Gymcats defend home turn against Cal
The UA gymnastics team notched its second conference win of the year by beating California Friday night in McKale Center.
The 196.750-195.200 win over the Golden Bears improved the UA's record to 2-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference and 6-1 overall.
The 196.750 score was the fifth-best in the program's history.
The Gymcats jumped out to a 49.425-49.225 lead after the first rotation, and never trailed in the meet.
Junior Monica Bisordi anchored UA's performance, sweeping first place in all four events.
Bisordi's career-high 9.975 on the floor exercise helped her tie her career-high all-around score of 39.750.
Senior Andi McCabe tied Bisordi for first on the vault with a score of 9.950, and set a personal best on the floor at 9.900.
Junior Jamie Duce shared top honors with Bisordi on the uneven bars, registering a personal best 9.925.
Freshman Aubrey Taylor had an impressive all-around debut, placing second with a score of 39.300, good enough for ninth all-time in UA history.
Taylor recorded 9.850s on both the bars and balance beam.
Sophomore Abby Pearson overcame an injured ankle to set a season-best mark on the vault with a score of 9.925.
The team's depth led to a good performance despite injuries sweeping over the team, head coach Dan Ryden said.
"We lost Jamie Schell right before the meet, and she was supposed to do all four events, so had to do some scrambling to fill in the lineup," Ryden said. "The way the girls came through was really commendable."
The Wildcats head to Corvallis, Ore. Friday, when the team will face off against Pac-10 foe Oregon State.
- Kyle Kensing
Women's golf set to kick off in Palos Verdes
The Arizona women's golf team opens its spring semester today at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge.
The Wildcats have had plenty of success in the tournament, held at the Palos Verdes Golf Club. They won team medalist honors in 2000 and 2001.
Head Coach Greg Allen said he is happy with the prior success Arizona has had at Northrop Grumman.
"This is the fourth time to go since I've been (in Tucson)," Allen said. "We won my first year and made a decent run last year."
Allen had nothing but positives to say about the Wildcats' success in the fall after they won at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational in Seattle, Washington.
"I look back at the fall and our team's stock average was the best it's been in a while," Allen said. "We had a win, we're going in pretty confident and we had a good rest. We feel like we can go out and have a chance to win."
The Wildcats ended the fall semester ranked third in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
They will head into Monday's first round looking to take home the trophy against an elite field that includes 11 of the top 20 teams in the nation. That group includes UCLA (2), California (5), New Mexico (6), Georgia (7), and Oklahoma State (8).
"UCLA might be the favorite," Allen said. "We played against them (in the fall) and we are tied 2 and 2. The same goes for Georgia."
Wildcat sophomore Erica Blasberg is beginning her spring semester as the second ranked golfer in the nation after notching three wins in the fall.
The Corona, Calif. native is competing with Duke's Elizabeth Janangelo for player of the year honors. Janangelo edged Blasberg by less than two points in the rankings last year.
"Erica wants (player of the year honors) bad," Allen said. "She played well enough last year to be in the running and she learned from her mistakes this year and feels she deserves the (top honor)."
Blasberg will be returning to last year's site, where she was tied for second going into the last day before it was cancelled by rain.
Blasberg isn't the only UA golfer ranked by Golfweek. Sophomores Mar Garcia and Whitney Welch ranked 35 and 50, respectively. Both had impressive fall campaigns and are considered to be constants for the Wildcat squad.
Coach Allen said that with the deep team he has, it will be tough to make the top five spots, and he will be continually altering his lineup for each tournament.
"I am really happy with everything we did over the fall," Allen said. "Everybody got a chance to compete and we've got a lot of players going for those five spots, so it will be pretty competitive."
- Shane Bacon
No. 13 Icecats get beat up by Oklahoma
With a pair of convincing wins this weekend, Oklahoma showed it could be a hockey power earlier than expected - and may have forced the Arizona Icecats to talk about next year sooner than expected.
The good news for the Icecats (11-12-2) is they jumped up to No. 13 in the polls, which would give them an invite to the national tournament. The bad news is they lost 5-1 and 4-2 to the Division II Sooners (21-4-1).
"They are every bit as good as (No. 12) Arizona State, if not better," said Icecats Head Coach Leo Golembiewski.
The UA beat ASU three of six times with one tie.
Golembiewski said he knew Oklahoma would be good, partly because it can use graduate and part-time students as a Division II school. The Sooners had a number of 27- to 29-year olds, while Arizona is mostly made up of freshmen and sophomores.
"It was a tough weekend, physically," Golembiewski said.
In addition to the injuries the UA has had all year and brought into Norman, Okla., freshman forward Dave Cwik (knee), and junior forward and captain Shaun Brooks (separated shoulder) could not play the second game.
Hope remains that the UA will stay No. 13, as No. 14 Delaware was beaten by No. 1 Penn State 11-0 and 12-1 over the weekend. No. 16 Drexel lost 12-0 to No. 3 Rhode Island.
Golembiewski believes the Icecats should remain in the top 13.
"We have the eighth best record (6-6-1) against the top 12 teams. Tennessee is the only weak part of our schedule," Golembiewski said.
The Icecats are off this weekend and don't play again until after the poll that decides the tournament's seeding comes out.
"I'm just real upbeat and positive. We're hoping for a bid, but the talk around the hotel was already about Chicago (next year's tournament site) in '05," Golembiewski said.
Junior forward Don Holtz had both Icecats goals Saturday, and sophomore forward Banks Concepcion scored the lone goal Friday.
Three of OU's four goals came off of power plays Saturday.
"I'm disappointed, but we really played only one bad period," Golembiewski said.
The Icecats must now hope their record - 1-1 against No. 5 Lindenwood, 1-1 at No. 8 Weber State, a win at No. 9 Towson, 3-2-1 against the Sun Devils, 1-1 against No. 18 St. Louis and 1-1 at No. 20 Navy - will be good enough.
"I'm proud of the guys. We played a pretty solid semester," Golembiewski said.
- James Kelley
Men's tennis picks up two
The Arizona men's tennis team defeated Sacramento State and UC Santa Barbara this weekend, 7-0 and 5-2, respectively, to improve its record to 4-1.
On Friday, the Wildcats won every match en route to an easy victory, needing only 13 sets to complete the sweep.
Sunday, Arizona faced a tougher UCSB team (2-3), but pulled off a 5-2 win, winning some close matches. Senior Whi Kim, battling tendonitis in his elbow, led the team in the No. 1 singles position, dominating his two matches - 6-2, 6-0 over Nick Sheehan of Sacramento State and 6-3, 6-1 over Nick Brotman of UCSB.
Kim and Brotman each held serve as Kim was leading 4-3, but Kim broke serve in the next game, ending the game with a backhand winner down the line.
"I had a couple of chances and he gave me opportunities," Kim said. "If you give an opponent enough opportunities, you have to take advantage of it, and that's basically what I did. He went for a shot and he didn't put it away, and he gave me a chance to break it."
After that, Sheehan won just one game the rest of the match, as Kim cruised in the second set.
"That break was huge," Kim said. "You could tell that his spirit was down and he didn't really care after that."
In the No. 2 singles position, senior Tom Lloyd, ranked No. 84, easily won his first match 6-3, 6-1 over Matt Jones of Sacramento State, but had to battle against No. 94 Alex Anselme, before winning 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (8-5). Lloyd was down 5-4 in the third set.
"I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that we were down," Lloyd said. "We needed a win so I tried to get as many balls in play as possible. He was playing awfully well, but I grinded it back, took my chances and kind of stole it from him."
Lloyd's win clinched the match for the Wildcats to improve their record to 8-3 all-time against UCSB.
"It was complete exuberance," Lloyd said. "It's always a good feeling to get that final fourth point."
Another close match involved Roger Matalonga, playing in the third position against Elad Stern. Matalonga beat Stern 6-3, 7-5.
"Today was a tough match," Matalonga said. "It was windy and the weather was tough. I wasn't hitting the ball too well but I played with confidence. Even though I didn't play well, I won and that's good so I'm happy."
At 5-0, Matalonga is the only undefeated UA player this season.
Arizona will try for its fourth consecutive win at home against Thursday against Wichita State.
- Roman Veytsman
Rugby loses two critical matches
The UA rugby team's postseason hopes suffered a blow this weekend, as Arizona dropped two key division matches at home against UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
The Wildcats' first loss came Friday, when the Gauchos, coming off three consecutive So-Cal Conference victories, dropped their Tucson rivals 28-17.
The Wildcats (4-4, 1-2) struck first with a field goal moments into the game. Flanker Brad Robinson countered with a try at the 25-minute mark, and fullback Ryan Brown, who hit four conversions, split the uprights to give Santa Barbara a 7-3 lead.
Outside center Adam Mayer countered a try by Arizona lock Nate Eggman with two of his own, effectively putting the game away for the Gaunchos (4-0, 4-0).
With one conference loss under their belts, the Wildcats set out yesterday to face Cal Poly, which was also reeling from a Friday match. Each team conceded little in the first half, with the Mustangs taking an early 7-0 advantage into the break.
From there, the wheels came off for the Wildcats, who gave up three consecutive tries before lighting the scoreboard on a Chuck Loftin try with moments remaining. Cal Poly flyhalf John Kennard, who notched 13 points Sunday, responded with a try to seal the Mustangs' 33-5 victory.
"The irony of our weekend was that the team (Sunday) was 50 to 100 percent better than the one here on Friday," said UA head coach Dave Sitton. "The guys were prepared to play a team that was one of the top in the country, and we played hard - seven-nil at halftime. But then we made a couple of mistakes in the second half, and the game got away from us."
Cal Poly head coach Charles Zanoli lauded the Wildcats' effort Sunday.
"UA's right at the top - a top 20, maybe top 15 team in the nation," Zanoli said. "These are the games we want to play, win or lose. This is the tough competition that you learn from."
After winning four of its first five games, Arizona has lost three straight. Their two conference losses all but eliminate the Wildcats from contention for the So-Cal division championship, leaving their postseason status in question. The team takes a weekend off before its rematch with San Diego State on Feb. 20th.
"I think we have to get healthy, get into a good mindset to finish our schedule and see what the postseason holds for us," Sitton said.
- Tom Knauer
Women's track take second, men disappoint at Falcon Invitational
The UA women's track and field team fared well at this weekend's Falcon Invitational, hosted by the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
With 135 points, the women finished second to Colorado State, which won the event with 147 points. Colorado and Air Force came in third and fourth, respectively.
Colorado State also won on the men's side with 147 points, while the Air Force finished second and Colorado came in third. The Arizona men came in a disappointing fourth with just 84 points.
Freshman Billie Jo Grant set a high standard for the women, winning the shot put with a personal best of 52 feet, 4 3⁄4 inches. The throw improved her NCAA provisional qualifying mark. It set the meet record and was the second best indoor mark in Arizona history.
Senior Connie Jerz claimed a victory in the pole vault with a height of 12 feet, 11 1⁄2 inches. Freshman April Kubishta finished second to Jerz.
On the track, sophomore Angel Perkins won the 60-meter sprint with a time of 7.51 seconds, her third victory in as many weeks. Sophomore Marquita Taylor was a close second at 7.61 seconds. Junior Sharifa Jones took home a first place finish in the 60-meter hurdles at a season's best time of 8.41 seconds and freshman Tiffany McDonald finished second to Jones with her season-best time of 8.63 seconds.
"They did exactly what was expected of them," head coach Fred Harvey said.
Though the Arizona men were not as successful as the women, a few had notable individual performances.
Sophomore Robert Cheseret won the mile run, clocking a time of 4:13.47. The men finished second in the 4x880 yard relay with a time of 7:48.71.
In the field, sophomore Sam Jacobson earned third place in the pole vault, with a height of 15 feet, 5 inches. Freshman Adam Kuehl took home second place in the shot put with a season's best throw of 56 feet, 7 1⁄2 inches.
Overall, Harvey said he was "very, very disappointed" in the men's performance.
"Although we took up a full squad, we did have some holes," he said. "We just want our athletes to go out and compete at the level they are capable of."
The Wildcats compete in the Pac-10 Invitational Saturday in Seattle.
- Lindsey Frazier
Laxcats fall to Rams in season opener
The Arizona men's lacrosse team lost its 2004 season opener Friday, falling 9-4 to the top-ranked Colorado State Rams at Sun Devil Stadium.
In a game of two halves, the 14th-ranked Laxcats were buried early and often by the Rams' spread attack, which capitalized on numerous Arizona errors to take a 5-1 first quarter lead. The Cats fought back after the break, spurred by sophomore attackman Adam Paris, but in the end, the Rams showed the fortitude often attributed to the three-time USLIA national champions.
"It was a hard-fought game," said Arizona head coach Kenny Broschart. "We stumbled a little out of the gates, but, overall, we played pretty well."
"We outplayed them," said sophomore goalie Charlie Salemi. "We just had a few mental mistakes and they capitalized."
With three goals and an assist Friday, Paris was the catalyst in the team's comeback. But errors undermined a strong Wildcat charge.
"I was trying to get our team pumping and going," Paris said. "We did play a little better once we got some goals, but we couldn't catch up to CSU."
Arizona travels to the Lone Star State next weekend to take on Texas A&M and Texas on consecutive days. The following weekend, the Laxcats come home to face the University of Oakland.
Until then, says Broschart, the team will have to corral its faulty play.
"We have to limit our mistakes and play as hard as we did (against CSU)," he said. "If we just limit our mistakes, we'll be closer to a win."
- Tom Knauer