Softball's offensive woes continue in Tulsa tournament\nThe IU women's softball team hoped to rebound from two consecutive losses when it headed to Tulsa, Okla., for the Holiday Inn-Select Tulsa Festival this past weekend. Unfortunately, the Hoosiers came away with only one victory in their four games as their offense continued to struggle.\nIn the team's first game, IU was pounded by Drake University 5-0, managing only five hits in its 25 at-bats.\nIU coach Stacey Phillips said her offense is going to have to start producing if they hope to pull out some victories.\n"Our hitting absolutely needs to come alive," Phillips said. "We showed some more toughness but we need our hitting."\nFriday's second game matched the Hoosiers with Colorado State University. The IU offense improved and took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, but the defense gave up two late runs that sealed the victory for the Rams, 4-3.\nIn their first game Saturday, the Hoosiers were able to end their four-game slide and edge Western Illinois University 2-1. Freshman left-fielder Rachel Carlson hit the game-winning single in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Hoosiers over the Leathernecks.\nThe Hoosiers looked to keep up their momentum in the second game of the day against University of Tulsa, but the Golden Hurricane offense was too much.\nTulsa managed 10 hits to IU's five in a 5-3 victory, its ninth of the season.\nSunday, the Hoosiers were scheduled to face the University of Akron, but the game was canceled because of rain.\nIU will see its next action March 4 when the team travels to Bowling Green, Ky., for the Western Kentucky Invitational.
Lady golfers look to rebound in Texas\nThe IU women's golf team travels to Houston, Texas today and Tuesday for the Verizon 'Mo'morial Invitational with its eyes set on rebounding from last week's disappointing last- place finish.\nThe Hoosiers finished in last place in the Central District Invitational a week ago.\n"It was a good experience for our team to compete in such a competitive field, we took away some positives," head coach Clint Wallman said.\nFor the second tournament in a row Wallman will start two freshmen: Elaine Harris and Stephanie Mayotte. Harris is coming off a team best 46th-place finish in last week's tournament, carding a three-round total of 234 (73-79-82).\nThe 'Mo'morial features a 14-team field including five teams ranked in the top 50. Last year in Houston the Hoosiers finished sixth out of 16 teams with a team score of 915 (299-305-311). \nThe tournament begins today with an 8 a.m. shotgun start with two rounds of play and concludes Tuesday with the final round.
Women's track finishes 7th in Big Ten\nDespite the fact that eight of the nine finalists for the IU women's track and field team finished in the top five, it wasn't enough to help the team earn a strong finish in this weekend's Indoor Big Ten Championship at Michigan. The team ended up in seventh place. \nSeveral IU teammates finished with personal bests, but not enough to qualify them for the indoor nationals in Fayettsville, Ark. Sophomore Courtney Johnson earned a personal best in the 60-meter hurdle with 8:43 -- but it was one second short of the qualifying time. Junior Kelly Siefker had a personal best in the mile with 4:51.37 and sophomore Sarah Gilleran also earned personal best in the high-jump with 1.68m/5-06.00 -- three inches better than her previous record.\nThe team will have one more chance to qualify team members for nationals at the Last Chance meet Saturday at Notre Dame.
