THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
FOOTBALL
PAGE 1B
Big 12 honors Perkins
Senior linebacker Brandon Perkins was named the SBC Big 12 Conference defensive player of the week, yesterday,
after recording a school record five sacks in Kansas' 34-14 victory against Louisiana Tech.
"We are very happy for him, and the entire defense." Kansas football coach Mark
Perkins
Mangino said. "Brandon does an excellent job of understanding leverage, and he understands how to fundamentally beat blocks. Quietly, he's been one of our best defensive players the last two or three years."
Perkins helped the Kansas defense record seven sacks during Saturday's contest and upped his team leading sack total to six on the season.
Texas A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal was named offensive player of the week, and Nebraska punter Sam Koch was named special teams player of the week.
— Ryan Colaiani
Blocker honored again
Kansas senior middle blocker Josi Lima was named Big 12 Player of the Week for her performances last week against Texas A&M and Oklahoma.
Lima recorded 19 kills, 11 blocks and four digs in the
jayhawks' 3-0 victory against the Aggies. She followed that with 21 kills, 11 blocks and two digs in a hard-fought victory against Oklahoma on Saturday. The 2'
▼ ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
kills tied a career high.
Lima has now received the award twice in her career. Her other selection came as a freshman during the 2002 season. She is the first Jayhawk to be honored this season.
Groups collect hurricane aid
BY MIRANDA LENNING
mlenning@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR SWITSWITER
Matt Wilson
The Center for Community Outreach and the Kansas Athletics Department collected more than $10,000 for Hurricane Katrina at Saturday's game against Louisiana Tech.
CCO teamed up with the athletics department for "Bring a Buck to Game Day," at Memorial Stadium, and the effort was part of a larger program.
assembled by Student Senate called "Jayhawks Band Together for Hurricane Relief."
All of the money will go to the American Red Cross for its Hurricane Katrina relief fund.
Concerned Active and Aware Students, or CAAS, a branch of CCO, took charge of the collection after Student Senate invited all campus organizations to get involved with their program.
Carly Burger, co-director for CAAS, said the group got the
With the help of the athletics department, CCO used list servers and word of mouth to encourage students to volunteer to stand outside the stadium and collect money.
idea from Marshall University, who held a collection outside its Sept. 10 football game against Kansas State University.
The athletics department
gave a free T-shirt and free admission to Saturday's game for all students who volunteered to collect money. Burger said more than 50 people volunteered.
The athletics department had collected money outside the stadium for the first two games and raised an additional $5,000.
Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, said the athletics department was eager to get together with student organizations as part of the relief effort.
"We met with several people on campus after the hurricane," Marchiony said. "We told them, 'We will do whatever we can to help.'"
Burger said some of the people who donated were from the Louisiana area and had relocated to Lawrence.
"When people came up and said 'Hey, we are from there and this money is for us,' it made it a little more special," Burger said.
FOOTBALL
Edited by Ty Beaver
Justin O'Neal/KANSAN
Junior quarterback Adam Barmann congratulates senior quarterback Brian Luke as he comes off the field after a touchdown. Luke was 19-31 passing with 236 yards, three touchdowns and one interception during the game against Louisiana Tech Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Conference play begins
BY RVM COLAIANNI
rcolaianni@kansan.com
KANSMAN STAFF WRITE
Mangino says team is readv
The Kansas football team finished pre-conference play with a 3-10 record and changes few expected. Junior Adam Barmann was the team's starting quarterback before the season, and junior running back Jon Cornish was believed to be only a role player.
Now, Barmann has lost his starting job to senior Brian Luke, and Cornish has scored five touchdowns in three games. Kansas football coach Mark Mangino said that he believed the team was where he thought it would be after completing the non-conference games.
"I think we are well-prepared for conference play now," Mangimo said. "We have to be able to prove now that we can go out on the road and win, and I think we can."
The first road game is Oct. 1 at Texas Tech. Kansas has struggled on the road, as it has won just one road conference game during Mangino tenure.
"We have some really mature kids in our program, and there is no question that they are ready to play on the road and prove that they can win on the road," Mangino said.
The defense showed improvement by racking up four interceptions in its final non-conference game. Senior linebacker Nick Reid said he thought that the defense still has work to do.
"We played better, yes, but it's not where we want to be." Reid said of the defense's performance against Louisiana Tech. "It's a great feeling to be 3-0 and know that you have so much room for improvement."
After running for more than 200 yards in the first two games of the season, the Jayhawks mustered just 41 yards last week. Mangino said
"We have some really mature kids in our program, and there is no question that they are ready to play on the road and prove that they can win on the road."
Mark Mangino
Kansas football coach
he planned to make improvements on team's running game before the conference opener on Oct. 1.
"I want to find out why we ran the ball well the first two weeks," Mangino said. "I think that we need to get in the mentality of finishing blocks."
While the offense was productive in the team's first two games, it struggled in the final as they accumulated just 277 yards of total offense against Louisiana Tech after Kansas averaged 406.5 yards in the first two games. Mangino said he didn't think the team had withheld anything offensively.
"We have got a thick playbook, so we can't play everything in the first three games," Mangino said. "There are things in our offense that just didn't fit the first three games we played. We are doing things that we thought were appropriate against the defenses."
Mangino said the team needed to do a better job throwing the football to different receivers. He said that getting more players catching passes would open up the defense.
Edited by Theresa Montaño
TENNIS
Kansan file photo
Tennis player Stephanie Smith, then a freshman, strikes a return shot during her match against Tula last season. Smith won her singles match yesterday, 6-0, 7-5, during the Hurricane Invitational at the University of Tulsa.
Strong doubles play highlights weekend
BY ERIC JORGENSEN
ejorgensen@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
A weekend trip to the Hurricane Invitational in Tulsa, Okla., was all it took for the Kansas tennis team to establish itself against Big 12 Conference competition.
The lajahawks scored big victories against the Sooners of Oklahoma, who were ranked in the 2005 Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. Senior Christine Skoda, junior Brittany Brown, sophomore Lauren Hommell and freshmen Ksenia Bukina and Edina Horvath all notched victories against the Sooners. Kansas had a 5-1 tournament record in singles matches against Oklahoma.
Brown and Skoda led the way for the Jayhawks in singles play, finishing with records of 2-0 and 3-0, respectively. Brown said her performance in the tournament was better than how she was playing before the weekend.
"We came out aggressive at the net. It blew them off the court. They just sat back and we went after them. We poached on their shots and moved up to the net."
Bukina Brown
Sophomore
"It's always good to get wins against Oklahoma," Kansas tennis coach Amy Hall-Holt said. "It was exciting tennis. Everyone played well and I was very pleased with the doubles."
Kansas held its own against other opponents as well, including Oklahoma State, Wichita State, Missouri State and Tulsa.
"I hit more of my shots. I didn't push as much," Brown said. "The tournament was good for my confidence."
"We came out aggressive at the net," Brown said. "It blew them off the court. They just sat back and we went after them. We poached on their shots and moved up to the net. We really got after it."
This will be the third year Brown and
Brown and Skoda tallied three wins with no losses, which included victories over Missouri State, Wichita State and Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane finished ranked in the 2005 ITA standings as well.
The doubles teams of sophomore Elizaveta Avdeeva and Bukina, Brown and Skoda, and Hommell
and Horvath finished the weekend with a cumulative 8-2 record.
Skoda have played doubles together
Skoda sat out Sunday because of soreness. Sophhore Stephanie Smith played in her place, defeating her only opponent. The only team to cause problems for the Jayhawks was Oklahoma State. The Jayhawks finished 3-3 in singles against the Cowboys.
"I think Skoda and I work well as a team, Brown said. "I always feel like we are going to win."
"OSU on Friday gave us some trouble," Hall-Holt said. "Opening up the season is always tough. We worked the kinks out later, though."
Hall-Holt said the tournament allowed Kansas to get a look at teams it will play during the spring.
"Considering it's our first meet, we played well," Hall-Holt said. "I'd rank our performance close to 9 out of 10."
Kansas will be in action again on Sept. 30 in the Indiana Invitational from Bloomington, Ind.
Edited by Erick R. Schmidt
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