Last season, the women’s tennis team surprised some people on their way to winning the Big East championship. This season, with two new players, the team is poised to make a national title run.
The 2003 season began Saturday night under the lights at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center where the No. 24 Miami Hurricanes played host to No. 45 Illinois. The ‘Lady Canes rolled to a 6-1 victory, starting their season off the right way.
“We normally start off with a weaker team but to start off with a team like Illinois, who did well last year, and win like this, it’s great for momentum,” said coach Page Yaroshuk.
After winning the double point, Canes newcomer Megan Bradley defeated Jennifer McGaffigan (6-2, 6-3) in her first match since coming off shoulder surgery eight months ago.
“For coming off of surgery, I thought I did extremely well,” Bradley said. “A couple times there was a lapse of concentration, but overall, I was very happy.”
At No. 2 singles, Mari Toro defeated Tiffany Elclov (6-4, 7-6), while Staci Stevens beat Eldina Fazlic (6-2, 7-5). Also, newcomer Melissa Applebaum won her first collegiate match in dominating fashion (6-2, 6-1) over Michelle Webb, which clinched the victory for the ‘Canes.
“It’s just a different level this year,” Yaroshuk said. “We’ve added two players at No. 1 and No. 4 that are going to take this program to another level. Last year, we were inconsistent, this year I think this team expects to end top 15 in the country.”
The night match allowed the crowd to come out and watch Miami play, despite temperatures in the lower 40’s. As this team continues to win, Yaroshuk hopes more fns will come out and support the ‘Lady Canes.
“I was a little worried considering we were playing Illinois, a team used to the cold, but the girls just came out here, and it didn’t phase them,” Yaroshuk said. “They wanted to play at night, to get the fans out here, they were so incredibly focused.”
Starting off with a victory is essential to Miami’s goal to be one of the top teams in the nation. With the talent on this team, there is no reason to think the Canes could not be one of the nation’s finest.
“I have an unbelievable group of girls,” Yaroshuk said. “I spend time recruiting to get the right personalities, I pick character over talent, and now it is at the point where I am fortunate enough to get both.”
Character and talent, the two most important keys to success are definitely present on this team, and could be the main reason why this team could contend for the national title.
“The keys to success are simple,” Yaroshuk said. “If they stay focused and keep their confidence up, and work hard, this team could go far. Obviously, we want to win the Big East, and win regionals, but I want to get this program into the top ten of the country. That’s my goal.”

Darren Grossman can be reached at DRG215@aol.com

TRACK AND FIELD
Senior Jabari Ennis and junior Aaron Bass finished first and second in the pole vault at the Florida Intercollegiates Saturday at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville.
Ennis’ vault of 5.05 meters and Bass’ 4.90 performance both qualified for the Big East championship.
In one 55-meter dash final, freshmen Tavarous Bain and Terrell Walden also finished in first and second in one of the sprint event’s finals. Tanard Davis and Roscoe Parrish both finished the day with Big East Championship qualifying times in the 55 meters.
On the women’s front, University of Miami freshman sprinter Charlotte Greggs took first place in the 200-meters with a time of 23.91, and All-American Lauryn Williams won the 55-meters with a school-record time of 6.82.
Greggs’ time in the 200-meters provisionally qualified for the NCAA championship while Williams provisionally qualified in the 55-meters and 200-meters. Greggs, competing in her first collegiate meet, also anchored the Hurricanes’ winning 4×400 relay squad (3:43.24).
Williams, who last season earned All-America honors in the 60-meters and 100-meters, finished second in the 200-meters (6.87) behind Greggs.
Sophomore Amber Williams finished among the top three competitors in both the long jump and the 55-meter hurdles. Williams took third in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.94 and third in the long jump with a distance of 5.85 meters (19-02.25).
Senior Patricia Pearson took second for the Hurricanes in the 800-meters with a time of 2:11.45. Junior Kitova Carter placed third in the 400-meters (56.02). The Hurricanes also won the 4×800 relay.
VOLLEYBALL
The final USA Today/AVCA Division 1 Coaches Top 25 collegiate volleyball poll was recently released with the University of Miami ranked 23rd in the nation.
The Hurricanes’ outstanding second season included a 26-match win streak wrapping around from their inaugural 2001 campaign. They amassed a 27-6 record and recorded wins over such NCAA tournament qualifying teams as South Florida, Florida State, and Notre Dame during the regular season.
In NCAA Tournament play, the Hurricanes defeated Duke in three games during the first round of regional play in Madison, Wis. They went on to defeat tradition powerhouse and host Wisconsin 3-1.
UM’s dramatic season finally concluded with a loss to Big 12 Champion Nebraska in Lincoln.
Miami’s Valeria Tipiana was selected as the Big East Player of the Year and Mallorey James earned Setter of the Year honors for the conference. In addition to Tipiana and James, senior outside hitter Marcela Gamarra was chosen to represent the Hurricanes on the All-Big East First Team.

MEN’S TENNIS
University of Miami tennis player Todd Widom was announced as the ninth ranked player in the country Monday, according to the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings.
The Hurricanes’ will start the season ranked 42nd in the country and will host their first home match of the season Thursday, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m. at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on the Coral Gables campus.

Winter break may have been a nice vacation for students at the University of Miami, but it wasn’t much of a vacation for Miami’s swimming and diving team.
The Hurricanes fell to Harvard on January 2 and last week were defeated by No. 2 Florida on January 13.
“We didn’t do very well overall, and we looked pretty sluggish,” said head swimming coach James Sweeney. “This is the really hard training time of the year so it’s always tough to swim meets during this time.”
Against the Crimson, UM junior Manon Van Rooijen took first in the 200 and 100-yard freestyle races, finishing with times of 1:54.62 and 52.09 respectively. She was also part of the victorious 400-yard freestyle relay team, which included sophomore Erin Johns, and seniors Megan Kinsella and senior Christine Williams. Williams won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.43 and grabbed second in the 100-yard freestyle.
Despite the team’s improvements since the Harvard meet, the Gators were still able to come out on top 135-99 in the first meet of 2003. UM posted eight first-place finishes including Van Rooijen in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.20) as well as the 100-yard free (51.32). Williams placed first in the 50-yard free with 24.10.
Both Van Rooijen and Williams, along with Johns and Kinsella, again placed first in the 400-yard free relay (3:33.95). Senior Elaine Schwartz won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:06.53, while senior Meghan Clabby took first in the 200-yard breaststroke with 2:27.17.
Junior Melanie Rinaldi won both the one (192.65) and three (218.00) meter diving contests.
“We did really well, we swam much better than in the Harvard meet,” Sweeney said. “I’m pretty pleased with how the [team] came out with their enthusiasm and performances.”
On the diving front, All-American Miguel Velazquez placed fourth for the men at the Speedo American Cupin Bloomington, Indiana, totaling 363.72 points in the 10-meter event. Rinaldi finished sixth for the women in the 10-meter, scoring 248.64 points.
Head diving coach Randy Ableman felt positively about the results.
“I was really excited,” Ableman said. “Everyone on our team had moments of greatness.”
The ‘Canes remain idle until February 1, when they come up against Florida Atlantic, Northern Florida, and Florida A&M in Boca Raton. Until that date, Sweeney’s plans for the team are very simple; keep doing what they have been, and aim for high-quality results through a delicate balance of training and relaxing.
“They’re ready to start getting a little bit more rest now because they’ve put in all the hard work,” Sweeney said. “Now we’ll concentrate on doing more quality work training and getting some extra rest, so [this break] is always a great time for them.”

Melissa Teich can be reached at m.teach@umiami.edu.

Andre Barrett had 21 points and a season-high 11 assists to lead Seton Hall to a 76-53 victory over Miami on Saturday in a game that was interrupted for 15 minutes by a power failure.
Freshman guard J.R. Morris had a career-high 21 points, and John Allen added 18 and the Pirates (7-7, 2-3 Big East) hit a season-high 12 three-point field goals in winning their second straight.
The Pirates were 7-for-10 from 3-point range in the second half and they finished 12-for-17, or nearly 71 percent for the game. Seton Hall shot 54.3 percent (25 of 46) overall in the game.
Darius Rice had 16 points for Miami (7-7, 0-3), which lost its third straight game. James Jones, the Hurricanes’ leading scorer with a 19.3-point average, was limited to a season-low seven points, the first time this season he has not scored in double figures.
The game at the Continental Airlines Arena got off to an interesting start because of the power problem. Lighting in the arena flickered every five or 10 seconds even before the opening tip-off and play was momentarily suspended when the lights dimmed less than two minutes into the game.
Coaches Perry Clark of Miami and Louis Orr of Seton Hall elected to continue, but the officials had no choice but to stop the game when the lights went out with 17:27 left in the half.
The teams left the floor and play eventually resumed 15 minutes later when the lights came back on.
Miami led for much of the first half, but Barrett eventually took over, scoring 13 of his 16 first-half points in the final 7:44. His 3-point play with 6:07 left in the half gave the Pirates the lead for good at 20-19.
Barrett then fed Morris for the second of his five 3-pointers for a 23-19 lead. Barrett added two more 3-pointers and a jumper in helping Seton Hall take a 35-28 lead.
The Hurricanes got within 40-35 in the opening minutes of the second half, but Barrett fed Morris for both a reverse ally-oop dunk and a 3-pointer, and he later assisted on a 3 pointer and a layup by Allen in a 13-2 spurt that gave Seton Hall a 53-37 lead.
Miami, which hit 8-for-26 from the field in the second half, never got closer than 12 points the rest of the way. The final margin was the largest of the game.
-Compiled by the Sports Information Department

On Nov. 22 of last year, this writer wrote a column entitled ‘Lady Canes need to follow Labati’s lead, in which I stated: “It is time to stop rebuilding and it is time to get that NCAA berth.” A couple players on the team(who I will leave unnamed), did not care for some of the words in that article.
It seemed like fair criticism at the time, but now, two months later, those words would be very inaccurate to describe the makings of this much-improved 2002-2003 women’s basketball squad. Throw out Wednesday’s effort against Boston College, and you’ve got one of the top three squads in the Big East conference, and one that could give Connecticut a game when the Huskies enter the Convocation Center Feb. 19.
What are the reasons for the improvement? There are two, one which anyone can pick up just by looking at the stat sheet, and the other which is much more difficult to understand.
The story of the year has obviously been the emergence of freshman Tamara James, who currently leads the Big East in scoring, averaging 24.3 points, while giving the team a consistent rebounder, grabbing over nine of those a contest.
James is a superstar and that does two things to the makeup of coach Ferne Labati’s squad. First, it gives the team a much needed go-to player, one who has found a way to break her assignments and beat defenses to the basket. More importantly, James’s presence as a great scorer allows the rest of the players to contribute as role players, versus last year, where every player tried to be Miami’s offensive threat on a given night.
However, there is a second factor to Miami’s success, something in which I can’t explain other than to say I witnessed it while hanging out with the players and coaches during the second and third games of their January road trip. This Miami Hurricanes team is much looser and much more excited to play this season.
Much of that, I’m sure is due to the ‘Canes three big road victories over Georgetown, Syracuse and then No. 17 Notre Dame. Those victories, though, came after three consecutive road losses in non-conference play. Somewhere, their had to have been a change in attitude among the players.
Perhaps, the attitude was really good entering the season. Several of Miami’s personnel, including Labati, James, and Yalonda McCormick, said the ‘Canes were setting a Big East Championship as one of their goals. When you play in a conference with Connecticut and Notre Dame, it takes a lot of confidence to make a statement like that. Maybe that is what Miami needed, a boost in confidence.
The players certainly have been stepping on to the court with a lot more confidence. Take McCormick, who struggled mightily last season on and off the court. Not so anymore, as the sophomore has won the starting point guard position and has thrived in her role as a distributor of the basketball, dishing out 93 assists versus just 57 turnovers.
Two other starters, Shaquana Wilkins and Melissa Knight, have been playing much better basketball to solidify their roles in the starting five. Wilkins, the ‘Lady Canes center who stands just 6-2, makes up for her smaller frame with an extra helping of grit and hustle. Knight moved into her starting spot because of hard work, and the development of her three-point shot.
As a whole, this is a much different team than the one who settled for an NIT berth a year ago, even if most of the personnel is identical. They always say that one great player can completely change the complexity of a team, and that is what has happened with the arrival and emergence of Tamara James. However, while James’s contribution has obviously affected the team off the court, there are other reasons for the Miami Hurricanes 11-4 record than just the new kid in town.

You can reach Jeremy Marks-Peltz at jmp310@hotmail.com.