DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997              TAG: 9704020481

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell 

                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

FANS ON CAMPUS AND OFF THANK O-D-YOU

Long before noon Tuesday, people from throughout Hampton Roads were streaming into Old Dominion's field house in Norfolk.

They came to thank their Lady Monarchs for the honor they brought to the school and the region in scaling the rarefied heights of the Terminal Two in the women's national basketball tournament.

Our scrappy darlings did not go gently to defeat.

In a heroic rally Sunday, they wiped out a 16-point deficit and earned a two-point lead before they lost to Tennessee.

But that rally averted a possible rout, and fans view it as a charge with which to resume a march to excellence next season.

At most schools, rallies draw students. Tuesday's turnout blended town and gown and all ages. At such times campus and community become one. Generations mingle.

The crowd filled the west-side stands facing the platform across the way, then overflowed to cram stands at the north end.

At the emcee's urging, a surge of people from the west side took to the floor and filled the gap between those stands and the platform. They still came.

And refilled the west side until there was nearly a full house with onlookers lining roof-high railings that rim the gym. Because public schools are on spring break, young ones trailed mothers or rode in their arms. It was a family affair.

``O-D-YOU!'' they roared. How fortunate that the cheer ends with a strong, emphatic, full-bodied vowel ``U'' that can be bellowed instead of a weak sibilant ``C'' that hisses.

At the entrance a banner proclaimed: THANKS, LADY MONARCHS, YOU BROUGHT BACK THE PRIDE!

``This is not a wake,'' declared ODU President Jim Koch. ``It's a celebration!''

Athletic Director Jim Jarrett thanked Ann Shumadine, rector of the board of visitors, for supporting the team.

ODU, he noted, was first in Virginia to award women athletic scholarships. One went to Wendy Larry, now the coach whom ODU brought back from Arizona.

``And we want to keep you here,'' Jarrett declared. ``We want you all to let her know it!''

The players came forward, amid cheers, three seniors among them. ``You all were like a second family,'' Stacy Himes told the fans. Ticha Penicheiro thanked them ``for three unforgettable years'' - at which several yelled: ``Make it four!''

``I love you guys,'' she responded.

Soft-voiced, lissome Clarisse Machanguana said, ``Thank you, ODU, for making me part of the family.''

Coach Larry noted that the players had offered a ``tremendous lesson in living'' in showing respect for others regardless of race, religion or sex.

``Teammates rallied around one another in the best of times and the worst of times,'' she said.

In the stands, ODU Provost Jo Ann Gora observed that the players galvanized the student body and demonstrated teamwork, determination and guts, ``and that's an important lesson to learn in college.''

The players, she said, may have lost one battle, ``but they won the war for the hearts and minds of the ODU student body.''

They had a high scholastic average, several being on the dean's list. And there's a lesson there, too, that, organizing their time, they practiced, played and studied and ``never lost sight of the reason they were in college.''

Mery Andrade's war cry - ``Refuse to lose!'' - became a theme for the university and the team, Gora said.

Any time you feel a shade jaded, the field house is the place to be.

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