By Chris Harrison staff reporter The TCU men's golf team traveled to Mexico this past weekend and placed 11th at the 2000 COMPAQ U.S. Collegiate. The tournament was televised nationally on ESPN. Head coach Bill Montigel said the atmosphere of being televised probably added to the team's performance. "The TV cameras probably added to the anxiety a little bit," Montigel said. "The combination of TV cameras and the competition made the team feel somewhat uncomfortable. If we went down there and played again, I think we would do a whole lot better." Montigel said his team fared well against the nation's top teams. "It was by far the strongest competition we have played this entire year," Montigel said. "All the best teams in the country were there, and I think the guys might have got a little caught up in the moment." The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets won the tournament with a total score of 838 and had all five players finish in the top 14. Oklahoma State's Edward Loar took the individual title by shooting a 13-under 203, beating Northwestern's Luke Donald by one stroke. Donald finished at 12-under with a total of 204. TCU's highest finisher in the tournament was Aaron Hickman. Hickman shot a three day total of 222, placing 33rd. "I played pretty good but had one bad nine which cost me a lot of shots," Hickman said. "I played 45 good holes. Too bad it was a 54-hole tournament. I think we just need to get a little more confidence in ourselves. "I don't think we are really down on ourselves, but we really haven't played that well in the past couple of tournaments," he said. "We just need to turn things around and play the way we know we can." Montigel said he was pleased with Hickman's performance this weekend. "I thought Aaron played pretty well this weekend," Montigel said. "He shot two-under the first round, which was pretty encouraging, and the last round he shot even par. He just didn't play like he should have in that middle round. Sophomore Steve Shuert, playing in his first collegiate tournament, was the Horned Frogs second-highest finisher with a total of 224. Sheurt finished 38th. "Shuert played great this tournament, especially with this being his college debut," Montigel said. "In the first round on the first hole, he had a triple bogey. He played the rest of the day two over par, which was pretty good for 17 holes." Junior Andy Doeden shot a total of 225 and finished at 41st place. Sophomore Bret Guetz finished the tournament with a total 232, placing 53rd. Junior Sal Spallone rounded out the tournament with a 239, finishing in 57th place. Montigel said the team needs play more consistently in order to finish toward the front of the pack in tournaments such as the Collegiate. "I figure if we just have one guy post a good performance on one of those days we could have saved 20 or 25 strokes," Montigel said. "I was disappointed, but I still feel there were some bright spots out of this tournament. This team has a lot of talent and they know that they are good golfers. It's just up to them to bring it all together." The Horned Frogs leave Thursday for their next tournament at the Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., on April 15-16.
Chris Harrison
By Paul Freelend Skiff staff The VolleyFrogs lost to Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M and University of Texas at Arlington as host of a spring volleyball tournament Saturday morning. Despite just winning five out of 12 games, volleyball head coach Sandy Troudt still found many positives in her team's play and pointed to the development of the team in the spring. "I was a little worried about fitness coming into Saturday, but everybody had their good moments," Troudt said. "I was pleased with (sophomore setter) Lindsay Hayes' day. She made better choices, and her sets were more on target as the day went on. Our middle blockers showed the most improvement in terms of positions, especially (freshman) Katie Kieffer and (junior) Jennifer Sebastian. "(Junior outside hitter) Amy Atamanczuk had one of the best days I've seen her have at TCU, but the player who has improved the most overall was (junior middle blocker) Chrissy Grimm, our little defensive specialist. Her consistency has improved, and her passing was outstanding Saturday. The team's attitude overall was awesome, and we are really looking forward to the coming season." The VolleyFrogs were without two players from their fall roster at the start of the tournament. Freshman defensive specialist Shannon Eurich left the team because of personal reasons, and freshman outside hitter Stephanie Watson was on the bench but in street clothes because of mononucleosis. TCU opened the tournament against the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks. The Ladyjacks took two of the three matches, winning the first rally-scoring game 35-25, dropping the second 38-40 and winning the shootout game 6-1. The VolleyFrogs' next match was against UTA, in which they won the initial game 35-31 but lost the next two, 29-35 and 1-6. TCU's third match of the day was against Texas A&M, a team that reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA volleyball tournament. The match was the first meeting between the two schools this spring, and the Aggies got the better of a close matchup, winning 35-24, 36-34 and 6-8. The loss in the shootout game was the only game the Aggies dropped in the tournament. The VolleyFrogs closed out the tournament against Southwest Texas State taking two of the three games, 35-33, 35-29 and 3-6. The tournament was played under a new set of rules suggested by the NCAA and the Federation Internationale de Volleyball, volleyball's international governing body. The tournament used two 35-point rally-scoring games and one six-point "shootout" game, rather than the standard regulation rules of five 15-point games with rally scoring in the fifth game. In addition, the teams experimented with the "let serve" rule. It says that any serve hitting the net and landing within the field of play is fair. "The rule changes are currently being voted on by the NCAA and FIVB," Troudt said. "After the Sydney Olympics, there will be a number of changes in the rules of volleyball. Basically, the NCAA told us to experiment with the rules and see whether we liked them or not." The changes were generally well received by both Troudt and her players. "I can't wait until the rules are in all the time," Troudt said. "The rally scoring is going to happen, it's just a matter of how many points per game. The 'let serve' will be instituted as well. We'll all just be watching what the NCAA and FIVB do. We'll play another year with traditional rules and then see what happens. In Arizona, we played with the 35-point games but no shootouts. We felt that it was important to get the mental practice with the new rules." "The new rules make serving a lot easier and there's a lot less stress," Sebastian said. "I hope they eventually put all the new rules in. I don't care for the shootout games, but I liked the two 35-point games. In games like those, any team can win no matter how good or bad you're playing." The VolleyFrogs will close out spring play Saturday in Dallas at the SMU spring tournament.
Paul Freelend |
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