Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992 TAG: 9201290063
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TENNIS PAVILION DEDICATION FEB. 8
Hors d'oeuvres, anyone?That might be the phrase of the day Feb. 8, when Tech dedicates its new indoor tennis pavilion before the Hokies' first match there.
Men's tennis coach Larsen Bowker said finger food will be served at a ceremony beginning at noon that will feature Athletic Director Dave Braine and former Tech tennis player Jack Burrows, who donated $50,000 toward the facility.
Many former Tech tennis players have been invited, along with Hokie boosters, Bowker said. The match against William and Mary begins at 1 p.m.
"The players have complained for a long time the courts they were playing on weren't intercollegiate quality," Bowker said. "They didn't believe it was going to happen. They're very proud."
They might also be very tired after playing on the new courts. Bowker said he purposely had the surface made "almost as slow as we could make it." How? Bowker said each of the 15 layers of paint over the courts' asphalt base contains "a lot or a little sand, depending on what you want. We had them put in a lot of sand."
That makes the court more abrasive, Bowker said, slowing down the ball as it bounces.
"I found out [perennial national power] Stanford does that," Bowker said. "And in tennis, the slower it is, the more you develop an athlete's physical ability to stay in the match for a long time, and also [it develops] mental strength."
Assistant Athletic Director Steve Horton, preparing Tech's report on possible NCAA violations by the Hokies' cross country team under former coach Todd Scully, said he hopes to have the report finished next month.
The NCAA then takes up the matter to determine whether Tech will face sanctions. The school said last fall it discovered that some runners received improper benefits and some were entered in races under assumed names.
Tech's women's basketball team is in a stretch during which it will play seven of nine games on the road. Beginning Jan. 25 at Dayton and ending Feb. 17 at James Madison, the Hokies play at home just twice - Feb. 8 and 10 against Virginia Commonwealth and Dayton, respectively.
Some Tech athletes have been scoring well on and off the court.
The Hokies' men's tennis team had a combined 3.23 grade-point average while winning more than 60 percent of its matches last fall. Marcus Kramer climbed to No. 7 in Volvo Region II rankings, the first time a Hokie has been in the top 10.
The Hokies' volleyball team went 28-12, finishing second in the Metro Conference. Its 14 players had a combined GPA of 3.21. Seven players had better than a 3.0 GPA and five were above 3.6. Lisa Pikalek was a second-team GTE Academic All-American; she and Kelli Craven were District III All-Americans, making Tech the only team in the district with two players on the squad.
The 1991-92 volleyball team will welcome a player from Indiana whose coach calls her "one of the best-kept secrets in the country as a setter."
Hillary Love, from Burris High School in Muncie, didn't start in high school but is hoping to become the latest in a line of Burris backups to blossom in college. The Muncie Star said former Burris reserves Molly Mooney and Carey Amos started as freshmen at Tennessee and Bowling Green, respectively. Burris coach Steve Shondell said Love played behind two-time all-Indiana selection Sacha Caldemeyer. Love has orally committed to attend Tech.
Tech soon will begin construction of a cross country course that will start near the new indoor tennis pavilion and continue through a nearby corporate park. Tech hasn't had its own cross country course since 1987, when the university obtained a large chunk of farmland by trading land that included a parcel along U.S. 460 across from the New River Valley Mall. That piece of land included the cross country course.
Also, Tech's track locker rooms have been renovated to include new metal lockers and carpet.
\ UPCOMING IN BLACKSBURG: Women's basketball - Virginia Commonwealth, 3 p.m. Feb. 8; Dayton, 7 p.m. Feb. 10. Men's tennis - William and Mary, 1 p.m. Feb. 8.
Scott Blanchard is a Roanoke Times & World-News sportswriter.