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The Battalion
Page 5 • Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Aggies look for more consistency
Sharon Aeshbach •THE BATTALION
Texas A&M junior middle blocker Melissa Munsch goes for the kill against Southwest Missouri State.
A&M hopes Jones
and Munsch will
continue to roll
By Blake Kimzey
THE BATTALION
All-American senior middle blocker
Monique Gerlach is like a needle in a
haystack for the University of Colorado
volleyball team. As one of just three
upperclassmen on her team, Gerlach is
somewhat of an enigma, surrounded by
youth and inexperience.
To be exact, 10 underclassmen pepper a
Colorado roster which, battle tested at 9-3,
will provide the foundation for a duke-it-
out Big 12 home opener tonight for the
Aggies.
Colorado coach Pi’i Aiu likes to grumble
about his team’s inability to close out
games; however, Colorado has only surren
dered three close matches, all of which
came on the road. Youth and inexperience,
he says, breed mistake-riddled matches in
crunch time.
“We need to leam to close games out
because youthful mistakes are very charac
teristic of this team right now,” Aiu said. “We
let our inability to secure winnable matches
show against Penn State and at Kansas.”
Aiu, the most successful coach in
Colorado history, isn’t shy about acknowl
edging the talent of his young team.
“However, despite our youth, we are as
talented as we’ve ever been,” he said.
The Aggies, by comparison, look much
older with 12 players returning. A&M coach
Laurie Corbelli knows that the demographic
separation between Colorado and Texas will
mean very little when the conference oppo
nents square off.
“Statistically, we match up very close
with Colorado,” Corbelli said. “There is a
very good chance this will be a long match
because we usually go five games with
Colorado. We should beat each other up for
two-and-a-half hours.”
The No. 25 Aggies will be looking to
sophomore outside hitter Laura Jones and
junior middle blocker Melissa Munsch to set
the tone for an A&M squad still looking for
consistency at its current 8-3 mark.
After finishing fifth in the Big 12 last
season and being ranked for the first time
this year, the Aggies are looking to fortify
their competitive stability within the Big
12 and beyond.
Looking to Jones and Munsch, Corbelli
said, is a formative start.
“I've been pleased with the consistency of
Laura Jones and Melissa Munsch,” Corbelli
said. “But, we’ve been mixing up our system
so much that it has been hard to find that
consistency overall.”
As the matriarch of a talented on-court
group, Gerlach remains the epicenter of a
team eager to ascend the ranks of the Big 12.
Colorado assistant coach Jil Thomason said
it will be mid-season by the time her team
finally hits its stride.
“1 think midway through the Big 12 sea
son we will come together and show our full
potential,” Thomason said. “Our girls look to
Monique (Gerlach) to set the tone, who has
been an outstanding four year starter for us.
She leads by example.”
Match time is set for 8 p.m. at G. Rollie
White Coliseum, and will be televised live
on College Sports Television (CSTV).
Clarett sues NFL to be
eligible for 2004 draft
By Erin McClam
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Suspended
Ohio State tailback Maurice
Clarett sued the NFL on Tuesday,
asking a judge to throw out a
league rule preventing players
from entering the draft until they
have been out
of high scho
for three years.
Clarett,
who rushed for
1,237 yards
and led Ohio
State to a
national cham
pionship as a
freshman last
CLARETT
season, is not eligible for the draft
until 2005 under current rules.
The lawsuit, filed in federal
court New York, claims the NFL
rule violates antitrust law because
it is separate from the league’s
current collective bargaining
agreement with its players union.
“The rule is a restraint of ama
teur athletes who were strangers
to the collective bargaining
process,” the suit says.
A message left for NFL
spokesman Greg Aiello wasn’t
immediately returned Tuesday.
When NFL commissioner
Paul Tagliabue was asked earlier
this month if he thought the
league could win such a lawsuit,
he replied: "My feeling as com
missioner is that we have a very
strong case and that we'll win it.”
Clarett was suspended from
the Ohio State team for at least a
year after an investigation deter
mined he broke NCAA bylaws
concerning benefits for athletes
and lying to investigators.
He claims it was “almost cer
tain” he would have been taken in
the first round of the 2(X)3 draft
had he been eligible, and would
have made millions of dollars in a
contract and signing bonus.
Clarett’s attorney, Alan C.
Milstein, filed the suit a day after
he met with NFL executives in
Washington to discuss whether
Clarett would be eligible for the
2004 draft.
Aiello characterized it as “an
exchange of views” and said the
league would get back to them.
He did not immediately return a
call for comment Tuesday.
The lawsuit asks U.S. District
Judge Shira Scheindlin to throw
out the rule and declare Clarett
eligible for the 2004 draft — or
require the NFL to hold a special
supplemental draft sooner.
SPORTS IN BRIEF
TCU asst, coach
arrested for DWI
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) —
TCU suspended assistant
coach Willie Mack Garza on
Tuesday following his weekend
arrest on charges of driving
while intoxicated and failing to
render aid to an injured person.
Garza was arrested early
Saturday after fleeing an acci
dent in Forest Hill, a small city
near Fort Worth, police said.
Garza, who coaches corner-
backs, wasn’t on the sideline
when the No. 19 Horned Frogs
win over Vanderbilt Saturday.
TCU athletic director Eric
Hyman said Garza is suspend
ed with pay pending develop
ments in the case. Hyman said
he and coach Gary Patterson
agreed that the suspension was
appropriate.
(ill have its
.m. Contact
ecreation
to play games
Peed 014 or send
n.net
Can you help us find these people?
We’re trying to get the message out!
T
Melissa Albers
Stephen Duncan
Joshua Howard
Jason Miller
Chapman Shoop
Traci Anderson
Eva Dutton
Theresa Hubley
Matthew Miller
Andrew Siegel
Elizabeth Angrove
Adam Earl
Anne Huddleston
Victoria Montemayor
Raul Silva
Kristen Avery
Kent Early
Michael Jacobs
Elizabeth Morgan
Jonathan Simpson
Blake Barger
Brittani Earp
Rebecca Jacobson
Sarah Morris
Alexander Slaybaugh
Cody Barnett
James Edwards
Lauren Johnson
Chontel Mutschink
Amber Smith
Andrew Beckett
James Engemoen
Sheri Johnson
Billy Jay Nelson
Jonathan Sneed
Dana Bergstresser
John Farquhar
David Jones
Jonathan Norman
Christopher Sohr
Rebecca Blackmon
Nicholas Feda
Amgela Karnuth
Joshua Noworatzky
Rebecca Stahlman
Steven Blackmon
Kelli Ferrell
Ryan Kerr
Michael Nutt
Scott Steffen
Katherine Blalock
Lindsey Petty
David Kim
Catherine Oberg
Jerrod Strickland
Alexander Brahm
Sean Fox
Jae Kim
Bert Olah
Kathleen Sullivan
Sarah Brents
Shaun Frederiksen
Soo Kim
Marisa Ordonez
Leslie Tamborello
Taryn Brown
Johanna Freeman
Katherine Knauer-Salinas
Lauren Parker
Alison Tanner
Christina Buffington
Ashlee Garcia
Aubrey Kotlarich
David Peletz
Christine Tanton
Scott Busing
Kathryn Garcia
Jennifer Kucherka
Karl Petersen
James Taylor
David Byrnes
Sarah Garrick
Adrienne LaFleur
David Polpelka
Timothy Teague
Charleen Cabler
Blake Gerken
Peter Lara
Sommer Pool
Lindsay Thurman
Mark Caldwell
Geoffrey Gideon
John Lauderdale
David Popelka
Jerett Turner
Danielle Calfee
Molly Gittemeier
Anna Lee
Heather Powdrill
Christina Upchurch
Christopher Carter
Amanda Glogowski
Maria Lee
Lindsay Priddy
Seth Urbanek
Esther Chen
Allison Goter
Christina Lundy
Paige Priour
Frances Varner
Meredith Childs
Jerilyn Gottshall
Karington Lyle
Mark Rand
Kaitlynn Verret
Caroline Christian
William Gould
Christopher Malhiot
Alex Reeder
Laura Wagner
Jordan Coburn
Stephanie Gunderson
Kristin Martin
Lauren Reynolds
Meggan Walker
Jason Coleman
Kenneth Habitzreiter
Scott Martin
Catherine Roark
Steven Watters
Heather Conard
Allison Hanson
Christina Mathews
Andrew Roberts
Brittney Wehring
Ryan Craig
Nicole Harper
Jane Mathews
Courtney Robertson
Leslie Weichert
Tess Crider
Lauren Hart
Ashley McClellan
Chance Robinson
Jennifer Wickline
Pamela Curtright
Galen Hauth
Jud McClure
Lauren Rouse
Kelly Jo Wise
Alicia Dale
James Helm
Matthew McGowan
Colbi Sanders
David Witter
Heather Davis
Megan Helton
Stephen McMillan
Jilaine Sandlin
Christopher Wood
James Davis
Marni Hemberger
Joshual Meeh
William Saunders
Oliver Wu
Kathryn Dickson
Jaime Hinojosa
Nicole Mendoza
Michael Schoel
Laura Zandstra
Jarrid Dietert
Julie Hollimon
Erika Miles
Lydia Schomaker
Nicole Drannbauer
Adam Holt
Ashley Miller
Laura Shinn
JL
IF
See Friday’s issue of “The Battalion” for the message!!
United Campus Ministry (979) 846-1221,
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