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By Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 17, 1996
After opening their exhibition season with a win, the Arizona Laxcats will head to Colorado Springs Saturday to do battle with some of the nation's finest competition.
The Laxcats, who disposed of the Arizona Lacrosse Club 7-6 last Sunday, will take part in the 16-team Air Force Academy Lacrosse Tournament. The tournament is special for the Laxcats because it will involve stronger competition than they have seen so far.
"It's a way of getting the team ready," Laxcat head coach Mickey-Miles Felton said.
The Laxcats, a club team, will be the lone representative from the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League, and will likely face three NCAA teams in Colorado. The sixth-seeded Laxcats will face 11th-seed Regis in the first round. Regis is an NCAA Division III team.
Felton said he is pleased with his team's reputation, which has merited the high seeding.
"The UA lacrosse team has a very good reputation nationally, but that's all it is - reputation," Felton said. "By winning (Saturday), we can turn that reputation into a reality."
The Laxcats are guaranteed three games in the tournament, win or lose. Losing, however, isn't an option, Felton said.
"We're not going there to lose," he said.
Felton said he looks at the tournament as an opportunity to improve his team.
"You take tiny steps in improving," Felton said. "When you play against better teams, you take giant steps."
- Phil Villarreal
Water polo
The Arizona water polo team will head to the National Collegiate Water Polo Association National Championships thanks to an unbeaten run through the Texas A&M Invitational last weekend.
The team, which features All-Southwestern Conference performers Jeff Ono, Tracy Lawssen, Ryan Kaneshiro and goalie Shawn Mat, topped Texas 18-5 in the first round of the tournament.
The Wildcats then beat the host Aggies 20-5 to advance to the championship game, where the Wildcats scored early and often in a 9-3 win over Colorado.
The national championship tournament will include the top two teams from the five conferences in the NCWPA. Army, Penn Sate and the Wildcats (9-0) are among the top contenders.
"We've been training," Ono said. "We feel we have a really good chance of winning it."
- Staff
Men's rugby
With only five minutes remaining in the game, the Arizona men's club rugby team was trying to hold onto a 19-18 lead over rival Air Force during last weekend's tournament in Wyoming.
However, it was not to be.
The Wildcats fell 26-19 to the fourth-ranked Falcons, who scored on a dropped goal kick in the final moments of the game to seal the win.
"I really could not see how the academy scored," halfback Michael Fair said. "I was on the floor with another guy and when I looked up I saw them scoring. That's all."
Fair said the Wildcats wanted to win that game "more than anything" since Arizona has yet to defeat Air Force, though most of their games have been close.
"They are a good team with lots of capabilities," Fair said. "It was a real, real hard loss."
Fair said he had the chance to play the second half of the championship melee by replacing UA senior scrumhalf Tom Scholzen, who injured his shoulder.
Center Jeremy Rovell scored 10 points with two tries. Zach Harrison scored two points on a conversion kick. Fullback Christopher Kron scored five points with one try and added two on a conversion kick.
Kron, Fair, Harrison and wing James Allgood had just returned from a summer rugby training trip at New Zealand. Allgood could not play in any of the A or B sides of the Wildcats because of a previous knee injury.
"The experience was excellent," Kron said. "This is only the first tournament of the season and (by getting second place) that means we can play the tough dogs."
He said the coaches were proud of the Wildcats' performance in the championship because "it was nice to see and hear that everybody was giving everything they had."
The team has to work more and concentrate on counterattacks both defensively and offensively, Kron said.
Kron said it was in the last five minutes when some of the players were starting to feel tired. The A and B sides of the rugby team played seven games in the two-day tournament.
"We knew we could compete against that team (Air Force)," Kron said. "The experience was so good and it shows that the team is coming together. That game has been one of the best games we had ever played in the last three years I've been playing here."
The Wildcats could have another chance to face the Academy during the playoffs if they finish first in their league.
- Carlos Arias
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