The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 43, Ed. 1, Tuesday, February 24, 1998 Page: 9 of 14
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1
Softball sets for road series against Texas Tech University before conducting home tourney pg 2b
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Tuesday February 2 4 1998 Jf
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SU facility tough
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Wildcats to open postseason
Against third seeded Texans
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By Jarwtf Scliroedcr
Sports Editor
VXLJ
"Hostile" and "rowdy" were words
'.liscd by the mens basketball team to
.jenplain the playing environment in
Tarlcton States Wisdom Gym before
practice Monday
T Xhe Wildcats will open the Lone Star
iConference postseason tournament in
jthe Wisdom Gym Tuesday at 8 p.m.
The Wildcats have not won there
since 1994. The Texans defeated ACU
$069 Feb. 5 in Stcphcnvillc.
in-w ACU forwardcenter Michael Obudho
.recalled the game which was his first
trip to the TSU facility.
"It Is one of the most hostile places to
-play in" Michael Obudho said. "It really
affected me
-Senior center Droderick Dobb said it's
.bad but the fans were not what stopped
lACU from winning in the teams' last
meeting.
'' "Us not a bad place to play in. even
though the tans are rowdy" he said. "For
some reason wc havent played well there."
'However the Wildcats carry the
momentum of overcoming a 20-point
'deficit to beat West Texas A&M Univ-
ersity 91-87 In Canyon Saturday. The
Idss dropped the Buffaloes from fifth to
eighth in the national poll.
Coach Shawm Hays said the team has
g&llcn ttsed to playing without key
guards Bronsha Miles and Kenric
-Thluke" White.
t "We've polled buck together" he said.
"Losing Nuke and Bronsha made us have
to refind our identity as a team."
Obudho agreed "As a family it hurt us
but then we realized all we rave is our-
(sclves todoit."
"Havs said White who be cxtected
ibek for the playoffs will be out at least
J the rest oTlhc week.
Track team adds new qualifiers in meet
k
Sport Editor
TKir finnlTrnH.t(nm inHnnr nrirnrr
Qseet for the track teams ended with two
-VI mmmm ' ... ..ww. ...(.w.
bTfrst-place finishes at
invitational Saturday.
the Houston
The Wildcats who are the defending
national champions will compete in the
Envision II National Championship
cet in Indianapolis March 13-14
Coach Wes Kittley said he did not
expect a lot of bis athletes to qualify for
e national meet Saturday.
This late in the season were not
e to eet a bunch of Qualifiers." he
VaixA "We were hoping for three or four."
-The womens team added two auto-
Wile qualifiers and three provisional
JfeBalifiers
Jt; Suzanne Dickenson went from prov-
Honal to automatic qualification in the
5-meter hurdles. Dickenson ran an
'i72 in the 60-meter hurdles. Runners
Cpn qualify at either distance but the 55-
Catch
e 'Cat
HMoody Coliseum)
Drhe winner of the Midwestern Sute
h4 Eattem New Mexico quarterfirul
ewuipuyAUJ imintuy ida
latefe (Crutcher Scott Field)
2WayUad Hrauu. much j p m.
JUrding University March 12. 7 p m.
5 Southeast Oklahoma mid Ouachita
MMlst. March 13. 5EOU it 4 p.m. and
0U at 7 p.tn
:)fibH (Wells Held)
-.i Missouri Western Thursday 3 p.m.
'Wildcat Diamond Classic Feb. 27-28
'Missouri Western Emporia State
"Western New Mexico and Adams Sute
itb scheduled to compete.
SPanlundle State (2). March 4.
m
juftbllene Intercollegiate tournament at
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team
The point guard broke his hand Jan. 31.
The Wildcats won three of their last
four games to earn the fifth seed in the
tournament.
TSU 19-7 10-4 and the Wildcats split
the regular season series; the Wildcats
tWon 89-82 in Moody Coliseum Jan. 22.
Hays said he will try using a faster
starting lineup ngalnst TSU.
"We tried to go big on them" he said
of the teams' last meeting.
The coach summed up the Wildcats'
strategy as "playing every game like it is
our last."
Hays said forward Stcphan Sheckles
and guard Ryan Huntley are the Texans
key players.
Sheckles is averaging 18 points a
game against ACU this season. Huntley
scored in the double-digits in both
games and had seven steals in the two
games combined.
Forward Greg Austin scored 21 points
and had 12 rebounds against the
Wildcats in Stephenville Feb. 5.
The winner of Tuesday's game will
travel to Edmond Okla. to play the
tournaments No. 1 seed the University
of Central Oklahoma.
WTAM and Texas A&M-Commcrcc
University both defeated TSU in the last
two weeks of the season.
ACU embarrassed the favored Bron-
chos by defeating them 99-74 Dec 6.
UCO went on to post a 21-6 season
record winning 13 of 14 LSC games.
Cameron University; sixth seed and
third seeded TAMC will play in Commerce
TUesday. The winner will play WTAM.
The championship game is sched-
uled for Saturday at the home of the
highest seeded team remaining in the
tournament.
The top six teams in the region will be
invited to the South Central Region
tournament. The Wildcats were ranked
seventh in last week's poll.
meter hurdles are run at the national
meet.
The womens 4x440-yard relay up-
graded from provisional to automatic
with a different lineup. Juanita Rob-
ertson Tamira Holland Tamcka Rod-
riguez and Tracey Bamcs ran a 3:44.40
to finish second at the meet.
This late in the season
a bunch of qualifiers.
; v v -. K three
"!
RodriEuer replaced Carlene Vassell on
the team which improved its time by
almost four seconds.
High jumper Tracey Gust and dis-
tance runner Josie Martinez moved into
provisional qualification Saturday. Gust
jumped 5 feet 6 12 inches to win her
event.
Men's tennis team nets championship
ly Robert ientley
Sports Writer
The Cal Pqly-Pomoma tournament ser-
ved as a reminder of how dominant the
men team can be.
But defeating Cal State University-Los
Angeles 9-0 in the first round the
University of Hawaii at Hilo 8-1 in the sec-
ond round and the University of
California at Davis 6-3 in the champi-
onship round was "just another step" for
tennis coach Hutton Jones.
"We're trying to build towards nation-
als" Jones said.
The tournament gave the Wildcats an
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Dunk
jared Mosley dunks the ball while coach Stephen Harorick far left and Sam Maroney
look on Monday during practice. Mosley led the team in scoring during the regular season.
Martinez ran a 17:45.22 to win tt
event.
"That and Salenas throw were the
highlights of the meet" Kittley said of
Martinezs finish.
Salena Bcttis had a 56-4 12 inch
weight throw to win her event and qual-
ify provisionally.
we're not going to get
We wereihoping for
or four. i"
Wes Kittley
.
The men's team gained one new
automatic and one new provisional
qualifier
Mickey Grimes finished first in the
60-meter dash with a 6.71 to qualify for
nationals.
The 60 meters is not an event that is run
in the national meet but his time can be
opportunity to play against other Division
11 teams after playing some stiff competi-
tion early on in the season like Division 1
teams Texas' A&M University and Texas
Tech University.
The No 6-ranked Wildcats saw teams
that were as close to their level as they
have seen all season.
UC-Davis Is ranked No 14 nationally
and Hawaii-Hilo while not ranked pro-
vided a surprise for other teams in the
tournament with their unexpected solid
play.
"Hawaii I promise you will be ranked
in the Top 20 by the end of he year"
Jones said.
The Wildcats' win against UC-Davis
Airundt Rtiler
converted to the 55-meter dash.
Grimes has been nagged by ham-
string problems and had not gotten
past the preliminary heats in any meet
this season.
Stephen Moore registered a 15-7 in
the pole vault to earn provisional status
and finished fourth in Houston.
Kittley said he was happy with the
menV results despite not gaining many
new qualifiers.
"We didn't have a lot of men that ran
better" he said. "But they had a good
meet."
1 The men's team finished 24 12 points
ahead the University of Houston. Texas
A&M University was third.
Houston finished seven points behind
the women's team. TAMU was third
Both teams also defeated Texas Tech
University Southern University and the
University of North Texas.
Kittley said he wilt send about five
athletes that are close to qualifying to
the Arkansas Invitational in Fayetteville
Ark. March 7
was not as close as the score Jones said.
"A 6-3 final says that the match was a
little closer than It really was" Jones said.
. "I'm a little disappointed that we let up a
little on them."
Senior Lee Griffith got his first two wins
since returning from an ankle injury that
kept him out of the fall 1997 season.
Jones said Griffith is rediscovering the
confidence and consistency that helped
him finish the spring 1997 season with a
No. 24 national ranking .
"Lee's not back to where he was but
hes on his way" said Jones. "You have to
go through this painful process to get
back. You have to pay your dues."
"Lees getting back to normal" junior
Wildcats
break before
postseason i
;
mj feLrf -
Sports Writer
The benefits that come along wtth
winning the Lone Star Conference regular-season
title include a first-round
bye in the LSC tournament which
starts Tuesday. ;
The womenfe basketball team wilj
use the bye to try to regroup aftet
Saturday's 84-67 lossv to West Tcxa$
A&M University &i Eastern New tAtx
ico University and Midwestern Smt
University battle in the first round tot
the right to play ACU Thursday at
Moody Coliseum. J
ACU defeated MSU in their last
meeting 77-59. Eastern New Mexico!
fared better trimming the Wildcat lead
from 13 to five in the final 1:45 of die
game to lose 63-58.
Wildcats coach Wayne Williams said
his team is still trying to come bacK
from several losses that occurred thffe
weeks ago off the court ;
"I don't think we're back where wa
were three weeks ago when the flu V
us" Williams said. :
Among the Wildcats who suffer
from the flu at one point or' another
were forward Erica Knight guard Dc
cey Ewing center Emily Berry and cen
tcr Caroline Omamo
Another loss the Wildcats will fee
recovering from happened Saturday
against WTAM when ACUs pcrfecj
conference record was smeared. Z
"I think part of our problem may
have been that nothing was on the line
for us" Williams said.
WTAM the second-seeded team fai
the tournament has more tournament
championships than any other LSC
team with seven. ACUTj five champi-
onships are the second most but the
Wildcats have been to the tournament
finals 12 times to WTAMTs eight.
WTAM won the tournament last sea-
son by defeating ACU in the finals.
Williams said he was not worried
about Saturday's loss tarnishing his
teamls image in other opponents' eyes
because the Wildcats have already had
moments of weakness against other
teams however sparse those momenta
may have been.
"Tarkton played us really well at their
place and Texas Womans played us pret-
ty well" Williams said. "Against Eastern;
New Mexico we played -well enough to
win but we didn't really dominate."
If the announcements of the annual
awards for the conference are any indica-.
tor the Wildcats have the most dominant
team in the LSC.
A conference-high three ACU players
were named to the LoneStar Conference
South Division All-Conference team.
Omamo and forward Shalonda Bow-
den were named to the first team while
Knight took home second team honors.
Guard Amber Tate was given Honorable
Mention.
Omamo also received die conference
Most Valuable Player award. Bowden was
dubbed the Defensive Player of the Year;
and Williams was recognized as Coach of'
the Year.
Omamo ranked 25th in the LSC in
scoring with 12.4 points per game and.
her 9.1 rebounding average was good for"
third in conference.
Andrew Cole said before the tournaments
Last weekend was the first action that
the men have seen since their matchup
against New Mexico State Feb. 7.
Their next opponent will be the
University of Central Oklahoma Mar. 3 .
"We need to beat them convincingly'
said Jones. "They're gunning for us. They
want an upset."
The womens match against Texas Tech
originally scheduled for Thursday will be
rescheduled7. The new date has not yet
been decided upon.
Their next scheduled matches will be
against Cameron University Mar. 6 and
Oklahoma Sute University Mar. 7. The
Wildcats play home matches March 9-10
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The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 43, Ed. 1, Tuesday, February 24, 1998, newspaper, February 24, 1998; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth99783/m1/9/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.