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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2008
WOMEN'S GOLF
Jayhawks focus on short game strategy
Team places 11th in Arizona and concentrates on pre-championship play
BY JOSH BOWE
jbowe@kansan.com
The women's golf team placed 11th in the Tuscon, Ariz., Mountain View Collegiate tournament last weekend, and the Jayhawks learned there is still room to grow.
"Definitely experience has to do with it," coach Erin O'Neil said, "but our freshmen and sophomores have competitive backgrounds."
With the Big 12 Tournament looming, O'Neil understands what needs to be fixed before the team goes out to its final tournament of the regular season, the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic in Norman, Okla., April 6-8.
"We need to focus on our short game," O'Neill said, "and to
just be confident and to stay in the moment."
For these jayhawks, that might be the best way to regain the momentum
they picked up earlier this year, finishing as high as third place in Fresno, Calif.
"We played at this course before, last year," sophomore Emily Powers said, trying to explain the team's performance in Tusco. "So for those who
leaders of these Jayhawks, finishing in either first or second on the team in each tournament played this season.
played on it last year, thought about that and not this tournament."
"We all go out there and try to play our best scores. It doesn't matter who finishes first or second on this team."
Powers has been one of the young
EMILY POWERS Sophomore golfer
"We all go out there and try to play our best scores," Powers said. "It doesn't matter who finishes first or second on this team."
the final day and had 23 puts.
"She earned during that final round." O'Neil said.
After Powers though, only one other Jayhawk finished in the top 50 — freshmen Meghna Bal tied for 43rd place with a score of 228. Senior Annie Giangrosso finished in 51st place with a score of 230. Sophomore Meghan Gockel tied for 67th with a score of 234 and freshmen Grace Thiry tied for 76th with a score of 237.
Even with two consecutive disappointing showings, O'Neil remains confident that the team will regain the form that the Jayhawks showed earlier this year.
"We can't worry about what's behind us or what's in front us," O'Neil said, "but just concentrate on the present."
Edited by Katherine Loeck
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
>> MLB
Emily Powers plays in the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational in Manhattan in October 2007. Powers and the Jayhawks finished 11th in the Tuscon, Ariz., Mountain View Collegiate last weekend.
Chicago Cubs fan Visorel Kamen holds a sign referring to the 100-year drought of Cubs World series victories before a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers Monday in Chicago.
Baseball season opens to soggy start
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Opening day — version No. 3
was a soggy affair for much of the country.
Yankee Stadium's 84th and final home opener was rained out Monday, as was the Cardinals' opener in St. Louis.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
There were a pair of delays at Wrigley Field as the Chicago Cubs began their 100th season since winning the World Series the same way so many of their seasons have ended — with a loss.
But there was plenty of baseball, too, with Joe Torre winning his first game as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Johan Santana getting the victory in his debut with the New York Mets.
"I called several of my players
    my former players. I should say
"The guys I've been with. I basically called and wished them luck," Torre said. "They meant a lot to me. We had a great relationship."
In the NL, Milwaukee beat the Cubs 4-3 in 11 innings, Los Angeles defeated visiting San Francisco 5-0, the Mets won 7-2 at Florida, Arizona won 4-2 at Cincinnati and Washington won 11-6 at Philadelphia.
Detroit's $138 million Tigers opened with a thud, losing 5-4 to visiting Kansas City in 11 innings, while Tampa Bay won 6-2 at Baltimore. In later AL games, Texas was at Seattle and the Los Angeles Angels was at Minnesota.
Later, Pittsburgh was at Atlanta and Houston at San Diego.
The World Series champion Boston Red Sox and Oakland officially began the season last week when they split a two-game series in Tokyo. And in the first game at Nationals Park, Washington defeated Atlanta on Sunday night.
But the other 26 teams were scheduled to get under way Monday. With baseball now starting in March some years and the
World Series threatening to stretch in November, weather increasingly factors into the start and finish.
In the Bronx, the tarp was still on the field when New York's game against Toronto was called after a wait of approximately 85 minutes. Players never got introduced, and Girardi's debut as Yankees manager was postponed.
"You want to get the first one in," Alex Rodriguez said. "Just have to wait."
St. Louis led NL champion Colorado 5-1 in the third inning behind an Albert Pujols homer when its game was stopped, then called after a 1:39 wait. The Blue Jays and Yankees, and Rockies and Cardinals will play makeups Tuesday night.
At Wrigley Field, Tony Gwynn hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning for Milwaukee. Kosuke Fukudome went three-for-three, hitting a tying, three-run homer in the ninth off winner Eric Gagne, but it wasn't enough for the Cubs, who haven't even reached the World Series since 1945.
Because of the 100th anniversary, even more attention has been focused on the Cubs' travails.
"How do I view it? ... It's not something I came up with, believe me," manager Lou Piniella said before the game. "It seems improbable. I mean a long time."
Santana struck out eight and allowed three hits in seven dominant innings, David Wright hit a three-run double and New York opened its season with a 7-2 win.
If only the Mets had Santana last September, when they blew a seven-game lead in the NL East with 17 games left. The collapse became complete when the Marlins scored seven times off Tom Glavine in the first inning on the season's final day.
starts.
Santana was traded to the Mets from Minnesota this winter and wound up signing a $137.5 million, six-year contract with New York.
Pitching against the team he followed as a youth, the northern Kentucky native finally won an opener with a six-strikeout performance. More than two dozen relatives and friends found a way to get tickets for the sold-out game in Cincinnati.
Arizona's Brandon Webb allowed three hits and a pair of runs in six innings. He hadn't gotten a victory in his two previous opening-day
"We had a lot of people, but I think half of them were from Webb's hometown." Dusty Baker
said after his debut as Cincinnati's manager. "He pitched an outstanding game against us. That's not the outcome you want to have."
At Philadelphia, Nick Johnson's tiebreading RBI double off Tom Gordon highlighted a five-run ninth inning. Gordon has a 135.00 ERA.
"It wasn't my day," Gordon said. "You definitely don't want to start that way."
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