Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 1995)
The Battalion Monday December 4, 1995 At a Glance Sports Briefs Alamo Bowl tickets to go on sale Thursday Texas A&M students will be able to purchase tickets for the Builders Square Alamo Bowl beginning Thursday, Dec. 7 at 7 a.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum. Students must have a TAMU sports card for each ticket pur chased. Tickets are $40.50 for TAMU students. All classifications are eligible to buy tickets beginning on Thursday. The Aggies, ranked No. 19 by the Associated Press will face the Michigan Wolverines at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 28 in the Alamod- ome in San Antonio. The Wolverines are 8-3 on the year and are ranked No. 14 in the AP poll. The bowl requires the participat ing schools to purchase in excess of 10,000 tickets and Aggie fans who did not purchase season tickets and are not members of the 1 2th Man Foundation are encouraged to call the Texas A&M ticket office at 409- 845-2311. Allen charter member of 10,000 / 5,000 club The Texas A&M Women's Bas ketball Team defeated the Universi ty of Notre 88-84 in overtime Sun day night in FHawaii. The Lady Aggies were led by se nior point guard Lisa Branch, who scored 24 points and dished out nine assists. A&M led 39-35 at halftime, but UN tied it with a 40-36 advantage in the second half. Other key contributers for A&M were Kelly Cerny with 14 points and three blocks, Marianne Miller-Sevin with 16 points and 12 rebounds and Lana Tucker with 1 5 points. Sports Roundup Record Pv 1. Nebraska 11 -0-0 1 2. Florida 12-0-0 2 3. Northwestern 10-1-0 3 4. Ohio St. 11-1-0 5 tie. Tennessee 10-1-0 4 6. NotreDame 9-2-0 6 7. Colorado 9-2-0 7 8. FloridaSt. 9-2-0 8 9. Texas 10-1-1 9 10. Kansas St. 9-2-0 10 11. Kansas 9-2-0 11 12. Oregon 9-2-0 12 13. Va.Tech 9-2-0 13 14. Michigan 9-3-0 14 15. Penn St. 8-3-0 15 16. Auburn 8-3-0 17 17. USC 8-2-1 18 18. Virginia 8-4-0 19 19. Texas A&M i 8-3-0 16 20. Washington 7-3-1 20 21. Alabama 8-3-0 21 22. Miami 8-3-0 22 23. Clemson 8-3-0 24 24. Arkansas 8-4-0 23 25. Toledo 10-0-1 25 Others receiving votes: Syracuse 57, UCLA 48, Texas Tech 25, Stan ford 19, East Carolina 14, Colorado St. 11, Michigan St. 6, Nevada 2. Sports Roundup nfl Redskins 21, Cowboys 17 Steelers 21, Oilers 7 Upcoming Events A&M Volleyball The Lady Aggie Volleyball Team will travel to Gainseville, Fla. Thurs day night to take on the 33-1 Florida Gators in the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament. Men's Basketball The Men's Basketball Team will host the University of North Texas Wednesday night at G. Rollie White Coliseum beginning at 7 p.m. The Aggies are 2-1 on the regular season. Aggie Football The Aggies will play the Univer sity of Michigan in the Builders Square Alamo Bowl Dec. 28 in San Antonio. The Wolverines are 9-3 and ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll, while the Aggies finished their sea son 8-3 and ranked 19th. NFL Football Sunday: Detroit Lions at Houston Oilers, 12 p.m. Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles, 12 p.m. Sweet sweep: A&M in final 16 □ The Lady Aggie Volleyball Team defeated South Caroli na 3-0 in an NCAA match. By Tom Day The Battalion With A&M football fans down in the dumps on Sunday, the Lady Ag gie Volleyball team did its part to keep the athletic program from go ing winless over a disappointing weekend. The Lady Aggies eliminated the Gamecocks of South Carolina in three games at G. Rollie White Coli seum, 15-6, 17-15, and 15-12 in a second-round NCAA match. Having been off since Nov. 20 af ter receiving a first-round bye in the tournament, the Aggies responed with a solid effort in dispatching use. A&M Head Volleyball Coach Lau rie Corbelli said despite the Lady Aggies’ rusty play, she was pleased with their effort and just happy to get the match over with. “We weren’t clicking great at times, but I’m not really worried about it,” Corbelli said. “We were still getting back into the game mode. I don’t like playing matches like this one because we were ex pected to win and that puts a lot of pressure on you.” With the victory, A&M accom plished an early-season goal of ad vancing past the second round of the tournament and into the final round ofl6 teams. “We were all excited about play ing the second round at home,” se nior outside hitter Andrea Williams said. “We didn’t want our season to end, especially with such a talented team we have.” Corebelli said although the Sweet 16 was such a big goal, she had not realized yet that her squad had ac complished it. “It still really hasn’t hit me yet that we are going to the Sweet 16,” Corbelli said. “I was expecting it, but this was such a big match for us. I had all my focus on this match and doing what we needed to do and we got the job done.” In the opening game, the Lady Aggies hardly looked like a team that hadn’t played in two weeks. Mixing a combination of finesse shots with bonecrushing kills, A&M kept USC off balance and guessing in building an insurmountable 12-1 lead, then coasting to a 15-6 win. “We hadn’t heard anything about (South Carolina),” sophomore middle blocker Cindy VanderWoude said. “That was good, because sometimes we feel like we over analyze too much if we know a lot about a team.” A&M looked a little more human in the second game, falling behind 11-7. However, the well-rested Ag gies were not through as they came back to tie the game at 14 apiece. Following another USC point, A&M got clutch kills from Vander Woude and sophomore outside hitter Kristie Smedsrud to fend off two game points before coming back to take the game 17-15. The third game was a hard-fought battle that saw four lead changes and three ties before the Aggies pulled it out. Recording 42 assists in her final game at G. Rollie White Coliseum, senior setter Suzy Wente said emo tions did not distract her from focus ing on the match. “I really didn’t think about this being our last match in G. Rollie,” Wente said. “I was just confident we would play well and win this game.” The Aggies were led by WilliamsT5 kills and Vanderwoude’s match-high 14 digs and nine kills. Corbelli said A&M made well on its prematch goal to improve on blocking and defense. “Our offense is pretty sharp most of the time,” Corbelli said. “Blocking and defense are the key to matches and we focus on that. Our two right side players are 5-foot-7-inch and 5- foot-9-inch, and they’re blocking out side hitters on some of the best teams in the country. That’s pretty unusual for a Sweet 16 team.” The No. 17 Lady Aggies are slated to play the University of Florida in the third round Thursday in Gainsville, Fla. The Gators are 33-1 and ranked No. 4 in the country. Going into the match as heavy underdogs, Corbelli said she likes the position her team is in. “Florida is in their home gym and they are expected to win because they have to,” Corbelli said. “We can be relaxed and focused and get after them according to game plan. I think we’re a much more polished and de termined team, and if we give it all our heart and energy, we have a chance. Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion Texas A&M's Page White jumps to knock one over the net during Sunday's 3-0 win over South Carolina. Offensive woes kill A&M hopes Nick Georgandis Sports Editor R umor has it the Texas A&M Athletic Depart ment is organizing a field trip for the football team to Los Angeles to visit shock-jock Howard Stern. Seems the guys in charge are trying to drill into the Aggies’ heads that it’s O.K. to be offen sive — heck, sometimes you can even be successful that way. Now the Aggies put up 404 yards of offense on the board Saturday against the Universi ty of Texas — yet they still not only lost the game, but also could not get the damn ball in the end zone even once. Saturday’s lackluster perfor mance was a case study of two theories that have been fester ing on this campus since Au gust. The first is that Offensive Coordinator Steve Ensminger doesn’t know how to fully har ness our players’ potentials. There is just as much talent on the offensive side of the ball as there is on the defense. Yet, the defense has been one of the top five in the country all year, while the offense has had diffi culties staying in the top five in the Southwest Conference. When Ensminger came in from Georgia two years ago, he came in lauded as the genius behind great players like Eric Zeier and Garrison Hearst. He was supposed to open up A&M’s passing game into the pro set that the Bulldogs ran to such success in the early 1990s. It hasn’t happened, and it’s not going to happen. Plain and simple, the Aggies run a bunch of stupid plays, and it ends up costing See Georgandis, Page io Texas breaks A&M’s 31-game home win streak Continued from Page 1 With six turnovers the Aggies might as well have handed Texas the win. “It’s really difficult to turn the ball over and win against a team like Texas,” senior quar terback Corey F*ullig said. “It’s been our story throughout the year, if we don’t turn the ball over we’ve got a pretty good chance to win the ballgame. The Aggie’s first turnover came in the first quarter with 4:57 left when Leeland McElroy fumbled the ball on the after being hit by Texas’ Stonie Clark. The ball was recovered by Taje Allen. The second fumble came early with 14:36 left in the half. Pullig fumbled the ball after being smashed by Texas’s Bryant Westbrook who recovered the ball for the Longhorns. Only five minutes had passed when a Pullig pass was inter cepted by free safety Chris Carter who ran the ball back 41 yards to the A&M 33-yard line. Although the Longhorns did not score on either A&M turnover in the second quarter, two potential A&M drives were thwarted, leaving the Aggies’ scoreless at halftime for only the second time this season. It was the fist game since the 1993 Cot ton Bowl that A&M failed to score a touchdown. Senior comerback Ray Mick- ens, playing in his final home game, lamented the lack of scor ing, especially because of the de fense’s solid performance. “There were some guys on the ‘Wreck ing Crew’ who were playing their hearts out today and that’s something I love,” Mickens said. “It’s just too bad we couldn’t score any points.” “We kicked two field goals and we could’ve had 14 points,” wide receiver Chris Sanders said. “It gets frustrating when you keep kicking field goals in stead of getting six points.” The most costly failure to score came late in the third quarter. With the Aggies trailing 6-0, they drove from their own 17-yard line to a first-and-goal at the Texas 6-yard line. After freshman Sirr Parker gained four yards, Pullig rolled out and threw an incomplete pass intended for freshman fullback Marc Broyles, who got his hands on the ball, but could not hold on to it in the back of the end zone. A 17-yard run by Williams brought them to a first-and- goal at the 1-yard line. Two plays later, Williams scored on a three-yard run to give the Longhorns a 13-3 advantage late in the third quarter. On the Aggies’ next posses sion they drove deep into UT ter ritory, but again had to settle for a field goal. Kyle Bryant kicked a 22-yard field goal that bringing the Aggies within a touchdown and a two-point conversion range for a win at 13-6 with 11:30 left in the game. The Longhorn offense was not ready to give up yet. Brown threw a clutch 16-yarder to Adams on third-and-9, and he connected with Williams for a 23-yard screen pass that set up their last scoring drive of the ball game, a 26-yard field goal by Phil Dawson for a 16-6 lead with 7:55 left to play. With little time left and no room for error the Aggies set out to close the gap that kept them from a win. Pullig com pleted his next four passes and brought A&M to the Longhorn’s 17-yard line. On first down, Brackens hit Pullig with a blindside sack that forced a fumble. “At that point, there was no doubt in my mind that if we could get it in the end zone we would drive back down and put another score on the board, “Pullig said. “I had no doubt that we still had a chance to win the ball game. They made the plays when they had to, and we just didn’t come up with the big plays when we needed them. That was the difference in the game.” In A&M’s last possession, a 51-yard shovel pass to Leeland McElroy from Pullig took the Ag gies to the Texas 17-yard line. The drive was brought to an end with 2:09 remaining when Pullig was intercepted by Chris Carter. Williams led the scoring for the Longhorns running in both of Texas’ touchdowns, with a 21- yard run to score in the second quarter. He rushed for 163 yards on 24 carries, giving him 990 yards for the season. The Longhorns finished the game with 246-yards on the ground, the most given up by A&M since giving up 200 to Notre Dame in the 1993 Cot ton Bowl. The 16-6 Texas win gave the Longhorns the outright SWC championship and a trip to the Sugar Bowl where they will face Virginia Tech. The Aggies will be in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl where they will face No. 14 Michigan. Slocum said that it was a privilege to be able to play in San Antonio for a bowl game, even if it was not the one the Ag gies had hoped for. “In the regular season, you’ll play games and if you play well enough then they will award you an additional game,” Slocum said. “Most teams in college foot ball don’t get awarded that addi tional game. Our team played well enough that they did.” Aggie defensive back Andre Williams said the team must put this loss behind them and look to their next game. “We’ve got another game to look forward to and we are defi nitely going to try our best to win that game,” Williams said. “That game is over and there’s nothing we can do about it, it goes down as an ‘L’ and it’s definitely some thing we didn’t want, but I give them credit, they capitalized on our turnovers, they did everything they had to do to win and we did not.” The other A&M players gave Texas credit as well. “I’m just going to say it point blank, today they were a better football team than us as a whole, offense, defense and special teams,” Mickens said. “We put a lot of pressure on them during the game and made some plays defensively but they didn’t back down. I give them credit today, they played better than us.” Senior safety Dennis Allen said the size of the game and the magnitude of the matchup made Texas’ win even more impressive. “It’s no secret that this is the biggest game of the year and we really wanted to win the game and keep the streak alive but you’ve got to give those guys credit,” Allen said. “They’ve got a really good football team, and they’re going to show up well for the Southwest Conference.” Sterling Hayman, The Battalion A&M freshman running back Eric Bernard kneels in defeat after the Aggies lost to the Texas Longhorns Saturday at Kyle Field. "If we don't turn the ball over we've got a pretty good chance to win the ballgame." — Corey Pullig Texas A&M quarterback