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Sports
THE BATTALION
Monday, March 25, 2002
OU takes broom to Aggie softball
STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION
I senior catcher Selena Collins tags out Oklahoma's Erin Evans on
lurday in the Aggies’ 6-1 loss ot OU at the Aggie Softball Complex.
By Micala Proesch
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M softball team played
well this weekend against the University of
Oklahoma, but it was not good enough, as
the Aggies were swept by the Sooners.
OU took the series opener 6-1 on
Saturday, capitalizing on one big inning to
bury the Aggies.
A&M outhit the Sooners, yet they could
not manage to get their runners around the
bases, as the Aggies left 1 1 players stranded
on the base paths to suffer their first loss at
home this season.
The No. 22 Aggies felt more of the same
frustration on Sunday, when they again out-
hit the No. 9 Sooners, but still fell short, 2-1.
A&M had chances in both the sixth and
the seventh innings to take the lead, but the
Aggies failed to come through in the clutch
and deliver the big hits.
In the seventh inning, the Aggies had
runners on first and second with no outs
when junior center fielder Cheryl Fowler
popped up a bunt into a double play.
Freshman right fielder Adrian Gregory came
through with a single through the left side
and junior catcher Selena Collins lined to
second to end the game.
“It was frustrating because we’ve got
runners at first and second with nobody
out, which is exactly the situation we
want to be in,” said A&M head coach Jo
Evans. “You’ve got to be able to execute,
that’s the name of the game. You need to
be able to do those small things to make
something happen.”
Those small things eluded the Aggies this
weekend, who left a total of 20 runners
stranded on base against the Sooners. They
failed to capitalize on opportunities to take
the lead and let Oklahoma beat them even
though they were matched play for play.
“It is very frustrating when you out-hit
your opponents in two games and still do
See Broom on page 7
ack gets best
inish ever for
&M at NCAAs
Aggies romp over Sooners
was Bosnia'i
writer-dirt;
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and a Sei
By Troy Miller
THE BATTALION
AUSTIN — Texas A&M senior Meghan Zack
ored a 69.10 on her fifth and final dive to capture sec-
gether inatrerAd place in the NCAA platform diving championship
c\ which had*Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in
was expectedHer final dive had a difficulty rating of 3.4,
■aking it her most difficult dive of the competition.
PoitierandRoitl She went for broke on her final dive and sure
/ed an hona-lped a great time to do a pretty good one,” said
r achievement 4&M diving coach Kevin Wright,
he show. 1(1 Z ac k started in sixth place after the afternoon’s pre-
loment to men b inaries. A costly mistake by University of Indiana
[nior Sarah Reiling, the leader after the preliminaries,
it University of Southern California freshman Blythe
prtley all alone in the top spot after the second round.
Zack found herself in a four-way race for second
ith University of Texas freshman Nicole Pohorenec,
we celebratel^iana sophomore Cassandra Cardinell, and Southern
; movies bni difomia sophomore Nicci Fusaro.
After Zack nailed her final dive, it was up to the rest
the, pack to chase her.
/‘I knew I had a high degree of difficulty dive,”
ack said. “I knew I had to hit it to make the top four.”
Pohorenec was the last contender to dive. Her
vewas succesful, but her degree of difficulty was
olow to top Zack. Pohorenec fell 5.90 points short
Zack’s total.
This was a perfect way to be done [with my career],
ack said. “With [three] conference [championships]
■dthen this, in a way it makes me want to keep diving,
it 1 hope that this is a good way to say goodbye.”
Texas A&M has really supported diving tremen-
usly,” Wright said. “I’m really happy that Meghan
represent herself and A&M in a positive light.
rorist attacks,
ith a friend ate
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ke us laugh.'
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to look at his was a perfect way to end it for her.”
said ^ Sophomore Katie Williams captured 14th place for
of box-oft*' leAggies in the event, while junior Callie Petroff fin-
bed 21st.
hi the team standings. Auburn University outscored
eutheastern Conference rival University of Georgia
nas across
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See Divers on page 7
THE BATTALION
JOHN LIVAS
A&M junior first baseman Travis Wong hits a grand slam to cap off a seven-run, second
inning in the Aggies’ 11-2 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners on Sunday.
Ballouli, Wong lead Ags
to 11-2 win Sunday,
series victory over O U
By True Brown
THE BATTALION
When senior right fielder Neal Stephenson told junior
pitcher Khalid Ballouli that A&M’s bats would come through
with runs against the University of Oklahoma Sooners on
Sunday, Ballouli had no reason to doubt him. After all,
Stephenson already had two home runs, four RBIs and five
hits in eight at bats in the first two games of the series.
Stephenson proved to be true to his word, starting the
Aggies’ scoring in his first at bat of the game Sunday.
Stephenson’s RBI single started a three-inning outburst
for A&M (20-10, 7-5 Big 12), and helped the Aggies build
an early nine-run lead, as the Aggies claimed an 11-2 win
over the Sooners.
That lead allowed Ballouli, the ace of A&M’s rotation, to
pitch pressure-free.
“Any pitcher would love an eight-run lead by the second
inning,” Ballouli said. “With an eight run lead, not every
thing is riding on every pitch. When you have a lead like
that, you just go out there and throw a lot of fastballs and let
your defense work for you. We did that today.”
Ballouli earned the win against the Sooners (16-7, 4-2) in
the rubber game of the series, improving his record to 4-1,
giving up four hits in seven innings.
“KB ate up a lot of innings for us,” said A&M baseball
head coach Mark Johnson. “He was hitting his spots, and
that gave us a chance. Then the hitting took over.”
Junior first baseman Travis Wong led the Aggie hitting
parade, ripping a grand slam over the left center field wall
off Oklahoma pitcher Evan Gruesel during the Aggies’
seven-run second inning.
Wong’s home run was his sixth of the season and upped
his RBI total to 23 on the season, second-most on the team.
Wong’s home run was the highlight of the inning for the
Aggies, who also collected eight hits in the frame.
Sophomore second baseman Erik Schindewolf started
the inning with a double to left field, and junior center field
er Eric Reed’s two-run single three batters later chased
Gruesel from the game.
OU’s second pitcher. Buddy Blair, did not fare much
better. Sophomore shortstop Matt Alexander greeted Blair
See Romp on page 7
ited ticket ^
day at
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Men’s tennis team sweeps doubleheader
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B y Kevin Espenlaub
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M men’s tennis
extended its winning streak to
^-straight matches on Friday
I 11 . a sweep of a doubleheader
pnst the University of
:xa s-San Antonio and No. 35
niversity of Tulsa at the A&M
r sUy Tennis Center,
he No. 10 Aggies (13-2, 1-0)
'wed with a 7-0 victory over
l (9~5) i n t he afternoon
c hup despite being run to a third
' °n three different courts by an
■proved UTSA team.
°- 36 junior Ryan Newport,
J°r Keith From and senior Alex
a §an all finished off third set
victories to clinch the shutout for
the Aggies.
“I think the first match really
helped us to knock some rust off
of our shoes,” said A&M head
coach Tim Cass. “It had been 1 1
days since our last match, and we
found a way to win against a good
UTSA team.”
The Tulsa (13-6) match began
with a battle as the teams split the
first two dotibles matches that weie
decided before a court thiee tie
breaker was won by A&M s duo ot
From and freshman Ante Matijevic,
9-8 (5). A&M won the doubles
point and took a 1 -0 lead.
Victorious in both doubles
matches of the day was the No. x.6
tandem of Newport and freshman
Lester Cook.
“The doubles point was very
close with Tulsa,” Cass said. “We’re
still learning things in doubles and
we’re having to scrape and claw a
little to get these wins, but I’m
proud we found a way to win it.”
The Aggies would go on to win
four of the six singles matches and
claim the contest 5-2, with the only
losses coming to sophomore Khaled
El Dorry and No. 92 Matijevic.
The setback marked El Dorry’s
first loss of the dual match season and
broke his nine-match winning streak.
Senior Jarin Skube, ranked No.
88 in the nation, joined Newport,
No. 104 Cook, and From in the
win column.
“Tulsa is a very good team,”
Skube said. “We wanted to shut
them down early in singles to show
them that we were not going to
back down, and I think our whole
team really gave a great effort in
stopping them.”
Cass was also impressed with
what he saw against Tulsa.
“Tulsa is a good team and I think
they are going to keep heading up in
the rankings and could easily be a
Top 25 team before the season is
out,” Cass said. “I think Keith
(From) probably had his best match
of the year, and I think Ryan
(Newport), Jarin (Skube), and
Lester (Cook) also played great
matches. I think for those guys to
come out and play the way they did
is encouraging.”
STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION
A&M junior Ryan Newport hits a backhand in his match on
Friday as the Ags beat Tulsa at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Ags continue torrid pace with victory over Tulsa
J^RT VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION
backha T lartina Nedorostova hits a
n a gainst Tulsa on Friday.
By Dallas Shipp
THE BATTALION
The Tulsa women’s tennis team
came into College Station already hav
ing a tough week and left feeling much
of the same. The Texas A&M women’s
tennis team extended its winning streak
to six as it sent the Golden Hurricane
back to Oklahoma with their second
loss in a row at the Varsity lennis
Center on Friday.
The No. 20 Aggies (14-2) began
the match with a 1-0 lead before play
even began after Tulsa (9-6) was
forced to play without its No. 6 singles
seed because two players on the team
left school last week to follow a reli
gious cult.
“We’ve had a long week,” said Tulsa
head coach Paige McMurray. “We were
missing a couple of players, but I
thought the team came out tonight and
showed a lot of competitiveness against
a good Texas A&M team.”
The Golden Hurricane was also
forced to play doubles without their
No. 3 doubles team, which made get
ting the doubles point easier for the
Aggies who swept the other two match
es to take an early 2-0 lead going into
singles play.
Seniors Martina Nedorostova and
Olivia Karlikova led the way for the
Aggies in singles.
Nedorostova beat Tulsa’s Zoe
Buhagiar in a match that was dominat
ed by the Aggie senior, 6-1, 6-0.
Nedorostova could do little wrong as
she sailed through the match.
Karlikova, on the other hand, made
things interesting. After having two
match point opportunities in the second
set, Tulsa’s Aleksandra Durska rallied
to force a third set. Since the team
match had been decided 4-2, both
coaches agreed to play a 10-point
tiebreaker rather than a third set.
Karlikova dropped the first three
points of the tiebreaker and looked as
though she had run out of gas. But after
winning four straight points, the senior
from Slovakia made her stand, winning
the tiebreaker, 10-8, giving her the win.
See Tennis on page 7