S The Battalion
■ PORTS
Tuesday • September 2,199^ u esday
Bad as she wants to be
Junior Stacy Sykora keeps teammates, opponents on toes
By Jamie Burch
Staff writer
A ctor Jim Carey’s on-screen antics and Chica
go Bull Dennis Rodman’s cutting edge fash
ion sense are yet another part of pop culture
that you love to hate. What would happen if you
combined the two and packaged them inside a
multi-talented athlete?
The Texas A&M Volleyball Team knows the an
swer — junior outside hitter Stacy Sykora.
“Stacy is a combination of the two,” senior out
side hitter Kristie Smedsrud said. “I think her per
sonality is just like Jim Carey’s and she dresses just
like Dennis Rodman. Stacy is one-of-a kind. I’ve
never met anyone like her.
“She is very eccentric, but that’s what makes
her Stacy.”
Sykora said every team, whether it be basketball
or volleyball, needs a Dennis Rodman.
“Everybody would love to play like Michael Jor
dan,” Sykora said. “But you have to have someone
on your team who’s a little different. Otherwise you
wouldn’t get along. You have to be a little different
so people don’t come to expect stuff. You have to
do the unexpected and surprise them a few times
to keep them on a straight line.”
Surprising her teammates is what Sykora does
best. The versatile native of Burleson began the
1997 season by making the all-tournament team in
the State Farm/NACWAA Volleyball Classic (Aug.
22-23) and capturing the tournament MVP at the
Georgia Invitational.
The field in Palo Alto was comprised of the de
fending national champion University of Stanford,
second ranked Penn State University and the
eighth ranked Brigham Young University Cougars.
Even with such stout competition, Sykora held
match highs for kills and hitting percentage in the
loss to Stanford.
There are no signs the explosive start will end.
Sykora spent the off season in the gym and focused
solely on volleyball for the first time in her career.
She added 15 pounds to her physique and the re
sults speak for themselves.
“She has added a lot of strength over the last sev
eral months,” Smedsrud said, “which in turn has
boosted her confidence. Stacy is off to a great start.
She’s jumping higher and is quicker than she’s ever
been. I couldn’t believe she could get any quicker.
“She’s incredibly athletic. Her added confidence
is helping every aspect of her game.”
In addition to spending off season bulking up,
Sykora participated in the USA National Team Tri
als in the spring. Sykora said that experience
helped to give her a feel of where she is and where
she needs to be.
“It really helped me because in the volleyball
world I had never gone against a gym full of All-
Americans," Sykora said. “I never knew where I
stood. I learned that I could hang with the big girls,
but it also gave me a chance to gage where I’m at
and what I needed to improve on.”
And as good as Sykora has become, she said she
still feels she can polish her game.
“I can improve 1000 percent,” Sykora said. “My
game is still rusty. Last year was a roller coaster. The
whole season my game was up and down. I was so
inconsistent.
My hitting game is way improved from last year,
but it could still use so much work.”
All this after a year in which Sykora won the Big
12 Defensive Player of the Year with a 4.01 dig av
erage.
“When you have someone with the athletic po
tential that she has, there’s always room to grow,”
Smedsrud said. “She hasn’t really played volley
ball that long and had that much experience be
fore last year.
“Every time she steps on the court she is work
ing hard and learning. Everyday she is getting bet
ter. That’s really scary for opponents.”
Opponents ought to pray Sykora refrains from
dying her hair fish.
FILE PHOTO/The Batou
one
Sports Briefs
Soccer set to play
Stanford tonight
The sixth ranked Texas A&M
Women’s soccer team will vie for their
second victory of the season as the
16th ranked Stanford Cardinals roll
into Aggieland tonight.
The 7 p.m. kickoff marks the first
encounter between the two schools
and only the second night game un
der the new lights at the Aggie Soccer
complex.
The Aggies boast an impressive
54-10-3 (.828) against non-confer
ence opponents and a 4-1-1 (.750)
record in night games.
Coming off a season opening 2-1
victory over Big 12 foe Oklahoma,
A&M will face a difficult challenge in
Stanford, who soundly defeated Texas
2-1 this past weekend in Austin.
Over 1,500 people are expected to
attend the contest. This following a
record and capacity crowd of 1,350
Saturday night against Oklahoma.
A&M will go on the road this
weekend for games against Kansas
and Missouri.
Rose sets sights
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Georgia Invitational over the weekend.
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CINCINNATI (AP) — Pete Rose
said Monday that he has taken a pre
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plying for reinstatement to baseball.
Rose, who agreed to a lifetime
ban for gambling in 1989, attended
his son’s major league debut with the
lasses for If
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