Sports Reel

Leigh-Anne Brown Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior pitcher Mike Crawford (31) throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday at Tucson Electric Park. The Wildcats (15-6) travel to New Orleans to play Tulane this weekend before the start of Pac-10 play next weekend.

BASEBALL

Team tries to get back on track in New Orleans

When the Arizona baseball team (15-6) looked at their schedule at the beginning of the season, traveling to New Orleans to play Tulane (8-3) today through Sunday was not seen as the biggest road trip of the season.

That was then, and this is now.

After losing six of their last eight games including an 18-3 loss against Arizona State last Sunday, the Wildcats have just one more opportunity to get back on track before the Pacific 10 Conference season begins next weekend.

"We got a wakeup call against ASU that you never want to go through," said junior starting pitcher Mike Crawford, who will get the start in Saturday's game. "I saw this trip just as any trip in the beginning, but from what has happened in the past few weeks, this is now the biggest trip of the season."

- Dan Rosen

HOCKEY

Arizona lose second tourney game

The Arizona Icecats (23-5-2) lost their second game at the American Collegiate Hockey Association's national championship tournament yesterday as they fell to No. 2 seed Penn State 4-1.

The Icers outshot the Icecats 35-25 en route to a hard-fought victory. Tied 1-1 after the second period, the defending champion Icers scored three times in the final 20 minutes on UA junior goalie Mark Meister.

This is the Icecats' third loss to Penn State this season, after being swept by the Icers Jan. 8-9 at the Tucson Convention Center. The loss has eliminated the Icecats' national championship hopes. - staff reports

TRACK

Wildcats compete at NCAA's

Six UA track and field athletes will travel to Indianapolis today to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Two freshmen Tara Chaplin (3,000-meters, 5,000m) and Maureen Griffin (20 pound weight throw) qualified for the championships.

"It's a great experience for Tara to go," head coach Dave Murray said. "It will help for her future and it's just a whole different experience."

Senior Abdi Abdirahman will run in the men's 5,000m despite a stress fracture in his left foot.

"I don't think it will affect him," Murray said. "I'm expecting Abdi to run well."

Two juniors, Jeff Dutoit and Andrea Neary, will compete in the pole vault competition and UA will send only one sprinter, Carolyn Jackson, who will run in the 400m.

- Brian Wahlund

SOFTBALL

UA in for another wild weekend

The No. 2-ranked Arizona softball team will contend this weekend at the five-team Hillenbrand Invitational beginning this afternoon with a doubleheader against No. 9 LSU and Kansas at 2 and 4, respectively.

This will be the Wildcats' (18-1) final home tournament of the season and will include a 14-game round-robin series for the five teams in UA, LSU, Kansas, Texas Tech and Notre Dame.

The Wildcats will play their two games today, followed by a doubleheader tomorrow at the same times against Notre Dame and Texas Tech, respectively.

Also played tomorrow night at 8 will be a game for the four and five seed teams and the winner of that game will advance to play the No. 1-seeded team at 10 a.m. Sunday. Before that game though, the two and three seeds will face off at 8 a.m.

The championship game will be held at noon on Sunday.

GYMNASTICS

Wildcats go on the road to face No. 5-ranked Michigan

The Arizona gymnasts, coming off an impressive win against Stanford and an All-Pacific 10 Conference performance by junior Maureen Kealey, travel to face the No. 5-ranked Michigan Wolverines in a non-conference meet tonight in Ann Arbor, Mich.

This Saturday at 4 p.m. Arizona (7-4 overall, 3-2 Pac-10) takes on the first place Wolverines of the Big Ten Conference.

Arizona head coach Bill Ryden said he realizes the importance of this meet.

"At this time of year all meets are important," he said. "Michigan is a very deep, quality program." - Derek Larson

TENNIS

Teams on the road again

The UA women's tennis team (4-5 overall, 0-3 Pacific 10 Conference) goes to Northern California today and tomorrow to play two of the top teams in the conference.

First up is Stanford (11-2, 3-1), ranked No. 5 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

The Cardinal are led by the No. 2 individual player in the nation, Marissa Irvin. Tomorrow UA goes up against No. 4 California (7-0, 4-0). The Bears are lead by No. 25 Anita Kurimay.

The Arizona men will compete in the Pac Coast doubles competition today in La Jolla, Calif., matching up the best doubles teams from the Pac-10 and Western Athletic Conference.

Results from yesterday's match between the UA men's team and UC-San Diego were unavailable at press time. Also, results from the first day of competition at the Pac-10 Men's Swimming Championships were unavailable.