6B
SPORTS / MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
VOLLEYBALL
)
Jayhawks lose match after five sets
BY IAN CUMMINGS
icummings@kansan.com
Junior outside hitter Allison Mayfield reached a season-high on Saturday night with 20 kills as the volleyball team pushed a match at Colorado into a fifth set. But the Jayhawks still couldn't hold off the Buffaloes.
Mayfield said that she and junior setter Nicole Tate have played together for three years.
"I was just getting a lot of good sets from Nicole, just getting up there and taking swings," she said. "She's good at keeping the team level-headed. She did great."
After dropping both of the first two sets, Kansas battled back to tie the match 2-2. Mayfield said the team did a good job of reducing errors in the third and fourth sets, but that Colorado played well overall.
"We just let them get on a run at times," she said.
In the final set, Colorado slipped
past the layhawks making this the second road game the layhawks have dropped this week, after losing at Nebraska on Wednesday. Each of their conference losses have
Mayfield
gone to fourth or fifth sets. Kansas is now carrying a 10-5 record overall and is 1-3 in conference play. Colorado broke even at 5-5 overall and 2-2 in the big 12.
Coach Ray Bechard said that not a lot went well in the first two sets, and that being behind by two sets on the road is a bad position.
"We didn't make enough plays," he said. "Their pass and serve was more effective than ours."
Kansas defense put up good numbers from the beginning, but it wasn't enough to win the match. In the first set, the Jayhawks had 17 digs compared with the Buffaloes'
eight, but still lost the set. Over the course of the match, freshman libero Brianne Riley led Kansas with a career-best of 24 digs. Sophomore defensive specialist Morgan Boub
Tate
senior defensive specialist Melissa Manda and junior setter Nicole Tate also contributed 10, 12 and 16 digs, respectively. Freshman
middle blocker Caroline Jarmoc chipped in seven blocks, and Tate tied her career-high with five.
Boub said that the Jayhawks struggled in the first two sets, but rallied in the third. "We came back in the third game. We came back and got our energy up," she said.
Kansas took a 9-5 lead in the third set with a seven point run, going on to win it 25-13 with the benefit of 10 Colorado errors. The
fourth set was closer, with Kansas down one point. The Jayhawks came out of a timeout and rallied with four straight points as Mayfield scored two kills together with one from Jarmoc and the help of another Colorado error.
Mayfield closed out the set with her seventh kill of the frame.
But the Buffalooes won the fifth set by two points. Boob said that in practice she would focus personally on paying more attention to detail.
"We just needed to play better," she said. "I'm going to think about what I can do and not take the little things for granted."
The layhawks will be back at home for a Border Showdown with Missouri at 6:30 Wednesday night at the Horeisi Family Athletics Center. The match will be televised on Metro Sports, channel 37, on Sunflower Broadband in Lawrence.
Edited by Kelsey Nill
NFL
Seahawks make errors, beat Chargers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE — With a metal rod in his right leg, Leon Washington was deemed expendable in New York.
Sunday, he was invaluable in Seattle.
Washington made up for a Seattle slew of mistakes and missed chances, returning second-half kickoffs 101 and 99 yards for touchdowns, and the Seahawks held off Philip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers
27-20 on Sunday.
Pete Carroll's crew is now a surprising 2-1 and tied at the top of the mediocre NFC West. And Washington looks like a colossal steal after Seattle grabbed the versatile back from the Jets for a fifth-round pick during April's draft.
Seattle led 10-0 at the half, but was still smarting from a time management failure at the end of the second quarter. Washington made that a forgotten meltdown.
His dash midway through the fourth quarter was the clincher. Rivers had just pulled San Diego (1-2) even with a 12-yard pass to Antonio Gates and 2-point conversion to Legedu Naanee with 6:39 left.
Washington caught the second
half kickoff 1-yard deep in the end zone, and other than a couple of flailing hands grasping at his shoes, went untouched for the longest kickoff return in Seahawks history.
Fifteen seconds later, Seattle was back in front. Washington got lost
in a pile, squirted free and raced 99 yards to give Seattle its final advantage.
From there, Rivers tested Seattle's maligned secondary that allowed the Chargers QB to throw for a career-high 455 yards. San Diego drove to the Seattle 14 before a pair of false starts backed up Rivers. On fourth-and-15 at the Seattle 19, his pass for Gates at the goal line was knocked away by Roy Lewis.
Rivers got one more chance after San Diego's defense held. Starting at his 45, Rivers completed passes of 16 yards to Buster Davis and 25 yards to Malcom Floyd. Rivers' final chance thrown to the goal line was intercepted by rookie safety Earl Thomas with 6 seconds left.
Thomas Morstead's punt hit Atlanta's Thomas DeCoud on the heel as it came down near the sideline and bounced straight up. Rookie tight end Jimmy Graham grabbed it and, just before falling out of bounds, tossed it back to long-snapper Jason Kyle, who tapped toes on both feet down like a receiver just inside the sideline.
The game was a back-and-forth affair that one would expect from longtime rivals who appear to be the best teams in the NFC South. There were bizarre blunders and big plays, including an unusual turnover by Atlanta on a Saints punt in the third quarter.
NFL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS — A charmed run by the defending champion Sanits ended with a shanked field goal by the same specialist who went down in New Orleans lore with clutch kicks last season.
Garrett Hartley missed an overtime chip shot, then was left to watch the Falcons rush the field after his counterpart, Matt Bryant, drilled a 46-yard field goal with 1:55 left in the extra period to lift the Atlanta Falcons to a 27-24 victory on Sunday.
The Saints appeared to have another thrilling victory in hand when Drew Brees drove New Orleans to the Atlanta 11-yard line in overtime. Instead, Hartley hooked his 29-yard kick to the left for his third miss this season.
Matt Ryan passed for 228 yards and touchdowns of 13 yards to Tony Gonzalez and 22 yards to Roddy White to give the Falcons (2-1) their second straight win. Michael Turner added 30 carries for 114 yards and a 1-yard touchdown plunge.
Lance Moore had a pair of
Lance Moore
touch down
catches for New
Orleans (2-1),
including a
career-long 80
yarder. He finished with six
catches for 149
yards and also had a 72-yard punt return to set up Jeremy Shockey's short touch down catch on New Orleans' first drive.
New Orleans converted the turnover into Moore's second touchdown on a 16-yard catch
Ryan, by contrast, minimized mistakes, going 19 of 30 with no interceptions and taking only one sack by Will Smith. *
While Brees was clutch late, he made early mistakes that came back to haunt his team, throwing an interception on a flea-flicker and another when he tried to underhand a pass, Brett Favre style, to Graham as he was falling forward. Brent Grimes made Atlanta's first interception and, DeCoud the second. Brees also, sacked by John Abraham and Jonathan Babineaux.
and run to put New Orleans ahead 21-17 late in the third quarter.
On the Falcons' 80-yard scoring drive to take the lead in the fourth quarter, Ryan converted a third- and 10 with a pass to Gonzalez and his scoring strike to White came on third-and-6.
Fortunately for Atlanta, Ryan rarely made a mistake and routinely exhibited uncanny instincts, decisiveness and accuracy in the clutch.
On the Falcons' 80-yard scoring drive to take the lead in the fourth quarter, Ryan converted a thirdand-10 with a pass to Gonzalez and his scoring strike to White came on third-and-6.
Brees, who was 30 of 38 for 365 yards and three touchdowns; drove the Saints into game-tying field goal range late in regulation; in part by converting a fourth- and 1 pass to Shockey for a 6-yard gain. Hartley made that kick, from 32 yards, with four seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Last season, Hartley sent the Saints to the franchise's first Super Bowl with an overtime game-winner in the NFC title game, made three field goals during the Super Bowl, and also clinched the Saints Week 2 win at San Francisco last Monday night with a 37-yard, partially blocked field goal at the end of regulation.
Ryan was at his determined best on a 19-play, 72-vard drive that consumed 10:39 of the second quarter and tied the game at 14 shortly before halftime.
He just couldn't come through in OT this time, and the critical miss looked similar to two less consequential misses that were hooked left in the Saints' season opening
win against Minnesota.