The Hurricane women’s basketball team came into Saturday night’s game against No. 20 Villanova with hopes of staying in contention in the Big East title race and giving Coach Ferne Labati her 400th victory at the college level.
The ‘Lady Wildcats had other plans in mind, however, and were able to fire up 36 three-pointers and force 17 ‘Canes turnovers to leave the Convocation Center with a 61-55 victory over Miami.
All Big-East guard Trish Juhline led the way for the Wildcats with 15 points, all in the second half. Katie Davis and Nicole Druckenmiller both contributed 12 points in the winning effort.
Yalonda McCormick led the ‘Canes 13 points and pulled down five rebounds, while Shaquana Wilkins contributed seven points and seven rebounds in the loss.
“We went into tonight’s game hoping to not give up three-pointers and make turnovers, but we did both,” Labati said. “It’s a tough loss for us because it was a winnable home game.”
The ‘Canes also had a major scare when their leading scorer and rebounder Tamara James left the game in the second half with a hyper extended knee. Labati is confident that James’s injury wasn’t serious.
“Tamara will be fine after some rest,” Labati said. “She took a hard fall but there was no major injury.”
The ‘Canes looked sloppy from the outset, turning the ball over several times and giving up a barrage of threes to Druckenmiller and Katie Davis. Villanova was able to go into the locker room with a 32-25 lead.
An interesting statistic from the first 20 minutes would be the 22 three-point attempts by the Wildcats compared to the one attempt from the ‘Canes. Despite the difference in three-pointers, Labati felt that the loss had more to do with her team’s overall execution.
“I don’t think the styles of play for each team was the big factor in our loss,” Labati said. “It had more to do with us missing shots. When we miss shots on offense, we tend to give up on defense.”
The ‘Canes came out with more intensity in the second half, and tied the score at 38 after an Alicia Hartlaub field goal. That was as close as Miami would get though, as the Wildcats went on a decisive 13-0 run to put away the home team.
“That was the critical stretch of the game for us,” Labati said. “We went from being tied to down thirteen points in only a couple of minutes, and that can crush a team.”
The key factor in Villanova’s run was Juhline, who found ways to get open for outside shots, as well as earning trips to the foul line.
“Juhline and Davis were able to beat us with backdoor cuts,” Labati said. “They used hard cuts to get good open looks at threes.”
The ‘Canes will look to rebound from the loss tonight in Piscataway, New Jersey, as Miami takes on Rutgers.
“We just need to go on the road and play hard and mentally tough,” Labati said. “In the Big East a team can beat any other team as long as they can match-up with them and adjust to their style of play.”

-You can reach Eric Kalis at elk777bc@hotmail.com

Pitchers
This year’s squad will begin with Dan Touchet, Brandon Camardese, Vince Bongiovanni, and Ryan Dixon in the rotation. J.D. Cockroft will be waiting in the wings for a starting job.

Shortstop
Paco Figueroa will begin his first season as the full-time shortstop. Figueroa performed well as a part-time starter last year. Morris is looking for his speed to contribute to the Hurricanes offense this season.

Bullpen
George Huguet will be the closer after coming back from his injury. Until then Cockroft will hold down the fort along with Shawn Valdes-Fauli, Andrew Cohn, and a myriad of newcomers.

3rd Base
Gaby Sanchez will start at third base. Morris is looking for a big year from this kid on all sides of the ball.

Left Field
Junior transfer Tommy Shannon will most likely take this spot. Look for a leadership role out of Shannon as the season progresses.

Catcher
Erick San Pedro will start behind the plate for the ‘Canes. San Pedro had a great off-season, improving his bat in the process. Look for San Pedro to put up decent numbers this season to go with his arm and defensive abilities.

After another off-season of wheeling and dealing, the Miami Hurricanes are making their final preparations to begin another season of UM baseball.
The Hurricanes come off a bittersweet playoff experience during which, UM knocked off a heavily favored Florida Gators squad in the regionals only to lose in the final inning of play against the University of South Carolina. The ‘Canes were three outs away from their eighth College World Series appearance in nine years under head coach Jim Morris.
Instead, Miami wound up with a No. 20 ranking when the final polls were released, concluding the team’s worst season under Morris.
This year, the Hurricanes are once again putting on a new face in an attempt to find some consistency.
“Right now we are just going to put things together until we get something that works,” Morris said. “I’ll tell you right now, the lineup that we put out there on Wednesday will not be the same as the lineup we put out at the end of the season.”
Thanks to graduation and the loss of several of Miami’s key players to the major league baseball draft, last year’s young team has become even younger with the departure of key players such as Javy Rodriguez, Kevin Howard, and Danny Matienzo.
The UM pitching staff also lost much of their depth as three of last year’s starters, Kiki Bengochea, Troy Roberson, and T.J. Prunty departed, along with fellow relievers Luke DeBold and Vince Vazquez.
Dan Touchet, who earned the No. 1 spot towards the end of the 2002 season, returns as the ace in Lazer Collazo’s pitching rotation. Brandon Camardese, Vince Bongiovanni, Ryan Dixon, and J.D. Cockroft are left fighting for the remaining spots in the rotation. Cockroft also begins the year as UM’s closer, with George Huguet sidelined thanks to soreness in his throwing elbow.
“George feels fine,” Morris said. “We are holding him back a little just to make sure he is ready to throw in a game situation. He will probably miss about the first three weekend’s of the season.”
To lighten the load on the younger players, Morris dipped into the junior college pool during the off-season, pulling out a nice chunk of experience for the ‘Canes to build on.
“We got some junior college guys from California this season,” Morris said. “These are guys who have two years experience already and they really now how to play the game.”
“The best baseball in the country is played in Florida and California. The weather allows these guys to play in a lot of games during the course of the season and after two years, these guys have more experience than some of the northern guys will get in four years at school.”
Among the newcomers are outfielder Tommy Shannon from Fresno City College, and Adam Ricks, a versatile infielder that can play all positions on the dirt.
Shannon fills a gap in the UM outfield as Jim Burt moves from right field to play first base for Miami. Before attending Miami, Burt played most of his career at first base, as Morris expects him to be defensively sound at the position.
“Burt is a big guy who can save a lot of runs for you at first base, and that certainly adds up over the course of the season,” Morris said. “Kevin Brown did a great job of that when we won the championship in 2001.”
With added experience and a sound defense, the question that remains is where the power will stem from in Miami’s lineup.
“We don’t have a guy who is going to hit a ton of home runs for you,” Morris said. “What we do have is a lot a guys who have the capability of hitting few, and that certainly adds up.
Morris wasn’t concerned with the lack of a true power hitter.
“The Anaheim Angels won the World Series without a real power hitter in their lineup,” Morris said. “If you look at the standings throughout the course of the year, the teams with the heavy hitter in the lineup are not the ones that are on top. We are striving for a balanced offense that is going to pick their spots and hit the gaps.”
One of the guys planning on hitting those gaps is freshman Gabby Sanchez. A Miami native from Brito Private School, Sanchez was drafted out of high school, but chose to go to school instead. Sanchez will take over a spot vacated by Kevin Howard, and many think that the third baseman could easily be the premier player on this year’s squad,
“I asked the players who the best hitter on the team was,” Morris said. “Gabby Sanchez was the favorite. He plays an outstanding first base and has great baseball instincts.”
“He will be starting at third base for us this season, no questions asked.”
Whatever happens on the field remains to be seen, but Morris wasn’t pleased with the team’s pre-season ranking. The ‘Canes were ranked anywhere from 14 to 16 on most polls, but the Baseball America poll excluded UM from the top 25.
“I take offense to it,” Morris said. “We were three outs away from Omaha, and to not even be included in a poll is a shot to this teams pride.”
“We are still Miami and with the amount of success the program has had on a yearly basis, to be overlooked is unbelievable, and it should give our players motivation to get it going this year.”
The Hurricanes will play another tough schedule this season, including three games against Tony Gwynn’s San Diego State squad as well as a weekend series on the road with the Florida Gators. Later in the season, Miami partakes in six straight contests against bitter rival FSU.
Miami opens it all up tomorrow night at 7 PM against Florida International University at Mark Light Field.

-You can reach Ryan Ellis at msgnyc@yahoo.com

Another road setback
In the end, the freshman 3-point specialist was too much for Perry Clark’s team to handle.
Elijah Ingram, who leads the Big East Conference in 3-point shooting percentage, hit all five of his attempts from long range over the final 10 minutes Sunday, leading St. John’s to a 77-74 victory over Miami at Madison Square Garden.
Ingram, who had a career-high 21 points, didn’t score against the Hurricanes until beginning his 3-point blitz that included two from well beyond the NBA line.
The loss marked the fourth straight time Miami fell to the Red Storm. The ‘Canes dropped to .500(9-9) and 2-5 in the Big East. St. John’s upped their record to 11-6 on the season.
Darius Rice scored 25 points for Miami, which had won two of three after a three-game losing streak. James Jones added 18 points.
Marcus Hatten had 22 points, his season average for St. John’s and well above the eight he had against the Hurricanes last season in the team’s previous meeting.
Ingram entered shooting 41.5 percent (34-for-82) from 3-point range, a percentage that would go up with the five in a row. The first came with 9:26 left and gave St. John’s a 55-53 lead. He hit the next one 38 seconds later to give the Red Storm a five-point lead, and his third 3 made it 64-56 with 5:44 left.
Rice then scored eight points in a 10-0 run that put the Hurricanes up 66-64 with 4:12 to play.
But Ingram hit consecutive triples to give the Red Storm the lead for good and also converted from the charity stripe, going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line over the final 24 seconds to hold off the Hurricanes.
Rice got Miami to 77-74 with four-tenths of a second left on a rebound basket, but St. John’s inbounded the ball to run out the clock.
Ingram, who entered the contest third on St. John’s in scoring with a 10.3 average, finished 5-for-7 from 3-point range and 6-for-6 from the foul line. His previous high was 19 points against St. Francis, N.Y.
St. John’s entered 13th in the 14-team Big East in 3-point shooting at 30.6 percent and the Red Storm, except for Ingram, were 1-for-9 from beyond the arc against Miami.
The ‘Canes will practice throughout the week before taking on Villanova Saturday night at the Convocation Center.

-Compiled by the Sports Information Department

Miami shuts out FAU in the season opener
It was business as usual for the Miami Hurricanes in their season opener.
The ‘Canes annihilated Florida Atlantic 7-0 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center Thursday night. A hard-fought battle by freshman Colin Purcell in No. 4 singles iced the match for Miami.
Early in the contest, UM’s No. 1 doubles team of Purcell and junior Luis Manrique dominated, continually forcing the FAU duo of Ernest Diaz and Jeremy Perez into several unforced errors. The Hurricanes found success in consistently hitting deep court shots and volleys that were out of reach for the less-agile Owls. Purcell delivered a backhand volley into deuce court in the tenth game, finishing off FAU 8-2, and giving Miami a doubles point.
The No. 3 doubles team of Widom and Eric Hechtman won 8-3, while No.2 doubles Andrew Golub and Tim Krebs struggled through much of their match before pulling out an eventual 8-6 victory.
Widom eased through his No. 1 singles match, winning 6-3, 6-3. By the third game of the first set, Widom’s variety of shots left FAU’s David Demer with nowhere to turn. A late Demer double fault set up match point for Widom, who didn’t have to think twice before serving up a quick shot that Demer could not keep in bounds.
“Todd did what he’s been doing the last year and a half, and that’s knowing what he has to do, going out there, and taking care of business,” head coach Bryan Getz said.
Widom was satisfied with his play as well.
“For my first match of the year it was a good performance,” Widom said. “I was in control and as long as I could hold onto my serves, I could win the match. The key is keeping your concentration.”
Getz came out of his first match as head coach without a scratch, something that he was certainly excited about.
“It’s a great feeling, an unbelievable feeling,” Getz said. “As coaches we did our part to prepare them as much as possible, [and] they did the rest. They all fought through, and I was most proud of the fact that they stayed committed to their game plans and what they were trying to do.”
After two seasons as an assistant coach, Getz now has the top job and first-year assistant Ari Widlanski as his right hand. Both are ready for a major challenge this season.
“We’re going to continue to practice hard, train hard, and continue to do the things we’ve been doing,” Getz said. “Since we opened up practice January 6, [Widlanski] and I have seen constant improvement.”
“We’re going to have peaks and valleys because we’re a very young team. As long as we’re continually improving, that’s all I can ask for. The rest will take care of itself.”
Golub took care of Kevin Obletz in No.2 singles 6-2, 6-2, while Krebs won 6-3, 6-2 over Cristian Paiz in No.3 singles. Purcell, Hechtman and freshman Shauny Hoyes also won their matches for the ‘Canes.
“We’re looking forward to all of our matches because we have a tougher schedule than we did last year,” Widom said. “That is great for all of us because we’re going to get much better as a team.”

-You can reach Melissa Teich at melissateich@hotmail.com.

Alumni gives ‘Canes an unexpected test
The University of Miami baseball team mounted a four-run ninth inning comeback to defeat the Alumni in the annual Alumni game, 9-8, Saturday night at Mark Light Stadium in Coral Gables.
Sophomore transfer T.J. Hacker knocked in the game-winning two-run double scoring Ryan Braun and Israel Chirino, giving the Hurricanes the victory. Adam Ricks led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk, advanced to second on a walk to Gaby Sanchez and scored on an error by the catcher. After Braun walked, Chirino doubled, scoring Sanchez.
Tampa Bay Devil Ray Aubrey Huff got the Alumni on the scoreboard first with a home run to right centerfield in the fourth inning off UM sophomore Brandon Camardese.
The 2003 Hurricanes struck back in the bottom of the fifth inning, tying the score at 1-1. A leadoff walk to reserve catcher Greg Dini started the rally. Centerfielder Danny Figueroa followed with a double over the rightfielder’s head to drive in Dini.
Junior captain Jim Burt opened the bottom of the sixth with a single up the middle. Brian Barton drew a walk before Chirino grounded into a double play that scored Burt to put UM on top, 2-1. Dini followed with a single to right that scored Barton, giving the Hurricanes a two-run cushion at 3-1.
The Alumni struck back in the top of the seventh inning, racking up two runs on four hits to tie the game at 3-3. Chris Anderson highlighted the inning with a two-RBI double down the left field line.
Freshman Gaby Sanchez ripped a two-out double over the centerfielders head, but the threat was ended as Burt grounded out to third.
Juan Llanes lined a single to center off J.D. Cockroft to leadoff the eighth. UM assistant coach Greg Lovelady followed with a bunt single down the third base line. Cockroft loaded the bases with one out, walking Rey Noriega. Chris Anderson then doubled under the glove of diving right-fielder Chirino to give the Alumni a 5-3 lead.
Barton lined a single between shortstop and third base to leadoff the eighth inning, advancing to second on a error by left-fielder Kenard Lang. Barton stole third before freshman Braun blasted a 2-1 pitch over the left-field fence to tie the game at 5-5.
The Alumni took an 8-5 lead in the ninth, which was highlighted by Rey Noriega’s two-run homerun over the right-field wall. Lang broke the tie with an RBI double scoring Jose Trujillo.

-Compiled by the Sports Information Department