SPORTS
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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, October 15, 1993
11
Volleyball team set for road match
Valerie Rontraver / KANSAN
Kansas sophomore Jenny Larson serves the ball during a game against Missouri. The Jayhawk volleyball team will play Big Eight powerhouse Nebraska this weekend in Lincoln.
Team will be on toes when facing Nebraska
By Gerry Fey
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas volleyball team must be at its best this weekend when it faces the defending Big Eight champion Nebraska Cornhuskers.
"They're beatable," Kansas coach Frankie Albitz said. "But we're going to have to play at the top of our game."
Tomorrow night's 7:30 match in Lincoln, Neb., will pair up the two teams, both 2-2 in the conference.
The difference is that Nebraska is ranked No. 11 nationally and is 13-3 overall, and Kansas is 12-7 overall. Although the Jayhawks are not nationally ranked — they are
No. 13 in the Mideast region — tied with Ball State.
Nebraska's two conference defeats were against Colorado and Oklahoma, breaking a four-year undefeated streak against Big Eight foes. In that span, Nebraska won 62 straight conference matches.
The last match Nebraska played ended in defeat against Colorado, and that may not be good for the Jayhawks, especially since the match tomorrow is in Lincoln.
"It's always a little bit harder on the road," Albizt said. "The Nebraska crowd is a knowledgeable crowd, and they are nice to us. I don't know how they'll be after losing to Colorado. I think their team is probably going to be as ready for Kansas as they ever been."
Kansas' defensive game plan will center around keeping Nebraska middle blocker Allison Weston in check. Albitz said a defense cannot stop the 6-foot-0 sophomore, it only can hope to contain her.
"She's a really big player," Albitz said. "She's a really good player. She's going to have some kills. We'll dig some of her kills, but not all of them."
Besides defense, a key for Kansas will be disrupting Nebraska's passing so Weston can't get in on the plays.
Albitz said the Jayhawks would rely on their defense, which was ranked 16th in the nation. As of Oct. 10, three Kansas players were among the 10 best in digs in the conference standings. Sophomore Lesli Steinert, sophomore Tracie Walt and freshman Katie Walsh are the three players leading the Jayhawks defensively.
"If we serve tough, she will be out of most of the plays," Albitz said. "I think we're going to side out when any one of Nebraska's players gets a kill."
Kansas players said upsetting the Cornhuskers passing might be the way to win.
"Nebraska is so big." said senior middle
blocker Cynedie Kanabel. "If they can't pass, they can't run the middle."
Nebraska assistant coach Cathy Noth said that the Cornhuskers must have a strong performance from their outside hitters to combat the Kansas defense.
"I believe against Colorado our middles had a good match," Noth said. "We need our outsides attacking. In practice, we're going to work on our outsides terminating a ball."
And terminating the Jayhawks early is exactly what Nebraska must do to win.
"Kansas is the kind of team that you can't give a lead to," Noth said. "We cannot take them lightly."
Noth said Nebraska would be pumped up for this match after losing to Colorado.
Safety earns everything he gets
"Especially after a loss, the team is ready," she said. "After the Colorado match, we told them up front, 'We will not lose another match.'"
Past experience key to player's success
By Matt Doyle
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas senior free safety Clint Bowen had replaced senior free safety Kwamie Lassiter before this season.
Bowen replaced Lassiter at Butler County Community College in 1991, so it was nothing new when he was forced into the Jayhawk defensive lineup after Lassister broke his left collarbone against Western Carolina on Sept. 4.
"He was an All-American and AllEverything there, and they're a little bit more used to replacing people every two years," Bowen said of Lassiter. "He was probably going to be All-Everything here, too. He was the key to our defense, a big-playmaker."
Bowen has had to fill that role of big-play maker for the Jayhawk defense, and so far he has done well. He leads the team in tackles with 62. He has intercepted one pass and has recovered two fumbles.
Defensive back coach Mark Dantonio said that no major adjustments had to be made when Bowen replaced Lassiter.
"There's always that question in people's minds," Dantonio said. "But the thing about Clint is that he got an opportunity, and he has taken advantage of that opportunity."
Bowen has demonstrated that he can take advantage of an opportunity.
Bowen originally walked on to the Jayhawk team in 1900. But when he saw the opportunity to play would be
slim, he decided to transfer to Butler County in El Dorado for the Spring 1991 semester.
Afterplaying the 1991 season at Butler County, Bowen was prepared to transfer to Southwest Missouri State for his final two seasons of eligibility. However, he was six credit hours short of graduating from Butler County and could not accept the scholarship to Southwest Missouri State.
So Bowen decided to walk on again at Kansas before the start of the 1992 season. This time he made the team.
Bowen impressed the Kansas coaching staff during preseason practice enough to earn a scholarship one week before last season's opener at Oregon State.
Richard Devinki / KANSAN
"You feel that you have to prove something since you're a walk-on," Bowen said. "Whenyou get a scholarship coming out of high school it is like you've proven something already."
Bowen proved that he was worthy of a scholarship by starting the first two games of the 1992 season when Lassiter was hobbled with an ankle injury. He finished with 31 tackles and a fumble recovery in 1992.
Dantonio said that Bowen had done an excellent job this season of replacing Lassiter.
"Clint is a very intelligent football player, aggressive football player and confident football player," Dantonio said. "He has earned everything he has gotten as a football player."
Kansas defensive back Clint Bowen gets help putting on his shoulder pads before a practice at Memorial Stadium. Bowen replaced senior Kwamie Las siter as the Jawhaws starting free safety earlier this season.
Pitchers set and ready for action in Game 1
The Associated Press
TORONTO — Juan Guzman, who has never lost in the postseason, and Curt Schilling, who has never won, were picked yesterday to pitch Game 1 of the World Series.
Toronto manager Cito Gaston said Guzman would start tomorrow night against Philadelphia at the SkyDome. Dave Stewart will follow in the second game and starters beyond that, Gaston said, was uncertain.
"It depends on how we do," Gaston said. "We'll just go from there."
Phillies manager Jim Fregosi set a four-man rotation of Schilling, Terry Mulholland, Danny Jackson and Tommy Greene. The same four pitched in the playoffs against Atlanta, with Greene winning Wednesday night's clincher.
The Blue Jays also might go with the same four-man rotation they had in the playoffs, including Pat Hentgen and Todd Stottlemyre. But Al Leiter, the only left-hander on the pitching staff, may get a chance against a Phillies lineup loaded with lefties, Gaston said.
Both Guzman and Stewart won twice in the playoffs against Chicago. Stewart won his second playoff MVP award while Guzman raised his postseason mark to 5-0.
Or, Gaston said, he might decide to use only three starters.
"It means a lot to me to start the first game," Guzman said after Toronto's light workout yesterday. "It's something I wanted. I know the Phillies have a lot of good hitters. I'm just going to go right at them."
Philadelphia and Toronto, however, already have faced each other several times. The Phillies opened their exhibition season with a victory against the Blue Jays and went 4-0 against them in Florida.
Fregosi said that Pete Incaviglia and Ricky Jordan would split time as the designated hitter in Toronto.
"We see a lot of them in spring training. "Fregosi said." "They have speed. They have power."
The Phillies rested yesterday and planned to travel today. They will get their first look at the SkyDome at practice at 3:30 p.m. CDT. The Blue Jays will work out at noon.
The Phillies practice in Clearwater, Fla., and Toronto trains in Dunedin, Fla. The sites are a five-minute drive from each other, the closest separate facilities in spring training.
Along with their four exhibition games, the Phillies and Blue Jays played several morning "B" games because of the teams' close training sites.
"I know it was just spring training, but when they had their nine on the field, they looked good," Gaston said. "I said coming out of spring training that I thought they would win.
"They played us tough. They play hard, they play dirty. That doesn't mean they do anything dirty, it means they get dirty. They look like they get grubbier than our guys."
First novice crew regatta provides needed experience
By Anne Felstet
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas crew team will row down the Kansas River on Sunday in its first novice regatta of the season.
Flooding on the Kaw River this summer forced the Jayhawk sponsored Rowing 101 Regatta to be combined with the Head of the Kansas Regatta, which is held on the Kansas River.
Wichita State, Kansas State, Drake, Nebraska and Colorado will join Kansas in the regatta. The varsity rowers also will compete but not against the novice rowers.
Novice sophomore rower Eddy Rasmussen said that he had an anxious feeling going into the meet that could be described only as the "feeling that athletes get."
He said that he expected tough competition because all the rowers had the same amount of experience.
Coach Rob Catloth co-founded the Rowing 101 Regatta about five years ago with Wichita State. He said the race was designed so that novice rowers would experience the feeling of competition without the pressure of a varsity regatta.
Junior Lori Collier said she was anxious about competing on the river because the team has had to practice on Clinton Lake instead of the Kaw
He said his goal for the novice team was for it to row correctly with a speed that could be maintained. He described the rowers as, "unknowing, blind and eager to go out and race."
River. She said she thought that the inexperience of rowing on a river would hurt the team.
She attributed the team's strengths to the coaching and the member's physical fitness. She said the team shouldn't tire too easily because of its conditioning.
The rowers will not know their seating position in the boats until the day of the race. Rasmussen said the coaches were still moving the rowers around to see who had the best rhythm with the rest of the boat members.
Collier said she did not like that position because she did not want the pressure of having to set the pace of the boat. She likes to row in the seventh position. She said that she had to row in the bow a few times and that she did not like that position because she couldn't hear the coxswain's instructions.
Rasmussen said that he enjoyed rowing in the eighth seat the most. He called it the most glamorous seat because that person determined the speed of the water stroke. In a race situation, he said there was a lot of pressure on the eighth person.
Catloth said he was not concerned so much about winning but about the boats' speed compared to their competitors.
"I think they (the novice) should do pretty well," he said. "They are one of the best groups as a whole for a long time. I'm really pleased with the quality of the kids and their attitudes."
Atlanta flys past Los Angeles
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Perhaps it was the return of Deion Sanders that gave the Atlanta Falcons the fire needed to snap a seven-game losing streak.
Billy Joe Tolliver's three scoring passes, two set up by Oklahoma rookie Darnell Walker's pass interceptions, gave the Falcons a 30-24 victory over the Los Angeles Rams last night.
The go-ahead score came after Walker returned his second interception 7 yards to the Atlanta 41. Walker's third-quarter interception at the Los Angeles 23 set up Tolliver's 3-yard scoring pass to David Mims.
Sanders played most of the final three quarters at his familiar right cornerback spot after entering the game in the nickel defensive package with just more than four minutes left in the
The Rams drove from their 20 yard line to the Atlanta 27 before bogging down on four consecutive incomplete passes, finally turning the ball over to the Falcons, who ran out the final 43 seconds.
opening quarter.
Norm Johnson added field goals of 28,32 and 34 yards for Atlanta,the last coming after Walker forced a fumble on the kickoff after the Falcons took the lead.
Jim Everett put the Rams, 2-4, in the lead with a pair of long scoring pass plays — 56 yards to Willie Anderson in the opening quarter and 60 yards to Cleveland Gary in the third.
The 60-yarder to Gary broke a 17-17 tie with 27 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Sanders had been with the Atlanta Braves in Philadelphia for the NL playoffs Wednesday night and, when Atlanta was eliminated, made it to the Georgia Dome just under three hours before gametime.
Gary hurdled Sanders after making the catch around the Atlanta 40, fell to the turf, got up and then pulled out of Jessie Tuggle's grasp and sprinted down the side sideline to the end zone
The Rams also scored on a 2-yard run by Jerome Bettis in the second quarter following a 29-yard interception return by Shane Conlan.
Teams prepare for ranked opponents
By Kent Hohlfeld
Kenan sportswriter
Michigan Invitational precedes Big 8 meet
Kansan sportswriter
This weekend will bring the last chance for the Kansas cross country teams to compete before the Big Eight Championships on Oct. 30.
The competition will not be much easier for the women's team, who will compete against six top-20 teams. A strong performance could give a boost to both teams' post-season aspirations.
On Sunday, they will run in the Michigan Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich. Five of the meet's 14 men's teams are ranked in the Top 25.
The NCAA Championship at large bids will be determined in part by teams' records against the ranked teams in the tournament. Eighteen men's and 16 women's teams will automatically qualify for the championships by coming in
CROSS COUNTRY
first or second in their district meets.
The team will be without three runners who were expected to be key contributors this season. Sophomore Chris Ronan and redshirt freshman Jeff Peterson have knee injuries, and Clifton Railback will miss the remainder of the season because he has mononucleosis.
Senior Kevan Long said he thought the men's team needed its seniors to show leadership this weekend.
He said that he expected the team to improve and wanted to take that improvement into the Big Eight Championships.
"We've been dealing with the injuries all season," said assistant coach Steve Guvmon.
"We need to have a good race against some good teams." Long said.
"We can run a lot better than we have," Long said.
While the men's team looks for experience, the women's team will look to
gain confidence from a strong performance at Michigan.
Guymon said he thought the last two meets gave the women a good look at some of the best teams in the conference. The runners competed against Nebraska at the Minnesota Invitational two weeks ago without one of its top runners, junior Kristi Kloster, who sat out with flu-like symptoms. Kansas came in fourth while Nebraska finished second.
"We showed we can compete with them at Minnesota when we are not at full strength," Guymon said. "Now we're back at full strength."
Kloster will return to competition this weekend, where the team also will face No.7 Colorado.
Kloster said that Kansas' performance in Minnesota had encouraged the runners. She said that she looked forward to seeing how good Colorado would be this weekend.
"It'll be good to see another Big Eight team before the Big Eight meet," Kloster said.
Kansas cross country coach Gary Schwartz encourages senior Ashley Ace, freshman Julie Palmer and freshman Amy Cook as they run line drills during practice at Memorial Stadium.
Player out two days after trade The Associated Press
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Eric Dickerson, traded to the Green Bay Packers by Atlanta on Tuesday, flunked a physical examination because of a spinal injury that would make it too risky for him to play, coach Mike Holmgren said yesterday.
The Packers, trying to strengthen a weak running game, traded their leading rusher, John Stephens, for the 33-year-old Dickerson. He is the NFL's No.2 career rushing leader.
Stephens will not be returning to the Packers because the trade was an unconditional deal, Packers general manager Ron Wolf said. He said that the team physician had told Dickerson that he would risk paralysis by playing.