The University of Miami men’s tennis team bounced back from Friday’s loss to Florida with a convincing 6-1 victory over Florida A&M Sunday at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on the Coral Gables campus.
First-singles player Todd Widom who is ranked ninth among Division 1 collegiate players, rebounded from his first loss of the season with a convincing 6-1, 6-3 win over Florida A&M’s Pfungwa Mahefu.
In doubles play, the Hurricanes swept each match. Luis Manrique and Shauny Hoyes defeated Mahefu and Noel Wadawu 9-8 (6); Andrew Golub and Colin Purcell took an 8-2 win over La’Vaughn Munroe and Zura Zhvania and Widom and Eric Hechtman beat Kamau Murray and Davin Russell 8-4.
The Hurricanes conceded just one match among the singles. Colin Purcell upended Davin Russell 6-4, 6-2; Hechtman defeated Zhvania 6-1, 6-1; and Hoyes toppled Murray 6-1, 6-0.
In the most closely contested match of the afternoon, Golub edged Munroe 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
The Hurricanes next match is Saturday, Feb. 22 when they travel to play rival Florida State in Tallahassee at 1 p.m.
The No. 14 women’s team suffered its first loss of the 2003 season falling, 6-1, to No. 2 University of Florida Saturday afternoon at the Alfred Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, Fla.
The Hurricanes fall to 4-1 on the season, while the Gators improve to 7-1. Additionally, Florida improves its all-time series record over Miami to 31-21.
Freshman Melissa Applebaum was the only Hurricane to earn a singles point, defeating No. 9 Alex Gordon with a straight set victory, 6-3, 6-2. Applebaum improves her record to a perfect 5-0.
Despite an 8-4 doubles victory by Abby Smith and Igna DeVilliers over Florida’s No. 7 duo of Alex Gordon and Julia Scaringe, Florida took two of the three doubles matches to jump out to an early 1-0 lead.
Florida’s No. 26 Zerene Reyes routed Miami’s Ewelina Skaza 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 5 position to give the Gator’s its first singles point and a 2-0 lead.
UF took a convincing 3-0 lead when No. 83 Jennifer Magley defeated Sara Robbins, 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 6 singles spot.
Finally, at the No. 1 position, No. 7 Lindsay Dawaf defeated Miami’s Megan Bradley, 6-2, 7-6 to clinch the match victory for Florida.
The Hurricanes are back in action as they host Harvard on Monday, Feb. 17 at 11 a.m. at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on the UM campus.

(Courtesy of the Sports Information Department)

For the last time, a male swimmer on the UM men’s swimming team jumped into the pool on Saturday, Feb. 8th.
After Athletic Director Paul Dee and the board of trustees decided to cut the men’s swimming and diving team due to Title IX requirements three years ago, both teams were temporarily reinstated.
Swim coach James Sweeney said the diving program has kept going on an unlimited basis, because “it has always been one of the best in the country.” Although the school allowed the swimmers to finish their careers, their team gradually faded out. Members on scholarships transferred, others quit and only one lonely fighter, Bjorn Boquist, stayed to the very end.
Since it was founded, UM’s swim program turned out 21 Olympians and 48 NCAA All -Americans. Legends like Jack Nelson, ’56 All-American and Olympian and ’76 coach of the Olympic women’s team, arose from it.
“It doesn’t make much sense to see a tradition like that disappear,” former team captain Tom Caplis said.
He still seeks ways to reinstate the team by keeping contact to coaches within the swimming community, raising awareness about Title IX problems through several news media and looking for donors to give enough money to endow the team.
“Many male athletes are being affected the same way we are here,” UM Diving coach Randy Ableman said. Title IX has always been a nationwide controversial issue. Its concept is simple, but to apply the rules at a university is not. In order to pass the three-part test of the Office for Civil Rights for Title IX, a school either has to provide gender proportionality in athletics, show a history and continuing practice of adding women’s sports, or accommodate athletic interests and abilities of women on campus fully and effectively.
Keeping equality between female and male athletes is more often a budgetary problem than just the demand to establish the correct gender proportionality. Spending scholarship money on men’s teams is usually higher than on women’s. Football and men’s basketball produce discrepancies that eventually have to be evened out by cutting scholarships for other male programs.
After all, Title IX still doesn’t provide a proper solution to meet students’ athletic demands if it has the power to eliminate one of the nations best swim teams.
“The way how the government interprets Title IX will have to change,” said Ableman. “I always hope that they will someday reinstate the swim team.”

Women’s track and field
Two University of Miami women’s indoor sprint records fell Friday night as sophomore sprinter Lauryn Williams set a new school record in the 60-meter dash and freshman Charlette Greggs set a new UM standard in the 200 meters to highlight action for the Hurricanes Friday at the Razorback-Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Williams won the 60 in a school-record time of 7.25 seconds Friday night, edging Auburn’s Elva Golbourne (7.28) to take the victory.
Williams, the 2002 World Junior Champion in the 100 meters, entered the meet ranked fifth in the nation in the 60 meters and 11th in the nation in the 200 meters and improved her standing in the 60 with a pair of record performances in the 60. The blistering time in the final bettered her qualifying time of 7.30 (also a UM record) that made her the fastest qualifier and automatically qualified her for the upcoming NCAA Indoor Championships to be held in March in Fayetteville.
The record-breaking performances by Williams, who has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in both the 60 meters and 200 meters, bettered her old UM record of 7.32 set on the same track at the 2002 NCAA Indoor Championships.
In the 200, Greggs led all Hurricanes sprinters with a fifth-place finish in a time of 23.56 seconds. That mark shattered the old UM record of 23.69 set by Wyllesheia Myrick in 2000 and bettered the NCAA automatic qualifying standard of 23.70. Williams was sixth in a PR of 23.86 while freshman Dominique Darden was seventh in 23.94 and senior Sashanie Sampson was 11th at 24.21. All three sprinters improved their NCAA provisional qualifying times with those performances.
In the 60-meter hurdles, senior Sharianne Lawson improved her NCAA provisional qualifying best with a personal-best time of 8.28 seconds in the qualifying heats, the second-fastest qualifying time to the final. UM senior Jamillah Wade also had a personal-best performance with a clocking of 8.59. In the final later on Friday evening, Lawson placed third in 8.31 while Wade was eighth in 8.72.

Men’s track and field
University of Miami student-athlete Dan Andrews will be honored at the Convocation Center on Thursday, February 13th, 6:00pm by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Andrews will be among several honorees who will be inducted into the Sports Hall of Champions. Inductees include Don Strock and Jim Langer, Andrews will receive the Inspiration Award by the Chamber.
For additional information please contact Cornelia Pereira at The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce at 305.577.5432

Swimming and diving
Sixteen members of the University of Miami swimming and diving team have qualified for the Big East Championships Feb. 20 through 22 in Uniondale, NY.
Colleen Adkins will compete in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke and the 200 IM; Meghan Clabby will compete in the 100 and 200 breaststroke; Katalin Ferenczi, the 100 and 200 backstroke; Adrien Fergusen, the 100 and 200 butterfly as well as the 200 IM; Erin Johns, 50 and 100 freestyle; Megan Kinsella, 100 and 200 free; Martyna Krawczyk, 100 and 200 breast; Elaine Schwartz, 200 fly and the 200 and 400 IM; Christina Swanson, 50 free and 100 and 200 breast; Manon Van Rooijen, the 200 IM and 100 and 200 free; Tammy Watts, the 100 and 200 back; and Christine Williams, the 50, 100, and 200 free.
From the Hurricanes’ diving squad, Katie Beth Bryant, Melanie Rinaldi, Emily Spychala, and Miguel Velazquez will all compete in both the one and three-meter events.

Women’s basketball lets golden opportunity slip away
‘Canes surrender 100 points to lowly Mountaineers
What could have been another impressive Big East road victory for the Miami Hurricanes women’s basketball team became one of the worst losses of the season.
The Hurricanes dropped a 100-86 decision to the West Virginia Mountaineers in a game that Miami needs to soon forget as the team tries to respond against UConn on Wednesday.
With the loss, Miami falls to 14-8 on the year, 6-5 in the conference. West Virginia improves to 13-9 and just 2-9 in the conference.
Tamara James and Megan Saake each contributed 18 points for the Hurricanes, while Yolonda McCormick dropped in 16. As a team, the Hurricanes put an impressive 86 points on the board, shot 48 percent from the field, and connected on 80 percent of their free throws.
But despite the loss, head coach Ferne Labati said she was impressed with the team’s offensive capabilities.
“It showed our ability to be able to score points…Megan Saake had a really good game,” she said. “I always feel that when Megan plays well offensively we do well. We did well offensively, we just made too many mistakes.”
While Miami’s offense kept the team in the game down the stretch, the defense was unable to come up with stops. The Mountaineers warded off any Miami run late in the game with clutch baskets from Sherell Sowho and Kate Bulger. Bulger led the way with 22 while Sowho added 19 on 6-10 shooting.
West Virginia, the second worst free throw shooting team in the conference, shot 82 percent from the line, and also got to the line 14 more times than the Hurricanes. More importantly, the Mountaineers shot 10-12 from the line down the stretch. Fifty-eight percent shooting from the field was good enough for the Mountaineers to become the first team to score 100 points on the Hurricanes this season.
“We’re disappointed because we allowed so many points to West Virginia defensively. We felt that we just didn’t do the job,” said Labati. “It was our turnovers. It was our silly fouls…not playing good defense, not boxing out. Those kinds of things really hurt us in the game and it cost us the game.”
Miami hung close with the red hot Mountaineers, trailing by just four at halftime, but West Virginia exploded for 54 points in the second half, and the Hurricanes could not keep up. A quick four points for the Mountaineers to start the half dictated the way the rest of the game would go. Miami stayed in it until the final 10 minutes of the contest, during which West Virginia opened up a double-digit lead and never looked back.
A win would have put Miami in good position to ensure itself a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Hurricanes now figure they must win four out of their remaining five games, with one of those games being against the No.1 ranked Connecticut Huskies in the Convocation Center.
Labati recognizes the difficult task ahead for Miami, but she remains upbeat.
“I think the most important thing for this team is to refocus,” Labati said. “We’re all in this together; the coaches, the players, and we’ve dug ourselves into a hole, and we’re going to dig ourselves out of the hole.”

Men’s basketball comes out flat at Boston College
Troy Bell scored 34 points, hitting two key 3-pointers in the second half, as Boston College beat Miami on Saturday for its fifth win in six games.
Freshman Louis Hinnant had 10 for BC (13-9, 6-5 Big East), converting a three-point play to start a 13-5 second-half run after Miami cut the deficit to 45-43. He added a 3-pointer that put the Eagles up by 10, 66-56 with 3:40 to play.
James Jones had 21 points and 10 rebounds and Darius Rice had 13 points and 10 boards for Miami (10-11, 3-7). The Hurricanes lost for the fourth time in six games to fall into last place in the conference’s East Division, putting them in danger of being left out of the 12-team Big East tournament.
Bell, who was 12-for-13 from the line, has averaged just under 30 points over the last eight games, and on Wednesday he surpassed Dana Barros to become the school’s career scoring leader. Bell had 18 points in the first half, when BC shot 58 percent to take a 38-31 halftime lead.
Miami cut the deficit to two points with a 7-2 run that made it 45-43 with 14:27 left. The Hurricanes had a chance to tie, but Craig Smith stole the ball under their basket and dribbled it out before a bounce pass to Hinnant set up his lay-up and free throw.
Bell followed with a 3-pointer with 13 minutes to play that made it 51-43. After Jones hit a lay-up, Bell hit another 3.
Ismael N’Diaye converted a three-point play, but Smith scored in the lane and Ryan Sidney scored a reverse lay-up to complete the 13-5 run and give BC a 58-48 lead.
The Hurricanes will look to rebound from Saturday’s loss on Monday when they travel to Providence to take on the Friars. The Friars will be looking for revenge after the ‘Canes took their first meeting 60-57 at the Convocation Center on January 29.
After the Providence game the Hurricanes return home to battle the Georgetown Hoyas on Saturday February 22. This will be the first meeting of the season between the two teams.

Courtesy of the Sports Information Department

On a weekend in which the Miami Hurricanes looked to prove that last year’s performance in the Gainesville Regional wasn’t a fluke, it was Mother Nature that would end up victorious.
In its first trip to McKethan Stadium since knocking the Florida Gators out of the playoffs in dramatic fashion, Miami split the first two games against its state rivals. The Hurricanes defeated UF 9-2 Friday, before falling 5-3 Saturday. However, heavy rains throughout most of Sunday morning caused officials at Florida to cancel the rubber match of the three-game series, ending the ‘Canes trip in North Central Florida with a .500 record over the course of the weekend.
Sunday’s contest came one day after the Gators evened up the series, thanks to some timely hitting, UM miscues, and a wild 7th inning. Florida put together two runs in the first three innings, scoring its first run on a wild pitch by Miami starter Vince Bongiovanni, and plating its second on a RBI double from right fielder Mario Garza.
UM pitching coach Lazer Collazo pointed to other reasons for the early ‘Gator offense.
“You never want runs to be coming from walks,” Collazo said. “I thought that had a lot to do with the loss.”
Miami bounced back from the early two-run deficit, as center fielder Danny Figueroa came home on a passed ball, and designated hitter Ryan Braun knocked Gaby Sanchez in with a single. The 2-2 score would not stand for long, as a sacrifice fly from Garza gave Florida a one run lead.
The score remained 3-2 Florida until the seventh inning that began with two one-out base runners reaching on a walk and double, respectively. Third baseman Brett Dowdy appeared to knock in both Gator base runners with a single. However, catcher Matt Cresap did not touch home plate while making the turn from third base. UF coach Pat McMahon stormed out from the dugout and after a long verbal altercation with all three umpires, was ejected.
Miami coach Jim Morris nearly shared McMahon’s fate two batters later, after coming out to argue a call in which Ben Harrison was called safe on a play from first base, which would score Dowdy.
”It’s hard to see from the dugout, but Jim Burt said he made the play,” Morris said. “I didn’t want to get Jim Burt thrown out of the game.”
Burt would add a solo home run in the top of the ninth inning, but it wasn’t enough to give Miami the victory.
“They played a better baseball game than we did,” Morris said. “They pitched better, played defense better and did a better job of swinging the bat.”
The loss dropped Miami’s record to 4-2 and followed a late inning outburst in Friday’s win. The Hurricanes scored five 8th-inning runs in the 9-2 victory, with right fielder Brian Barton providing the finishing touches with a three-run homer. Sanchez also drove in three runs for the ‘Canes, while Burt, Danny Figueroa, and Adam Ricks each had an RBI apiece.
“This has been my toughest place to play since I’ve been at Miami,” Morris said. “After we got the five-spot, we felt pretty good.”
Morris received production from both of his starting pitchers in Gainesville. Dan Touchet threw seven innings in Friday’s contest, giving up just two earned runs while striking out eight. Bongiovanni recovered from walking the first two ‘Gator batters Saturday to throw 5.1 innings of five-hit, two-run ball.
However, with San Diego State coming into town Friday, Collazo points to other areas in which he feels Miami needs significant improvement.
“Our defense hasn’t really been doing a very good job,” Collazo said. “Our relief pitching needs to get stronger if we want to go anywhere this year.”

-Jeremy Marks-Peltz can be reached at jmp310@hotmail.com