehman sent his players back to bed, and only later did both teams believe it best to play for thousands of spectators who eventually got onto the course.
When he was arrested, Norwood refused to give police his name, date of birth and other standard information, Hermann said. Norwood did not physically resist the officers but did not cooperate with instructions, Herrman said.
But it was no time to take golf seriously, not with the wind blowing the ball all over the place.
Lehman fulfilled a prediction he made in February by creating what was believed to be the first "twelvesome" game in Ryder Cup history, his entire team playing nine holes on a gray, nisherable afternoon.
But there was a twist.
They worked on their short game, starting each hole from about 120 yards away. The gallery wasn't aware of this, so when Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and the rest of the Americans walked to the fourth green, past the fifth tee and kept marching down the middle of the fairway, the Ryder Cup got its first dose of booing.
"You don't give a damn about Ireland's public," shouted one man behind the tee, and hundreds of others nodded.
Woods riled the English fans at The Belfry four years ago when captain Curtis Strange allowed him to practice at 6 a.m., as he normally does, finishing about the time fans were just showing up.
Another man asked Jim Furyk to stop for a picture. He walked over
to man's wife, put his arm on her shoulder and posed with a smile.
Walking back toward the fairway, Furyk said, "I guess we're just the ugly Americans."
Lehman later asked for a mulligan.
He realized his squad should have performed at least on the first tee, where the grandstands were packed with people. And when he caught up with his team on the seventh hole, he told them to tee off on No. 9, the only drives they hit all day.
Verplank won a chip-off on the third by pitching from a knoll beyond the green, over a bunker to within a foot. On the next hole, the par-5 fourth, the players started from 240 yards away, and Woods, Furyk and Brett Wetterich were the only players to reach in two. No matter: Toms chipped in for eagle and the other guys missed their putts.
- "We walk down the first hole to about 120 yards short of the green and started from there, and kind of left everybody sitting in the stands by the first tee waiting." Lehman said. "That was a mistake. We should have hit a tee shot at least on the first hole. To all of those fans left waiting, I apologize. That was my mistake."
It was quite a scene, the 12 Americans and their caddies on the same green, all dressed in black rain suits of an appropriate color.
Verplank and David Toms were formidable, although don't read too much into that pairing.
The drama came at the par-4 seventh, a peninsula green.
Not only did Lehman have them stop short of the pond, they had to skip the ball off the water and over the rocks rimming the green, similar to a tradition during practice at the Masters.
Last time outside Detroit, the Americans were criticized by their own gallery for not signing autographs during the practice rounds. There was a policy against autographs, which the Europeans gladly violated with hopes of winning favor on foreign soil, and it worked.
There's always something at the Ryder Cup.
Each player put $100 into the pot on each hole, and formed teams for an alternate-shot match that started within about pitching wedge range except on the par 3s. In case of a tie, there was a chip-off on each hole to determine the winner.
Verplank hit a masterful shot that skipped off the water, over the rocks and banged hard enough into the slight slope that it rolled about 20 feet away from the pin. J.J. Henry and Zach Johnson hit shots that plopped and sank. Chad Campbell was last to hit, and he skipped it over and up to within 3 feet. Wetterich, his partner, knocked in the putt with the entire team watching.
Furyk recently described the Americans as looking "constipated" when they get to the Ryder Cup, but
Lehman's apology was sincerely, but he had no regrets about what unfolded on The K Club.
not on this day. Asked to describe what kind of game it was, Scott Verplank replied, "Fun."
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