THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2006
SPORTS
VOLLEYBALL
3B
Kansas has difficult game ahead
Jayhawks face top-ranked Cornhuskers tonight in Nebraska, after 75 losses against them
Amanda Sellers/KANSAI
Jana Correa, senior outside hitter, spikes the ball, as Christina Lawrence, junior outside hitter, blocks.
BY DREW DAVISON
The Jayhawk volleyball team (7-2) will be the undisputed underdogs when they begin conference play against the top-ranked Cornhuskers (7-0) at 7 tonight in Lincoln, Neb. Kansas, however, will try to use that to their advantage.
"They're No. 1 in the country, they have to play well." Iana Corraea, senior outside hitter, said. "We just need to go out there and play hard and play strong."
Nebraska is traditionally known for impressive football crowds, but the volleyball venue, Nebraska Coliseum, also sells out and draws in 4,030 fans.
"Sometimes playing in front of that crowd, with that ranking, it may put some more pressure on them," coach Ray Bechard said. "We go in relaxed, and can be very aggressive, so hopefully we can have a good outcome."
Last season, Kansas lost both conference matches to Nebraska. In Lincoln, the Huskers swept the Jayhawks. At home, Kansas lost 3-1 to Nebraska.
According to the Kansas media guide, Kansas has a 1-75-1 alltime record against Nebraska. The Nebraska media guide has the Huskers a perfect 76-0 against the lavwhaws.
Regardless of the record books, a Kansas win is about as rare as someone wearing Zubaz. The Jayhawks have never won a match in Lincoln.
Last season, Nebraska won the Big 12 conference and advanced to the NCAA tournament before losing in the National Championship match to Washington.
"I think they're disappointed to be the national runner-up last year, so I'm sure they're going to be high octane," Bechard said.
Both teams come into tonight's match after winning their home tournaments. The Jayhawks won the Jayhawk Classic with a sweep over then-No. 16 Brigham Young and despite a five-game loss to Arkansas. Nebraska defeated Cal Poly, Louisville and Minnesota over the weekend to win the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln.
Nebraska junior Sarah Pavan, right side hitter, led the Huskers to the title and earned MVP honors. On Monday, she was named Big 12 Player of the Week.
Kansas junior Emily Brown, right side hitter, continues to lead the team with 5.25 kills per game and four double-doubles this season.
The Jayhawks will face No. 5 Texas at home on Saturday. The game will be at 7 p.m. in the Horeksi Family Athletics Center. Fans will receive a Jayhawk rally towel and admission is free for students with a valid KUID.
Kansan staff writer Drew Davison can be contacted at ddavison@ kansan.com.
Edited by Brett Bolton
SOCCER Jayhawks ranked for first time since last season
The Kansas soccer team has entered The 25 in two soccer rankings. The Jayhawks are ranked No.18 in the Soccer America poll and No.20 in the Soccer Times poll.
Victories this weekend against Alabama and No. 12 Duke helped catapult Kansas (4-1-0) Into the rankings. The Jayhawks beat the Crimson Tide on Friday and came back to
INTERNATIONAL 4th Military World Games to be in India next year
beat the Blue Devils 4-3 with a game winner in the last minute. Kansas' only loss this season came against nationally-ranked California.
This is the first time the Jayhawks have been ranked since Oct. 31 of last season.
WASHINGTON — An organization that aims to use sports to foster friendship between the world's militaries and nations will hold its global games in India next year.
Previously, European sites were used for the games, which are held once every four years.
The competitions include dozens of regular civilian sports such as football and track and field, as well as military sports — like a pentathlon that tests shooting skills.
The 4th Military World Games will be in Hyderabad, India, in the fall of 2007, Brig. Gen. Gianni Gola of Italy said Tuesday. Gola heads the International Military Sports Council, a group that was founded in 1948 and holds frequent regional competitions among athletes from the world's armed forces and a worldwide contest.
"It's a nice honor for the team after how we played last weekend," Kansas coach Mark Francis said in a press release."As long as we keep producing results on the field, the rankings should take care of themselves."
Gola was visiting Virginia this week for a seminar on sports in the military and said another
Mark Dent
one — on "sport and peace" — is planned in the coming months on the Ivory Coast.
"They still have conflict, but we decided to go there and to try to send a message." Gola told a group of reporters in the Pentagon. "Maybe we cannot do more, but at least we can send a message: Sport can help and in some cases sport is the unique tool that we have in our hands."
The council held the first worldwide event in 1995 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. The last one brought thousands of athletes from 84 countries to Italy in 2003.
The council has 127 member countries and the only one ever barred from games was Iraq — after Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait. The suspension, lasting from 1990 to 2003, was lifted after Saddam was overthrown by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Iraqi military athletes began attending competitions once again, entering a cross-country contest in March in Tunisia, Gola said.
NFL
Associated Press
Philadelphia receives boost from quarterback against Houston
ROB MAADDI ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA — Donovan McNabb led the Eagles to three NFC championship games before Terrell Owens came to Philadelphia. He can do it again without the talented-buttroblesse receiver.
Now that he can focus on football instead of feuding with T.O. and playing through pain, McNabb looks more like the quarterback who went to five straight Pro Bowls and took his team to the playoffs each of those seasons.
McNabb said.
In Philadelphia's opening 24-10 victory at Houston, McNabb completed 24 of 35 passes for 314 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in his first regular-season game since having surgery for a sports hernia last November.
Last year, some of those smiles were forced, there wasn't much to joke about, and pushing came through a locker-room alteration between Owens and former player turned team ambassador Hugh Douglas.
A combination of injuries to several starters and the T.O. fiasco plunged the Eagles to 6-10 a year after falling just three points short in the Super Bowl against New England.
While many so-called experts predicted another last-place finish in a tough NFC East, the Eagles retooled — not rebuilt — their roster and set out to prove they still belong among the elite teams in the conference.
Though it's only one game in a long season, the rest of the division rivals lost their openers and are looking up at Philadelphia. A victory over the New York Giants this week could go a long way toward helping the Eagles accomplish their goal of going from worst to first.
"They've had a great attitude from the first minicamp on," coach Andy Reid said. "They have done everything I've asked. They came out and they played their hearts out and did a nice job. But they also understand that it is one out of 16 here, that we have to continue to go. We've got a real good team coming in this week. We have to be better than what we were this past week so we can get ready for the Giants."
McNabb is the key to Philadelphia's success. With him, the Eagles are 68-33, including playoffs. They were 2-5 in the seven games he missed last year.
With T.O. gone, the pressure again is on McNabb to be the man. But he's shown he can have outstanding seasons with lousy receivers (Charles Johnson, Torrence Small) and mediocre ones (Todd Pinkston, James Thrash). There's no reason he can't win with a solid group of wideouts that includes Donte' Stallworth and Reggie Brown.
Stallworth had six catches for 141 yards and one TD in his debut with the Eagles. He probably won't post Owens-like stats, but Stallworth isn't selfish, petulant and disruptive, either.
He's already been dubbed the anti-
TO, because his No. 18 is opposite
Owens' No. 81, he has an excellent
working relationship with McNabb
and he doesn't cause problems.
Reid talked to former Saints coach Jim Haslett before acquiring Stallworth to make sure he was adding a quality-character player.
"Jim told me how good he was," Reid said. "We were expecting to get a good football player."
If McNabb and fragile running backs Brian Westbrook and Correll Buckhalter stay healthy and Stallworth and Brown continue to progress, the offense could equal or even surpass its level of 2004. The Eagles averaged 351.1 yards and 24.1 points per game en route to the
Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, the defense has a chance to be dominant again. Coordinator Jim Johnson likes the depth on the line so much he alternated the four starters and the four backups each series against Houston. The result was four sacks from the line. The Texans managed only 241 total yards.
"Not in my eight years in the NFL, four years in college and four years in high school, you just don't do this kind of thing, but it worked out for us," said end Jevon Kearse, who had one of the sacks.
From the ball boys to the players to the coaches to the front office, everyone in the organization believed last year was merely an aberration caused by too many injuries and too much turmoil.
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