2B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2005
ATHLETICS CALENDAR
FRIDAY
♦ Soccer vs. Michigan, 5 p.m., Jayhawk Soccer Complex
- Volleyball vs. Alabama, 7 p.m., Horejsi Family Athletics Center
- SATURDAY
- Volleyball vs. UMKC, 7 p.m., Horejsi Family Athletics Center
SUNDAY
SUNDAY
- Soccer vs. Wisconsin, 1 p.m., Jayhawk Soccer Complex
MEN'S GOLF
Junior golfer misses final cut for match play in tournament
Kansas junior golfer Gary Woodland won't be playing in the match-play portion of the 2005 U.S. Amateur Championship.
A second round of 80, or 10 over par, dropped him to 114th place overall. Only the top 66 players qualified for match play.
The final cut for match play was set at 146, or six over par. Woodland shot an even-par 70 during his first round, and ended with a two-round total of 150.
In yesterday's round, Woodland managed to make nine pars but failed to record a single birdie. He also had eight bogeys and one double bogey, which secured Woodland's early exit from the tournament.
- Kansan staff report
NFL
Former Cornhusker running back in trouble with law again
LOS ANGELES - Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was charged Tuesday with multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two days after prosecutors said he drove into three teenagers who argued with him following a pickup football game.
Phillips was scheduled to be arraigned yesterday afternoon, the district attorney's office said. He was charged with seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of child abuse and one count of hit and run.
If convicted, Phillips faces up to 13 years and four months in prison.
Phillips, a star at Nebraska before the St. Louis Rams made him the sixth overall pick in the 1996 NFL draft, got into an argument with several young men after the pickup football game Sunday in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, police officer Sandra Escalante said.
He left the park, but returned and drove a black Honda onto the field, allegedly running into a group of young males.Three were hit, including two aged 14 and 15,the district attorney's office said.
The teenagers were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said. The car Phillips was driving had been reported stolen in San Diego earlier in the week. Escalante said.
The district attorney's office said a bench warrant was issued for Phillips in 2003 after he allegedly failed to appear for a probation hearing at the Airport Court. He had pleaded no contest to one count of making a criminal threat in 2000 after he allegedly attacked a girlfriend in Beverly Hills.
Police in San Diego had been seeking Phillips since earlier this month for allegedly attacking his girlfriend twice, once choking her into unconsciousness.
Phillips, 30, was arrested Sunday and held on the domestic violence felony warrant and held without bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Web site.
San Diego police had offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to Phillips' whereabouts, and said he had indicated he wouldn't surrender peacefully.
The first domestic assault, in which police say Phillips' 28-year-old girlfriend was choked, allegedly occurred Aug. 2 at her San Diego home. Police said the second assault allegedly took place 11 days later when Phillips confronted the woman at a party.
— The Associated Press
SOCCER
'Hawks face successful season
Coach Francis discusses challenges strengths of this year's team
BY DREW DAVISON
ddavison@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWRITER
After winning the Big 12 regular season title last season, expectations are high for the Kansas women's soccer team.
Although it's tough to repeat as champions, Kansas soccer coach Mark Francis said the Jay-
nawks will work to control everything they can — namely, their performance.
"The benchmark is higher and team expectations are higher all around," said Francis at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
freshman goalkeeper, will compete for the starting job in this week's practices.
Francis said neither goalkeepers' performances have pulled ahead yet.
If one starter struggles Friday, Francis said he may opt for the other one in Sunday's contest against the Wisconsin Badgers.
Francis discussed the team's plans, goals and expectations for the season.
"This year's group could be more talented than last
He said the team was fortunate to win its first exhibition game last Saturday against Drake, 2-1.
Francis thought the team was out of shape defensively, and said it would be tested by the Michigan Wolverines on Aug. 26.
He also said that the Jayhawks planned to assess their team performance on Friday to answer some questions.
Other position battles include the
Colleen Quinn, sophomore goalkeeper, and Julie Hanley,
The main question: How to replace former goalkeeper Meghan Miller, who is a volunteer assistant coach for the team.
"We have a lot of work to do," he added.
Mark Francis Kansas Soccer Coach
final forward position, along with the midfield starters.
Even with the loss of seven seniors from last year, Kansas comes into the 2005 season with three returning All- Americans: Holly Gault, junior defender; Afton Sauer, sophomore defender; and Caroline
"This year's group could be more talented than last year's," Francis said.
Smith. senior forward.
With six incoming freshmen on the team, Francis said they would need to learn their roles in order to be effective.
Francis said the freshmen did extremely well in the game against Duke.
He added that team chemistry was good.
Smith and Nicole Cauzillo, junior midfielder, both said they were excited about the upcoming season.
"I'm excited about both games, and I am about as healthy as I've ever been," Smith said.
Edited by Becca Evanhoe
Tavlor Miller/KANSAN
Coach Mark Francis addresses members of the media Tuesday about the fall soccer season. Francis, who is originally from Shepperton, England, is starting his seventh year at the University of Kansas.
2005 UPCOMING SOCCER SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Location Outcome/Time
8/20/2005 Drake (Exhibition) Lawrence W, 2-1
8/26/2005 Michigan Lawrence 5 p.m.
8/28/2005 Wisconsin Lawrence 1 p.m.
8/31/2005 Missouri State Lawrence 5 p.m.
9/02/2005 Arkansas Lawrence 6 p.m.
9/09/2005 Pepperdine San Diego, Calif. 7 p.m.
9/11/2005 San Diego San Diego, Calif. 2 p.m.
9/16/2005 UC Irvine Lawrence 5 p.m.
9/18/2005 Purdue West Lafayette, Ind. 1 p.m.
9/23//2005 Baylor Waco, Texas 7 p.m.
9/25/2005 Texas A&M Lawrence 1 p.m.
BIG 12 FOOTBALL
Missouri player died from viral meningitis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A University of Missouri football player who collapsed after a preseason workout last month died of viral meningitis, the Boone County medical examiner said yesterday.
Swelling in the brain subsequently affected his heart and caused Aaron O'Neal, 19, to lose his ability to properly breathe, Medical Examiner Valerie Rao said. Toxicology tests ruled out steroids, performance supplements, alcohol and other drugs as contributing factors.
"The manner of death is natural," Rao told a roomful of reporters, photographers and television camera operators crammed into her small office for a press conference.
But while the cause of death was not directly related to an on-field injury or a training regimen, the autopsy results still don't resolve questions about O'Neal's care, said St. Louis attorney Bob Blitz, who is representing Aaron O'Neal's father in a lawsuit tuesday in Boone County Circuit Court.
The suit names 12 university athletics officials, including the head trainer, head strength and conditioning coach and Athletic Director Mike Alden.
"When you have viral meningitis, these symptoms start showing before," he said. "Nobody really dies from viral meningitis unless you have symptoms."
O'Neal, 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, started to struggle during conditioning drills about 45 minutes into the July 12 session, during which players wore shorts, T-shirts and football cleats but no helmets or pads. As required by NCAA rules, head Coach Gary Pinkel and his assistants did not attend the sessions, which are billed as voluntary.
Before he was taken to the hospital, O'Neal was driven to the football team offices — a delay that Blitz
The 19-year-old backup middle linebacker slumped to the ground after the final drill and was helped off the field by a teammate.
said proved fatal. Both University Hospital and the Tom Taylor building are across the street from Faurot Field, but on opposite sides. O'Neal was in full cardiac arrest by the time a campus police officer and paramedics arrived at the Taylor building.
"Had they taken him to the hospital (immediately) or even given him oxygen on the field, he'd be alive today," Blitz told The Associated Press. Viral meningitis "has nothing to do with the negligence of not getting him to the hospital."
Rao's autopsy report — the results of interviews with each of the 11 other players, eight conditioning coaches and three trainers present at the July 12 work out — also raises questions about the moments leading up to O'Neal's death.
O'Neal repeatedly lost his balance during a stretching exercise and told a player and a conditioning coach, both unnamed by Rao, that "he could not see and his vision was blurred."
ground after the final drill, a trainer who examined him concluded that "there was nothing that could be done." Rao wrote.
In the team locker room after the workout, O'Neal's tongue had turned white and he was "gasping and moaning," according to Rao's re-
An athletics staff member, identified in the lawsuit as Josh Stoner, associated director of strength and conditioning, then flagged down a university groundskeeper and, with the help of another football player, loaded an unconscious O'Neal into a pickup truck, which took O'Neal to the Taylor building.
In the football training room, attempts to revive O'Neal with an automatic defibrillator before paramedics arrived were unsuccessful.He was pronounced dead at University Hospital at 4:05 p.m., or just over 90 minutes after the workout ended.
Rao completed an autopsy the day after O'Neal's death, ruling out infection, trauma
and foul play as causes of death. She also ordered an extensive series of pathological and toxicology tests that took four to six weeks to complete.
The lawsuit does not name the University of Missouri-Columbia as a defendant because of the legal principle of sovereign immunity, Blitz said.
An athletics spokesman referred questions about the lawsuit to university lawyers, who did not immediately return calls yesterday afternoon.
Rao said she was not able to determine how long O'Neal had suffered from lymphocytic meningitis before he died. Nor has she been able to determine the specific type of virus that killed O'Neal. Additional tests to determine the culprit are under way at the national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, she said.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the tissues and infection of the fluid covering the brain and spinal cord, and can be transmitted by viruses or bacteria.
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