The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, June 12, 2002, Page 11, Image 11
McPherson,Thompson, and Laakkonen
pick up college women’s golf awards
STAFF REPORTS
USC women’s golfer Kristy
McPherson has been named to the
National Golf Coaches Association
First Team All-America squad, the
second-straight such honor for the
award-winning golfer.
McPherson, who led the Lady
Gamecocks to the 2002 SEC
Championship by winning her sec
ond-consecutive individual SEC
crown, becomes the first South
Carolina women’s golfer ever to
earn first team All-America honors
on two occasions.
McPherson, a junior, crushed the
USC school record with a 73.92
stroke average and easily led the
team with five Top 5, seven Top 10
and nine Top 20 finishes. She carded
14 rounds at or below par and had
nine-consecutive finishes in the Top
10 during the season.
For her career, McPherson has
four career tournament titles - two
more than any other Gamecock ever
and four of the 15 total individual
titles in USC history. She owns the
USC top individual round, the 67 at
last year’s SECs, and of the 30 all
time individual rounds of 70 or bet
ter, McPherson owns 12, including
six this season. She has six of the
13 all-time USC rounds of 69 or bet
ter. end also owns the USC and SEC
Tournament all-time top two indi
vidual tournament scores, 207 at
last year’s SECs and 209 this season.
She also has 12 of the 22 all-time
Carolina tournament scores at 222
or better, five this season which in
cludes four of the last five.
USC women’s golfer Kacy
Thompson has been selected to play
on the NCAA All-Star Golf Team
Asia tour, a month-long event high
lighting some of the nation’s top
women’s golfers.
Thompson, a junior who helped
lead USC to the 2002 SEC
Championship, will spend four
weeks in the Orient - the same tour
that McPherson participated in last
year. The team will convene in
Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., June
23, play in the NCAA All-Star
Invitational college-am June 24,
then leave for Tokyo, Japan June 26.
The team will play in a series of
tournaments against individuals in
Korea. Tokyo, Japan, and in Hong
Kong.
Thompson finished the 2001-02
season with a 78.02 stroke average,
playing in all 11 tournaments, in
cluding the 2002 NCAA
Championships. Thompson had
four Top 20 finishes and two in the
Top 10, which included a season-best
fifth-place finish at the
LSU/Cleveland Classic in Baton
Rouge, La.
Senior women’s golfer Reetta
Laakkonen has been named to the
National Golf Coaches Association
Academic All-America team.
Laakkonen, who recently com
pleted her Carolina career, majored
in sport and entertainment man
agement at Carolina. Laakkonen
had a 3.50 grade point average and
also was named to the SEC
Academic Honor Roll for her efforts
in the classroom.
The Tampere, Finland native fin
ished the year with a 78.36 stroke av
erage and had one Top 20 finish on
the year - an 18th place showing at
the SEC Championships where she
posted back-to-back career-low
rounds of one under 71 to pace
Carolina to the victory.
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Baseball
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
•The Carolina bats continued to
falter off reliever J.D. Cockroft, who
relieved Roberson in the seventh,
and two more insurance runs made
it a 4-1 Miami lead in the ninth in
ning.
George Huguet came out of the
Miami bullpen to begin the ninth
and was greeted with a double by
Peters; the first Carolina hit since
the third inning. Buscher followed
with a single and a pinch-hit RBI
double by Trey Dyson. Luke DeBold
relieved Huguet and yielded a game
tying pinch hit double by Garris
Gonce. Cohn was pulled after a
* Justin Harris bunt single in favor
of Andrew Cohn. Cohn uncorked a
wild pitch that scored Gonce, and a
passed ball by Matienzo scored
Harris to give USC a 6-4 lead while
Drew Meyer stood at the plate with
two outs.
With the sellout crowd on their
feet, John Wesley negotiated
through a rocky ninth inning, al
lowing two singles before retiring
Burt on a foul pop to rightfielder
Tim Seaton to earn his first win and
send Carolina to the CWS for the
first time in 17 years.
Afterwards Meyer joked about
the strange ninth inning, “I saw the
ball go in between the guys legs and
I iV~." SSP.«S>™ |
PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN/THE GAMECOCK
Justin Harris heads home with
the sixth run of Sunday’s game.
I said, ‘Okay, that works,”
An emotional Tanner added, “As
I always say, anything worth achiev
ing is difficult to obtain.”
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gamecocksports@hotmail.com
BRIEFLY
USC alum scores goal
in World Cup
Former Gamecock Clint Mathis
scored the lone goal in the United
States’ 1-1 tie with host South Korea
on Monday, keeping the United
States’ hopes of advancing to the
second round alive.
Mathis scored a 24th-minute goal
in his return to the lineup, after
missing the 3-2 win over Portugal
due to a knee injury. South Korea
tied it in the 78th minute when sec
ond-half substitute Ahn Jung-hwan
outjumped defender Jeff Agoos to
head in Lee Eul-yong’s free kick.
South Korea and the United
States are both 1-0-1 with four
Points, following by Portugal (1-1),
which has three after beating
Poland 4-0, eliminating the Poles.
The hosts lead Group D on goal dif
ference, plus-2 to plus-1.
With a tie or a win against the
Poles on Friday, the United States
would ensure its first trip to the sec
ond round since 1994, when the
World Cup was played in America.
South Korea would advance with a
tie against the Portuguese.
Victim testifies in NFL
rape case
The woman who has accused
Oakland Raiders defensive tackle
Darrell Russell of videotaping her
being raped by two of his friends
testified Monday that she blacked
out after Russell mixed her a drink,
and vaguely remembers looking up
at the red eye of a video camera.
The testimony by the 27-year-old
woman, who was dating Russell at
the time of the alleged Jan. 31 rape,
came on the first day of a prelimi
nary hearing. Russell is charged
with 25 felonies as an accomplice in
the alleged attack.
Police said they seized a video
tape of the incident during a search
of the Alameda house where
Russell’s teammate, safety Eric
Johnson, lived.
Russell, a two-time Pro Bowl se
lection who is serving a one-year
NFL suspension for violating the
league’s substance abuse policy, has
been free since posting bail. Under
California law, Russell could be
found guilty of crimes committed
by either of his two friends if he did
not intervene.
Notre Dame beats
FSU to advance to
College World Series
Freshman right-hander Chris
Niesel allowed one run in eight in
nings and Steve Sollmann drove in
two runs as Notre Dame beat top
seeded Florida State 3-1 Monday to
reach the College World Series for
the first time in 45 years.
J.P. Gagne struck out the side in
the ninth inning to pick up his sec
ond save in the best-of-three super
regional between two of the hottest
teams in the country. Florida State,
which finished the season 60-14,
came into the weekend against the
Irish with a 25-game winning steak.
Notre Dame (49-16) has won 31 of
its last 35 and a first-round game
against Stanford as it heads for
Omaha, Neb. The Irish were last in
the CWS in 1957.
The two teams combined for 31
runs and 55 hits in the first two
games of the series, but pitching de
cided Game 3.
Niesel (4-0) struck out five and
scattered six hits in eight innings,
while Florida State’s Marc
LaMacchia (11-2) gave up six hits
and two earned runs before leaving
with one out in the seventh.
Sollmann singled in Notre
Dame’s first run in the third inning
and his sacrifice fly in the seventh
scored the final Irish run.
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