l o The Daily Collegian
A brief look at the world of sports
Scores
NHL
Montreal 4, Dallas 1
Chicago 8, Florida 4
NBA
Detroit 100, L.A. Clippers 90
Sacramento 92, Vancouver 88
Schedules
NHL
Vancouver at Washington, 7:30 p.m
Winnipeg at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.
St. Louis at Calgary, 9:30 p.m.
NBA
Phoenix at New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.
Toronto at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m.
Utah at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m.
Miami at Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
Orlando at Denver, 8 p.m.
Portland at LA Lakers, 10:30 p.m.
San Antonio at Golden State, 10:30
p.m.
Women's Top 25
The final Top Twenty Five teams in
The Associated Press' women’s col
lege basketball poll
Record Pts
1. La. Tech(3s) 28-1 994
2. UConn(2) 30-3 945
3. Stanford(l) 25-2 912
4. Tennessee 26-4 882
5. Georgia(l) 23-4 854
6. Old Dorn. 27-2 780
7. lowa 25-3 742
8. Penn St. 25-6 716
Tex. Tech
Alabama
Virginia
Vanderbilt
Duke
Clemson
Purdue
Florida
Colorado
Wisconsin
Auburn
Kansas
Notre Dame
Oregon St.
N.C. St.
Mississippi
Texas A&M
24- 651 7.
22- 617 10.
23- 540 11.
20-7 538 12.
25- 500 13.
22-7 470 15.
20- 451 14.
21- 416 16.
25-8 319 19.
20-7 290 17.
20-8 284 18.
20-9 207 20.
22- 172 22.
19-8 161 21.
19- 140 23.
18-10 123 24.
20- 51 —.
Others receiving votes: Colorado St.
50, Texas 37, Stephen F.Austin 32,
George Washington 29, Montana
27, DePaul 22, SW Missouri St. 15,
Northwestern 6, Toledo 5, LSU 4,
Arkansas 3, Austin Peay 3, Memphis
3, Ohio St. 3, Oklahoma St. 2,
Grambling St. 1, Hawaii 1, Middle
Tenn. 1, Tulane 1.
Linksters take fifth
in S.C. tournament
The Penn State men’s golf
team earned a fifth-place finish
at the Ben Hogan-Fripp Island
Men’s Intercollegiate at Ocean
Creek golf course in South Car
olina last weekend.
The Lions’ top finisher was
Dirk Ayers, whose final total of
229 was 15 shots off the pace of
champion Brian Kassel of South
ern Cal-Aiken, which also took
the team title.
Mahoney out as
Red Storm coach
NEW YORK Brian Mahoney
was fired as coach of St. John’s
on Monday, less than a week
after the Red Storm finished its
worst season in 33 years.
St. John’s was 11-16 and com
pleted the season with an 80-72
loss to Providence in the first
round of the Big East tourna
ment last Wednesday night.
Quote of the day
"I’m from the old
school. Today’s players
worry about statistics, but
the only statistic that mat
ters is winning, and I wish
I could convince the mod
ern-day ballplayer of that.”
Don Nelson
recently fired Knicks coach on his
ability to relate to today's player
Compiled from Collegian staff and
wire reports.
Lions set for hog wild
Even with years of NCAA
tournament experience,
Arkansas fields a youthful unit
against the older Lions.
By MICHAEL SIGNORA
Collegian Sports Writer
Finding a No. 12 seed with a richer post
season tradition than the Arkansas Razor
backs would be an almost impossible
endeavor.
Under the direction of coach Nolan
Richardson, the Hogs, Penn State’s opponent
in the opening round of the NCAA tourna
ment Thursday in Providence, R. 1., enter the
field of 64 with one of the most successful
hoops programs in college basketball.
“Arkansas has a confidence about them as
a team that stems from Nolan,” Tennessee
Villanova
laxers' spring
By DON WAGNER
Collegian Sports Writer
For three quarters last Wednes
day the men’s lacrosse team hung
with national powerhouse North
Carolina. Every time the Tar Heels
scored the Lions were able to
answer and keep the game close.
Unfortunately for the Lions a
lacrosse game has four quarters.
In that fourth and final period
the Tar Heels (4-0) pulled away for
an 18-9 victory, but the Tar Heels
didn’t just walk over the Lions (3-
1).
“This was not a typical 18-9
game,” Lion head coach Glenn
Thiel said. "It was a much closer
game than the score shows.”
North Carolina jumped on the
board first just over two minutes
into the game when Mark Phillips
put the Tar Heels up 1-0. But the
Lions quickly answered when Tim
Eldridge found the net to knot the
score at 1-1.
About two minutes later, with a
man advantage, the Lions gained
their first lead of the day on a
Chris Killoren goal. Even though a
penalty helped Penn State gain its
only lead of the day, in the end it
was penalties that hurt the Lions.
Thiel saw his team penalized 13
times for 11 minutes. “Penalties
.really hurt us became it led to us
not having the ball enough,” he
said. He used the second quarter to
illustrate his point, when the Lions
had five penalties and only two
shots. North Carolina used these
extra man advantages to the fullest
by scoring five times when they
had the man advantage.
Lion team captain Rob Warren
echoed Thiel s sentiments and said
maybe the Lions were a little too
fired up. “We came out aggressive,
maybe too aggressive,” he said.
“We didn’t control our penalties
and you can’t win a game when
Spikers build momentum
Penn State’s Sergio Pampena spikes the ball against Ohio State earlier
this season. Pampena cracked the nation’s top 20 in hitting percentage.
coach Kevin O’Neill said. “They believe
they’re going to kick your butt.”
But unlike years past, this Razorback
squad (18-12) is not expected to romp
through the brackets, steamrolling toward
the Final Four.
In 1994, Arkansas captured the national
championship by defeating Duke in a
thrilling final. Last season, only UCLA stood
in the way of a pig repeat as the Razorbacks
fell to the Bruins in the title game.
But with the overwhelming majority of
players from those outstanding teams since
departed, Richardson guides a group of
young guns into tournament action.
“I’m happy to have the opportunity to go
back to the NCAA tournament,” he said.
“This is like winning the national champi
onship for me.”
After losing three consecutive games late
in the season, Arkansas was very much on
the bubble. But a win against LSU followed
Heels
you’re down a man all the time.”
Still the Lions kept the game
close. But when the Tar Heels tied
the score at 2-2 six minutes into the
first quarter and then scored four
straight goals to go up 6-2 things
looked grim. But the Lions again
battled back on goals by Andy Lee
dom and Chris Killoren to get with
in two goals, 6-4, as the first quar
ter.
Compared to a second quarter
that saw North Carolina score
twice to gain an 8-4 advantage, the
third quarter was a shoot-out. The
two teams traded goals as Lion
attackmen John Chescavage and
Greg Jackson each scored twice
and Jason Rickel added one goal.
By the time the dust had settled
and the quarter was over the Tar
Heels had increased their lead to
15-9.
Then in the fourth quarter North
Carolina pulled away with four
unanswered goals to beat the Lions.
Even though the Lions lost, Warren
was upbeat about the team’s per
formance against what is one of the
best lacrosse teams in the nation.
“We had a lot of questions going
into the game,” he said. “We
answered them and proved we are
a very good lacrosse team.”
But they were not done yet. One
game remained in the spring break
part of the Lions’ schedule. Facing
Villanova, Thiel was concerned
because his team hadn’t practiced
on the two days prior to the game.
But the Lions came out firing
and showed practice or no practice,
they were ready by blasting the
Wildcats 16-3. Rickel scored three
goals while Warren and Killoren
added two goals each.
When it was all said and done
Thiel was glad his team was able to
finish its spring break on a positive
note. “I am glad we can play that
well at the end of eight days,” he
said.
ills
Penn State’s Dave King, left, tries to avoid being thrashed by Ithaca’s Gary Mazza during the Lion
Invitational this fall. The Lions split a pair of games over break to raise their record to 3-1.
By CHAD WASHINGTON
Collegian Sports Writer
All season long, the Penn State
men’s volleyball team was looking
for that one big match, that one big
win, that one big momentum
builder to get its young team at a
dominating pace.
Last weekend, they got it. But
maintaining it will be a tough task.
The Lions (11-4, 3-0 EIVA) may
have found the one ingredient they
needed when they pulled out a
huge first-place victory at the Hall
of Fame Classic in Springfield,
Mass. But only head coach Mark
Pavlik and assistant coach Greg
Burd knew what it was.
“We were in a situation where
two to three weeks before that
weekend, where both Greg and I
felt that we were getting better,”
Pavlik said. “But I don’t think that
the team saw it. And that was the
single biggest benefit. The team
saw us get better.”
The Lions also grabbed that bit
of momentum as they prepare fop
the stretch run in the Eastern
Intercollegiate Volleyball Associa
tion race, where they hold the top
spot in the Tait Division. The push
to the top of the EIVA could be led
by the new young talent inserted
into the lineup this season, like
sophomore middle blocker Sergio
Pampena and freshman setter
Justin Otto.
In the championship match last
Saturday, the No. 11 Lions played
against No. 9 Ball State, a team that
has given Penn State a lot of trou
ble in two matchups this year.
Before this meeting, the Lions did
Please see SPIKERS, Page 16.
by a convincing 80-58 drubbing of South Car
olina in the SEC tournament ended the slide.
The tourney performance may have sur
prised some, since Arkansas has only three
players that had competed in the annual
event prior to this season.
Despite the youth and inexperience of a
club dominated by underclassmen, No. 18
Penn State’s coach Jerry Dunn is focusing
on the challenge ahead.
“All year we’ve not thought about any-
back at invitational
That’s what the men’s track
team may have be thinking
after its performance at the
Intercollegiate Association of
Amateur Athletes of America
meet. After its disappointing
tenth-place finish at the Big Ten
Indoor Championships, the
Lions closed out their indoor
season by taking fifth out of 103
teams at the IC4As at Harvard,
March 3 and 4.
Leading after the first day of
competition, Penn State finished
in a satisfying poisition.
“It’s just a notch under
nationals as far as quality of
competition, so fifth is a really
good place in it,” coach Harry
Groves said.
One of the more impressive
performances for Penn State
came from sophomore James
Cook who tallied 3,899 points,
good for second in the pen
tathlon.
“That’s his best effort by far,”
said Groves. “Competitively
speaking, he nailed it all the
way through.”
Penn State also got a good
performance from its two-mile
relay team which won the event
with a time of 7:33.32. The win
ning time is the fastest so far in
the world this year. Groves said
Trackmen bounce
By TEHERAN BARLOW
Collegian Sports Writer
Don't call it a comeback
Tuesday, March 12, 1996
opener
thing but the opponent we have to face and
the task at hand,” he said. “This isn’t going
to be any different and right now the only
thing I can see is red.”
Penn State and Arkansas have played two
common opponents this year Tennessee
and Michigan State.
The Razorbacks fell to the Spartans 75-72
on Nov. 28 and succumbed to the Volunteers
66-59 on Feb. 21. The Lions won in Ten
nessee, 69-57, on Dec. 2 and split the season
series with Michigan State.
But any game played during the early sea
son tends to be forgotten with March Mad
ness in the air.
And though Arkansas lacks the veteran
leadership that many consider integral to
advancement in the Big Dance, O’Neill is not
counting the Razorbacks out.
“They’re going to play hard,” he said, “and
they’re a team that will believe they can win
the game.”
they outdistanced the competi
tion by about 30 yards.
“We’re happy as heck with
that,” he said. “The relay was
certainly the high point of the
meet for us.”
Joe Loner, who ran the anchor
leg on the winning two-mile
relay team, had something else
to celebrate. He also finished
fifth in the 800 meters with a
time of 1:50.44.
“I wasn't happy with my
place, but I was happy with my
time,” he said. “It was my
fastest time this year.”
One Nittany Lion who wasn’t
happy with his performance at
the IC4As was long jumper
Stephen Pina who finished fith
behind teammate John Gorham.
“I’m not making any excuses.
Overall, I just jumped bad,”
Pina said. “I just chalk it up as
experience.”
Last weekend, Pina was the
only member of the men’s track
team to compete at the NCAA
Championships at Indianapolis
March 8-9. And although his 24’-
1” mark at nationals was good
enough for twelfth place, it is
still over a foot less than his
personal best this season. Pina
now looks toward Penn State’s
outdoor season as an opportuni
ty to regain his old form.
“It was a real disappointment
for me.” he said. “I’m just going
to work ten times harder.”