2B
SPORTS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2006
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
VOLLEYBALL
Jayhawks take tournament, honors
Kansas plays through inconsistencies, looks forward to Jayhawk Classic
BY DREW DAVISON
The Kansas volleyball team swept the Temple Classic this weekend in Philadelphia, winning the competition and sharing the statistical bounty among teammates.
Ethan Sterner/The Temple News
Emily Brown, junior opposite hitter/setter, spikes the ball in the Temple Classic in Philadelphia. Kansas defeated Temple, Rutgers and Maine to win the tournament.
On Friday, Kansas defeated Temple 3-1, with four players having double-digit kills. In a sweep of Maine, four players had nine or more kills, and in defeating Rutgers, four players had double-digit digs. The victories improved Kansas' record to 6-1 on the season.
Ethan Sterner/The Temple News
"It was a good weekend," Jana Correa, senior outside hitter, said. "We played well, our passes were good and we hit the ball really well."
Kansas had three players named to the all-tournament team, including Correa.
"I was surprised, I wasn't expecting to be named the MVP," Correa said.
She gave credit to the team for her individual honor. She finished the tournament with 44 kills.
Emily Brown, junior right side hitter/setter, and Savannah Noyes, sophomore middle blocker, were the other two jayhawks selected to the all-tournament team.
Coach Ray Bechard said he was pleased with how the team played this weekend, but added that the Jayhawks were inconsistent at times.
Serving was one area in which the lavahwacks were inconsistent.
Kansas committed 17 serving errors during its home opener against UMKC. This weekend, the serving continued to be poor; the Jayhawks had 14 serving errors
against Temple, 12 errors against Rutgers and nine against Maine
Bechard said that the team served aggressively this weekend but that it would still continue to work on that area.
Friday, Kansas beat Temple, 3-1 (30-21, 27-30, 30-23 and 30-24) to begin the tournament at McGonnie Hall on the Temple campus. Brown had 20 kills, Correa had 17, Brittany Williams, freshman middle blocker, had 15 and Noyes had 11.
Bechard said some things did not go the Jayhawks' way against the Owls, but they still beat a good team on its home court.
Saturday morning Kansas swept Maine, 30-22, 31-29 and 30-17. Katie Martinicich, freshman setter, led the offensive attack with 37 assists and eight digs. Noyes had a team-high 13-kill performance against the Black Bears, who have yet to win a game this season.
In the night game, Kansas defeated Rutgers, 3-1 (30-22, 27-30, 30-26 and 30-25). It was all about digs against the Scarlet Knights. Correa had 18, Jamie Mathewson, senior libero, had 16, Brown had 13 and Melissa Grieb, freshman libero, had 10.
"We took a lot of teams' best shot this weekend, which we responded well to," Bechard said. "Now we look forward to getting back home, training and focusing on BYU and Arkansas."
Next up, Kansas hosts the Jayhawk Classic this Friday and Saturday. The Jayhawks play Brigham Young, who beat No. 4 Stanford this weekend, at 7 p.m.
Friday, Kansas then plays Arkansas,
an SEC team, at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Kansan sportswriter Drew Davi
Edited by Nicole Kelley
son can be contacted at ddavison@kansan.com.
》PGA
Championship marks fifth PGA victory Tiger Woods wins Deutsche Bank against Vijay Singh to finish 8-under 63
BY DOUG FERGUSON
AP GOLF WRITER
NORTON, Mass. — What began as a rally quickly turned into a rout for Tiger Woods, who matched the lowest final round of his career Monday in the Deutsche Bank Championship to win for the fifth straight time on the PGA Tour.
With a splendid array of shots and key putts, Woods crushed Vijay Singh's spirit on his way to an 8-under 63, turning a three-shot deficit into a two-shot victory for his longest winning streak in a season.
The streak began in July with a victory in the British Open, his first since his father died in May. It continued on a sunny afternoon outside Boston with some of his best golf of the year and allowed him to avenge a loss to Singh at this tournament two years ago.
Woods needed only three holes to erase the deficit, including a 6-iron over a marsh and into 10 feet for eagle at No.2. He pulled ahead with a 25-foot birdie putt at No.5, and he seized control with a 3-wood from 266 yards, a piercing shot into a gentle breeze that banged into the slope fronting the green and stopped 10 feet away for another eagle.
He played his first seven holes in 6 under par, and Singh never got closer than two shots the rest of the way.
Singh beat him two years ago to end Woods' five-year reign atop the world ranking. The 43-year-old Fijian closed with a 68, not his best golf but ordinarily enough to win with a three-hole lead in swirling breezes.
But not against Woods, and certainly not when the world's No. 1 player is on this kind of a roll.
Byron Nelson won 11 straight tournaments in 1945, a streak regarded as one of the most untouchable in sports. Woods won six straight at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000, and Ben Hogan won six in a row in 1948.
"Tiger played unbelievable," Singh said. "He made two eagles and just took it away."
"You've got to have so many things go right," Woods said. "In this day and age, with this competition, to win 11 in a row would be
almost unheard of. What Byron accomplished, that goes down as one of the great years in the history of our sport. You've got to have one bad week somewhere. I guess his bad week was a win."
Can the record be reached?
it a lot of guys pull out" Woods said with a laugh.
Woods now takes a week off before heading to England for the HSBC World Match Play Championship, followed by the Ryder Cup. His next PGA Tour start will be the American Express Championship outside London at the end of September.
He still isn't even halfway home to Nelson's hallowed mark, but he surpassed Lord Byron in one category with his 53rd victory, moving into fifth place alone on the career list. Woods, who finished at 16-under 268, won for the seventh time this year. No other player has won more than twice.
many as five-deep behind the ropes from tee-to-green, racing across bridges to get to the next hole.
Brian Bateman closed with a 66 to finish third at 8-under 276, eight shots behind Woods.
No one expected such a sudden role reversal, however. Singh was coming off a career-best 61, although he struggled to find fairways and greens until he found himself having to chase Woods.
It was a two-man race between Woods and Singh, the duel everyone wanted. The gallery crammed as
"Vijay played one of the great rounds of golf yesterday," Woods said. "I figured one of the hardest things to do is follow a great round with another one."
This time, it was Woods who fired at the flags and never took his foot off the gas until he settled for par on the last hole for a 63.
Woods twice shot 63 in the final round at the Byron Nelson Championship and once at Disney, but this was his lowest final round in a tournament that he won.
It also was his largest comeback in the final round since he overcame a five-shot deficit at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 2000, which he won for his sixth straight victory. Woods made up seven shots over his final seven holes.
athletics calendar
Volleyball vs. Brigham Young, 7 p.m., Jayhawk Classic, Horeisi Family Athletics Center
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
FRIDAY Soccer, vs. Alabama, 5 p.m., UAB Nike Classic, Birmingham, Ala.
Cross Country, Kansas State Wildcat Invitational, TBA, Manhattan, Kan.
SATURDAY
Volleyball, vs. Arkansas, 1 p.m., Jayhawk Classic, Horeksi Family Athletics
Football vs. Louisiana Monroe, 6 p.m., Memorial Stadium
Men's Golf, Fall NCAA Regional Preview, TBA, Rich Harvest Farms Golf Course, Sugar Grove, III.
Woodland
SUNDAY
SUNDAY
■ Soccer vs. Duke, noon, UAB Nike Classic, Birmingham, Ala.
Men's Golf, Fall NCAA Regional Preview, TBA, Rich Harvest Farms Golf Course, Sugar Grove.
the University of Kansas. Last
Player to watch: Senior Gary Woodland has finished in the top 10 seven times during his career at University of Kansas. I am
the university of kansas season Woodland tied for 75th place at the NCAA Central Regional in Chardon, Ohio.
U. S. OPENW
Mauresmo seals quarter-finals spot
Serena Williams lost to the top-seeded player in two-of-three sets Monday
BY HOWARD FENDRICH
AP SPORTS WRITER
NEW YORK — Gasping for breath after long exchanges, Serena Williams ran out of energy and answers against Amelie Mauresmo.
In a showdown between two women who've been ranked No. 1 and own a total of nine Grand Slam titles, the top-seeded Mauresmo won nine of the last 12 points Monday night to beat the unseeded Williams 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 and reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
"I could have came out on top had I made a few more shots and had I just been a little bit more consistent," said Williams, who didn't think her recent lack of matches was a factor. "Maybe a little bit more fire or something."
Williams, a seven-time major winner and 9-1 against Mauresmo coming in, was superb in the second set. But the outcome turned at 3-2 in the final set, when a 35-stroke exchange ended with Williams pushing a backhand into the net, then pausing for air — something Mauresmo noticed.
That sent Mauresmo on her way to a key break, and Williams wouldn't win another game, saying later: "Just fell apart after that."
On match point, they engaged in a 24-stroke rally that Mauresmo ended with a sharply angled volley Williams couldn't get to in time.
"I don't think she picked up her game 1,000 percent or even that much," Williams said. "I just think that she cut back on the errors."
What Mauresmo didn't do was force the issue: She finished with only 12 winners, 10 fewer than Williams. But Williams was largely her own undoing down the stretch, with 15 unforced errors in the third set alone, only one fewer than she
had in the first two sets combined.
Williams, who won the Open in 1999 and 2002, came to Flushing Meadows this time having played only 12 matches all season because of a six-month break she used to rehab her surgically repaired left knee and to refresh herself mentally, too. Williams tumbled out of the top 100 in the rankings, and needed a wild-card invitation to play at the Open.
If there have been questions about Williams' health and preparation of late, Mauresmo has been steadily erasing doubts about her mental toughness. She didn't win any of her first 31 Grand Slam tournaments, but she's now closing in on her third such championship this year, after the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
"The experience I've got really helped me tonight," Mauresmo said. "It's starting to show a little bit on the court."
That was certainly the case the way she hung in there after a disastrous second set. Mauresmo lost 20 of the set's first 26 points and finished it with one winner. But she regrouped in the third.
"Being able to keep the composition in these key moments is probably making a huge difference at the end of the day," Mauresmo said.
At the end and start of the match, Mauresmo wrong-footed Williams with groundstrokes and gave her fits by mixing speeds and spins. One example: Mauresmo broke to end the first set by launching a high-bouncing shot that Williams sailed wide.
With that, Mauresmo raised a fist, clenched her jaw and jogged to the sideline. Williams walked over slowly, her sister Venus (sidelines with a wrist injury) and mother looking on from the guest box, while her father snapped photos from elsewhere in the stands.