) c t°be%
j r5 Friday • October 24, 1997
S The Battalion
ports
m cut.Tlip,]
a Cokeboi
a pair of
lave nt
e car is
liftmei
:e, a senml
ajor.wasi
I own,
believe
a sabotagtj
all jwn|
it up the
d he rei
wasjumi
eonedeci
! theacci
>k off and!
ndshield,
said.
■s offci
s goes to
ve student
there
set to battle Red Raiders
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion
freshman Chris Cole and the Aggies will look to rebound against
'exas Tech this weekend,
By Chris Ferrell
Sports editor
Before sounding the alarms or
screaming “Women and children first
—theA&M ship is sinking!,” stop, take
a breath and reevaluate the situation.
The 20th-ranked Texas A&M Foot
ball Team is quick to point out things
are not as bad as they appear.
A week ago, the Aggies were the
toast of the Big 12 South, with a one
way ticket to San Antonio to face the
top ranked Nebraska Huskers for the
league title. Now, the situation seems
so much different.
A&M travels to Lubbock to take
on the Texas Tech Red Raiders Satur
day at Jones Stadium.
Quite frankly the Aggies are hurt
ing. They head into the game minus
their two starting offensive tackles
and their leading rusher, all gone
from a team which rushed for nega
tive-35 yards last weekend in the
team’s 36-17 loss to Kansas State.
Throw in the fact that the Aggies
have lost to Tech the last two sea
sons and one might think A&M is in
trouble.
The Aggies however, are not so ea
ger to throw in the towel just yet.
Sophomore quarterback Randy
McCown said the team is not
dwelling on last weeks loss.
“K-State had a good defensive
front and they were putting different
guys up there and bringing different
guys,” McCown said. “They were giv
ing us different looks that kind of
confused us. You have to give K-State
credit. They were a good team.
“I don’t think we’ve lost any confi
dence at all. We don’t want to start
looking too far down the road. I don’t
think our confidence has dropped
any, we just got a little reality check.”
Junior quarterback Branndon
Stewart agreed, saying the team has
not changed because of a loss.
“It’s hard to say what kind of lesson
we learned,” Stewart said. “I feel like we
learned a lot from our losses last year
and we’ve been in this situation before.
I guess what we realized most of all is
that your going to get people’s best shot
when you haven’t lost a game so you
have to be ready to play each and every
game like its the biggest one. We had a
frustrating game and a bad game, but
we’re still the same team we were when
we were 5-0.”
Another reason for optimism in
the face of the injuries stems from
the fact that the team was able to
play so many players in it’s big early
season wins.
“It’s important,” offensive coordi
nator Steve Marshall said. “It’s part of
the deal. You don’t just want to throw
a guy who’s never been on the field
into a situation where you play him
every down.”
Sophomore tackle Andy Vincent
will make his second start of the sea
son in place of injured Cameron
Spikes. Vincent received the call last
week after Spikes went down against
Iowa State. Junior Rex Tucker will shift
from his back-up center role to start
ing left tackle. He replaces senior Chris
Ruhmanwho injured his knee on the
Aggie’s first drive last week.
Vincent said the knowledge he and
Tucker gained against Kansas State will
help them adjust to starting roles.
“You’ve got experience,” Vincent
said. “You’re not coming into a game
like that not knowing what to expect.
working really hard on the funda
mentals to try and execute and get
back where we need to be.”
Perhaps the most noticeable injury
is that of sophomore tailback Dante
Hall, the Aggie’s leading rusher this
season. Hall is out indefinitely after
suffering a deep bone contusion on
the first play of the KSU game.
Junior running back Sirr Parker,
who has split backfield time with
Hall throughout the season will
now be asked to carry a larger
chunk of the offensive load.
Freshman tailback Burnest
Rhodes, who has picked up signifi
cant carries for A&M this season also
will help to shoulder some of the
rushing attack.
McCown said the team does not
see the injuries as a problem.
“This team has real good charac
ter,” he said. “We’ve got guys who are
seniors who can keep everyone calm
and not panic. Other guys will step
up and play good and take up the
slack. I think everyone will handle it
real well, as far as the backups hav
ing to step in. I don’t think the in-
I feel good about this game. We’re juries will affect us that much.”
fexas Tech's ‘Mr. Everything’ tackles new position this season
eaker.I:
as a EA|
; use this ix
move to
o hollet
By Jeff Webb
Staff writer
oach Spike Dykes found himself in a
dilemma a few years ago. He had re
cruited the top passer in 5A football,
especx ethad nowhere to play him. Where would
iche sai; Ws athlete go? Wherever the team needed
helikt iim in order to win. That player, senior
lownthestfoiy Darden, eventually found his way to
omerback where he would prosper and be
irt of mortamed a Thorpe Award candidate as one of
the cart he best defensive backs in the nation,
students Darden was recruited to play quarter-
. orifice to :>a|k, but was beaten out by a youngster
i justtakirfamed Zebbis Letheridge. Darden wanted
to help the team, so he requested that the
coach move him to receiver.
“He was the leading passer in 5A football
his senior year at Holmes High School,”
Coach Dykes said. “He and Zebbie compet
ed for the job all year, and it was close. Final
ly, Zebbie got the job. But in the last year of the
Southwest Conference, Tony played receiver
and had the longest pass play that year.”
On the play Coach Dykes mentioned,
Darden took a pass from Letheridge and
took off for 77 yards and a touchdown.
“Any Quarterback can catch the ball,”
claims Darden. “I just wanted to help the
team out in any way that I could.”
Due to the large amount of talented re
ceivers on the Tech roster, Coach Dykes
asked Tony Darden to make one final move,
the one to cornerback.
“The last time I played corner, I was a
sophomore,” Darden said. “It was hard at
first during the spring. By the time two-a-
days started the first year, I got used to it.”
Darden isn’t the only talented fast man on
the Texas Tech roster. Tech also boasts one of
the conference’s best receivers in Donnie
Hart. Being able to line up against one of the
top receivers in the Big 12 has been a chal
lenge for one of the conference’s best corners.
Coach Dykes believes that the more times
they play each other in practice, the better.
“They take great pride in beating some
body if they’re a receiver and take great
pride in stopping someone if they’re a cor
ner,” said Dykes. “We
have ten minutes a day
of offense versus de
fense. It’s great to have
Tony versus Donnie.”
Last year, Darden
pestered the A&M re
ceiving corps all day
long and held the Ag
gies’ top receiver, Al
bert Connell, to no
catches. Despite the
feat, Darden remains humble.
“That was a good game for us, but they
Darden
didn’t throw the ball in the game as much
as we expected,” said Darden. “Our guys
up front did a really good job. I really can’t
take much credit. I know they’ll come out
fired up this year.”
“He really did well in that game,” said
Dykes. “When that happens, you’re lucky
because Connell was such a great receiver.”
Darden’s name will not be heard many
times on Saturday because the Aggies, like
most others, will not throw his way.
“He’s a good athlete, he can play every
where,” said Dykes. “He’s a natural. He’s
good at quarterback, good at wide receiv
er, and good at cornerback. He just wants
to help the team win.”
^Aggies return
ome to host
U, Wisconsin
y Stephen Boudreau
Staff writer
HAfter seven games and
nearly a month away from
home, the road-tested Texas
/V&M Soccer team returns to
* rocks 'the friendly confines of the
ogyirajf^K ie Soccer Complex.
for For
‘We feel like we’ve been
Guerrieri
gone forever. It’s great to be
back home. Seven straight
5 earlyir. road games
ever, art is always a
racks in challenge.
Lisa. It will be
likenoigreat to
lingsiff'play in
lerfectlj-front of a
7 preset big crowd
tonuntf so we’re
cidsupr hoping
that every-
BlacD f one will
come out,”
coach G. Guerrieri said. “The
fact that we were able to play a
lot of games in front of really
hostile environments is some-
1 W#f n g t * iat w ih be really benefi-
* *' C 'Cial for us when we get into
jchofs postseason play.”
d-brass : Friday night, the Wisconsin
Badgers will make their way
ah Ca® into College Station looking to
ut awa'dmprove on their 5-9-1 record.
zestorf ; Wisconsin, the defending
Big 10 Champion, is coming
ipelt^ off a strong 2-1 victory over
reryonelOhio State, which concluded
iiitty.” hs regular season conference
schedule.
“Wisconsin is a little down
this season. They graduated a
, lot of seniors, just like we did,
Z but they are still impressive,”
Guerrieri said. “They’ve
played a tough schedule. For
us to get them at home on
our field, such a nice field, is
, a big plus.”
i Jpl Leading the attack for the
Badgers will be Cathy Strey
jsitiod w hh 10 goals and 15 assists.
E Since the inception of
NCAA postseason play, Wis
consin has never failed to
make an appearance.
7 . v This is the first time the two
3 ' teams have met each other as
aid ^ opponents.
, Besides being 25 cent hot-
dog day at the Aggie Soccer
Complex, Sunday’s game
against Colorado has cham
pionship ramifications for the
Aggies.
The Aggies will be looking to
capture their first ever Big 12
Championship in their final
regular-season home game for
1997. A victory or tie would
guarantee the title, while a loss
would signify a co-champi
onship with Nebraska, whom
the Aggies shut out 1-0 earlier
this season.
“The Colorado game is a
chance for us to win the out
right championship,” Guerri
eri said. “For us, this weekend
is for the championship. We
don’t want to share it with any
body, we want it for ourselves.”
If the Aggies were to come
up short, they would still be
the number one seed in the
Big 12 Tournament coming
up in November.
Leading the herd for the
Buffaloes is Donna Holyman
whose five goals and 2 assists
put her atop the Colorado stat
sheet.
This is the second time the
two teams have met, the Ag
gies getting the better of the
Buffs with a 3-0 victory in
Boulder last season.
Over the course of the road
trip, the Aggies lost several key
players to injury.
“We lost (defender) Ashley
Fendley for the season in the
North Carolina game. Her re
placement, Elizabeth Pavlas,
has gone down with an ankle
injury,” Guerrieri said. “So now
we’re on Stephanie Chaney.
She’s been playing and doing
an excellent job.”
Freshman Gilian Gandy
has missed the last few
games due to an ankle sprain
and freshman Katie Offett has
had trouble with a calf mus
cle. Both are listed as ques
tionable for this weekend.
“For the most part, though,
we are reasonably healthy,”
Guerrieri said. “We are in a lot
better shape now than we were
following our North Carolina
loss in September.”
Volleyball ready to
tangle with Kansas
By Travis V. Dabney
Staff writer
RONY ANGKRIWAN/The Battalion
Sophmore Amber Woolsey serves
against the University of Colorado. A&M
travels to Lawrence, Kan, to battle KU.
The Texas A&M Swimming and
D iving Team will get their feet wet this
weekend as they begin the season
with the second annual Big 12 Con
ference Relays and Invitational to be
held at the University of Nebraska.
This event should not be confused
with the Big 12 Championship meet
which is held in February. Even
though it counts in the standings,
men’s swimming coach Mel Nash says
this meet is more of a preview.
“It lets you know where you are and
is a good barometer of where the rest
of the conference is. Nobody’s really
focused on it for big performances,”
Nash said. “It gives you a chance to get
in the competitive mode.”
The early start insures that most ath
letes and teams will not be in peak form.
“Very rarely would you have a great
time this early. The sprints aren’t quite
there because you haven’t done any
sprint work. Distance isn’t there be
cause you haven’t had enough time to
accumulate yardage to get you where
you want to be. The meet is mostly for
race strategy,” Nash said.
Nebraska captured the women’s
crown at last year’s event and the always
powerful University of Texas took the
men’s crown. The Aggies should be
The Texas A&M volleyball team will
head for Kansas this weekend to take
on the Kansas State Wildcats and the
Kansas Jayhawks in Big 12 conference
play. The volleyball team split last
weekend’s matches, gaining a victory
over Colorado and losing in four
games to Nebraska.
The Big 12 volleyball schedule will
move into its second half after this
weekend’s play so teams will be trying
to either gain ground or maintain it
this weekend.
In the Big 12 standing Texas has a
two game lead over Texas A&M and
Colorado with an 8-0 record as op
posed to the 6-2 record for the Buffs
and Aggies. That being said the Aggies
may have a home court advantage in
the second half of Big 12 play accord
ing to coach Laurie Corbelli.
“Our last seven of ten matches are
here at A&M as opposed to playing only
five of 14 here in G. Rollie the first half
of the season,” Corbelli said. “So in that
respect we feel pretty good about our
chances in the Big 12.”
The Aggies will not be playing the top
competition this weekend in Kansas or
Kansas State as they were last weekend
much improved this year with more
depth and balance, women’s swim
ming coach Don Wagner says this was
a big problem last year.
“We have a lot more depth this year
than we had a year ago. We won two
relays at the meet. We weren’t very
good at the other relays. This year, I
see us looking strong in almost all of
the relays,” Wagner said. “We’ve pret
ty much doubled from a year ago.”
Coach Wagner is upbeat about his
team’s chances.
“It’s going to be a fun year. They’ve
trained really well. I think that at the
end of the season we’ll be pretty
good,” Wagner said.
Diving coach Kevin Wright thinks
Coach Wagner’s assessment of the
divers is accurate.
“Last year we had some really good
performances and I think that we are
working hard an doing the right things.
It should put us in position to continue
to have some good performances
throughout the season and have some
fun along the way,” Wright said.
The big name on the diving team
will be junior Mark Naftanel. He is
the returning Big 12 Champion in
three events.
Coach Nash feels the men’s team
will be just as deep as the women’s.
“The beauty of the team this year is
that we’re extremely well-balanced.
but these will still be tough matches for
the Aggies. Kansas State has a 5-3 record
in conferance play and seems poised to
look for an upset against one of the top
teams in the conference.
“Kansas State is a very spirited
school and they have been getting
about 2,500 fans for their home volley
ball games so it will be a pressure situ
ation for this weekend,” Corbelli said
“Kansas State is a very balanced
team, has good offensive and defen
sive skills, so we are really are going to
have to be prepared to play on Friday
night,” Corbelli said.
Kansas on the other hand has
struggled so far this season. The Jay-
hawks have complied a 1-7 confer
ence record this season.
“They are struggling a little bit right
now but they are a young team with a
some very good hitters,” Corbelli said.
“We are going to have to be strong in
this game as it will be our second
game in two nights and not so much
physically but mentally that can wear
you down.”
The Aggies, according to Corbelli
will be motivated this weekend after
their tough defeat to Nebraska.
“We just did not perform that well
against them (Nebraska) but that mo
tivates our players.”
All of the relays are deep this year. We
have four or five guys that are inter
changeable in the relays,” Nash said.
Standouts on the men’s swimming
team will include captains Jerrod
Kappler and Kyle Marden and sopho
more Devin Howard, who appears to
be past the injuries that plagued him
earlier in his career. Top women
swimmers will be sophomores Tracy
Evans and Danielle Guarneri and se
nior Jodi Janssen.
However, swimming and diving is
not all about wearing speedos and play
ing in the water. These athletes under
go a rigorous training schedule for six
days a week. Most of them lift weights
in the morning and do some swimming
afterwards. They also swim in the af
ternoon. Coach Nash says it is about 10
miles a day of swimming for the dis
tance swimmers. Some athletes are
even required to do yoga twice a week.
This training goes on for most of
the year.
Coach Wright believes this training
is essential to becoming a better
swimmer or diver.
“The whole year is developing the
skills necessary to be performing well
at the end of the year,” Wright said.
With the newly acquired depth and
the strict training regimen, the Swim
ming and Diving Team can look for
ward to a watershed season.
Golfers set
to conclude
fall season
By Jason Whitcomb
Staff writer
The 13th-ranked Texas A&M
women’s golf team will conclude its
fall season this weekend in sunny
California. The Ags will tee-off at the
Stanford Intercollegiate on Friday
and play through Sunday morning.
The 17-team
field features nine
teams that are
ranked in the top
25, including No. 2
Arizona, No. 5 Ari
zona State, No.7
Louisiana State
and No. 9 Okla
homa State. The
tournament will
consist of is holes Becker
each day for a total
of 54 holes.
The Aggies will enter this tourna
ment with some confidence after a
strong performance in the Big 12 Pre
view earlier this month. They man
aged to finish second after battling
poor conditions and 30 mile per hour
winds. Individually, seniors Jamie
Hullet and Isabelle Rosberg placed
11th and 14th, respectively.
Representing the Ags will be Ros
berg, Hullet, senior Aurora Kirchner,
sophomore Anna Becker and fresh
man Amanda Rayford.
Rosberg is the highest nationally
ranked player in the Big 12 at No. 25
and Becker has recently moved up
to No. 55 in the nation. Both have
displayed a high degree of consis
tency and ability throughout the fall
season.
As a team, the Aggies are looking to
continue to showing that they are a na
tional contender and are going to be at
the top of the rankings in the spring.
“We’ve had a pretty good fall but
we would really like to end it on a
positive note and build up some mo
mentum for the spring,” said Head
Coach Jeanne Sutherland in a press
release. “We are still not as consis
tent as I would like us to be but we
are improving every tournament.
This is another strong tournament
field on a really good golf course and
it should give us an indication of
where we stand right now.”
The Aggies will open their spring
season hosting the GTE “Mo”morial
on February 23-24 at Pebble Creek
Country in College Station.
Swimmers prepared to start year
By Jeff Schmidt
Staff writer