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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2001)
Friday, Decern!®'] tNSlON m tinned from h and Graduate Sc! ;s, said official Vehner was ci expansion would Fhere are two reasr, insion, he said have a large r..- r | , and because oft ;en forced to h [day, December 7, 200 ports THE BATTALION Page 3A gs battle with Badgers in Sweet 16 Wehaveakift fiber of stuk: 1 because of tk ! iave beenfm I The No have classes o. 15 A&M hoping to upset o. 6 Wisconsin in Palo Alto By Brian Ruff THE BATTALION ver campus. 15 Texas A&M volleyball n will continue its quest for a 2001 N(tAA Championship Friday when the Lies take on the No. 6 Wisconsin tigers in Palo Alto, Calif. [The Aggies (25-5) advanced to the ■eet 16 round after sweeping the Sversity of Texas-Arlington and the diversity of Texas-Austin in College School of Busra l ( j on i ast weekend. The wins over he Mavericks and the Longhorns ft? the Aggies’ third and fourth vie- * a — Dr. Jerry Stw ran of the Lowry ^ College and all over said. “This adfa lat situation." econd reason i> :>■ >etween graduate I new Cox Gna I Center is schedt™ )n in Fall 2003. ire looking for>.:| dents can walk a I v building and;I with the ability sn I he world of bus We just have a big goal ahead of us. We are jndeigraduateerkj n0 f letting anybody take that away from us. 99 — Michelle Cole A&M outside hitter tinned from M a two-time we restigious Disting Award. He was p namesake aboc he said. '00, he was r; hed Alumni oftk fomia State Unna where he eanw egree. He has 2 the University said he enjoys III ng a pan of A<U! everything I do, encouraging ev son of excellence’ |es in a row. A&M received an at- ;e bid into the tournament after ting in second place in the Big 12 iference behind defending national kmpion Nebraska. ['We just have a big goal ahead of said A&M senior outside hitter chelle Cole. “We are not letting anybody take that away from us.” Wisconsin comes into the game after knocking off the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Michigan State University in the first two rounds of the tournament. The Badgers received an automatic bid to the tournament after winning the Big 10 Conference. Wisconsin, who have won their last 10 games, and are 27-3 on the season. Wisconsin advanced to the NCAA championship game in 2000, but were defeated by National Champion Nebraska in five games. The Aggies are led by senior setter Jenna Moscovic, who is ranked 21st in the country with 13 assists per game. Senior outside hitter Erin Lechler leads the Aggies in the kill depart ment, averaging 3.55 kills per game and 4.05 points. “I know (A&M) is a very senior laden team,” said Wisconsin volleyball head coach Pete Waite. “They are a very strong and veteran team.” The winner of the A&M-Wisconsin matchup will take on the winner of the Utah-Stanford game. The regional final also will take place in Palo Alto. Wisconsin is led by Big 10 Player of the Year Lizzy Fitzgerald, who aver ages 13.8 assists per game. Senior All- American middle blocker Sherisa Livingston is hitting .409 for the Badgers, and posted 15 kills and seven blocks against Michigan State. GUY ROGERS • THE BATTALION Freshman middle blocker Melissa Munsch and the Texas A&M volleyball team will travel to Palo Alto, Calif, to take on the Wisconsin Badgers at 9 p.m. CST in the Sweet 16 round of the 2001 NCAA Volleyball Tournament. The Aggies are 0-2 all-time against Wisconsin. In each of the teams’ two previous meetings, the match has gone the distance with the Badgers taking the wins in the fifth game. The two teams last did battle in 1996 in Madison, when the Badgers tallied a come-from-behind victory over the No. 20 A&M squad. The trip to the Sweet 16 round is the Aggies’ fourth trip to the third round under head coach Laurie Corbelli, and A&M’s sixth trip to the Sweet 16 overall. The Aggies’ best finish in the NCAA tournament was in 1999, when A&M upset No. 3 Hawaii in the Sweet 16 round, before being eliminated by Long Beach State in the Elite Eight round of the tournament. First serve is set for 9 p.m. central time. Sinking ship hits rock bottom npany, has and lion facility, cations: ;ign experience e oil tools id product dr js developed witli supervisor, routs of possible mmendations lo rigs and worte irvisor. d lab testing or ance to worldwide and investigate GUY ROGERS • THE BATTALION linior linebacker Jarrod Penright takes a knee after the Aggies’ loss to |e Colorado Buffaloes on Oct. 13, the team’s first defeat of the season. S ince Texas A&M joined the Big 12 Conference in 1998, it has been invit ed to the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Alamo Bowl and last year to the Independence Bowl. Never before has it sunk to the depths of going to a bowl like the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl. It may be too early to tell for sure, but A&M’s football pro gram, one of the most dominant in the country in the 1990s, seems to be headed south. The scary thing is that some think it is OK. In the Nov. 19 edition of “Ask the A.D,” A&M Athletic Director Wally Groff said words that should make any Aggie shudder. “None of us, including (football head coach R.C.) Slocum himself, are fired up about losing the last three games of the season,” said Groff. “But 7-4 and a bowl bid is a lot better than most of the teams that play NCAA Division I football.” Groff, in his ninth year as A&M’s athletics director, answers questions directed to him on AggieAthletics.com, and his comments do not leave Aggie football fans much to look forward to in the coming years. True, there are plenty of teams who will not be going bowling this season. It is also true that 7-4 is a decent record, but it is just that: decent. It is also true, however, that of the eight bowl-eligible teams in the Big 12, the Galleryfurniture.com Misera-Bowl is at the bottom of the barrel. Think it is a coinci dence that the game is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on a weekday? The Aggies were passed up by higher ranking bowls for conference foes Texas Tech (last year’s Big 12 representative to the Mattress Mac Bowl), Iowa State and Kansas State. Since A&M beat the Cyclones and the Wildcats this season and all three had simi lar records, why would they be selected ahead of A&M? Because A&M’s offense is one of the most dismal in the country. Of the 115 teams in Division 1A football, in total offense A&M is ranked No. 107. Iowa State is No. 54 and Kansas State is No. 47. The Red Raiders, who averaged 114 more yards per game than the Aggies, came in at No. 33. Anyone with any sense would take a good offense over a poor offense, and it is no secret that the Aggie ‘O’ has struggled this season. In the same Nov. 19 post Groff said, “Attendance was at an all-time high this year. We averaged over 100 percent capac ity for the season, which is another sign of a strong program.” No. The sign of a strong program is com peting for a conference championship year in and year out. The sign of a strong program is averaging more than 20 points per game. The sign of a strong program is not having the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl even be an option. With more than 45,000 students and 23,000 donors in the 12th Man Foundation, more than mediocrity is expected, but that is what fans and donors have seen the last two seasons. Excellence on the field, not dollar signs from ticket sales, should be the goal. True Brown is a sophomore ag journalism major. BREITLING 1884 * * imediate lat includes ngs plan. to(713)923- ;om, Aerospace John D. 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