ober 20,
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Monday • October 20, 1997
S The Battalion
PORTS
Aggies get mauled in Manhattan
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By Chris Ferrell
Sports editor
MANHATTAN, Kan.— The key to win-
01111111111 igh normal game of chess is to take out
stlic aii ? oiher team’s queen. However, when
any busii ns L s state is involved, opponents must
roponen w ^ al y 0 f the Bishop.
' access Si quarterback Michael Bishop and
'esearchei|dfjjdcats jumped out to a quick 16-0
rsportatif l( j bver the Texas A&M Football Team
when it o L 3 ok advantage of an outstanding
thatrequ: r f 0 | mance by their defense to defeat
ferentciioXexas a&M Football Team 36-17, Sat-
whethet jay in Manhattan, Kan.
ss to ante Bishop ran for 53 yards and a touchdown
d threw for 173 yards on 10 of 21 passing
J questior tM winning effort,
urtwo-laf: “He’s the best quarterback, best athlete
eorisitic .’ve seen this year,” junior linebacker Dat
he said, raven said. “He’s just one of those guys
lys get do: a can’t stop, you just try to contain him.”
:sses war BiLshop and the Wildcat offense con-
liableest died the game, dominating time of pos-
;r estim< jskm 41:38 to A&M’s 18:22. The Aggies ran
ar-lanet ]yB7 offensive plays on the afternoon,
in acride A week after turning in it’s top perfor-
o around mce of the season, the Aggie offense dis-
eadolber-iyed its worse.
■ntisdea The primary reason for A&M’s sluggish
:yourtra fense was it’s inability to establish the
orminus a. Only two weeks after shredding Col-
ado for 260 yards on the ground, the Ag-
aot ford ;swere held to minus 35 yards on 17 car-
-College is. It was the lowest total ever recorded by
desirabl:(ansas State opponent.
Ocularly Se 11 ior right guard Steve McKinney said he
nations Id not believe what happened.
:y of inte “They had so many guys in the box that
ey were going to stop the run,” McKin-
ing is thatijr said. “They played a hell of a game to-
do as ac yand they deserved to win but I think
i thattaii at our offense did not play up to our lev-
isinessof by any means,
ssing outer
safety a
•easonsfor:
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ts are con:
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396,
RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion
While Branndon Stewart and the Texas A&M offense could find little room to run (left), K-State’s Michael Bishop and the Wildcats were
able to take advantage of a tired A&M defense in Kansas State’s 36-17 victory on Saturday.
“Nothing against them, they are good,
but I think we’re a lot better than we showed
today. We had a few guys out, but that’s no
excuse. We were just not able to run the ball.
To say the least, I’m pretty stunned.”
The Aggies came into the game missing
starting right tackle Cameron Spikes who
had his torn retina which he suffered
against Iowa State surgically repaired earli
er in the week. On the first play of the game,
sophomore tail back Dante Hall injured his
knee and did not return. Later in the first
drive, senior Chris Ruhman, the team’s
starting right tackle sprained his right knee.
Neither Hall or Ruhman returned. Hall will
undergo an MRI on Monday to determine
the extent of the damage he suffered.
“It’s (losing Spikes and Ruhman) going
to affect the team when you have two guys
that have started as long as those two guys
have and then two guys who have never
started a game in their entire lives out
there playing the entire game,” McKinney
said. “And those guys are good players,
don’t get me wrong. It’s just that experi
ence makes a big difference in a game like
this when its hard to hear the snap count
and they’re giving you a lot of different
things.”
The offense was not responsible for ei
ther of the teams two touchdowns.
A&M’s first touchdown of the afternoon
came when freshman Ronald Patton
blocked a punt by KSU’s James Garcia and
junior Michael Williams returned it for a
touchdown. The other was set up after
sophomore safety Brandon Jennings in
tercepted a pass from Bishop and re
turned it to the KSU one yard line. Junior
D’Andre Hardeman scored from a yard
out on the next play.
Williams punt block cut the lead to 16-
10 early in the third quarter and changed
the momentum of the game.
It was also the break coach R.C. Slocum
said he was hoping for.
The Aggies chose to take the strong
Kansas wind at their backs and kick
off to open the second half rather
than receive and drive into the wind.
Slocum said he thought that it would
be his team’s best chance to get back
into the game.
“I told our coaches at halftime we could
have taken the ball or the wind,” Slocum
said. “It looked like it was going to work for
us. I felt like if we could score two touch
downs and take the lead then we’d have a
quarter left to try and win the football
game. We blocked the punt and got the
touchdown, said ‘well, its working out just
like we’d planned.’ Then we turned
around and we couldn’t do anything.”
KSU answered by scoring a touchdown
on the next possession and A&M was real
ly never able to get back into the game.
Now the biggest question for the Aggies
is how much their performance will affect
them as they get ready to travel to Texas
Tech this weekend.
“Some of the older guys have to pick
some of the young guys up,” junior safety
Rich Coady said. “We have to take this as
one loss. We have a long season. We’re still
playing for all the goals we had at the be
ginning of the season. One loss does not kill
our season.”
Nguyen said that he and his teammates
can find a silver lining in the loss.
“None of the guys who came here like
losing,” Nguyen said. “Everybody came
here to win. 1 think the attitudes going to
change a lot more. It’s going to help us a
lot. We know how it felt when we walked
off the field and I don’t think we want to go
Meat defense holds running game to minus 35 yards
By Jeff Webb
Staff writer
nee an Aggie, always an Aggie.
HguTi [ t j s a phrase commonly heard
; deat h, iround the thriving metropolis of
College Station. In Manhattan,
c ' S,at|: Kansas, you can find an area a few
11 11 tlocks from the Kansas State Uni-
0111 ‘ /ersity campus called Aggieville.
access. \ggj ev jji e j s a pi aC e where students
essmei: ^ eat at one 0 f ^e numerous piz-
' areali.iu jap ar i ors or j iav e a drink at the Last
1 money. Jance. Before 1915 when they
:hanged their name, Kansas Staters
re known as Aggies. After the
ioo! was no longer known as an
|M school, they became Wildcats,
jwever, the Aggies seemed to be
faring purple on Saturday after-
noon when shades of the feared
Wrecking Crew defense appeared
on the opposite side of the field.
Texas A&M University suffered
their first loss of the year- at the hands
of opponents who arrested the Aggie
“Rushing Crew” to minus 35 yards
rushing, the worst showing of the
R.C. Slocum era. For a team with the
highest scoring offense in the coun
try and one that averages 278 yards
on the ground, this was a showing of
grand embarrassment.
“We lost our starting tail back
early in the game and we had two
starting tackles out,” said Coach
Slocum. “All ofthat had a significant
effect on the outcome of the game.”
“If you let them play the whole
game with two safeties sitting
there the same depth as the line
backers, you’re going to have a
hard time run
ning the foot
ball. We knew
that going in.”
The purple-
clad version of
the Wrecking
Crew also held
the Aggies to 90
yards of total of
fense, well below
the 440.8 yards
per game aver
age the Aggies had coming in. How
ever ridiculous, there are reasons for
the Manhattan madness that oc
curred. Running back Dante Hall
went down on the first offensive play
Ruhman
for A&M with a bruised knee. Left
tackle Chris Ruhman went down in
the next series with a sprained right
knee. Neither would return to the
game. The loss of Ruhman was es
pecially costly because right tackle
Cameron Spikes did not start this
week due to an eye injury. With
sophomore Andy Vincent starting
for Spikes and junior Rex Tlicker fill
ing in for Ruhman, the Aggie offen
sive line was simply overwhelmed at
the line of scrimmage on every play.
Wildcats Coach Bill Synder made
stopping the Texas A&M running
game the focus of the game and
forced the Aggies to make big plays
via the passing game.
“If you can’t stop the run, you
can’t beat anybody. That was the
focus,” said Coach Snyder. “When
we do things right, we play well
defensively.”
“They put most of their guys up
there [the line of scrimmage] and
we had to step up and throw the
ball,” said quarterback Randy Mc-
Cown. “They made some good
plays on defense and on some cru
cial third downs and stopped us.”
KSU dominated time of posses
sion, holding the ball 41:17 to A&M’s
18:07. Texas A&M’s defense allowed
247 rushing yards on 59 attempts.
KSU also scored on all seven of their
trips to the red zone. The Wildcats
used the traditional Aggie game plan
against them. Keep your defense
rested and on the sideline by playing
smart ball-control offense. Mike
Lawrence became the first back to
rush for over 100 yards against the
Aggies this season with his season
high of 105 yards. A&M also could
not find a solution for the elusive
Michael Bishop.
“We didn’t play well enough to
win, but we played as hard as we
could,” said safety Rich Coady. “It
seemed like every time we had the
receivers covered, he [Bishop] would
scramble and get positive yards."
Now the Aggies will have to
come back next week and not let
the Texas Tech Red Raiders surprise
them as they did in 1995 after the
disheartening Colorado loss.
“It’s just a game. It’s just one
game,” said linebacker Dat Ngyuen.
“We still have six games left.”
Volleyball gets shucked by Huskers in four games
Team splits weekend with loss to No. 9 Nebraska and a victory over 19th-ranked Colorado on Friday
RONY ANGKRIWAN/The Battalion
&M’s Kristie Smedsrud blocks a spike against UN.
By Jamie Burch
Staff writer
The ninth-ranked University of Ne
braska Volleyball Team came into G. Rol-
lie Saturday night having lost three
straight conference matches for the first
time in school history. No. 12 A&M was
hoping to make it four.
But after sweeping No. 19 University
of Colorado in three straight games the
night before, the Aggies could not over
come Nebraska’s two All-Americans,
setter Fiona Nepo and outside hitter
Lisa Reitsma, losing in four games 8-15,
9-15, 15-8, 9-15.
After dropping the first two games, se
nior outside hitter Kristie Smedsrud led
the Aggie’s spirited comeback in the third
game. Smedsrud accounted for eight of
A&M’s 15 points, posting eight kills and
two blocks in the game. Her explosive
play helped the Aggies jump to a 5-0 start.
“I felt comfortable on the attack,”
Smedsrud said, “Even in games one and
two. In Game two they started serving me
deep. I think that rattled me for a little bit.
That’s when Laurie took me out, giving
me a chance to regroup. Bottom line is I
kind of got pissed off. I just didn’t want it
to end like that.”
Nebraska coach Terry Pettit said he
was not concerned with the Cornhuskers
inability to shut the door in Game 3.
“I don’t think there’s a team in the
conference who can go out and play
two-and-a-half hours of great volley
ball,” Pettit said. “We played Penn State,
No. 1 in the country, and they couldn’t
do it for more than about 40 minutes. I’d
be real surprised if anybody goes into
one of the top teams in the conference
and beats somebody 3-0.”
The Cornhuskers seemed to fund its
killer instinct in Game 4. On the strength
of outside hitters Mandy Monson’s serve,
Nebraska led by a score of 7-1 early. Aggie
junior outside hitter Stacy Sykora kept
A&M in the game and match with eight
kills, six digs and a block.
But after pulling within three points at
12-9, the Aggies fell apart. With the Corn
huskers serving, the Aggies could not get
the ball over the net in the allowable three
hits, to put Nebraska up 13-9. Freshman
Angie Oxley put down a kill following an
A&M overpass and then an Aggie kill er
ror into the net gave Nebraska the match.
Sykora said the loss was disappoint
ing because the Aggies could have pre
vented it.
It’s frustrating of course. In the fourth
game I thought we could win and we just
had a couple of things not go our way. We
were all looking toward each other. It was
a good team effort.
“When I was serving and would ace,
they would wipe the floor for 15 minutes,”
a teary eyed Sykora said. “They did that
every time to stop our momentum. They
came out fired up from the locker room
and I don’t think we came out that fired
up today. We had a chance and just didn’t
take advantage of it.”
Fiona “Apple” Nepo is in need of a good
defense. Because of her play in Game 1,
she has to be feeling like a criminal. Nepo
stole the first game from the Aggies to set
the tone of the match. With A&M trailing
7-8, Nepo rattled of six straight service
points, including three consecutive aces,
to put the Cornhuskers out in front 14-8.
“Fiona has a great jump serve,” Smed
srud said. “That took us out of our of
fense.It shouldn’t because we have faced
a lot of jump serves before. We have a ten
dency to lose four or five points in a row.
That’s what hurt us.
Smedsrud and Sykora tied the match-
high for kills with 19 each. Senior outside
hitter Jennifer Wells added a career and
match-high 18 digs.
Cross Country makes strong showing at home meet
e
By Jason Whitcomb
Staff writer
ii pi
V wVith chants of “Scooter” in the back-
round, Texas A&M senior cross coun-
llunner Scott Lengefeld pranced to a
lire! place finish in the Texas A&M In-
ll(M itaiional on Saturday morning. Lenge-
Jld helped Jead the Aggie men to a sec-
nd place finish in the team standings,
'ehind Western Kentucky.
■——‘^■‘Last week we didn’t have a good
V*veflormance and this week we
1 ‘ enounced back in a strong way,” Lenge-
eld said. “It is good to get back in the
: you attf addle. This is the time of the year
you are still tired from all of the
staining. We’re just starting to get our
egs back and we are going to be there
Sfiflvhen it counts. We’ve got conference
JV* :oming up and we are going to be right
n n the middle of that. I think we are do-
y tig really well right now.”
Along with Lengefeld’s performance,
seniors James Menze and John Mont
gomery managed to finish 12th and 14th,
respectively, and junior Stephen Erath
came in a strong 20th. This impressive
team performance gives the Aggies some
needed momentum with Big 12 compe
tition around the corner.
“We don’t have quite the foreign in
fluence that other schools in the con
ference have with the Australians and
the Kenyans,” said Lengefeld. “We have
a couple of foreigners from Louisiana,
but that’s about it. We should do pretty
good, though, for a bunch of Texans.”
The Aggie women also ran well and
came up with a sixth place finish in the
overall team standings. They were led
by senior Kari Wyatt, who finished 23rd,
and freshman Brooke Edwards, who
came in 27th.
“The women keep impressing me
every week,” said coach Greg Hinze.
“They just keep getting and keep doing
things that I don’t think they can do. If
they keep it up I think we can be a top five
“Being here really gets me fired
up. I am a big Aggie and I love
everything about this place.”
SCOn LENGEFELD
CROSS COUNTRY RUNNER
team in region and that is something I
didn’t think we could do at the beginning
of the season.”
The Aggies were no doubt inspired
by the opportunity to run in front of the
home crowd. The event brought sev
eral A&M students who came to sup
port the team, a welcome site to the Ag
gie runners considering that every oth
er meet is on the road.
“Being here really gets me fired up,”
said Lengefeld. “I am a big Aggie and I
love everything about this place. I came
here for the traditions because I grew up
around Baylor, and they have no kind of
tradition. If you can’t get fired up here,
then you can’t be an Aggie.”
Along with the NCAA competition,
the meet also included competition be
tween several high schools across the
state of Texas. This gave the Aggie cross
country program the opportunity to
impress and evaluate possible recruits.
“It’s a huge recruiting weekend for
us,” Hinze said. “We’ve got several peo
ple who are running in the meet and are
staying here for the weekend. We’ve
had a lot people in the past who had
never been here before and decided to
come after visiting. I think it is a big
positive for Texas A&M.”
ROB MCKAY/The Battalion
A&M runners lead the way to the men’s third place fin
ish at the Aggie Invitational on Saturday.