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Sports
Page 9 • Friday, October 8, 1999
7th-ranked soccer team hits the road to take on Baylor, Texas Tech
JP BEATO/The Battalion
ienior midfielder Mandy Davidson (middle) challenges for a ball against the Ohio State
iiversity Buckeyes last month.
BY REECE FLOOD
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Soccer Team will con
tinue to take part in Big 12 action this week
end when they play road games against
Baylor University today and Texas Tech Uni
versity Sunday.
The Aggies (10-2) will travel to Waco
tonight for a 7 p.m. game against the de
fending Big 12 champion Baylor Bears (8-4).
The Bears have a tendency to play the
Aggies tough, and due to some past ex
periences this game may prove to be
quite a show.
Two years ago Baylor won the game
against the Aggies in Waco on a controver
sial call. A Baylor player shot the ball at the
Aggie goal, but missed it wide and the ball
hit the side of the net.
The referee mistakenly thought the
ball went inside the net and counted the
shot as a goal. A&M eventually lost the
game by one goal.
Sophomore midfielder Michelle Royal
was not at the game two years ago, but
she said the team has not forgotten what
happened and the controversy is still re
membered by some.
“With the players that were there, it’s (con
troversy) still [on their mind],” Royal said.
The controversial call sparked an inci
dent that carried over to last years game.
“Kind of a fight type thing broke out
after the game and it was pretty intense,”
Royal said. “Last year they [Baylor] came,
here, it was an intense game, a real phys
ical type game.”
Last year Baylor won 2-0 in College Sta
tion which tied the series record at 2-2.
The Aggies are hoping to go into Waco
and end Baylor’s series winning streak at
two, but they know it will be no easy task.
“I look at them as an attacking team,”
Royal said.
Leading the way for Baylor with eight
goals on the season is Courtney Saunders.
Also this season Baylor, has accumulated
122 shots on goal while limiting oppo
nents to only 88 shots on goal as a team.
The Aggies will return home Friday
night, but leave on Saturday for Lubbock
and spend the night there before playing
Texas Tech at 1 p.m. on Sunday .
A&M’s offense will try to maintain
their aggressive level of attacking in or
der to take advantage of a Tech defense
that has allowed 20 goals in 12 games this
season.
The Aggies will have to overcome a
few injuries on defense in order to be
successful this weekend.
Senior defender Ashley Fendley and
freshman defender Martha Moore are
both doubtful to see any playing time this
weekend.
The Aggies are hitting the road ranked sev
enth in the latest NSCAA and Soccer Buzz
polls and are ranked 12th in Soccer America.
A&M is also ranked seventh in scoring
offense with a 3.25 goals-per-game aver
age. The defense is ranked 11th a 0.58
goals-per-game average while senior goal
keeper Melanie Wilson is 11th in the na
tion with a 0.52 goals against average.
ggies try to regroup against Bears
BY BETH MILLER
The Battalion
The 1999 football season was sup-
ised to showcase the Texas A&M Foot-
ill Team’s balanced offense, ranked No.
irimaril'®n the nation after the team’s first two
n widens imes. But the spotlight has not been
stauran'ilnd to the Aggies, as they scored no of-
to sola fe sive touchdowns in their third and
fo irth games.
theywi#Senior running back Dante Hall at-
Ibergelliftutes the Aggies’ performance to lack
-thernse®enthusiasm anc j heart,
ibeling® “[ think if W e play with more heart,
ingtel®ore power, more emotion, then the run-
:h ingrec«nggame will get more push or we will
COnV n8 )ncentrate on w ^° we ^ ave on Passing
r the l a Wonassignments,” Hall said. “So I think
fe rmer §sj us t about going out and playing with
to wHic'Tjjgjg ] ot more fj rej instead of going out
' 0 with this cool attitude like ‘we’re
,ato i 1 ; texasA&M.’
6 w'Ti wee k teams are 8°i n g to gi ve us
)0tan». ^yy/^t, anc j we have to give them our
lestfaack, and we didn’t give it our best
tispast weekend.”
Last weekend the Aggies lost to Texas
’cli University, 21-19, in Lubbock. The
ggies compiled 273 yards passing but
nly52 yards rushing. They achieved 17
stdowns and completed 20 of 38 pass-
Junior placekicker Terence Kitchens
Hthe majority of A&M’s points on the
aard with four field goals, and sopho-
lore cornerback Jay Brooks scored the
ggies’ only touchdown on a blocked
lint.
The Aggies will take on Baylor Uni-
ersity Saturday at 1 p.m. at Kyle Field,
his weekend’s meeting will be the
6th between A&M and Baylor since
), with the Aggies leading the series
7-29-9.
The Bears (1-4, 0-2 in Big 12) broke
leir 10-game losing streak and gave
oach Kevin Steele his first win at Baylor
rtien they beat the University of North
Texas, 23-10, last Saturday in Waco.
Hall said the Aggies’ problems against
Texas Tech were offensive inability in the
red zone, lack of focus and the fact Tech’s
defensive strategy entailed stacking the
line with eight or nine men at a time.
“Watching the film, we still, even in
the red zone, had missed assignments,
and it’s not what someone’s doing — it’s
what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re not
executing when we get down there. We
have to be on the same page and focus
even harder when we get in the red zone
because teams pick up their defense in
side the 20 [yard line].
“It’s not anything special that other
teams are doing; it’s what we’re not do
ing.”
He said the Aggies need to concentrate
on winning this weekend’s game rather
than trying to iron out the long-term of
fensive gliches.
“Baylor is 1-3, but their defense has al
ways been pretty good,” he said. “I don’t
think we can go [into the game] focusing
on one aspect of game. We have to go in
focusing on winning. First and foremost
this weekend, we need to win the game
and in the midst of it, try to see what is
wrong with the running game.”
A&M football coach R.C. Slocum said
people often try to pinpoint specific rea
sons for mistakes, but there is more than
one reason for the errors in the Tech
game.
“What I am disappointed in is inside
the 20 [yard line],” he said. “You’re al
ways trying to put your finger on a rea
son, and there is usually not one reason.
We’ve had some assignment errors,
which I attribute to the fact that we’re re
placing two guys in our line that left this
year. We haven’t functioned well as a
unit. It’s been too inconsistent.”
He said the running game has suffered
from several blows, such as senior run
ning back D’Andre “Tiki” Hardeman be
ing injured.
Slocum said the Tech game was diffi-
GUY ROGERS/The Battalion
Senior cornerback Jason Webster wraps up Texas Tech University fullback Sammy Morris during Saturday night’s game against the
Red Raiders. The Aggies host the Baylor Bears this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Kyle Field.
cult because when the Aggies fell behind,
he looked at the situation as a whole and
decided that the best way to catch up was
to concentrate on the passing game.
He said he can never remember coach
ing two games in a row without an of
fensive touchdown.
Senior offensive lineman Chris Vallet
ta said he is offended by public assump
tions that the Aggies 1 :k the necessary
talent to run the ball.
He said he expects fans to question the
situation when a No. 5 team gets beaten
by Texas Tech, since the Red Raiders had
lost two games beforehand. He said fans
watch football to analyze the teams and
the games, but he refuses to believe that
A&M has a poor running game.
“I don’t think it’s that we can’t run,”
he said. “I can’t agree with that because
as an offensive lineman, that’s my job
and our job up front, to open up holes
to run. We take it personally when peo
ple are saying, ‘they can’t run, so they
throw the ball.’
“That’s a pride issue, and we’re not
going to swallow that. We can’t.”
Harriers host A&M Cross Country Invitational
SPORTS IN BRIEF
BY BLAINE DIONNE
The Battalion
Texas A&M University is hosting one of the re-
on’s largest cross-country meets today with a
total of 1,000 collegiate and high-school runners
escending on the Texas A&M Golf Course to
compete for two days.
The Texas A&M Cross Country Invitational
is considered one of the best college meets in
the region A&M cross country head coach
Dave Hartman said.
“This meet is one of the largest in the region
as far as number of runners,” Hartman said.
There will be a field of 23 schools competing, con
sisting of Texas and Louisiana schools, along with
Auburn University and Mississippi State University.
The Texas A&M Men’s Cross Country team
comes into the meet No. 3 in the region, behind the
University of Arkansas and the University of Texas.
The women currently are ranked sixth, but
A&M sophomore runner Melissa Gulli said the
rankings were reached in error.
“It’s wrong!” Gulli said, joking. “No, the rat
ings aren’t really affecting us, I think that’s just
paper and they aren’t giving us enough credit, and
1 think we’ll show them on Friday.”
While top ranked Arkansas will not be compet
ing this weekend, the Longhorns are, and Hartman
said the challenge to run against Texas and the 22
other schools is one the team is looking forward to.
“This is a quality meet with some very good
teams competing,” Hartman said. “The competi
tion on both sides will be tough, but I’m really ex
cited to host a meet like this.”
The women’s and men’s teams are enjoying
their nice starts to the 1999 season. Impressive
finishes in their opening meet in Seattle two
weeks ago at the Sundodger Invitational have the
team confident about the season.
“It was a good way to start the season,”'
Hartman said. “But we didn’t run a great race,
so we know we are going to drastically im
prove as the year goes on.”
WOOLSEY
FILE PHOTO/The Battalion
The Texas A&M Cross Country teams will host the Texas A&M Cross Country Invitational Saturday.
The women’s race starts at 6 p.m. with the men starting 10 minutes later.
A win by the Aggies this weekend would ac
complish something no other A&M cross country
team has done. Since the inception of the Aggie
Invitational in 1988, the Aggie Harriers have nev
er won their home meet.
With the talent in place on this year’s squad,
senior Carl Stewart said he hopes that trend will
come to an end this year.
“It’s really the first time we’ve had a<good
enough team to have a chance to win our own
meet,” Stewart said.
Hartman said a win this weekend would be
nice, but he is more worried about the Pre-NCAA
meet in Indiana next week because of its greater
implications on the Aggie’s season goals.
“We’ll be running against approximately 15 to
20 of the top 25 teams in the country up in Bloom
ington, Indiana next week,” Hartman said. “So
we want to have a good race this weekend, but
we’re definitely not peaking towards this.”
The university division races will be on Fri
day, with the women’s 5,000-meter run start
ing at 6 p.m. and the men’s 5.1-mile race be
ginning at 6:10 p.m.
Volleyball to take on
Oklahoma Sooners
After being upset by the un
ranked Baylor University Bears, the
Texas A&M Volleyball Team (12-3,
3-2 Big 12) is set
to take on Okla
homa University
tomorrow at 7
p.m. at G. Rollie
White Coliseum.
The University
of Oklahoma
Sooners (6-9, 1-4
Big 12) return four
starters from last
season’s team. They finished 1998
with a 10-22 overall record and
placed 10th in the Big 12 confer
ence with a 4-16 record.
A&M won the most recent con
test between the two teams on
November 13, 1998, sweeping
the Sooners 15-8, 15-7, 15-5, at
the University of Oklahoma Field
House.
Both squads head into tomorrow
night’s match with a recent Big 12
conference loss. The Sooners were
recently defeated by conference ri
val University of Kansas, 3-1.
Softball heads to
Spring Klein tourney
The Texas A&M Women’s Soft-
ball Team will continue its schedule
of preseason play this weekend at
the Spring Klein Invitational Spring,
Texas. The Aggies will open tourna
ment play against Southern Mis
sissippi Saturday at 11 a.m.
Coach Jo Evans said she is
pleased with the progress the team
has been making and is looking for
ward to the tournament.
“The Spring Tournament will be
a good measuring stick for us as a
team,” Evans said. “We will see
some great pitching and face some
top-twenty teams.”
Evans said in preparation for
this caliber of competition, the Ag
gies have continued to work on
their hitting and fine tune their tim
ing and rhythm.
The Aggies will also face the Uni
versity of Coastal Carolina Saturday
at 3:00 p.m. They will then play a
doubleheader Sunday beginning at
9:00 a.m. against the University of
Lo u i s i a n a-Laf ay ette.
Baseball begins
Fall World Series
The annual Texas A&M Fall
World Series will begin tonight at 7
at Olsen Field.
The Fall World Series is a best-
of-five game intrasquad series.
The “Redskins” will be managed
by A&M volunteer assistant coach
Mike Haverty, while the “Trappers”
will be managed by A&M assistant
coach David Coleman.
All games will be played even if
the winner of the series is deter
mined in less than five games.
Fans are encouraged to at
tend and there is no charge for
admission.
Game 2 of the series will take
place Saturday night at 7.
The three remaining games will
be played next week.
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