SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1994
SECTION B
Sean Crosier / KANSAN
Kansas junior quarterback Mark Williams scrambles against Alabama-Birmingham. Either Williams or senior Asheli Preston will start against K-State.
Mason stays quiet; starter secret is safe
By Matt Irwin
Kansan sportswriter
The word is mum.
Kansas football coach Glen Mason said yesterday that if senior quarterback Asheki Preston was ready to play Thursday night against Kansas State, he would get the start.
But Mason would not say if he thought Preston would be ready to play.
"I'm only as good as the information given me, and sometimes it's conflicting between what one person would think and what the player will tell you," Mason said. "Asheikli has practiced. If he's capable of playing, we'll go with Asheikli."
If Preston cannot play, junior Mark Williams will start. Williams started against the Alabama-Birmingham, completing nine of 11 passes for 144 yards.
Preston suffered a partially collapsed lung and a hairline fracture of one rib against Texas Christian when he was sandwiched by two defenders.
After the Jayhawks game against Alabama-Birmingham, Preston said that his lung was fine, but that his rib still hurt.
Junior offensive tackle Mark Allison said Preston had been taking as many snaps with the No. 1 team in practice as he had before he was injured.
"It's just like back to normal," Allison said. "Just like before he got hurt. They always split reps. They've been taking the regular amount of reps they always have."
But Mason and other Jayhaws said they were confident in Williams' play.
Mason did address Preston's attitude towards playing K-State after the Jayhawks' dominated Alabama-Birmingham 72-0.
"He's a tough individual," Mason said. "Being a fifth-year senior, I'm sure he'll very much want to play in the game."
"He really surprised me the way he came out with his leadership abilities in the last game," Allison said in reference to Williams's performance against Alabama-Birmingham. "It surprised everybody. He came out fired up. Mark built confidence in that last game."
--tournament, the first set in her opening- round defeat of Syracuse's Erica O'Neill, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
College football notebook:
Bernie Kish, Kansas director of ticket
services, said 5,000 tickets were still availa-
ble for the Thursday night's K-State game.
For tickets, call the ticket office at 864-3141.
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said that senior quarterback Tommie Frazier would not play Saturday against Oklahoma State but might return for the Huskers' Oct. 15 game at Kansas State. Frazier did not play in the Huskers' 42-32 defeat of Wyoming because of a blood clot in his left calf.
Colorado coach Bill McCartney, whose team defeated No. 15 Texas 34-31 Saturday, said that he was proud of his team's victory.
Osborne said Frazier would be taking two blood-thinning drugs until the middle of next week.
"I feel like we were emotionally prepared to play," McCartney said during yesterday's Big Eight coaches briefing. "I felt the true test was whether we could take the ball down the field like that. The heat was an equalizer of sorts."
McCarthy was also proud of how the Big Eight offensive player of the week, Rashaan Salaam, played in the Texas heat. Salaam ran 35 times for 317 yards.
Compiled by Kanean sportswriter Matt Irwin.
Kansas rugby hopes to get fields
Custom complex in the club's plan
By Kent Hohlfeld Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas rugby club wants to join a special group in the nation.
Only five rugby clubs in the United States have complexes specifically designed and built for rugby — Kansas wants to be the sixth.
"We got this idea in 1978 when we went on our first overseas tour," said Rik Renfro, the club's chief executive officer. "We saw that a lot of other clubs had their own facilities and thought it would be great to have our own fields."
The team now uses the fields at the Shenk Complex at 23rd and Iowa streets. Renfro said that scheduling conflicts between his club and other Kansas sports clubs at the complex made the prospect of building separate rugby fields more attractive.
"When we bring in someone like Northeast Missouri State, and the University closes the fields, we end up having to scramble to find a field," said Dominic Barnao, Kansas rugby coach.
Four months ago, the club believed it had found a good site for the complex. The team began the process of acquiring 55 acres of land south of Lawrence on county road 458 near Clinton lake.
The team hired architects to begin drawing plans for what would be called the Westwick Athletic/Rugby Complex.
Renfro said a lack of financial resources had kept the club from seriously pursuing the idea of building a rugby complex in previous years.
The club's largest obstacle will be in obtaining a "special-use" permit, which would allow recreational use of agricultural land, from the Douglas County Commission.
Phase one of the complex would include one rugby field, 141 parking spaces and renovation of an existing barn into a team clubhouse. That phase would take about two years to complete and would cost about $150,000, most of which would come from donations and club fund-raising events.
The plan, which was recommended for approval by the city's planning staff, was opposed by 10 area residents at the Sept.24 meeting of the Lawrence/Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission. The planning commission makes final recommendations to the County Commission.
Phases two, three and four would include more fields and a possible softball complex and could take more than 20 years to complete.
However, the team did meet with some local resident opposition. The residents' complaints ranged from possible traffic problems to the consumption of alcoholic beverages on the site.
Many area residents were unwilling to comment on the proposed construction.
The proposal could be taken up at the commission's Nov. 16 meeting.
But one resident, Pete Moore, who lives across the street from the proposed complex site, said he thought the club had a good plan.
"I'm all for it," Moore said. "They want to put in fields that people can use. I say let them do it. This city needs more of these kinds of things."
Barnao said that a new rugby complex would be a big boost for the team.
"For other teams, their fields and clubhouse really act as a focal point for the team," he said. "We're hoping the same kind of thing will happen here."
Dave Campbell / KANSAN
Source: Kansan staff research
Jayhawks use fall season to develop
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Kansas sophomore pitcher Robert Gola practices at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium during a baseball practice. The Jawhays are using the fall season to develop and prepare players for the spring season.
Scrimmages help coaches, players train for spring
By Cnesley Dohl
Kansan sportswriter
When the major league baseball season died, the Jayhawk baseball team revived the sport at Kansas with its fall baseball season, which started Sept. 15.
Kansas coach Dave Bingham said the fall baseball season served a twofold purpose.
"First, it gives the players an introduction into the program," he said, referring to newcomers to the Kansas lineup. "Secondly, it gives us a chance to evaluate the players in game-like situations."
However, this year's fall baseball season — designed to prepare Kansas for its opening series at Nevada-Las Vegas Feb. 10 — is different.
In the past, the Jayhawks fall season consisted of scrimmages against junior colleges and Division II teams. But a new rule in the Big Eight Conference took that option away.
"Games played in the fall season count towards the spring schedule." Bingham said. "We've had to make some changes to accommodate the new rule."
To counter the loss of fall scrimages, Kansas has been participating in competitive, intrasquad games. The fifth and final week of fall ball, which begins Friday, will culminate in a simulated, seven-game, intrasquad series.
"The fifth series is what we call the World Series for Dinner," Bingham said. "The losers have to take the winning team to dinner."
While the outcome of the final series might cost some players a steak dinner, to others there is much more at stake.
"There are some open spots on the team and it's creating some good competition," Bingham said. "These guys are competing against each other to prove who will play this season."
With the loss of nine players from last year's 40-18 team, Kansas has five positions to fill, including first base, second base, catcher and two outfield positions.
Sophomore Joe DeMarco, in his second year on the Kansas squad, is an odds-on favorite for the second base position. Bingham said.
But junior Josh Kliner, a Cypress College (Calif.) transfer, is providing healthy competition, Bingham said.
Though they battle every day in practice for the position, the two players said it wasn't blood-and-guts competition.
"We just go out there every day and play to win the games." Kilner said about ying for the second base position.
DeMarco said he thought the outlook of this year's fall season was good.
"We're getting along better," DeMarco said. "I think there's more team unity."
One drawback of this year's fall schedule is the loss of two players to injury.
Starting senior shortstop Dan Rude is sitting out recovering from surgery on his left shoulder. Senior first baseman Brandon English is recovering from an early fall season injury in which he was hit in the face with a baseball, resulting in two fractured cheek bones.
Both players will be ready to play at the start of the spring season in February. Bingham said.
On the bright side, he said, the injuries have given incoming players a chance to compete.
"Considering a couple of our great players are sitting out on the sidelines, we're having some good fall scrimmages," Bingham said.
Koves controls clay,takes first leg of Grand Slam
By Jenni Carlson
Kansas sportswriter
Kansan sportswriter
It would seem that things could not get any better for Nora Koves.
Playing in her first tournament of the season, Koves, a senior on the Kansas women's tennis team, swept through the SkyTel National Clay Court Championships on Sunday in Jackson, Miss., defeating Mississippi's Marie-Laure Boungol in straight sets, 7-6, 6-1.
"Mentally, she was very strong," said Chuck Merbzacher, Kansas women's tennis coach. "Physically, she's still getting there, believe it or not."
Koves dropped only one set in the entire
"Nora generally plays her way into the season." Mrzbacher said.
Koves did not take much time to jumpstart her season, defeating her next four opponents in straight sets. Though she had not played a competitive singles match in two years. Koves defeated Tina Samara of Georgia, 7-5, 6-4, and Notre Dame's Wendy Crabtree, 7-6, 6-0.
In the semifinals, Koves defeated Miami's Rachel Viollet, 6-2, 6-1, before defeating Bougnol in the finals.
Merzbacher said Koves played her best match in the semifinals.
"She played a hard-court game this weekend," Merzbacher said. "She didn't really make a lot of adjustments."
"She played solid from the first point to the last point," he said.
Koves captured the first leg of the ITA Grand Slam by winning the championship Sunday.
Playing on clay is not new to Koves because she grew up playing on the surface in Budapest, Hungary. However, Koves and the rest of the team play most of their tournaments on hard-court surfaces.
She is now the only woman player that can win the collegiate Grand Slam. The remaining three events are the Riviera All-American Championships later this
month, the Indoor Championship in February, and the NCAA Championship in Mav.
Koves also paired with sophomore Amy Trytek in doubles competition in the tournament. They lost in the first round to the eventual champions from Georgia, Tina Samara and Stacy Sheppard.
Koves and Trytek played through the consolation round and defeated Jan Barrett and Emma Peetz of Clemson, 6-4, 7-6, to place fifth. Merzbacher said he was equally proud of the pair.
"I wouldn't say it's like peanut butter and jelly right away," he said of Kansas' best duo. "They're still getting used to each other."