Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 4, 1994 TAG: 9405050051
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Generals have won 18 or more matches in each of the past six seasons, but will be making only their second NCAA Tournament appearance as a team when play begins Tuesday at Kalamazoo (Mich.) College.
W&L not only finished the regular season with a 21-0 record, but the Generals defeated six nationally ranked opponents, including 1993 NCAA Division III champion Kenyon.
"I always tell prospects that I love to win, but I refuse to schedule to win," said Cinda Rankin, W&L's assistant athletic director, who has a 129-30 record since taking over as tennis coach in 1989.
"The problem is, until you're nationally ranked, the nationally ranked teams don't want to play you."
W&L enters postseason play ranked No. 2 in Division III and already has heard from one school, Mary Washington, that previously would not play the Generals during the spring. However, future opponents should be warned that three-year captain Kim Dickinson is the only senior among W&L's first six players.
The Generals are led by junior Marilyn Baker, who has played No. 1 singles since the spring of her freshman year and is 65-10 in her career. Baker and sophomore Julie Ayers received NCAA bids as individuals for singles and doubles.
"When we went to the national tournament in 1991, our entire team was blown away," Rankin said. "We stood there at the national ceremony with our mouths open. This year we're ready to pounce, not that I had any idea we'd be No. 2 in the country."
Rankin, hired in 1985 as W&L's first full-time women's athletic staff member, was a runner whose previous coaching experience was in women's basketball and volleyball.
"I yelled and screamed when they asked me to coach tennis," Rankin said. "They wouldn't hire a men's basketball coach who had never played the game, but W&L helped to educate me. I've gone to clinics, I know the drills, I play the game. It's become the delight of my day."
\ SELECT COMPANY: Radford was one of three teams in Division I men's basketball to shoot 50 percent or better from the field. Auburn led the way at 50.6, despite finishing 11-17, and was followed by Michigan State at 50.3 and Radford at 50.2. James Madison was fourth at 49.9.
\ NOT SELECT COMPANY: Virginia finished 18-13, but ranked 296th out of 301 men's basketball teams in field-goal percentage at 38.7, the low in the ACC since 1962. The teams behind UVa were a combined 15-121: VMI (5-23), Louisiana Tech (2-25), LIU (3-24), Cal State-Sacramento (1-26) and Florida A&M (4-23).
\ ACC HOOPS: Wake Forest's Rusty LaRue, who like Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward of Florida State started games in football and basketball, underwent surgery Tuesday to re-set a broken wrist. LaRue apparently suffered the injury during football season, but it didn't prevent him from shooting 45 percent from 3-point range in basketball.
In recruiting, Clemson has signed 6-foot-7 Iker Iturbe, a native of Spain who averaged 23.7 points and 10.4 rebounds during the 1993-94 season at a high school in Fridley, Minn. . . . Adding to the league's international flavor, Maryland has signed 6-4 Sarunas Jasikevicius from Lithuania by way of Quarryville, Pa.
\ FAMILY LIKES STATE: Richmond has signed 6-3 Daryl Oliver, who averaged 25.3 points in helping North Duplin High School of Calypso, N.C., to a 25-3 record. Oliver is the younger brother of Anthony Oliver, a starting guard at Virginia for parts of three seasons in the early 1990s.
George Mason has signed 6-6 Pharoah Davis from Palmdale, Calif., and 5-11 Lloyd Walker, who began his college career at Niagara before transferring to Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y.
\ MANNS MULLS MATTERS: Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth are the two schools that currently interest Colonial Athletic Association assists leader Troy Manns, who plans to leave George Mason at the end of the semester. Manns, a former All-Group AAA player at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, will visit Tech at the end of the week.
\ WOOLDRIDGE REAPPOINTED: Man about town Dan Wooldridge was considering a run for Roanoke City Council until he was reappointed supervisor of football officials for the Big East Conference. Wooldridge also is commissioner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and president of the Roanoke Valley Sports Club.
\ HOUSMAN PRAISED: One of the reasons ACC basketball officiating has suffered in recent years is the retirement of officials such as Wooldridge and Paul Housman, hailed by Sun Belt Conference supervisor Charlie Bloodworth as one of the top two officials he has observed.
"Paul Housman and Jim Bain are two referees who impressed me for a long time as the kind of officials I'd want working my games if I were coaching," Bloodworth said. "There have been lots of other good officials . . . but Housman and Bain stick out as the most outstanding."
by CNB