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Tuesday, November 5,1985/The Battalion/Page 7
Sports
Injuries don’t stop Ag spiker
By CHAREAN WILLIAMS
Assistant Sports Editor
Athletics and pain usually go
hand-in-hand. However, in a
noncontact sport like volleyball,
one usually doesn’t associate the
two.
But Texas A&M setter Lesha
Beakley has discovered that the
two are closely related.
Beakley has been playing most
of the season with a fractured
right hand and a knot on her left
kneecap, which the doctors call a
“jumper’s knee” — and all with
out the use of pain killers.
“I was going for a ball on the
ground (in September at the San
Diego State Tournament), and a
teammate landed on my hand
with her heel,” Beakley said. “I
thought at the time that it was just
jammed or bruised. Then 1
started feeling a sharp pain.”
After having it x-rayed, doc
tors gave her tne option of play
ing with a splint or having it im
mobilized, meaning no more
volleyball. Being a fifth year se
nior, the decision to play was an
easy one.
‘it’s my senior year, so there
was really no question what the
choice would be,” Beakley said. “I
want it to be the best year. Go for
the (Southwest Conference
championship) ring.”
Speaking of rings, it’s that ring
finger that gives her the most
trouble.
“It bothers me every time I set
because that finger guides the
set,” Beakley said. “It hinders me
some in hitting too. I can’t control
the ball very well because I can’t
feel (the ball) when I hit it. And
sometimes the ball hits off the
splint.”
But not too many of Beakley’s
sets have gone astray this season.
With her .437 assist percent
age, Beakley has ranked in the
Top 20 in setting efficiency all
Battalion File Photo
Texas A&M setter Lesha Beakley (right) goes for a block.
The 5-foot-5 “David”, playing
a game with “Goliath’s”, has pro
ven that volleyball’s more than
just a game of giants soaring
above the net.
“We need her in there,” A&M
Coach Terry Condon said. “She
provides stability for the team.
We would be weak as a team with
out her.”
Beakley’s transformation at
A&M could only be compared to
the “Incredible Hulk”. Her first
three years with the Aggies,
Beakley was a quiet, reserved and
timid player.
Now as the team’s quarterback,
she is outspoken, aggressive and
not afraid to give her teammates
a little instruction.
“She has improved 150 percent
since her arrival,” Condon said.
“When she came here, she didn’t
know what was going on. Now
she’s become the team’s leader.
She’s aggressive and takes control
of the team. We need that.
There’s only so much you can do
from the bench. You need some
one on the floor coaching them
during everv play.”
And Beakley said leadership is
the area of her game she is most
pleased with this season.
“I think the team looks to me
for help and support,” she said.
“I’m pleased with that aspect of
my game. But I have a lot of areas
I can improve in.”
Team-wise, Beakley said the
No. 17 Aggies (21-6, 4-2 in SWC)
can also snow improvement.
“I have been a little disap
pointed with the way we’ve
played because, and I tnink ev
eryone else would agree, our ex
pectations were higher,” she said.
Before her freshman year,
Beakley didn’t have any dreams
of ever saying anything like that
about the Aggies.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I
dreamed of playing for the Long
horns,” Beakley said. “I went to
some UT games in high school
and felt I could play for them.”
So the day after she graduated
with her (Kerrville) Tivy High
School class, Beakley headed to
Austin to begin the transition to
the collegiate game.
But after a summer with the
’Horns, Beakley was still without
a scholarship and a little disheart
ened.
“I really enjoyed the program
and the people,” she said. “(Texas
Coach) Mick (Haley) and I were
having conflicts. I played in the
Texas All-Star game and at that
point was still unhappy with
where I was at Texas. I talked
with Terry again. Terry’s always
honest with you.
“Anyway, through a series of
phone calls between Mick, Terry,
me and my mom, I signed with
A&M. My mom was a Dig influ
ence on me coming here. She has
always been an Aggie.”
And after all of the heartache
over signing, she broke her leg
early in her freshman year and
had to be red-shirted.
Beakley shatters the mold of
the stereotypical athlete. On the
Dean’s List, she will graduate in
May with an accounting degree.
“1 work as hard at school as I
do at athletics,” Beakley said. “If
I’m not playing volleyball, I’m
studying. I realize that after vol
leyball is over, my education will
carry me into the future.”
Top teams
knock off
Ag netters
Akagi Gensler reach
semifinals in doubles
By KEN SURY
Sports Writer
The Texas A&M doubles team of
Vanne Akagi and Gaye Lynne Gen
sler earned a semifinal berth in the
Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches As
sociation (ITCA) Regional Tourna
ment this past weekend in Austin,
but lost to a No. 2 seeded Louisiana
State tandem.
Akagi and Gensler, seeded No. 7
for the tourney, lost in straight sets,
6-3, 7-6, to twins Dana and De Ann
Watlington, who went on to win the
tournament.
But even with that semifinal loss,
A&M Tennis Coach Bobby Klei-
necke looked at the team’s tourna
ment play positively.
“Getting to the semifinals (in an
ITCA tourney) is the best we’ve (the
women’s tennis team) ever done,”
Kleinecke said. “In fact, we had a
good shot at winning the match, but
we couldn’t pull it out.”
In an ITCA regional tournament,
the first and second place singles
players and doubles teams earn au
tomatic berths in the ITCA Nation
als Tournament held in Houston on
Feb. 6-9. But other players may earn
an invitation to participate based on
how well they competed in the re-
gionals.
In other matches, A&M’s No.3
seeded doubles tandem of Kim La-
buschagne and Karen Marshall
made it to the quarterfinals, but
were beaten bv the No. 6 seeded
team of Beverly Bowes and Robyn
Field of Texas, 7-5, 6-3.
All eight Aggie singles players in
the tourney were eliminated by the
third round. But five of them lost to
seeded opponents.
A&M’s two other doubles teams
also lost to seeded tandems.
Kleinecke said the doubles teams
are consistently playing good tennis
and that should carry into the spring
season.
The singles players, he said, are
on the verge of having solid perfor
mances .
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