4B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY BABY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 17,2007
TENNIS
Duovies for title repeat
BY PAT TEFFT
ptefft@kansan.com
The Kansas tennis team will
The Kansas this week play in the ITA Central Region Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
The team is coming off recent success in the past two tournaments. Edina Horvath, junior, Budapest.
Martinez
Hungary, and Elizaveta Avdeevea,
senior, Obninsk, Russia, took second
place in doubles at the Cissie Leary Invitational in Philadelphia.
This past week Yuliana Swistun,
Junior, Ufa, Russia, took first place
in the Flight E singles bracket at the Hoosier Classic in Indiana.
The team wants to build off these strong performances at this week's
tournament. According to Coach Amy Hall-Holt, these impressive finishes are indicative of the hard work that her team has put in.
"It's a big confidence booster for our players," Hall-Holt said. "The girls are really excited to get back playing again."
Qualifying will begin Wednesday and the main draw will open Thursday. The team will send five players to compete. Swistun, Horvath and Maria Martinez, freshman, Abingdon, Md., will compete in the qualifying singles draw on Wednesday. They will need to win two matches in order to advance to the main draw on Thursday. Avdeeva and Kunigunda Dorn, a Sopron, Hungary sophomore have already qualified for the draw.
Avdeveva and Horvath will also compete as the No. 2 seed in the main doubles draw. The duo won the doubles title at last year's event and
preview
ITA Central Region Championships
Tulsa, Okla.
Oct. 17-21
want to repeat.
Hall-Holt said that she had been stressing the mental aspect of the game to her players this week to prepare them for this tournament.
"We want our players to battle for every point. It's important that they play to win instead of playing not to lose", Hall-Holt said. "We want them to want it as bad as we want it for them."
Edited by Rachael Gray
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Big 12 replacement coaches welcome changes, new ideas
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The dean of Big 12 women's basketball coaches senses big changes coming into his profession.
"There's a lot of money involved; there's a lot of pressure involved," Iowa State's Bill Fennelly said Tuesday during Big 12 media day.
This year's most headline-grabbing coaching change, in the nation as well as the Big 12, occurred when Jody Conradt, a pioneer in the sport who won 900 games,
retired at Texas. Taking her place is Gaol Goestenkens, who went to four Final Fours and was 396-99 in 15 years at Duke, one of the nation's most prestigious basketball powers.
At Texas Tech, replacing Marsha Sharp after 24 seasons, is Kristy Curry. Her Purdue team in 2001 came within one victory of the NCAA title. Now at Colorado is Kathy McDonnell-Miller, the all-time winningest coach at Tulsa who stepped in after Ceal Barry's 22-year run.
"Our conference has become a destination league," said Bonnie Henrickson, a big success at Virginia Tech before she arrived at Kansas in 2005 to replace Marion Washington, another women's pioneer.
"Ive always been one to kind of push the envelope a little bit, push myself. And I never want to be comfortable," she said.
Change is what Goestenkors vearned for.
Leaving a basketball-happy school such as Duke for a place that has always prided football above all else was, she said, "one of the most difficult decisions of my life."
Associated Press
Game marks halfway point Baylor, KU end first half of conference play
BY RUSTIN DODD
rdodd@kansan.com
Both teams found their share of struggles playing in an unforgiving Big 12 conference. Kansas lost four of its last five matches, while Baylor has done them one worse, losing five out of its last six.
head coach Ray Bechard said. "I'd be nice to finish the first half of the conference on a positive note."
in ninth at 2-7.
Tonight concludes the first half of the 20-
game Big 12 schedule for each team.
Baylor earned its two conference victories against Colorado and
"This is our last match of the first half of the conference."
Don't be alarmed if you have trouble telling which team is which when Kansas faces Baylor at 7 p.m. at the Horeksi Family Athletics Center. Aside from the colors on the jerseys, Baylor and Kansas share many similarities. You can start with their records. Baylor (9-10, 2-7 Big 12) and Kansas (10-9, 3-6 Big 12) finished the non-conference season with identical 7-3 records. Kansas has done slightly better in the Big 12 conference — the Jayhawks sit in eighth place with a 3-6 record, while the Bears sits a game behind
VOLLEYBALL
— Kansas vs. Baylor, 7 p.m.
Horesji Family Athletics
Center
Lino
game preview
Texas Tech. Kansas claimed victories against Colorado and Texas Tech as well, with the Jayhawk's third Big 12 win coming at Missouri.
"You just have to try to get as many victories in this conference as possible," Bechard said. "To keep any momentum, to keep any hopes at postseason alive, and the fact that it's at home adds significance because our goal all along was to take care of business at home as well as we could."
The Jayhawks have been the worst offense in the Big 12 statistically. They are last in the Big 12 in kills per game (13.63), assists per game (12.46), and hitting percentage .(178). But Kansas has managed to record the fourth
OFFENSIVE WOES CONTINUE
most aces per game in the Big 12. Bechard said a number of things are to blame for the inefficiency on offense. Bechard said that the first pass to the setter is critical, and the setter has to deliver a good ball to the hitter.
HITTING 100
During a season full of injuries and line-up shuffles, Sophomore transfer Flavia Lino has been in and out of the line-up. But Bechard said he liked the way Lino hit from the outside in the last few games. Lino, a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, recorded her 100th career kill at Kansas against Texas on Saturday.
Kansas and Baylor split their two game series last season with each team taking a 3-0 victory on its home court.
Edited by Ashlee Kieler
Kansas is 9-9 against Baylor during Coach Bechard's 10-year tenure.
Freshman Jenna Kaiser has been Kansas' leader in kills all season, and the Wichita native is coming off the best three-game stretch of her young career. Kaiser averaged 4.1 kills per game during games against Texas A&M, Colorado, and Texas, improving her season total to 2.70 kills per game.
"And it might be that it's a good set, but then we have a bad match-up against their blockers." Bechard said. "There are a lot of components involved."
KAPLAN
Take advantage of this FREE event to:
GMAT | GRE | LSAT | MCAT | DAT | OAT | PCAT
PRACTICE TEST EVENT
✓ Experience the exam under proctored conditions
✓ Receive a detailed score analysis
✓ Learn exclusive strategies to help you prepare for Test Day
COMING ALONG
You're invited to Kaplan's free
TEST PREP AND ADMISSIONS
Saturday, October 20th 9:00 AM | University of Kansas
Enroll today. Limited seats are available.
1-800-KAP-TEST | kaptest.com/practice
*Test names are registered trademarks of their respective owners.
After two days of competition at
the Prices"Give "Em Five!"Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M., the Kansas women's golf team sits in prime position to log its third
WOMEN'S GOLF Kansas in fourth place in Give 'Em Five'
top-five finish of the fall.
Kansas finished its second 18-hole round yesterday in sole possession of fourth place, driven by strong performances from sophomore Emily Powers and
senior Annie Giangrosso. Kansas is two strokes off the pace, set by leaders North Carolina State, heading into today's final round.
Powers trails individual leader Lene Hafsten-Morch of Baylor by two strokes in a three-way tie for third after carding rounds of two-over-par and even par. Giangrosso is tied for 24th.
Kansas leads conference rivals Missouri, Baylor and Oklahoma but must continue to perform well if it hopes to bring its second-straight team title back to Lawrence after winning the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower invitational two weeks ago.
— Andrew Wiebe
results so far
Team Score
Day one: 302 (+14)
Day two: 302 (+14)
Total: 604 (+28)
Position: 4th
Individual Scores Emily Powers
Day one: 75 (+3)
Day two: 71 (-1)
Total: 146 (+2)
Position: T-3rd
Meghna Bal
Position:T-24th
Meghna Pal
Day one: 76 (+4)
Day two: 77 (+5)
Total: 153 (+9)
Position: T-28th
Annie Giangrosso
Day one: 76 (+4)
Day two: 76 (+4)
Total: 152 (+8)
Grace Thiry
Day one: 75 (+3)
Day two: 78 (+6)
Day three: 153 (+9)
Position: T-28th
Sydney Wilson
BY TOM WITHERS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Day one: 79 (+7)
Day two: 80 (+8)
Total: 159 (+15)
Position: T-59th
CLEVELAND — Every swing, every out, every win, brings Kenny Lofton closer to an October unlike all the others.
MLB
World Series ring in reach for Cleveland
At 40 years young, he's still chasing an elusive World Series ring.
Once again, it's within reach.
For Lofton, and the Cleveland Indians.
pionship series.
Lofton's two-run homer in the second inning set the tone for Jake Westbrook, who kept Boston grounded for almost seven innings Monday night as the Indians moved one game up on the Red Sox with a 4-2 win in Game 3 of the AL cham-
Underdogs when baseball's consummate month opened, the Indians, who knocked the New York Yankees out in the first round, lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. And with two more wins at frenzied Jacobs Field, they can earn their first World Series trip since 1997.
"This club" third baseman Casey Blake said, "believes in itself."
Playing in the his 91st postseason game, the well-traveled Lofton, with his ninth team in the past six years, ignited a crowd of 44,402 towels-winging fans with a shot over the right-field wall against Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka.
After rounding the bases and
slapping hands with teammates, coaches, trainers and seemingly anyone near Cleveland's dugout, Lofton emerged for a curtain call and tipped his helmet as chants of "Ken-ny, Ken-ny," filled the air.
It's been that way since Lofton returned to Cleveland in a trade from Texas in July. This is third stint with the Indians, one of the 11 teams he's called his own during an odyssey that has crisscrossed baseball's map.
"He's a big-game player," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "He likes the stage. He understands just what it takes to have the right heartbeat."
And Lofton's is pounding like a
kid's.
"No," he said. "I feel 25."
As Indians fans danced their way toward the exits following the game, Lofton was asked if he felt 40.
He's playing like a man half his age, and the unknown Indians, despite a lack of postseason experience, are acting as if they've been doing this for years.
"These guys are going out and playing team ball," Lofton said. "It's unbelievable."
Westbrook, often overlooked in Cleveland's top-heavy starting rotation, got the Red Sox to hit into three double plays, the biggest to end the second after Boston loaded the bases with none out.
Over 10,000 locations worldwide.
curves.com