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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1996)
Pa} svember 14, Issues Coinir ycles Day: (| on recycling. 2s and win | 0 2 p.m, Forj II Jessica Po The Battalion *1 JHL ORTS Page 9 Thursday • November 14, 1996 Opening Night '^Aggies begin exhibition season with 63-58 win Stephen Alexl By Matt Miichell The Battalion lation cal 7-6264. ssoc ationiM i n a rusty but effective effort, lin e mg at y exas Basketball Team ^ ,f r ^ ai sca wercame a furious second-half cbmeback by the Townsville Suns to claim a 63-58 victory 'siting Exec,^ ec j nesc j a y night in front of Ron Barclai 2 ,261 spectators dent and Ct: a( G Rollie - ficer of Ra- W i lite Coliseum, ic., will bei.,yi After rolling :areer, anff t0 a 33.22 half- stmguished time lead, the m. in 144 h Aggies saw their llad evaporate to the Australian piofessional rs: There wi team, but man- 1 the Rec Cei aged to play a 3-4 miler g ( ,od defense White Cofe. and make their levels ofni fo il shots down r more infer the stretch to 441. hang on for thevictory. ■ -“I thought it was a pretty a Battalioiitypical first game,” A&M Head i non-profit Coach Tony Barone said. “I y events ar: tlought we were real tentative ns shoult on offense and we got pushed later thant slound quite a bit physically e of the dr and we’ll have to work on that, cation deat I think it was a good indoctri- ! not event nation into what you have to in What's [do to win, and I was pleased uestions. p w,! found a way to win.” sroom at With junior center Dario al What's t Quesada scaring seemingly at on web pa: wi ^ inside and collecting 10 tamu.edu. P°i nts i n t* 16 fi rst half, the Ag- ^^fes charged out to take their ■■gest lead at 28-13 with 5:08 o play in the first half. The Ag- L iies out-hustled the Aussies ? pr what seemed like every Rise bak, and hit the boards vith abandon, with Quesada matching 10 rebounds to get he other half of his double- “For the first game, I was really pleased, with as many young players as we played.” Tony Barone Men’s basketball coach double before halftime. However, the Suns’ foul shooting kept them close, and they were only down by 11 go ing to the locker room. “I thought Quesada did an ex cellent job tonight,” Barone said. "He missed some good shots, some open shots, that he’s nor mally going to make. He didn’t get some of those down, but I thought overall he was fine.” The good times were defi nitely over, as the Australians went on a 17-9 run to open the second half and tie the game at WHBBSSBBM 46. It became a back-and-forth affair, with neither side gaining more than a four-point advan tage for the next five minutes. With the Aggies clinging to a tenuous 57-56 lead, Quesada nailed a jumper to put the Ag gies up by three. A steal by freshman point guard Brian Barone and his two ensuing free throws made it 61-56. The Suns turned the ball over on their next possession to set up the play of the game that all but sealed the win for the Ag gies. After being unable to get a shot off, the Aggies called time out with five seconds left on the shot clock to set up a play. From out of bounds, Shanne Jones lofted a pass to the other side of the backboard where Calvin Davis caught and dunked it for a alley-oop that brought the crowd to its feet and gave the Ag gies a 63-56 lead with 1:47 left. The Suns were only able to muster a pair of free throws down the stretch and the Ag gies survived some frantic shooting at the end to prevail. “They changed their whole game (in the second half),” Barone said. “They played way more up tempo, so when they came in and were as con trolled as they were, that was a surprise to us. We thought they were going to be jacking up the three a lot and they did not. I thought our defense overall was pretty good.” Quesada, who finished the night with 20 points and 16 boards, said the Suns did some things the Aggies had never seen in practice or film. “We just had to be ready for it,” Quesada said. “During one of the timeouts, Coach told us they were just going through the motions and it was some thing we really didn’t know. But he drew it on the board and that was it.” Especially pleasing for the Aggies was the standout play of several of the younger players on the squad. Those players in clude newcomers Jerald Brown at guard, Shanne Jones at for ward, and sophomore Calvin Davis at forward, all of whom started. Jones responded with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Davis chipped in five points and three boards. “I was really pleased with the freshmen,” Barone said. “I thought Brown and (Steve) Houston and Brian all played very well tonight. I was very pleased with their adjustment to major college basketball.” Jerald Brown claimed top hon ors among the newcomers with Rony Angkriwan, The Battalion A&M junior center Dario Quesada pulls up for a shot against the Townsville Suns Wednesday night at G. Rollie White Coliseum. 16 points in only 28 minutes of work on 5-of-ll shooting, includ ing 4-for-8 from 3-point range. “He’s an outstanding shoot er,” Barone said. “He gets tired and then the shot goes, but he’s an excellent shooter and I thought he played very good defense tonight for a freshman who hasn’t played on this level. As one might expect, Barone sees room for improvement in a few areas, but was pleased with the Aggies’ overall performance. “I was a little bit disappointed in our rebounding,” Barone said. “In the second half, we did not do a good job of rebounding the bas ketball. I didn’t think we passed the ball well tonight. I thought we had too many turnovers in terms of open people. But for the first game, I was really pleased, with as many young players as we played.” Horns dismiss Lady Aggies in three games Staff and Wire Reports Prior to its highly anticipated rematch with the University of Texas Wednesday night, members of the Texas A&M Volleyball Team repeatedly said that the Longhorns were not at their best when the Lady Aggies swept them in three games on Sept. 25. Evidently they were right. In front of a season-high crowd of 6,123 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, the eighth- ranked Longhorns avenged their early-sea son sweep at A&M with a sweep of their own, 15- 10, 15-10, 15-10. Texas (19-4, 13-2 Big 12) remained tied for first place with Nebraska in the Big 12 Confer ence, while A&M (21-5, 12-3) dropped to third place with its second consecutive loss. Powered by three early kills from sopho more outside hitter Stacy Sykora, the 13th- ranked Lady Aggies grabbed a 7-0 lead in the first game before wilting under a two-player Longhorn attack. Texas sophomore Demetria Sance recorded seven kills and freshman Sarah Butler notched five to the lead the Longhorns on a 15-3 barrage to close out the game. The Longhorns jumped out to 4-1 and 11- 4 leads in the second game and an 8-2 lead in the final frame to hold the Aggies at bay the rest of the way. The Lady Aggies were led by Sykora’s 24 kills and 16 digs, while junior outside hit ter Kristie Smedsrud added 14 kills and 10 digs. Junior setter Farah Mensik recorded 50 assists. Sance paced Texas with 19 kills, Butler fin ished with 16 and Jane Winkel chipped in 13 kills on a .571 hitting percentage. The Lady Aggies return to action Sunday against the University of Oklahoma at G. Rol lie White Coliseum at 2:30 p.m. H E&uerrieri molds infant A&M soccer program into winner 9 6 By Nicki Smith The Battalion ■ Thu have heard them screaming and yelling during game time — sometimes at the athletes on the field Wl and sometimes at the referees for questionable ftlls. They console players after mistakes, motivate their ilayers when things get tough, and, more often than not, akc the blame for anything a team does wrong. ■ By now, you have probably figured out that the >nly person that fits all of the above categories is he person who never gets to step foot on the Jlaying field — the coach. BSome coaches are fortunate to have pretty good learns, while others like G. Guerrieri, head coach of pp Texas A&M Soccer Team, are fortunate to have a team that is not only ranked seventh in the nation, nil is also comprised of some of the best collegiate ithletes in the sport. ■ Guerrieri, who took over the Aggie soccer pro- iam four years ago in its initial varsity season, said lil main goal was to ensure the team’s improvement n a yearly basis. I “The one thing we set up for each year is to look it our performance in each game,” Guerrieri said, e base this on where we start in the national Hikings and where we are in the rankings at the d of th£ season. This year alone, we started at No. 0 and ended at No. 7, which obviously shows how r playing ability has improved.” 1 Aside from his success as head coach for the Ag- ||s, Guerrieri has a history of bringing young pro- fcns into the spotlight. ■ Before becoming the head coach of the A&M earn, he served as head coach for the men’s and |)men’s soccer teams at Richland College, and even led the women’s team to a seventh place na tional ranking in its first season of scholarship play. In addition, he was named the Region V Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year in 1992. Aside from his experience, Guerrieri said he just tries to make sure that his players un derstand him. “I want them to know that I trust them to do the right thing,” Guerrieri said. “My job is to understand what is right and to give them a series of steps to do what is right.” To round out his coach ing and play ing back ground, Guerrieri was the women’s team coach at Hardin-Sim- mons Univer sity from 1988- 90 where the Stew Milne, The Battalion Head Coach C. Guerrieri guided the Aggies to their second consecutive NCAA Championships appearance this season. team advanced to the 1988 NAIA national champi onship. He has coached at the University of North Texas and the University of Tulsa, and was goal keeper coach for the North Texas Soccer Associa tion State Olympic De velopment Program. As a player, he was the team captain and goalkeep er at the Uni versity of Tulsa earning nu merous acco lades along the way in cluding the team MVP in 1982, he was named to the all-Midwest team, and he played profes sional soccer for the Tulsa Tornadoes. Senior de fender Tina Robinson said it is Guerrieri’s coaching ex perience that has helped the A&M team accomplish so much. “He is very demanding but he knows what he is doing,” Robinson said. “Seeing how far our team has come in just a short amount of time definitely says something about his coaching ability.” As the Aggie head coach, Guerrieri has an overall record of 67-14-3 and serves as the USYSA Regional Staff coach for the southern 12 states. At A&M, Guerrieri has guided the Aggies into the national spotlight last year with a No. 13 ranking, has led the Aggies to a 19-3 season, and has helped the team earn a seventh seed in the NCAA National Championship Tournament, which begins Friday. Guerrieri said the team’s accomplishments alone have exceeded his expectations. “We came here four years ago with the idea that the Texas A&M Soccer Team would bring something that people here could be proud of,” Guerrieri said. “In trying to do so, we put ourselves in a position to win the Big 12 and are now competing in the first round of the national championships against the University of San Diego on our home field. This is definitely what we all hoped for.” Overall senior forward Kristen Koop said the team respects Guerrieri for all that he has done for the program. “We know that he has a lot of confidence in us,” Koop said. “He is demanding because he knows we can do it and have the potential to do well. We have fun to gether and owe him a lot for all of our success.” Guerrieri said that the in his four years here he has been able to get closer to the team. “I have worked on trying to be more subdued,” Guerrieri said. “I am not the type to sit back and take things lying down, but I have learned to be more reserved so the girls can focus more of their energy on their performance.” klahoma hopes to distinguish itself from the Aggies with a win * 4 P mJ— 111 ■pi ^ 4 <*> WgglgB 1 Courtesy of Oklahoma Sports Info izards 0 ^ fcphomore defensive back ■ana Joseph has 81 tackles. By Ross Hecox The Battalion The Texas A&M Football Team is not alone with its 3-3 confer ence mark, sub-par season and slight chance at winning the Big 12 South Division. The Universi ty of Oklahoma floats in the same boat with the Aggies and looks to dismiss some of the re semblances with a win when it sails into Kyle Field Saturday. Similarities abound for the two teams. Both have a traditional ri valry with the University of Texas, possess a strong running game, and claim to have a “one game at a time” approach rather than focus ing on winning the division. “We want to focus on the game that is at hand,” Head Coach John Blake said. Despite Blake’s short-term view, Oklahoma has a shot at playing in the Big 12 Champi onship Game. If the team can focus enough to beat the Aggies, defeat Texas Tech University, and if Texas loses one game, the Sooners will be making the trip to St. Louis, Mo. Oklahoma also likens to A&M in yanking its starting quarterback if he is being unproduc tive. But the Soon ers have made the substitution more frequently. Last week against Oklahoma State University, sopho more Eric Moore was inserted behind center for freshman Justin Fuente and passed for 71 yards and a touchdown. Fuente has started the last eight games, completing 46.4 per- “ [The Aggies] have three out standing backs. But we’re more worried about stopping their guys up front.” John Blake Oklahoma head coach —I— wmmm cent of his passes for 1,271 yards, eight touchdowns and 10 inter ceptions. Moore has passed for 42.2 percent with 437 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in five games. Moore is considered a better scrambler than Fuente. Both quarter backs have shown the ability to march their team downfield, but the question of who is best suited to run the offense is in evitable. Senior tailback James Allen said he is not worried about it. “I have confidence in both guys,” Allen said. “They both can come in and do a great job for us. They are capable of leading this offense and making big plays.” Blake praised the abilities of both players and would not name a starter for this week’s game. “I look at it as we have two starters,” Blake said. “You’ve got to go with the quarterback that can win, and I’m just glad to have both of them.” The Sooners’ offensive strength, like A&M, seems to lie in its running game. Freshman tailback De’Mond Parker leads the team with 1,080 yards and nine touchdowns, and Allen has added 727 yards to Oklahoma's rushing attack. On defense, Oklahoma allows an average of only 141.6 ground yards a game and limited Okla homa State’s star running back David Thompson to 51 yards. Blake said A&M’s offensive line is what must be controlled to stop its solid ground game. “[The Aggies] have three out standing backs,” Blake said. “But we’re more worried about stop ping their guys up front.” Although the Sooners are 3-6 this season, at times they have competed well against powerful opponents. Their most notable performance occurred Oct. 12 when they defeated Texas 30-27 in overtime. The win makes the prospect of beating both A&M and Tech — their last two oppo nents — possible. “It was an important win for us,” Allen said. “It being the first win of the season. It gave us hope, confidence, and we started to be lieve in ourselves. It brought us closer together as a team.” The game seems to be the crossroads for both A&M and Oklahoma. Saturday one team will extend its Division hopes, and the other will probably be more sensitive to the apparent differences.