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Kentucky Sports Scan
Compiled By Nick Nicholas Staff Writer
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Volleyball
The Lady Kat Volleyball team ended their regular season last Tuesday with a victory over visiting Louisville. Kentucky, 20-7 defeated the Cardinals 5-15, 15-2, 15-4, 15-13.
Coach Kathy DeBoer's team now has their sights set on Knoxville for the SEC Tournament, November 16-18. The regular season SEC champs are the No. 1 seed in the single elimination tourney and will face the Florida-Georgia winner Saturday
"I think we're ready," commented DeBoer. "We've struggled a little in bit lately. The coach was referring to losses in the last three weeks at the hands of Illinois State, Japan, San Jose State, (twice) and Penn State.
"Those losses were to good teams. We had to pla) at oui jjcjk uc competitive against those teams. (But) I think we're ready."
It was a special night Tuesday as the three Kentucky seniors-- Linda Bun-ton, Lori Erpenbeck and Kim Martin-sen -- were given the royal treatment. A spotlight shined on each player as their name and career accomplishments were read by the public address announcer. Mrs. Glorida Singletary, wife of UK president Otis A. Singletary, presented the girls with a bouquet of flowers during the ceremonies. The seniors then stood side by side for the playing of My Old Kentucky Home.
Prior to the game, Erpenbeck and Martinsen were named to the All-SEC squad. UK was the only SEC school to place more than one girl on the six-player list. "That's a very high honor," noted DeBoer. "But it's one that they're both very deserving of."
Led by Erpenbeck, the Lady Kats got back into the match after losing the first game. With UK leading 7-1, the 6-foot-2 senior saved an apparent U of L point and from then on the Lady Kats were not to be beaten.
Two straight spikes by Erpenbeck upped the advantage to 11-2 as Kentucky routed the Lady Cards to even up the match at one game each. Aided by a Machelle Elliot ace, two Erpenbeck spikes and a Martinsen spike, UK scored the last seven points in winning 15-4.
In the fourth game Louisville took a
9- 7 advantage, but a Erpenbeck block, a Martinsen ace, and a Louisville net violation gave the lead to Kentucky at
10- 9. The Lady Cardinals, however, would not give up as they knotted the score at 13. After five straight exchanges of serves UK's Lisa Daus-man broke through with a scoring spike to put the home team ahead by one.
Martinsen's powerful spike gave UK a two-point victory and the match.
"It was a senior night," said DeBoer in referring to her teams nervous and shaky start. "Louisville is a very fine team (current Metro conference leaders)." We started off sluggishly and I was concerned."
The Lady Kats finished second in the Penn State Classic. UK defeated Rutgers 15-6, 5-15, 15-6, 17-15 and Carlton (Canada) 15-3, 15-3, 15-3. For the second time this year Kentucky was beat by Penn. State. The 14th ranked Nittany Lions outlasted UK 15-13, 6-15, 15-5, 12-15, 15-5.
"It's hard to be satisfied when you lose a close match to a good team," said DeBoer. "The fact that we came up short was disappointing to us."
The men's swim team had a successful opening win in Nashville, while the women's team was not as fortunate. Coach Wynn Paul's men defeated Vanderbilt 68-43.
UK's Chris Godfrey (1,000 yard freestyle), Martyn Wilby (200 free style), Doug Beima (50 free), Norman Martin (200 individual medley), John Pratt (200 butterfly), Dennis Damron (100 free) and Jeff Owsiany (200 breaststroke) won their respective events.
Wildcat freshman Mike Massey of Clearwater, Florida, captured the 3-meter diving event over second place finisher Robbie Cottrell also of UK.
Kentucky also won the 400 yard medley with a time of 3:349.64 compared to Vandy's 3:53.05.
The girls squad, meanwhile, lost to Vanderbilt 59-54.
Individual winners for UK were Meredith Wingard (200 butterfly), Carole Lyon (200 backstroke), Linda Burney (200 breaststroke).
UK's women won the 400 yard medley in a time of 4:10, 00:12 faster than the Vandy team.
Senior diver Becky Keller was the individual winner in the girls 3-meter board event.
After the men, 1-0, face Purdue (November 15), both squads (men and women) will swim their home opener at the Memorial Coliseum pool against Louisville, November 30 at 6:00 p.m.
Cross Country
Bernadette Madigan's 16 place run was the best finish for the women's team in the District competition at Furman University. However Mad igan, an '82 NCAA All-American in Cross Country as well as an '84 All-SEC performer, did not qualify for the national championship at Univer sity Park, PA.
Other Kentucky runners in the 5,000 meter event were: Kim O'Brian 41 Bev Lewis 55, Elisa Frosini 73, and Lori Linville 101. The race featured 182 collegiate women runners.
"The women did alright," said Coach Don Weber. "They thought they were pretty good, but they realized they weren't the best. (Overall) they were a good team."
Results of the men's team were not available at the time.
Recruiting -- Weber and his staff have been gazing over some of the nation's top prep long distance runners.
The coaches have attended (or will attend) state championships in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York (Federation Meet), and New Jersey (Meet of Champions).
Weber mentioned that, in many cases, the older the high school runner starts the decline of his or her cross country ability. That is, runners are getting bigger and heavier during their junior and senior years -- thus detrimenting to their time.
"There're very few of them who we want to commit ourselves to until the very last moment," noted Weber. They (recruits) usually wait until springtime. "I hope, come April, that we can be able to sign quite a few people."
April 12 is the signing date for the prep runners.
Lady Kats
Aided by an outstanding overall performance from junior forward, Leslie Nichols, the Blue team defeated the White squad 60-50 at Breathitt County High School in Jackson.
This was the Lady Kats final tune up before their season opener at Memorial Coliseum against Cincinnati (November 20).
"We were a little rugged," noted Coach Terry Hall about her team being fatigued during their third scrimmage. "I was real pleased with Leslie Nichols performance. Basically we are ahead of where we were at this time last year."
Nichols pumped in 25 points (nine of 19 from the field, seven of 11 free throws), pulled down 16 rebounds, and dished out five assists. She also had two steals and blocked four shots.
Senior guard Diane Stephens and sophomore center Debbie Miller scored 13 and 10 points respectively for the victorious Blue squad.
Junior Karen Mosley paced the White Team with 13 points.
"I've been real pleased with Melan-ie Warren, Debbie Miller, and Karen Mosely,"   commented   Hall. "They, have improved tremendously over the summer."
While indicating that the freshman have been performing well, Hall noted that they will be counted during this very difficult schedule.
The Lady Kats will be facing a '84-85 slate that is similiar to last season. Last year's schedule was ranked the fourth hardest in the country.
Said Hall, "We have a pretty tough schedule early on. It's just as tough as last year, but we have a little more maturity to handle the schedule this vear."
Tennis
Kentucky's Tamaka Takagi qualified for the college indoor singles championship by finishing second in the Rolex-Southeast Women's Tournament in Winston Salem, N.C.
The UK freshman won four matches before losing in the finals to Jill Heatherington of the University of Florida 6-4, 6-4. "She's just real aggressive from the baseline," said her coach Mike Patrick. "Tamaka just hung in there and won her matches. It was a good tournament for her."
Takagi will compete in the women's national singles championship in Houston next February. The tournament will feature 32 of the nation's top women collegiate vieing for the prestigous championship.
On her way to the finals, Takagi defeated: Mary Anne Sarver (Wake Forest) 6-2, 6-2; Patti Henderson (Florida State) 6-2, 7-6; Jane Young (Mississippi) 6-4, 6-4; Irene Fallon (North Carolina) 1-6, 6-3, 6-1; and Barb Smith (Mississippi) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Patrick noted that even though Takagi is a first-year player she doesn't play like one.
"She's the most experienced player on our team even though she is a freshman," Patrick said. "She has played in a lot of tournaments."
Results of other UK players in the individual tournament were: Beckwith Archer losing in the first-round 1o Megen Foster (Duke) 2-6,6-4, 5-7, Lee McGuire defeated Sue Taylor (Duke) 6-2, 6-4. McGuire also won against Middle Tennessee's Michelle Grille 6-2, 6-2 in the second-round before [Continued On Page 30]