This Week in Ohio State Athletics – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/20/1998 12:00:00 AM | General
April 20, 1998%^$
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Tuesday, April 21
%^$Baseball vs. Ashland, 6:35 p.m., Bill Davis Stadium
%^$Softball vs. Youngstown State (DH), 3 p.m., Buckeye Field
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Wednesday, April 22
%^$Baseball vs. West Virginia, 6:35 p.m., Bill Davis Stadium
%^$Softball vs. Ohio (DH), 3 p.m., Buckeye Field
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Thursday, April 23
%^$Softball vs. Wright State (DH), 3 p.m., Buckeye Field
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Friday, April 24
%^$Men’s Lacrosse vs. Denver, 4 p.m., Turf Field at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center
%^$Men’s Golf at Kent Invitational
%^$Baseball at Penn State, 3 p.m.
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Saturday, April 25
%^$Men’s Golf at Ken Invitational
%^$Women’s Lacrosse at George Mason, 1 p.m. Baseball at Penn State (DH), 1 p.m.
%^$Softball vs. Wisconsin (DH), 1 p.m. Buckeye Field
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Sunday, April 26
%^$Men’s Lacrosse vs. Air Force, 1 p.m., Turf Field at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center
%^$Women’s Tennis at Penn State, 9:30 a.m.
%^$Women’s Lacrosse at American, 1 p.m.
%^$Baseball at Penn State, 1 p.m.
%^$Softball vs. Wisconsin, 1 p.m., Buckeye Field
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Men’s Golf%^$1997-98 Record – 82-32 overall
%^$Head Coach – Jim Brown, 25th year (Ohio State ’66)
%^$Good Stuff – The Wolverine Invitational will be the Buckeyes last tune-up tournament before the Big Ten Championships at the Forest Akers West golf course in Lansing, Mich., on May 8-10.
%^$This Week -The Ohio State men’s golf team is idle this week. The Buckeyes will be back in action on May 2-3, when the team travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. to compete in the Wolverine Invitational.
%^$Last Week — The Buckeyes won their first team tilte of the season at the 29th annual Kepler Intercollegiate at the OSU Scarlet Course on Saturday and Sunday. Ohio State dominated the field of 16 teams in all three rounds of competition to win the Kepler for the 21st time in the history of the tournament. Ohio State fought off rain-soaked weather and mild temperature on Sunday to finish the tournament with a one under par-863, 15 strokes ahead of runner-up Northwestern. The Buckeyes Craig Matthew (Sr., Point Claire, Quebec) finished the tournament in second place,one stroke behind individual medalist Tee McCabe of Miami (O.). Matthew missed a 10 foot birdie put on the 18th green that would have put him in a tie with McCabe and forced a playoff hole. Other outstanding Buckeye performances came from Ryan Armour (Sr., Silver Lake, Ohio) and Mike Austin (Fr., Burton, Mich.), both finishing within the top ten individually. Armour had the lowest round of the tournament with a 68. He ended the tournament in fourth shooting an even par (216). Austin finished four slots back in a tie for eighth with a three round total of 219.
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Women’s Golf
%^$1997-98 Record – 72-44-1, 28-2 in Big Ten
%^$Head Coach – Therese Hession, seventh year (Southern Methodist, ’79)
%^$Good Stuff – The last time Ohio State played at the Scarlet Golf Course, Mosher posted a personal best of 67.
%^$This Week – The Buckeyes will compete at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational on April 25-26 at the Scarlet Golf Course. Competing at the Lady Buckeye will be Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin and Xavier. Two years ago, Arizona was the champion with a team score of 629 and Indiana’s Erica Wicoff was the individual medalist with a score of 151.
%^$Last Week – The Buckeyes were idle.
%^$Notes – After competing well in their last two tournaments, the Buckeyes are ready to go head-to-head against several of the Big Ten’s top schools. Junior Natalie Mosher (New Philadelphia, Ohio) has the team’s best average of 75.4, four strokes lower than her 1996-97 average of 79.58. Bethany Overstake (Sr., Urbana, Ohio) has also played well in this spring season averaging a 76.9 and posting her best round of 72 last month.
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Men’s Gymnastics
%^$1997-98 Record – 9-4 overall, 3rd at Big Ten Championships, 1st at East Regional Championships, 6th at NCAA Championships
%^$Head Coach – Miles Avery, first year (Temple, ’81)
%^$Good Stuff – The Buckeyes have qualified for the NCAA Championships for the 18th consecutive year.
%^$This Week–The Buckeyes have completed their season.
%^$Last Week– The Buckeyes finished in sixth place at the NCAA Championships at University Park, Pa. Mike Morgan(Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio) finished in tenth place in the all-around competition. Saturday night at the event finals, Doug Stibel (Jr., Canton, Mich.) finished in eighth place on the horizontal bar and Peter Landry (Jr., Lewiston, Maine) finished in sixth place on the still rings. California won the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year.
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Women’s Gymnastics
%^$1997-98 Record – 9-4 overall, 2-3 in Big Ten
%^$Head Coach – Larry Cox, 19th year (Arizona State, ’77)
%^$This Week – The Buckeyes have completed their season.
%^$Last Week – The Buckeyes did not compete at the NCAA Championships as a team, but three teammates competed individually Thursday night at Pauley Pavillion. Susan Eckman (Jr., Boardman, Ohio) placed 46th in the vault, 83rd on the beam and 84th on the floor exercise. Freshman sensation Lindsey Vagedes (Fr., Warrenville, Ill.) scored a 9.2 on the vault and floor exercise. With a score of 9.70, Vagedes took 45th place on the balance beam. Nursing a sore foot, Mindi Farmer (Indianapolis, Ind.) participated in just two events, the bars and the floor exercise, scoring a 9.175 and 9.725 respectively.
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Men’s Lacrosse
%^$1998 Record – 2-6, 0-2 Great Western Lacrosse League
%^$Head Coach – Joe Breschi (North Carolina ’90), 1st year
%^$Good Stuff – Lafferty and Gloeckner, and Joe Gans (Sr., Worthington, Ohio) all attended Thomas Worthington High school in nearby Worthington, Ohio. Other schools with multiple representation on the Buckeye roster include St. Ignatius in Cleveland with two players, and Hudson High School in Hudson, Ohio.
%^$This Week – Ohio State will host two Great Western Lacrosse League foes this weekend with Denver visiting on Friday and Air Force invading on Sunday. Friday’s game time is 4:00 while Sunday’s game is slated for 1:00. The Buckeyes will be looking for their first GWLL win this season.
%^$Last Week – The Buckeyes set numerous season-highs in a 19-5 drubbing of in-state foe Wooster. The Buckeyes set season highs in goals (19), assists (12), margin of victory (14), ground balls (69), shots (63), and face-offs won (17). Leading the way for Ohio State was Steve Gloeckner (Fr., Worthington, Ohio) who scored three goals. Jim Lafferty (Sr., Worthington, Ohio) netted two goals and an assist, while Mickey O’Connor (Fr., Millersville, Md.) scored a goal and had two assists. Goalie Mike Abeles (So., Westfield, N.J.) got his second start of the year and continued his sizzling play by holding Wooster scoreless in his thirty minutes between the pipes.
%^$Notes – Abeles would be leading the country in save percentage at 69.7% if he had enough minutes played. To qualify for the national lead a goalie must play in 75% of his team’s minutes. The Buckeyes are currently in the midst of a four game homestand and are looking to defeat Air Force and Denver to go 3-1 for the homestand.
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Women’s Lacrosse
%^$1997-98 Record – 6-7 overall
%^$Head Coach – Sue Stimmel (Temple ’84, UMass ’87, 3rd year)
%^$Good Stuff – Simpson and Russo both scored a career high four goals against Denison.
%^$This Week – The Buckeyes make their last road trip of the season to face George Mason on April 25 at 1p.m. and American April 26 at 1p.m. George Mason is .500 on the season with a record of 7-7. Liz Robertshaw was an a All-American last year and a IWLAA pre-season All-American. She leads the Patriots with 34 goals and 4 assists. American is struggling this season with a 3-7 overall record and 0-6 record in the Colonial Athletic Association.
%^$Last Week – Ohio State split its games last week dominating Denison 19-4 and losing to Penn State 14-3. Denison proved to be no match for the Buckeyes as Ohio State scored their first goal within the first :20 seconds of the game. The Bucks never looked back as they put on a scoring clinic in the first half scoring fifteen goals. Mara Simpson (Sr., Worthington, Ohio) led the Buckeyes scoring a hat-trick and four goals overall. Cathy Russo (Sr., Huntington, N.Y.) scored a career high four goals, two of which came in the first half. Ohio St
ate didin’t have the same results against the Nittany Lions. OSU kept it close in the first half scoring three goals, but Penn State led 6-3 at the half. In the second half it was all Penn State, as the Nittany Lions scored eight goals and shut out the Buckeyes. Notes – The Buckeyes can still have a winning season if they win their last two games.
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Men’s Tennis
%^$1997-98 Record – 4-19-0, 0-10-0 in Big Ten
%^$Head Coach – John Daly, 27th year (Northern Illinois)
%^$Good Stuff – The last time Ohio State won the Big Ten Championship was in 1991, when assistant coach Ty Tucker led the team with a 25-8 record that year.
%^$This Week – The Buckeyes (4-19, 0-10) will not compete for two weeks. They will then travel to Champaign, Ill. for the Big Ten Championships on May 1-3. Last year, Illinois defeated Northwestern (4-2) in the Championship game.
%^$Last Week – Ohio State battled hard, but ended the season with a tough loss to Penn State (4-2). Notes – Chris Porter (Fr., Canton, Ohio) ended the dual match season with a team best record of 19-14 in singles. Porter carries a 5-11 record at the No. 1 singles position, but is undefeated at the No. 2 and No.4 position. With his partner Pari Laxminarayan (Jr., Bangalore, India), Porter has posted a 11-10 record at the No.2 doubles position and a 11–11 record overall. Laxminarayan carries the team best doubles record of 15-11 overall.
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Women’s Tennis
%^$1997-98 Record – 8-13, 1-8 in Big Ten
%^$Head Coach – Chuck Merzbacher, second year (Minnesota ’87)
%^$Good Stuff — Kristy Dascoli has a league leading record at the No. 1 spot at 8-1 in Big Ten competition. Dascoli is also only one win shy of tying OSU’s record for most wins in a season since the NCAA limited the number of competitive dates to 25 in 1992.
%^$This Week – The Buckeyes will venture to College State, Pa. to take on Penn State in its last dual meet of the season of Sunday at 9:30 a.m. The Nittany Lions (2-15, 0-8) lead the all-time series against the Buckeyes 13-12, including last years 4-1 victory over Ohio State.
%^$Last Week – Ohio State concluded its home portion of the 1997-98 season going 1-2 on the week. The Buckeyes defeated Miami (O.) 5-2 on Wednesday and then dropped two Big Ten matches on Saturday on Sunday. Ohio State fell to Purdue, the top team in the Big Ten, 5-2 on Saturday. The Buckeyes then dropped their second straight match of the weekend to Illinois 4-3 in a nail biter that was decided in the final match of the day. Freshman standout Kristy Dascoli (Bradenton, Fla.) improved her record to 23-8 overall and 8-1 in the Big Ten with a three match sweep at the No. 1 position. Briana Harris (Bradenton, Fla.) and Monica Koplas (Jr., Scarborough, Ontario) each had two big wins in singles competition against Miami and Illinois. Senior Mandy Yeley (Wheelersburg, Ohio) also won two matches in her final homestand as a member of the Buckeye squad. Both Yeley’s wins came at the No. 3 position over Miami and Purdue. Notes — The Buckeyes conclude their regular season this weekend at Penn State. Ohio State will then compete in the Big Ten Championships in Madison, Wis. on April 30 to May 3.
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Track and Field
%^$1997-98 Record-M-11-11, 0-0 in Big Ten W-14-8, 0-0 in Big Ten Track & Field
%^$Head Coach – Russ Rogers, 9th year (Maryland-Baltimore County ’65)
%^$Good Stuff – Ayanna Reece (Jr., Bronx, N.Y.) marked a personal best performance in the 400 hurdles with a time of 59.90. She now holds the second fastest time ever in OSU history. Arnita Green (1990, 92-93) is the current school record holder with a time of 56.97 which she posted in 1992.
%^$This Week – The Ohio State track and field teams will travel to the world-famous Penn Relays beginning Thursday through Saturday in Philadelphia, Pa. The Penn Relays is a three day event that hosts 18,000 athletes from 35 countries for a crowd of 90,000 screaming track and field supporters. With last year’s record breaking crowd, the 104th running of the Penn Relays will guarantee excitement as the it remains the largest and best track and field meet in the world.
%^$Last Week – The OSU track and field team split its defenses and sent nine student-athletes to the Mt. SAC Invitational in Walnut, Calif. There was no team scoring. Capturing first place finishes for OSU includedDonica Merriman (Fr., Trotwood, Ohio) in the 100 hurdles (13.61) and Sekou Smith (Sr., Chicago, Ill.) in the 400 hurdles (51.43). The rest of the Buckeyes traveled to Terre Haute, Ind. to compete in the Pacesetter Invitational on Saturday. The men’s team finished in third place overall, while the women’s squad took fifth place. Indiana State captured both the men’s and women’s team titles. Notes – Andrew Pierce (400, Fr., Yellow Springs, Ohio), Tamieka Porter (triple jump, Sr., Escondido, Calif.), Abieda Benjamin (800, Jr., Brooklyn, N.Y.), Ian Connor (1,500, Fr., Lexington, Ohio) and Smith (400 hurdles) all improved their season’s best times.
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Men’s Volleyball
%^$1998 Record – 25-2, 10-0 in Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Head Coach – Pete Hanson, 14th year (Ball State ’79) Good Stuff – The Buckeyes have defeated 12 of 14 nationally ranked opponents this season. For information on the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association check out: www.acs.ohio-state.edu/units/athletics/MIVA/miva.html.
%^$This Week – Ohio State (25-2 overall) is idle. They await word on a possible at-large bid to the NCAA Championship. The selection of teams will be announced April 26.The NCAA semifinals will be played in Honolulu, Hawaii on April 30. The championship match is May 2.
%^$Last Week – Ohio State lost for the second time this season, falling to Loyola (Ill.) in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament semifinals. The 3-1 (16-14, 16-17, 15-13, 16-14) Rambler win stopped OSU’s 22-match winning streak. The Buckeyes were led by Jeff Koterba with a career-tying 33 kill performance. Rene’ Esteves had 25 kills and Phil Kerewich added 21. OSU hit .298 for the match compared to .335 for Loyola.
%^$Notes – The 25-2 mark for the Buckeyes is the second best season ever for Ohio State. The 1969 squad finished undefeated at 24-0. Prior to the loss to Loyola, Ohio State was ranked No. 2 in the USA TODAY/AVCA Coaches Poll and held the top spot in the Volleyball Magazine Poll for the second week.
