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SEC Championships next for women’s golf McPherson looks to defend individual title BY JAMES STARNES THEGAMEC0CK Defending SEC champion Kristy McPherson leads the 25th ranked Lady Gamecocks into the SEC Women’s Golf Championships this weekend in Athens, Ga. McPherson, who is ranked No. 12 in the nation, ran away from the rest of the field last year and finished with a nine-under par 207, an SEC record. This weekend’s tournament will be played at Georgia’s home course, where the Lady Gamecocks competed just a few weeks ago and finished fourth out of 18 teams. USC head coach Kristi Coggins and the rest of the Lady Gamecocks are confident, but they also understand the kind of effort it will take to do well. The SEC boasts seven of the top 25 teams in the nation, in cluding No. 1 Auburn. That said, Carolina is 26-18 against the other SEC schools this year head-to-head, even if it hasn’t fared so well against the top teams (0-4 vs. Auburn, 0-5 vs. Gator invitational. Carolina will need another stellar performance from Thompson, as well as sophomore Adrienne Gautreaux, who is fresh off a fifth-place finish at the LSU/Cleveland Classic. McPherson, Gautreaux and Thompson represent 15 of Carolina’s 17 top-20 finishes this season. The Lady Gamecocks have been successful in past SEC Championships. In the 10 years that USC has been a part of the SEC, Carolina has finished third or better five times, in cluding last year’s event in Gainesville, Fla. This will be McPherson’s third trip to the Championships as she seeks her third straight All-SEC honor. In addition to winning the tournament last year, she had an llth-place showing as a freshman. This will be Thompson’s third SEC tour nament also, and Marci Robinson’s second. Robinson finished 20th overall last year. In recent years, the SEC has been considered one of the most competitive conferences in the NCAA for women’s golf. As good as the Lady Gamecocks are, it should take a remarkable performance to win this weekend. They are confident, though, and have had a very strong spring season. Coggins will be searching for Carolina’s first women’s golf title in its 11-year SEC his tory, and she believes they can find it, The three-round tournament will be played Friday through Sunday. Georgia’s course is a par-72 and 6,104 yards long. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com No. 11 Florida). The Lady Gamecocks have had a hot spring that has included four top-four finish es in five tour naments and a Kacy Thompson-led second-place finish at the SunTrust Lady Golf at SEC tourney This weekend Athens, Ga. • Large one and two bedroom floor plans • Located close to campus • Great roommate floor plan •Walk in closets • Swimming pool and two tennis courts • Car wask area, laundry facility and wei gkt room Ask about our student summer 1/2 OFF SPECIAL!! Call us @772-9409 or Stop by -100 Bryton Trace (across from Pulliam Wray by the flashing yellow light) BRIEFLY Men’s tennis team wins in first round USC’s 21st-ranked men’s ten nis team opened up the SEC Men’s Championships with a 4 2 victory over Arkansas on Thursday. After battling the heat to avenge a 4-3 loss to the Razorbacks on March 10, USC improved to 16-7 on the year, 5-7 in the SEC. Arkansas fell to 14-9, 4-8 in the SEC. Wins out of the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles positions propelled the Gamecocks to an early 1-0 lead in the match. Seth Rose and Carl Wermee were victorious at No. 2, while Ben Atkinson and David Nelson clinched the dou bles point with a victory at No. 3. Carolina landed three victo ries in singles to put the match away. Playing at No. 1, No. 39 Rose started things with a 6-4,6 3 win over No. 31 Oggie Kolev. No. 119 Marcus Westman fol lowed suit with a 3-6,6-1,6-3 vic tory over Eduardo Pacheco out of the No. 4 position. Nelson, a senior, closed things out for the Gamecocks with a 6-7,6-4,6-2 victory at the No. 3 slot over Magnus Kullenberg. The Gamecocks advance to Friday’s quarterfinal round, where they will battle the na tion’s No. 1 team, the Georgia Bulldogs. Play is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the varsity courts on the Tennessee cam pus. Bailey honored with SEC weekly award After picking up MVP honors at the Sea Ray Relays this past* weekend, junior Aleen Bailey has been named the SEC Female Track and Field Athlete of the Week. It is the second time this year Bailey has been tabbed with this honor. In Knoxville, Tenn., Bailey won the 100 meters with a time of 11.33 seconds — best in the NCAA and No. 6 in the world. She later won the 200 meters with a time of 22.84, which also tops in the NCAA and is No. 2 in the world. Bailey also ran a leg of the victorious 100-meter relay team, which put up a time of44.33. The women’s team is ranked No. 3 in the nation this week, with the men at No. 12. Soccer club creator killed in car crash Norman “Yank” Albers, one of the creators of the USC SoCcer Club, was killed Sunday night in a car wreck in Florida. Albers teamed up with the late Dick Fernald in 1972 to start USC’s club soccer team. Head coach Mark Berson took over the team in 1978 when it became a varsity sport. Albers was also known for starting US(>Aiken’s men’s soc cer team. Few details are now known about the crash. It’s understood, however, that Albers was return ing to his home in Zephyrhills, Fla., following a family function earlier in the evening. “We are. deeply saddened to learn of the death of Yank Albers,” Berson said. “He was one of the real pioneers of soc cer in the state of South Carolina and one of the founding fathers of the University of South Carolina varsity program.” Volleyball team names assistant r » USC volleyball head coach Kim Christopher recently an nounced former Olympic assis tant coach and Chinese national team member Jason Hou as the newest assistant to the Gamecocks’ staff. Hou will re place assistant Joe Getzin, who left earlier this year for the head coaching position at Ole Miss. “I am very excited about hav ing Jason join our staff. He brings a level of coaching and playing experience that not too many people have,” Christopher said. “His experience and ability to relate to athletes will help bring our program to that next level. At one time, he was known as the best setter in the world.” As an assistant for the -Chinese Women’s National Team, Hou helped guide them to a silver-medal finish at the 1996 Olympics, a second-place World Championship finish, a third-place World Cup finish and two Asian Games first-place finishes. Hou served as an assistant coach for three years at Southern Idaho, a junior college where he helped guide teams to two national titles and a 45-3 record in 2001-2002. Hou’s Division I coaching ex perience came in 1996-97, when he was an assistant at Saint Louis. Brewers fire Lopes as manager BY ARNIE STAPLETON THE ASSOCIATED I’liESS MILWAUKEE - General manag er Dean Taylor had his very own tum-back-the-clock night at Miller Park on Thursday. With the Milwaukee Brewers off to their worst start in franchise history, Taylor fired manager Davey Lopes and replaced him with bench coach Jerry Royster on an interim basis. Taylor told the slumping Brewers they had a clean slate now. “You can take your batting av erage, your earned run average, whatever it is prior to today, it’s gone, it’s history, it’s done,” Taylor said. “Today is Opening Day II. We’re turning a new page and starting a new chapter in the book. “And I believe that’s the mes sage that we send to the fans, as well. We are committed to win ning, regardless of the economic circumstance that’s out there.” Taylor said the Brewers should be a .500 ballclub even though the franchise hasn’t had a winning season in a decade and owns the 21st highest payroll in baseball, about $50 million. Instead, they lost 12 of their first 15 games and crowds were begin ning to dwindle at the $400 million Miller Park, site of this summer’s All-Star game. But Taylor said what really sealed Lopes’ fate was the club’s 33-72 mark since last June 24. “I believe that this club did make progress in spring train ing,” Taylor said. “For whatever reason, that did not carry over into the regular season.” Earlier this week, Lopes said not even New York Yankees man ager Joe Torre could have done a better job with the Brewers. But on Thursday, he refused to criti cize the club or characterize him self as a scapegoat. “I came into this job and into pro fessional baseball and I always car ried myself a certain way, with a lot of pride and a lot of dignity,” Lopes said. And a red-eyed Lopes managed to find a bright spot to his dismissal. “At least one good thing came out of it,” Lopes said. “One of my best friends gets the opportunity to manage.” At least for a little while. Even before Royster had fin ished signing his first lineup card, Taylor was talking about begin ning an immediate search for a full-time replacement for Lopes. Taylor said Royster was a can didate for the job, although he’d prefer someone who’s managed in the major leagues, something Royster did for the first time Thursday night against the St. Louis Cardinals. Lopes, 56, took Royster, 49, un der his wing during their playing days in the Dodgers organization in the early 1970s and brought him to Milwaukee when in 2000. “I just hope.it works out for him,” Lopes said. “I don’t know how much of a shot he has, to be honest with you. But at least he gets an opportunity for whatever period of time it is.” Royster called it a bittersweet day. “I knew that I was going to be a manager at the expense of some one,” he said. “I just didn’t think it would be at the expense at the guy who’s probably been most in strumental in me being who I am today.” • Competitive Rates • Easy Unit Access • Video Cameras • Boxes, Locks and Packing Materials Available • Computerized Access • Heated & Cooled Units • Convenient LocaUon • RV and Boat Parking Other SC Locations: Goose Creek 843-553-0700 Charleston 643-766-9949 Summerville 643-621-7322 At Your Service! _ I $1 Pays stnraae p,rst Month’s • • • spot Rent* For more information, call 343.2215. Corner of Main & Hampton in the heart of downtown. www.columbiamuseum.org Marion Post Wolcott (1910-1990), Jitterbuging in a Juke Joint, Clarksdale, Mississippi (detail), 1939. gelatin silver print Courtesy of Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY College Students! Gather at the Art Museum for a FREE evening of art, music, refreshments and red hot inspiration. Featuring the exhibition, Visualizing the Blues: Images of the American South, 1862-1999