THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2007
SPORTS
SOCCER
9B
New faces bring talent to team
8 freshmen among 10 players joining roster for 2007 season
BY ALISON CUMBOW
acumbow@kansan.com
Fans might not recognize many of the faces on the pitch for the Kansas soccer team's home opener Sept. 6 against Brigham Young University. The team welcomes 10 new players onto the roster and hopes not to skip a beat coming off an 11-7-1 record last year.
Eight are freshmen, some of whom have played together before, and the rest are transfer students.
Senior back-center Afton Sauer hopes to provide some stability to a team whose identity is in transit.
Known by her teammates for her love for Britney Spears, Sauer wants to go out with a bang during her last semester competing for the Jayhawks.
Seniors aren't permitted to play in the spring season, so the stakes are high for the team to learn how
to play together quickly.
"We're going to go game by game. We have more trust as a team this year, and more confidence. We're going to do much better than last year, and make it to the tournaments," said Sauer.
Sauer is excited about her new team-mates.
"We've had the recruits here for unofficial visits and official visits, so we've gotten to know them really well. The
Nicole Cauzillo, a mid-center senior from Ann Arbor, Mich., also started out her summer playing
lifting. Many girls played on other teams for the summer months, which is what I did," Sauer said.
"We're going to go game by game. We have more trust as a team this year, and more confidence."
team chemistry is great," she said.
Many players used the summer to get a head start on their fitness.
"Some have stayed in Lawrence and others have gone home. Everyone has been running and
for a semi-pro team.
AFTON SAUER senior back-center
After tearing her thumb muscle, she turned to the next best thing: coaching youth teams.
"I made sure to touch the ball every day, and I got a lot of lifting in anyway," she said.
Cauzillo expressed high hopes for the upcoming season.
"The team works really well together, and we were all together last season, so I hope we can continue to do well. The new players
will also add a lot to our game"
she said.
This will be coach Mark Francis' ninth season at KU. He is upbeat about the prospects for the season.
"We have the best talent we have ever had this season. These are the girls that won the Big 12 Tournament and the Sweet 16 Tournament," he said.
Francis said the team progressed well last spring.
"We need to carry that improvement over, and add the mix of the new players. All we need is the right unity, the right work ethic, the right mentality, and with the talent that is definitely there, we will have a great season," he said.
The jayhawks play two games in Honolulu on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 before flying back to the mainland to host Brigham Young.
Edited by Amelia Freidline
Brown has been a starter since she arrived on campus, but this season she has to assume the leadership role and be the key player in each match. She is also the most versatile player on the team, which in turn helps setter redshirt sophomore Katie Martinicch be more effective.
VOLLEYBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
Martincich broke the school record last year for assists by a freshman. She will have to avoid the sophomore slump and produce the same numbers for the team to even have a shot at post-season play.
After being selected the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in 2006, senior transfer Natalie Uhart is going to make a big impact assuming she fully recovers from a knee injury. If she can stay healthy, she is going to be the biggest addition to the KU volleyball squad.
Junior Savannah Noyes was the biggest surprise for the team last year, in terms of performance. She learned her role, improved every single game, and became one of the top three hitters for the Jayhawks. This year she is going to have to
step it up another notch and use her 6-foot-3-inch body to dominate the middle once again.
Sophomore middle blocker Brittany Williams is the most experienced player in her class and will have to improve her number of kills and blocks per game in order for the team to increase its number of wins.
With only four upperclassmen this year on the volleyball team the sophomores and freshmen are going to have to step up and find their rightful places on the team. Four players make up this year's freshmen class, Melissa Manda, Melissa Townsend, Jenna Kaiser and Karina Garlington. They could see some significant playing time if they can show that they belong here in the first few matches of the year.
After a sub-par season last year, this year's squad is going to improve on its record from last year and return to the NCAA tournament.
Do you dig it?
- Edited by Eric Jorgensen
GOLF
Women have productive summer, look forward to new season
BY ANDREW WIEBE
awiebe@kansan.com
Despite the loss of Amanda Costner, this past season's Big 12 individual champion and Big 12 Female Sportsperson of the Year, the Kansas women's golf team has used a productive summer to continue building on the improvement shown by last year's squad.
Sophomore Meghan Gockel competed alongside Costner in the U.S. Women's Golf Amateur. Although she did not qualify for group play, Gockel said playing
with some of the best players in the country was an incredible opportunity and would provide valuable experience for the upcoming season.
"I'm just going to come back with that much more experience after playing in a tournament like this," Gockel said. "Being able to compete against the best amateur players in the country was a great experience. It shows me where I need to continue to improve to compete with them."
Gockel is not the only Kansas woman competing in a variety of events this summer. Senior Annie
Giangrosso and sophomore Emily Powers competed in the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship. Giangrosso narrowly missed out on advancing to match play while Powers advanced to the second round before being eliminated.
Sophomores Sydney Wilson and Alyssa Rainbolt were also busy competing in the Kansas Women's Golf Amateur Championship. Wilson finished fifth and Rainbolt ninth, continuing the success of Kansas golfers at the event after Giangrosso won the previous year's championship.
Coach Erin O'Neil said the experience her team had gained competing against top competition during the summer would prove invaluable as the season progresses.
"It helps them improve their game through competition," O'Neil said. "It just makes them that much stronger when they come back in the fall to compete for Kansas. They learn a lot, and it's good for them to play different courses and top players."
Although the team lost a record-setting performer in Costner, O'Neil said her team could continue to improve. Although the
team will be young, with eight of eleven players being either sophomores or freshmen, O'Neil said the team would look to Costner's example to build on last season's performances.
"Amanda has left some big shoes to fill, but at the same time she helped set a higher standard for us, and I think it's kind of an inspiration for the other girls," she said. "We will miss her but at the same time I think we will be able to learn from her and continue to build on that."
The team will begin competition by traveling to Lincoln, Neb., on Sept. 10 and 11 to compete in the
Chip-N-Club Invitational. They will follow that by competing in the Ron Moore Intercollegiate the following weekend in Denver.
Despite the team's youth and the loss of Costner, O'Neil said, they would look to improve and build for the future.
"My main goal is to take it one day at a time, give it our best each day and see where the chips fall at the end of the year," O'Neil said. "We want to just try and learn as must as we can from each day we are out there."
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