Jill Chapman topped a list of two IU players among the Big Ten's best.
Temperatures hovering near 40 degrees and winds howling around 10 mph aren't exactly pitcher-friendly conditions. The IU pitching staff didn't seem to notice the weather.
Practice was long over. Interim head coach Mike Davis let the players out after only 35 minutes of basketball Tuesday.
Much can change in four years. Senior Milan Rakvica can vouch for that. Four years ago, Rakvica was in the Czech Republic studying at a local university. Looking to study elsewhere, he spoke with friend and fellow tennis player, Ondrej Holik, who had just been hired as an assistant coach with IU's men's tennis team. Holik, from the same town as Rakvica, brought his prospect to coach Ken Hydinger.
The Hoosiers opened the home part of their lacrosse schedule Saturday against Buffalo.
For the second time this season, the baseball team will square off against an opponent that has less time on the field. The Hoosiers will play Division III DePauw 3 p.m. Tuesday at Sembower Field for their second home game of the 2001 season.
Kathi Bennett spoke. Rachael Honegger cried. Rainey Alting wiped tears from her face. Alting took the microphone and cried. Heather Cassady sat on the bench, head in her hands. When Honegger spoke, no one could keep their eyes dry. On the most emotional day of the year -- emblazoned with its most important game -- IU soared and sputtered with its emotions in its 54-50 loss to Illinois.
The women's basketball team took the floor at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena with a mission. The Hoosiers' objective? To beat Northwestern, a team that has found no success in the Big Ten this season.
The women's tennis team started the season strong but has hit a dry spell in its last four games. Sunday in Knoxville, Tenn., was no different, as IU fell to Tennessee, 4-3. The Hoosiers (7-3, 1-0 Big Ten) have now lost three of their last four matches, with the only win coming against Big Ten foe Iowa. Tennessee swept the Hoosiers in doubles to pick up the match's first point. All three matches were relatively close, but IU couldn't counter the Volunteer attack. IU battled back but lost both the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches.
Murray State came to IU Saturday with a three-match winning streak, but the Racers' incomplete lineup could not run with the No. 31 Hoosiers as IU pulled off a 6-1 victory. Playing with a five-man roster, Murray State entered the match with forfeits at the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles positions. Starting down to the Hoosiers proved to be too much. Despite slow starts in the doubles competition, IU pulled away to take both matches. Playing at No. 1 doubles, seniors Ian Arons and Milan Rakvica got down early but came back strong to clinch the doubles point for the Hoosiers.
The hockey team swept Robert Morris College in its final home series of the season this weekend. The Hoosiers crushed the Eagles 9-1 Friday and squeaked out a 6-5 victory Saturday. "We were just trying to get out of there with a win and no disqualifications," assistant coach and general manager Alex Kyrias said of the weekend.
It's not like sophomore guard Tom Coverdale has been unproductive lately --he's scored double digits in seven of the last 10 games, and he leads the Hoosiers in assists and steals. But Saturday against Wisconsin, interim head coach Mike Davis said Coverdale was "unbelievable." It was only the second time in Coverdale's career that he surpassed 20 points. The first time was Dec. 5 at Notre Dame, when he scored a career-high 30 points.
The softball team traveled to Tampa hoping to move forward and forget the three one-run losses it suffered last weekend. Instead, the Hoosiers took a step backward, dropping their first four games at the Wilson South Florida Tournament. Friday, the Hoosiers (2-7) fell in another one-run contest to host South Florida 2-1 in eight innings. Once again, a solid pitching outing by junior Alison Cooke went to waste. Cooke pitched seven innings, allowing no earned runs.
The IU baseball team failed to have a winning weekend for the second weekend in a row after going 1-2-1 and tying in the championship game of the Winthrop tournament in Rock Hill, S.C. In the first game of the tournament, IU was holding onto a 10-7 lead before giving up four runs in the final two innings and taking the loss to Eastern Kentucky.
Of the 21 events that were included in the Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, the Hoosiers participated in only 11 final heats. When the three-day meet in Minneapolis, Minn., was finished, IU placed sixth, scoring a total of 284 points. During the second day of the meet, the Hoosiers placed in three events. IU's 200-yard medley relay team, composed of senior Will Bernhardt, sophomore David Schulze, senior Jason Carlberg and freshman Claes Andersson, managed to finish in eighth place with a time of 1:30.36, scoring 18 points.
They were the Big Ten's best defense, hands down. But for outstanding statistics and a stingy reputation, Wisconsin's biggest defensive contribution Saturday was avoiding Tom Coverdale's smiles and Kirk Haston's pumping fist. IU marched through the Big Ten's top defense, shooting 70.2 percent -- 73.7 percent from three-point range -- in an 85-55 rout of the No. 19 Badgers. "I just wanted to try and stop the rush," Badger coach Brad Soderberg said. "We never did."
WEST LAFAYETTE - The women's track and field team could have successfully defended its 2000 Big Ten title Saturday and Sunday at Lambert Fieldhouse. Instead, the Hoosiers faltered to third behind Purdue's 108 points and Ohio State's 97 -- within 19 points of stealing the championship from the Boilermakers. "When you see the score, the score of this meet is ridiculous," coach Randy Heisler said. "We score another 20 points, and we win the meet. Twenty is nothing when you have that number of athletes who could have scored."
After one day of competition at the men's Big Ten Indoor Track Championship, things didn't look good for the Hoosiers. The only points came from junior Dino Efthimiou's third-place finish with a personal best in the pole vault and the distance medley relay's seventh-place finish. IU sat in last place after the first day, but the second day looked promising with potential for high points and a high finish since No. 3 Penn State was in only seventh place with 15 points.
IU coach Kris Kirchner came into the Big Ten Championships with high hopes that his team would swim well. "I would like to come out of there with everybody swimming fast, at their best, and scoring their best," Kirchner said before the three-day meet, which began Thursday in Minneapolis. But when the Hoosiers jumped into the pool, his expectations fell short. Most of his hopes were dashed in the preliminaries.
Let the improvement begin. Heading into the season, coach Diane Stephenson said the Hoosiers would approach each opponent with the same mindset -- wanting to win every game. While they fell short of that goal last weekend at North Carolina State, the young squad displayed potential, while notching a 2-3 record.
