KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010 / SPORTS
11B
SOCCER
Emily Cressy wins third national title with club team
Junior Emily Cressy makes a move on a defender at the US National Women's Under 23 Cup. Emily played for the Eagles Soccer Club from Southern California during the summer where she won a national title.
BY JACKSON DELAY
jdelay@kansan.com
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Emily Cressy added another record to her resume this summer. The junior forward — who scored 12 goals last year, the second most in Jayhawk history — competed in the U-23 Adult Soccer Association tournament in July and helped her team win its third national title.
Cressy's team, the Eagles Soccer Club, is just the second to win three titles in the 31-year history of the USA Youth and Adult Soccer Championships.
"Being able to win three national championships is every player's dream," she said. "And we are hoping to win the fourth one next year."
Cressy has been with the Eagles SC since she was 8 and she is one of seven players to have played in all three of its championships — the U-23 title this year, a U-17 title in 2007 and a U-14 title in 2004.
"I think this is different than the other two we have won because we have not played with each other in a few years, so to transition from college soccer to our club team again and still be as good as we were is just a great thing." Cressy said.
In the 2007 championship run, the standout Kansas forward won the Golden Boot, the award for the most outstanding offensive player of the tournament.
Overall, she finished this year's tournament with three goals and an assist in four matches, all of which resulted in wins. The assist came on the winning goal of the championship game, putting the Eagles SC on top of the Arizona Rush, 2-1.
Cressy wasn't the only Jayhawk on the field during the championship, as teammates Erin Ellefson, senior midfielder, and Whitney Berry, sophomore forward, played for the opposing squad.
"It was the best feeling to know I was able to participate in a big play like that in such a big game," she said.
out we were playing each other, we kind of trash talked each other, but it was all in fun"
Head Coach Mark Francis said he can see the effect that playing in tournaments over the summer has
"We were texting each other throughout the weekend to see who won." Cressy said. "When we found
on his players.
"We had several players go out and do that, and you can definitely tell they look really sharp," Francis said. "Some other players are fit, but soccer-wise, you can really tell, they
are sharp."
Cressy also noted the positive effect that playing in the tournament had on her.
"The experience of the tournament definitely prepared me for"
preseason and the upcoming season" she said.
This season, Cressy looks to lead the Jayhawks to new heights.
gone before," she said. "I think this year more than anything I want to be someone who is pushing everyone to the best of their abilities."
"My main goal is to help this team get farther than we have ever
BIG 12 FOOTBALL
Edited by Dana Meredith
Receiver refuses surgery for injury
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Jerrell Jackson trotted off the practice field on Wednesday morning more intent on providing a verbal pick-up-to teammates than thinking about the dull pain at the base of his left thumb.
"It's so hot outside," Jackson said,
"I saw a dude selling shade."
I saw a dude sitting shade.
- By 2 in the afternoon, a grim Jackson was considering whether to have surgery on his wrist, where X-rays showed a fractured scapoid, or to have it put in a cast with the chance of missing only a couple of games.
"Surgery would have put me out for the whole year." Jackson said Thursday after a morning spent "coaching up" his fellow receivers. "I can touch it up after the season."
Jackson is definitely out for the Sept. 4 season opener against Illinois and probably won't return until after the Sept. 11 game against McNeese State.
"The home opener would be pushing it," Jackson said Thursday, echocool coach Gary Pinkel's forecast that Jackson would be out until the middle of September.
Already out for the season is reserve linebacker Donovan Bonner, who has a torn ACL. Today, former starting safety Jarrell Harrison will undergo surgery to repair a meniscus tear in a knee. After Thursday's first hard-hitting practice, 10 players were either out for the year or for some time.
Missouri can only hope that Jackson's injury is the last big hurt of what has been a brutal first week of drills.
Besides Jackson, Bonner and Harrison, defensive end Aldon Smith could miss a couple of days because of a hip pointer, Pinkel said, and linebacker Will Ebner was still on the sidelines Thursday because of a hamstring strain.
Also banged up Thursday were safety Kenji Jackson, linebacker Andrew Gachkar and reserve receiver Brandon Gerau. Reserve guard Jayson Palmgren spent most
of the day on an exercise cycle because of an undisclosed problem, and reserve receiver LDamian Washington had a thigh bruise.
Pinkel did his best to downplay the rash of injuries.
But at wide receiver and linebacker, in particular, too many things have happened. Jackson's injury has caused Pinkel to consider moving an outside receiver to the inside, or H receiver, position that is so key to Microsports offence.
"It's just two-a-days," he said.
"Thinus happen."
It was from that slot that Danario Alexander caught 113 passes for 1,781 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. It was in that position that Jackson opened practice
Right now, sophomore TJ. Moe is the player set to replace Jackson in the lineup. Moe has had a very good camp, but he caught two passes for a total of 8 yards in 10 games as a freshman.
as WE's leading returning receiver.
"We're going to keep everybody at their position right now," Pinkel said. "But we're going to make a decision probably after Saturday (the first full scrimmage of August). It's not fair to move a player ... from the outside, inside, if he hasn't had any work."
Right now, tailback Derrick Washington is the leading career receiver on the roster with 65 catches for 503 yards in his first three seasons. But his prime role is the leader of the running game.
"Surgery would have put me out for the whole year."
high school that was discovered only after he got to MU, a broken foot and a torn ligament.
"If I didn't make the first guy miss then I was in trouble," Moe said, "because I didn't have anything else underneath me."
Fortunately, Washington said, three true freshman receivers
Part of Moe's problem last season was an injury he had suffered in
JERRELL JACKSON Missouri receiver
as MU's leading returning receiver.
—Jimmie Hunt,
Marcus Lucas and
Bud Sasser —have
stood out in pre-
season drills.
On Thursday, Lucas
hailed in an alley-
oop pass in the right corner of the end zone for a touchdown during
seven-on-seven
drills.
Starting linebacker Luke Lambert's shedding of a protective red jersey earlier in the week helped ease some early concerns about depth at that position, which seemed to be thinning dangerously with the absence of Bonner and Ebner.
"We can't afford three or four guys getting hurt," Lambert said, noting that at one point the Tigers were down to 10 mostly healthy
"We have a variety of receivers that bring something different to the table that we need in this offense," Washington said.
linebackers. "It's hard when you only have 10 guards, just to practice."
Gachkar, a starter at linebacker, was also dinged on Thursday. He limped noticeably to the end of practice after intercepting quarterback Blaine Gabbert midway through the morning drills.
"Gachkar is a tough guy," Lambert said. "He'll get some treatment and he'll be back. So will Ebner."
"The practices are real physical and intense." Washington said. "You saw that with Egnew and Kenji. That was crazy. Egnew's helmet was bent up.
At safety, Jackson is recovering from a shoulder/neck stinger suffered when he hit tight end Michael Egnew on a sidelining reception.
"People want spots, and they're giving it all they've got. We just have to get everybody healthy."
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Big Ten enters its final season
With Nebraska joining in 2011 — not to mention the possibility of others also climbing aboard the expansion train — the Big Minsomer puts its 11-team alignment on the field for one final time this fall.
It's the end of the Big Ten as we know it.
Next season the conference will go to a divisional setup and begin playing a conference championship extravaganza.
It’s enough to bring pause to many lonatime Bia Tenn lovers.
It's truly an end of an era,
 said Ohio State coach Jim Tresel.
"A new era will begin in '11."
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