The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, April 3, 19917
mm
Tennis goes twofor
Gurney, Portnoy lead women
to decisive win over Wolfpack
By Jason Bates
Staff Writer
I'm only going to explain this once.
So pay attention.
A tennis team is playing a best-of-nine-matches
event six singles
matches followed by three doubles
matches. It wins five of the six singles
matches, but doesn't clinch the victory
until winning the first doubles match.
Impossible, you say.
No, it's not impossible.
The UNC women's tennis team im
proved its record to 1 1 -8 on the year by
defeating N.C. State, 7-1, on just that
scenario. The Wolfpack dropped to 7
1 0 on the year.
The singles match o' the day was at
No. 4 singles. UNC's Dana Kanell,
slowed by an injured hip, defeated
State's Michelle Parks, 6-1, 6-7 (3-7),
6-2 in a three-hour marathon that would
have made a Lendl-Wilander contest
look like a warm-up.
The Tar Heels played and won two
doubles matches before Kanell's singles
match ended. The third doubles match
was scratched because Kanell and Parks
were scheduled to play in the match and
it would have had no bearing on the
team score.
Kanell seemed ready to sew up the
, win for the Tar Heels as she led, 6-1,4-1
in the second set. But Parks fought
back by slowing the pace and forcing
.Kanell to play longer and longer points
on her hip injury.
But Kanell controlled the third set
and held on for the victory.
"Dana hung tough," UNC head coach
Kitty Harrison said.
"It took a lot of courage, desire,
motivation and all that other stuff for
her to win," she said.
The only singles match won by the
Softball glitters, takes a
pair from Golden Griffs
By D. Rodney Monroe
Staff Writer
"It's a beautiful day for baseball, so
let's play two," ex-baseball star Ernie
Banks once said. -
That was almost the case Tuesday
at Finley Field, the exception being
that the sport was softball.
UNC's softball team ran its record
to 22-5 by sweeping a doubleheader
from Canisiiis by 5-1 and 4-1 scores.
The second game, the closest of the
two, was knotted at one apiece enter
ing the bottom of the sixth inning
when UNC head coach Donna Papa
gathered her team around her and gave
them some words of encouragement,
"I told them to go up and be more
selective about their pitches, not to let
a lot of strikes go by, and just be
aggressive and attack the ball," Papa
said. "We needed to go out and score
runs."
What Papa said must have had some
spark in it, because the Tar Heels
struck for three runs in the inning.
Freshman Beverly Smith got North
Carolina started with a one-out single.
The next batter, freshman Karen Pesce,
followed with a grounder to Golden
Griff shortstop Meg Thompson, who
threw the ball into right field. Smith
scored, giving UNC the lead. Pesce
advanced to second on the play.
The rally did not end there.
The next three batters junior
Julie O'Shields and sophomores
Yvette Davis and Jeannie Carrow
all came up with singles which allowed
the Tar Heels to score their other two
runs.
This all but put the final nail in the
coffin for Canisius.
Winning pitcher Tracy Browerdid
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Wolfpack was at the No. 2 spot, where
Jenny Sell defeated UNC freshman
Nicole Transou, 6-0, 6-4.
The rest of the singles matches were
dominated by the Tar Heels.
At No. 1, sophomore Cinda Gurney
trounced Beth Schaefer, 6-3, 6-0, and
was the first Tar Heel off the court.
At No. 3, sophomore Alisha Portnoy
grunted her way to a 6-3, 6-3 victory
over Susan Saunders.
"I thought I played okay," Portnoy
said. "I'm trying to work on closing out
a match sooner and not have to work so
hard to do it. "
I commit too many unforced errors
and I've got to stop that," she said.
The two sophomores clinched the
victory for the Tar Heels when they
came back on the court and defeated the
Wolfpack's doubles team of Schaefer
and Sell by a 6-2, 6-1 score.
Junior Gigi Neely gave UNC a 6-2,
6-0 victory at No. 5 singles over State's
Stephanie Donahue. Neely spent a lot
of time crowding the net during
Donahue's serve.
"Her serve didn't really threaten me
and I wanted to see if I could scare her
into double-faulting," Neely said.
UNC's other singles victory was at
the No. 6 position, where freshman
Scotti Thomas downed State's Katie
Carpenter, 6-2, 6-1 , in a classic baseline
slugfest.
"I've seen her play before," Thomas
said. "She's a better volleyer than she is
a groundstroker, so I tried to keep her
deep all day hitting groundstrokes."
The Tar Heels' final victory, save
Kanell's extended singles foray, was a
doubles win by Thomas and Kell i Sharpe
over the team of Donahue and Maggie
Williams, 6-2, 6-4.
just that by retiring the Golden Griffs
in the seventh and final frame.
"Whenever it's a tie game like that
I feel like if we score, we are going to
put the team on the defensive again,"
Papa said. "I said all we needed was
one run and we would win the game."
The first game, despite having a
similar score, was not at all like the
second one.
The Tar Heels jumped on Canisius
early by sending seven batters to the
plate and scoring three runs in the first
inning.
After Sonya Bright led off the game
with a triple, Vicki Huff followed with
a towering fly ball that Golden Griff
eenterf ielder Lesl ie Samson lost m the
Carolina blue skyiBy the time the ball
was retrieved, Huff was on third with
a run-scoring triple and Bright had
scored the contest s first run.
Run-scoring singles by Theresa
Buscemi and Vicki Parrott then lifted
UNC's lead to 3-0.
"We always want to try to score
first so we can put the other team on
the defensive, Papa said, .
Freshman pitcher Paige Lauby
turned in an excellent performance,
pitching a complete-game one-hitter
and striking out 12 batters along the
way. Lauby began the game by strik
ing out seven of the first eight batters
"I think Paige did a really nice job,'
Papa said. "Her ball was moving well
and I think she did a really nice job
today in hitting her spots." .
Canisius only legitimate threat for
a big rally came in the third inning.
With one out, one run already scored
and runners onsecond and third, UNC
right fielder Amy Cole stopped the rally
when she made a spectacular diving
catch to snare a sinking line drive.
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UNC junior Chris Mumford smashes a serve
ACC Baseball Statistics
BATTING LEADERS
Batting Average
Player, Team Avg.
Noe, Md. .422
Bruce, GT .414
Bragg, GT .413
Villani, UNC .412
Crowley. Clem .402
Austin, WF .400
Leshnock, UNC .390
Spiers, Clem .387
Weston, WF l( ...: .381
Restuccio. WF . . si ... . , .378
Home Runs
Player, Team HRs
Bruce, GT 16
Kowilcik,WF 11
Austin, WF 10
Martz,WF . 9
Bragg, GT 8
Macrina, Clem 8
Runs Batted In
Player, Team RBIs
Bruce, GT 57
Bragg, GT 40
Austin, WF 38
Pierce, NCSU 34
Kowilcik, WF 33
Villani, UNC 32
Stolen Bases
Player, Team SBs
Byrd, GT 24
Fleming, GT 15
Bragg, GT 13
McCracken, Duke 11
Holbrook, UNC 8
McGonnigal, Md 8
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topples opponents
V.1.
4
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DTHKevin Chignell
in Tuesday's action at the Tennis Center
4,
.Baseball gets tough,
By H. Brock Page
StaffWriter
North Carolina's Chris Cox scored
on an error in the 10th inning to lift the
Tar Heels to a 5-4 win over Pace in a
Tuesday afternoon baseball game at
Boshamer Stadium.
Cox led off the bottom of the inning
with a walk. Brad Woodall laid down a
sacrifice bunt toward the mound, ad
vancing Cox to second base. Pace in
tentionally walked Donnie Leshnock,
leaving men on first and second with
one out and senior Matt Wooten at the
plate.
Wooten sent a sharp ground ball
straight to Pace third baseman Michael
Dieguez, who let the ball roll between
his legs. UNC head coach Mike Roberts
waved Cox home and leftfielder Sean
Scott didn't even attempt a throw after
he failed to field the ball cleanly.
The win snaps a four-game losing
streak for the Tar Heels, who were swept
by Wake Forest this past weekend and
lost to Jacksonville March 27. UNC,
now 20-11, faces Pace today before
heading into this weekend's series with
ACC foe Clemson. Roberts said this
close win gave the Tar Heels a boost.
"We needed to win," Roberts said.
'The fact that we were able to win a
close game is a plus. We played with
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serving the students and the
Fatigued, fragile men climb over
Mountaineers, lift mark to 14-5
By Jay Exum
Staff Writer
On any other day, it would have been
a sure thing.
But the North Carolina men's tennis
team, weary from a succession of away
games and suffering from two key in
juries, limped into the Tennis Center
Tuesday to face an 8-10 West Virginia
team that was looking to take advantage
of the Tar Heels' woes.
UNC coach Allen Morris need not
have worried. North Carolina's substi
tutes came in and did the job well,
helping bring home a 6-3 Tar Heel
victory for UNC (now 14-5) inamatch
that was somewhat closer than the score.
Playing at the top spot, Tar Heel
Roland Thornqvist easily disposed of
the Mountaineers' Mark Booras, 6-2, 6
1. Though it looked at the time like a
UNC rout could be on, Thornqvist's
match was one of only two that fell
decisively into the Tar Heels' win col
umn. Bryan Jones seemed to follow
Thornqvist's lead for the first set of his
match. The No. 2 seed pounded away at
West Virginia's Ron Mercer for a 6-3
win in the first set. Then things got
interesting. Mercer stormed back to win
the last two sets, 6-3, 6-3, evening the
match scores.
The result of the No. 3 singles match
served to make Morris nervous as well.
Playing what appeared to be West
Virginia's best tennis of the day, Manolo
Moure crushed UNC's Chris Mumford,
6-3, 6-2.
The possibility of an upset appeared
to be growing, especially when fourth
seed Thomas Tanner dropped the first
set Of his match, 6-1 .
Then the Tar Heels finally seemed to
more enthusiasm than we have been.
We needed positive things to happen,
and they did. We wanted to be more
aggressive, and we stole some bases."
Sophomore Ethan Albright made his
second start for the Tar Heels and pitched
four and two-thirds innings, giving up
two runs on three hits. Albright was
pulled in the fifth inning when he reached
his limit of pitches.
Albright got off to a shaky start as the
Setters tagged him for one run in the top
of the first inning.
The Tar Heels came right back in
their half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead
on a two-run homer by Cox with Steve
Estroff aboard.
"I was way ahead on the first two
pitches," Cox said. "I had problems
with pulling out too soon. I broke the
swing down, worked on seeing the ball
and keeping my hands back. He kept the
ball over the plate and let me get a hold
of it."
While Albright settled down and kept
the Setters in check for the next two
innings, UNC scored two more runs by
using the aggressive baserunning that
Roberts likes.
Wooten led off UNC's half of the
second inning by reaching base on an
error. After a sacrifice bunt and a steal,
Wooten was at third. With Cy
Richardson at the plate, Roberts called
University community since 1893
at home
wake up.
Tanner came back with a vengeance,
taking the last two sets, 6-3, 6-4, from
Mountaineer Jordan Bergwall.
Bringing up the rear in singles for
UNC were Sean Steinour at No. 5 and
David Sussman at No. 6.
Steinour wore down his opponent
after a tough first set, 7-5, 6-3, and
Sussman blew out David Gibbs, 6-1,6-3.
But the Mountaineers could still win
the match if they could sweep the
doubles competition.
Playing at No. 2 doubles, Moure and
Bergwall did their third of that job,
beating UNC's tandem of Jones and
Steinour, 7-6, 6-2.
But apparently Chris Mumford
wanted redemption for his singles match.
He and Thornqvist staved off a 4-6
scare in the first set and beat Booras and
Mercer, 6-1, 6-2 in the final two sets.
Their victory at No. 1 guaranteed
that there would be no West Virginia
upset.
Tanner and Joe Frierson completed
the work in handing the Mountaineers'
Walsh and Gibbs a 6-1, 7-5 defeat at
No. 3 doubles.
Morris was pleased with his team's
effort, and congratulated his tired players
by giving them Wednesday off to rest
up for upcoming matches.
According to Morris, the team's only
shot at an NCAA tournament berth rests
with getting the best record in its region
Region II and that starts with
beating tough South Carolina Saturday.
All of the Tar Heels' remaining oppo
nents are in their region.
Morris can only hope that the rest
will do the trick and get UNC back to
full speed to complete the job.
ends ski'
for the suicide squeeze, and Richardson
and Wooten executed the play perfectly,
putting UNC up 3-1.
Chad Holbrook followed with a two
out single. Holbrook stole second and
third and then attempted to steal home
against left-handed pitcher Mark
Mammola, but he didn't beat the pitch.
"Chad called me Sunday and asked
me what he could do to be a better
player and to help the team," Roberts
said. "He can be our offensive" catalyst
because of his great speed. We've been
working hard to be more aggressive as
a team. Even though he got thrown out
at home, it was a positive thing."
UNC scored again to take a 4-1 lead
in the third inning. The Tar Heels loaded
the bases and Wooten was hit by a pitch,
scoring Hector Ferrer from third.
Pace tied the score in the sixth inning
thanks to a solo home run by C.J. Russo
and a two-run single by Tom
Horincewich. Brad Woodall, the game's
winning pitcher, came to the mound in
the sixth and held Pace scoreless for
three and two-thirds innings. .
"I think that series at Wake Forest
woke us up," Cox said. "This game is
what we needed. We needed to get back
in arhythm so that the guys will come to
the ballpark happy. Now, we want to go
to Clemson and play good ball, whether
we win or lose."
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