By James Zwilling skiff staff The TCU men's soccer team learned that all good things must come to an end this weekend as their six-game winning streak concluded. Friday the Horned Frogs fell 1-0 to Drury and followed with a 1-0 double-overtime loss Sunday to Tulsa. Sunday's game versus Tulsa carried the Frogs into their sixth overtime of the season. TCU was 2-2-1 entering the extra period with Tulsa. "We were real confident heading into overtime," sophomore midfielder Josh Rife said. "Nobody wants to go into an overtime, but when you've already played 90 minutes, another 15 or 20 minutes is not a big deal. You accept it."
Horned Frog junior goal keeper Ian Keate recorded eight saves that day.The lone score in Friday's game came 33 minutes into play when Tulsa senior midfielder Bryan Gibbs scored off an assist by junior forward Ryan Ferguson. The goal ended a physical game for both teams which included 39 fouls. The teams exchanged five yellow card fouls, and Tulsa sophomore defender Giancarlo Burzotti was ejected in the middle of the second half after a red card foul. Rife said the team improved during the second half. "We came out really flat in the first half," Rife said. "We showed a little more composure in the second half and stepped up our level of play, but we just couldn't find the goal." The Horned Frogs failed to recover from the goal, thus earning their first Western Athletic Conference loss of the season. Rife said the team lacked an exceptional performance by any one player. "Nobody really stepped up their play," he said. "We all had an off game." Disappointed with the loss, Rife said the team really has to improve its game if it hopes to make the NCAA tournament. "We are not in the best position that we could be in, but we've seen all of the teams before," Rife said. "We beat three of them, and we feel we can beat the other two. We felt unfortunate about the losses because we know that we were capable of winning those games." The losses drop TCU to 3-2 in WAC play and 8-5-1 overall. The Horned Frogs start the second wave of WAC games Sunday when they begin facing their WAC affiliates for the second time this season. Rife said the team will spend the week preparing for its game against Southern Methodist University. "We need to build a little confidence this week," Rife said. "It's a little bit of a downer when you know that you could have won two games, and then you have to come home and face your biggest rival." TCU faces SMU in the teams' second meeting of the season at 1 p.m. Sunday at Wescott Field on the SMU campus.
James Zwilling
By Paul Freelend skiff staff While there were no grisly crimes or split personalities in the Rickel Building, the Volley Frogs still gave quite a convincing Jekyll and Hyde performance in their weekend homestand against San Jose State and Fresno State. At times TCU looked nearly invincible but at other times looked very much human as they dropped both matches to lower their season mark to 6-14 (0-5 in the Western Athletic Conference). Even before the opening serve of the Fresno State match up Saturday, head coach Sandy Troudt was putting different wrinkles into the match, making a number of changes to the starting lineup. Alongside established starters sophomore outside hitter Marci King, junior outside hitter Amy Atamanczuk, sophomore setter Lindsay Hayes and freshman outside hitter Stephanie Watson, Troudt put in junior defensive specialist Crissy Grimm and senior middle blocker Jessica Rangel.
The Volley Frogs won the opening game against the Bulldogs, but Fresno State swept the three games to win the match. Lynch said the Volley Frogs played like a different team after the first game. "The main difference was our passing and ball control," Lynch said. "We just didn't have any control in the second and third games, and the way you get that control is by serving and blocking. We kept hitting the ball out of bounds and making things easy for them." Senior middle blocker Anamie Bucklew led Fresno State with 31 kills, four service aces and 20 digs in the match. TCU was led by Atamanczuk's 15 kills and 16 digs while King had 12 kills and 13 digs. Hayes had 51 set assists, and Lynch led the defensive effort with five assisted blocks. Atamanczuk said the Volley Frogs received a helping hand throughout the match from an unusually raucous crowd. "We always love to pack a gym," Atamanczuk said. "The crowd isn't normally a huge factor but it helped us out a lot. They have never been that loud before and it was a big motivating factor. We were able to feed off of the crowd and increase the intensity level." The Volley Frogs' opening tilt of the weekend was against the San Jose State Spartans Friday night. The Spartans had reeled off 14 straight wins en route to an 18-1 record before dropping a non-conference match to California two days prior to the match. TCU entered the match on a five game losing streak, four of those losses coming in sweeps. "Coming into the match, we knew we had to slow down (junior middle blocker Joslynn) Gallop" Atamanczuk said. "We also knew our defense had to work really hard. The coaches stressed a 'digging attitude' because we knew we had to be able to dig their outside hitters." The Volley Frogs dropped the first two games to the Spartans, but despite being down two games, the chatter in the Volley Frog locker room was anything but panicked. "We knew that we were right there," Atamanczuk said. "We went over what we had to do to win the match, and we were basically told to just go for the jugular. Overall, we were very positive going into the third game." The Spartans finished the sweep with a stint of unanswered points in the third game. The Volley Frogs were led by King's 15 kills while Atamanczuk had 10 kills along with 15 digs. TCU got a pleasant surprise from sophomore middle blocker Jennifer Sebastian who contributed three assisted blockers, seven kills and no errors on the way to a .538 hitting percentage. Sebastian strained bicep tendons in her hitting arm while diving for a ball and was removed from further action. Even in the loss, Troudt was able to find positives throughout her team's performance. "I think that that game was the best that we have played in about six weeks," Troudt said. "Some players tightened up when things got close and others didn't. Amy Atamanczuk was hot right at the start, and Marci King took a little while to heat up. I think that as a team we came out excited and ready to play." TCU's next matches will be on the road this weekend with a Thursday match at Tulsa and a Saturday match in Houston against Rice.
Paul Freelend
By Victor Drabicky staff reporter TCU ended Western Athletic Conference play with a 2-0 loss to the University of Hawai'i Sunday. TCU ended the chance of earning a WAC tournament bid as the loss dropped the Frogs' conference play record to 2-4. In Sunday's game, TCU could not finish any scoring opportunities. The Frogs' offensive struggles are a reoccurring theme as Hawai'i shut out TCU for the seventh time this season. Head coach David Rubinson said he was disappointed that the Frogs could not score.
Hawai'i midfielder Jennifer Starsiak's found a way to score when a shot on goal 29 minutes into the game slipped through sophomore goal keeper Keith-Ann Wagner's hands. Junior defender Christy Filice said the goal was characteristic of the team as of late. "The goal was kind of a soft goal," Filice said. "Lately we have had trouble giving up easy goals. We make the game harder on ourselves because we give up dumb goals." The Rainbows went on to add an insurance goal in the second half off of Wagner's replacement, sophomore Danielle Reitnouer. The Horned Frogs return to action at 4 p.m. today at the TCU Soccer Complex when they host Oklahoma State. Filice said the team's fate lies in its own hands. "We want to end the season on a positive note," Filice said. "The coaches can't get out on the field and play the game for us. We have to go out and play like we know how."
Victor Drabicky
When I showed up to the last home game at Amon Carter Stadium to see my beloved Horned Frogs play the Golden Hurricane from Tulsa University, I couldn't believe what I saw. Actually, I could because it's a reoccurring theme. I saw an empty Amon Carter once again. Only 27,000 TCU fans showed up to see the Frogs play and that was during Family Weekend. TCU football has the worst fan support in the country. Memorial Stadium in Austin is packed for every Longhorn game. Kyle Field in College Station is full of all those maroon-loving Aggie fans. Both of these stadiums hold a capacity crowd of more than 70,000. Amon Carter holds just more than 47,000. It can't be that hard to fill the place with Frog fans, can it? I haven't seen a sold-out crowd in Amon Carter in my years here at TCU. We haven't drawn more than 37,000 fans for a game, either (and that was for a preseason top five team in Arizona). Remember when the No. 4 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels came to Fort Worth in 1997? True, the Frogs were winless at the time, but only drawing around 27,000 fans for that one was a disgrace. It made our school look like we don't care about our football team. Since all of you are in Texas for at least nine months you have to remember one thing: Football is king, and it is taken seriously. But, for some reason, that isn't true here. There are many reasons why Amon Carter needs to be full. For the first time in a long time, the future is very bright for Horned Frog football. Amon Carter is home to the nation's leading rusher in LaDainian Tomlinson, who averages a Heisman-like 176.7 yards a game. Amon Carter is also home to the nation's premier freshman quarterback, Casey Printers, who has ignited the once-predictable offense into a scoring machine. It isn't a coincidence that the offensive scoring has picked up since the two have been on the field together. The Frogs also have one of the best run defenses in the nation. Shawn Worthen, Aaron Schobel, J.W. Wilson are the leaders of this swarming group. True, the Frogs got off to a depressing 1-3 start. But, ever since that fourth quarter debacle against Fresno State, the Frogs have shown why they are the third best team in the state (behind UT and A&M). It is not just the student body who should be blamed, but the fact is for every home game, thousands of seats are available in the student section. And that shouldn't be the case. It has to be tough or near impossible for opposing teams to come to TCU and win for the Frogs to be considered legitimate and a national power. Take a look at some of the nation's toughest places for road teams to play, and if you notice, all of these schools are national powers. Florida Field in Gainesville, Fla., otherwise known as the Swamp, is home to the Florida Gators. For the first time in six years the Gators lost at home (against Alabama three weeks ago). But I guarantee you it won't happen again for a while. Not with all those notorious and die-hard Gator fans. Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., is basically an opponent's worst nightmare. The Cornhuskers hold the NCAA record for consecutive sell-out crowds with 231 (and still counting), and they only have one home loss in the last eight years. And the two biggest stadiums in the nation, Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor Mich., which has more than 108,00 seats, and Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., which fills exactly 102,544 fans a game, are home to the last two national champions in Tennessee and Michigan. The support needs to be better. This program has won a bowl game in the past year and has been accepted to a premier conference. But it seems like none of you have noticed.
Tom Sullivan is a senior broadcast journalism major from Southlake, Texas. He can be reached at (trsullivan@delta.is.tcu.edu).
By Steven Baker staff reporter After only running in one cross country race this season, senior Patrick Belmont will replace freshman Justin Pillsbury in the Western Athletic Conference Championships in Fresno, Calif. this weekend. But Pillsbury said he doesn't mind. He said he has no problem with the decision by head cross country coach Dan Waters because right now Belmont is a better runner. "I would have loved to be at the WAC Championships, but this decision gives me some incentive for next year," he said. Belmont has run for the cross country team for the last three years. Belmont finished in 22nd place, 27:40 ahead of Pillsbury in the 8,000 meter race at the Southwest Texas State Invitational. Belmont said he had not run in the previous races this year because of a job and difficult classes that he is taking toward his degree in biology. "(Pillsbury) was positive when we talked about this before and after the race," he said. "As we passed each other in the race, he actually cheered me on. My time will help out the team now. (Pillsbury) is a hard worker, and he can help the team out in the future." Belmont said Waters made it known the top seven TCU finishers of the Southwest Texas Invitational would run at the WAC Championships. "It takes a certain amount of experience and confidence to run in a race like this," he said. "(Pillsbury) does not have that experience. In the last race I beat Justin pretty substantially. With me running in the WAC Championship, it will help the team out as a whole." Waters will be taking seven male cross country runners to Fresno, Calif. this year. The seven will be senior David Lagat, senior Adrian Martinez, senior Jared Pope, senior Patrick Belmont, junior Ryan Womack, junior Adam Helm and freshman Justin Speer. Helm said Waters made it known at the first of the season that only the best runners at the end of the season will compete in the WAC championship. "When it comes down to high stress meets like the WAC Championships, some lesser experienced runners might buckle under the pressure," he said. Belmont's best finish in the 1998 cross country season was 15th in a four-mile race last season at the University of North Texas Season Opener. He finished 56th at the WAC Championship last year. Pillsbury lost his position on the team after a freshman season where he ran consistent races for the cross country team. Pillsbury finished18th in the University of Texas at Arlington Season Opener, 39th at the Southern Methodist University Invitational, 50th at the University of North Texas Invitational, 77th at the Texas A&M Invitational and 29th at the Southwest Texas Invitational. Pillsbury said finishing at the back this year was tough, but he would like to see the team win a championship this weekend. "All the early morning practices, sprint training and weights will pay off this weekend," he said. "In the middle of the race, when it really starts to hurt, and you want quit, the team must remember that there is a finish line. At the end they can win."
Steven Baker |
Despite the confidence of the TCU players, Tulsa forward
Kyle Smith found the net with one minute to play in the second overtime.
The teams exchanged 34 shots in the overtime periods.
"I tried a different lineup tonight to give some other
players a chance," Troudt said. "In games one and two we started
Marci at the opposite side (outside hitter) and had Atamanczuk and Steph
Watson play the other outside hitter positions. We gave (senior outside
hitter) Jill Pape a break, and she responded by playing well in game four."
"We did so many things right,"
Rubinson said. "Unfortunately, if you can't score, you can't win."| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |