/ SPORTS / FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2010 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
TENNIS
Team prepares for first match
WEEKEND WORKS
Sophomore Iskaterina Morozova hits a threepass afternoon at First Serve Tennis Complex. Morozova posted a 4-0 record during the Jayhawk invitational tournament.
BY KATHLEEN GIER
kqier@kansan.com
Weston White/KANSAN
The women's tennis team starts its spring season this Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, where they will face Drake. The Bulldogs went 29-34 in singles and 10-16 in doubles during the fall. They sent six players to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional.
Last fall, KU went 32-32 in singles and 20-12 in doubles. They sent four players to the ITA Regionals.
"Everyone has been practicing really hard and everyone is getting in shape," sophomore Ekaterina Morozova said. "I think we will be ready for Saturday."
The Jayhawks train and play at First Serve Tennis in Lawrence. They will host their first matches there Feb. 5, when Notre Dame comes to play.
"We want to win all the matches that we possibly can and we definitely set goals for the team to achieve. We definitely have to take one match at a time," coach Amy Hall-Holt said. "But our goals are set to make the NCAA tournament at the end of the year."
The last time Kansas won the NCAA National Championship was in 1994 with a doubles team, comprised of Rebecca Jensen and Nora Koves.
"To be successful this year we need to improve as a team, stay together and work hard on the tennis court and in the weight room." Morozova said.
It will not be an easy road getting there this season. Eight of the teams Kansas faces this year are ranked in the ITA Division 1 Women's National
Team Rankings, and five of those are Big I2 opponents. Junior Maria Martinez and sophomore Alessandra Dzuba are currently ranked 44th in the country on the ITA D1 National Doubles Rankings.
Last season the Jayhawks went 91-110 in singles and 43-47 in doubles. Their season ended in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, but they are
positive about their opportunities this season.
"I am so excited about the upcoming season and I expect a lot from the team," freshman Victoria Khanevskaya said. "We want to have fun, play well and support each other, but always keep working."
Edited by Megan Heacock
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Wildcats defeat No.18 Lady Tigers
BATON ROUGE, La. — victoria Dunlap had 24 points and nine rebounds, leading Kentucky over 18th-ranked LSU 71-62 Thursday night.
tournament.
The victory ended the Wildcats' 16-game losing streak against the Lady Tigers. Kentucky's last victory against LSU came in the 1999 SEC
Trailing by three points with eight minutes remaining, the Wildcats scored 11 consecutive points. Amani Franklin's field goal started the run. Two free throws by Adia Mathies gave Kentucky the lead at 58-57.
Dunlap followed with a field goal and two foul shots. Mathies knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats
a 65-57 advantage with 4:15 to go.
Crystal Riley scored a career-high 11 points and Amber Smith had 10 points for Kentucky (17-3, 5-2 SEC).
Allison Hightower was the leading scorer for LSU (14-5, 3-4) with 23 points, but she missed 20 of her 30 field goal attempts.
Associated Press
Athletes in new roles for final home meet
TRACK AND FIELD
BY SAMANTHA ANDERSON
kansan.com/sanderson
More than 20 teams will flock to Anschutz Sports Pavilion, Kansas' indoor track facility, to compete in the Jayhawk Classic on Friday. It will be Kansas' final home meet during the indoor season.
While this isn't the Jayhawks' first meet of the season, some athletes will have a chance to participate in events that they have never competed in before on a collegiate level.
Bret imgrund is in the front of the group in a cross country race at Rim Rock Farm. Imground, a cross country runner, also runs in distance events for the track team.
This will be Rebecca Neville's first time competing in the pentathlon. A pentathlon consists of five different events that all test the athlete in a different way: the 60 meter hurdles, the 800 meter run, the high jump, the shot put and the long jump.
Neville had success a similar event in high school. The freshman from Merrillville, Ind., was ranked second in the nation for heptathletes. A heptathon is like a pentathlon except it is an outdoor event with a few more components.
"It's like a whole other level now," Neville said. "It's just turned up a whole other notch."
"It shows me that I am way stronger than I have ever been," Neville said.
Neville thinks that she has continued to improve and at this meet, she will have the opportunity to see if her hard work has paid off.
On the men's side, the distance team is hoping to figure out who is going to be part of the distance medley relay.
"The workouts he's been having us do this year are real good and getting us into shape a lot better than the workouts we used to do last year," Imgrund said. "I'm excited to see how they transition into races in the second half of the season."
"This weekend, because we don't know the quality of the competition, we're splitting it off so that those teams will be equally matched, hopefully so those teams can push each other." Bret Imgrind, a senior from Shawnee, said. "We haven't finalized the four guys".
teams, including the 2006 and 2007 Indoor NCAA Champions
Distance coach Michael Whittlesey is in his first indoor season at Kansas. In his career at North Carolina, he produced many very successful medley
Edited by Cory Bunting
MLB
$1.75 million contract gives Rockies a strong teammate
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Todd Helton's wish for the upcoming season is to make it through the grind with a little bit more left in his tank come October. Jason Giambi's return to Denver should help him accomplish that goal.
Giambi's $1.75 million, one-year contract with the Colorado Rockies was finalized Thursday, a deal that allows Giambi to spell Helton at first base and serve as a pinch hitter.
"Last year was probably the first year I really felt tired at the end of the season." Helton said. "I'd like to have something left at the end of the season so I can maybe hit a home run. Some of this is my fault. I'll take care of myself a little bit better and work a little bit harder so I can be ready at the end of the year."
Giambi's presence should make that a whole lot easier.
He hit. 292 with two homers and 11 RBIs in 19 games for the Rockies last September, when he had two game-winning hits and helped Colorado win the NL wild card.
He was a huge hit in the clubhouse, mentoring young players and veterans.
General manager Dan O'Dowd said he gained a fuller appreciation for Giambi's clubhouse contributions during meetings with his staff, manager Jim Tracy and his coaches last week.
"It became very clear to me how much of an integral part he was in leadership and accountability and the standards of what we're trying to become here," O'Dowd said. "I think that was probably first and foremost in the decision to bring him back.
"And then, too, we think he can be a
The 39-year-old is a 15-year major league veteran originally drafted by Oakland in 1992. He was voted AL MVP in 2000 while with the Athletics, then signed a $120 million, seven-year contract with the New York Yankees.
"It became very clear to me how much of an integral part he was in leadership."
DAN O'DOWD
General Manager
very, very productive player in the role that he will be used in, which is to complement Todd and to get a lot of big hits for us when called upon to do that," O'Dowd said. "And then with interleague play, we're adding a legitimate bat into the middle of our lineup."
He returned to Oakland last season, getting a $5.25 million, one-year deal. The Athletics released him on Aug. 7 and he signed with the Rockies 2½ weeks later.
He was quickly embraced by his
"He clicked immediately. Quite honestly, it was an eye-opener to me to get a feeling from the manager and staff and all the support people, everybody else around the club, and the impact they felt he had day in and day out last year. I don't think I even realized that."
teammates in Denver and the feeling was mutual.
"It happened almost instantaneously, which really doesn't happen very often in any field of work," Oldowd said.