1996_08 The Daily Collegian August 1996

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Wednesday, August 28,1996
Sports
Sports Editor: Tom Sepulveda
Telephone: (209) 278-5733
Vivas targets WAC championship
COMER
Friday
• Volleyball — at DePaul
Tournament, vs Clemson 12:30, vs
DePaul 5 p.m.
Saturday
• Football — vs Oregon. 7 p.m..
Bulldog Stadium.
• Men's Soccer — at San
Francisco. 7 p.m.
• Women's Soccer — at Fullerton
Tournament, vs CS Fullerton. 7 p.m.
• Volleyball — at DePaul
Tournament, vs George Washington.
10 a.m . vs Illinois-Chicago. 4 p.m.
• Cross Country — Watermelon
Run. 8 a.m.. at Fresno State campus.
Bulldogs picked fourth in
division bv coaches
In the 1996 WAC pre-season
coaches' poll announced last Mon¬
day. Hawai'i and Brigham Young
were voted divisional favorites.
Picked to win it all. Hawai'i earned
15 first place votes for 120 points in
the Pacific Division. In the Mountain
Division, four time WAC litlist BYU
snagged 15 first-place votes for 120
points.
Fresno State ranked fourth in the
Pacific Division, with 81 points and
no first place votes.
—Sports Information
Annual Watermelon Run
Kicks off season
The Bulldogs men's and women's
Cross Country teams will host the an¬
nual Watermelon Run Saturday. Aug.
31. on the Fresno State Campus. The
run. which is open to the public, fea¬
tures a 2.4. and 6 mile race and free
watermelon all day long. Both teams
will be participating in the run; the
women primarily in the 2-mile run.
and the men in the 4-mile run.
The unique twist to the race is that
each participant must predict a time
in which they will complete their re¬
spective courses.
Those interested may register at
8 a.m. near the Fresno Stale track.
Starting times are 8:30 a.m. for the
6-mile race. 9:30 a.m. for the 4-mile,
and 10 15 a.m. for the 2-mile run.
—Sports Information
Men's soccer picked second
by coaches
SMU has been narrowly selected
by the Western Athletic Conference's
nine men's soccer coaches to capture
the innaugural conference crown.
In tfte 1996 pre-season coaches
poll, the Mustangs received five out
of a possible eight first place votes,
and three second place votes for a to¬
tal of 61 points
Right behind them, though, was
Fresno. State, wbo received four first
place' votes and four second place
votes for a total of 60 points.
—Sports Information
I Women's
Volleyball sets high
hopes for winning
season with Tuley
and Nalbandian.
By Brooke Holve
The Daily Collegian
With returning talent and a new
batch of tall freshmen, the Fresno
State women's volleyball team has
a promising season ahead of them.
Head Coach Lindy Vivas sets
high expectations for her team and
plans to win the WAC.
"I expect to be a better team than
last year and we had a very good
team in '95." said Vivas. "But I
think overall we have more depth
and we have a little bit more expe¬
rience."
Returning standouts include out¬
side hitter Tricia Tuley, a first-team
all-Western Athletic Conference
pick last year and only player in
league history to lead the WAC in
digs per game in three consecutive
seasons. Outside hitter Diana
Nalbandian also returns after under¬
going reconstructive knee surgery.
along with outside hitters Shanus
Bennett and Amy Cheli.
Returning letterwinners to look
out for will be middle blocker
Adaline Bouldin. outside hitter/
middle blocker Debbie Davis, set¬
ter Fab Koch. Tara Reed, and setter
4 XJ
r i ti*
Todd Warshaw — Sports Information
Returning senior outside hitter Tricia Tuley is the school's all-time
kill leader and the WAC's all-time total digs leader.
Jessica Toya.
Newcomers to watch this season
will be setter/outside hitter Diann
Aufdermaur. middle blocker
Anamie Buckelew, outside hitter
Selah Misquez, middle blocker
Adrienne Sankey, and outside hit¬
ter Melissa Stringfield.
Missed this season will be
Brenda Gregersen, setter and Tera
Booker, middle blocker.
The Bulldogs are coming off
their second-finest campaign in
Fresno State history and heading to
the top. They also made their founh
post-season appearance in five
years at the NIVC and ended with
a 23-12 record last year.
This season also begins a new
era for the WAC as 16 teams will
compete in the largest Division I
A collegiate conference in the coun¬
try. The 16 teams will be divided
into two eight-team divisions, the
Pacific and the Mountain. Fresno
State will be included in the Pacific.
"1 feel that there are some really
good things about [the WAC], like
the addition of Hawai'i [ranked #1 ]
and San Jose State. We have some
traditional rivals coming back in
and we have some very, very good
programs." said Head Coach Lindy
Vivas. "It kind of remains to be
seen how it works out. We have 16
.teams, we're in two divisions and *
four quads. And I think we have to
do this for a couple years to really
evaluate our scheduling processes.
But it has allowed us to gain some
very good women's volleyball
teams. The trade-off is that the
travel is a little bit tougher, but we
do have a stronger conference."
The Bulldogs open up their sea¬
son at the DePaul tournament over
the weekend in Chicago, 111. They
will go up against Clemson,
DePaul, Illinois-Chicago, and
George Washington.
Radio stations create Dog Pound this season
By Tom Sepulveda
The Daily Collegian
Bulldog Stadium will have a
new cheering section this season,
thanks to some local radio stations.
Two hundred season passes to
Fresno State home football games
were given away in a contest held
by 104.1 FM. 103.7 FM. and 95.7
FM. The passes form a block of
seats that will be called the Dog
Pound, according to Program
Manager Don O'Neal, and is mod¬
eled after the Dog Pound cheering
section for the Cleveland Browns.
Today is the final day of the con¬
test, and tickets are still available.
And winning is easy, O'Neal said,
just listen and participate.
"We decided to target a core part j
of our audience, which is Fresno I
State," he said. "Winners receive
the tickets, and a Dog Pound T-
shirt."
The new section will sit in the
end zone opposite the home
scoreboard, and the idea is to have
sehcheers screamed out by the fans.
'Tart of the deal is that they have
to participate in the cheers," O'Neal
said. "We're gonna stir up some
noise."
The station purchased the tick¬
ets at regular price, according to
Deena Diboll, the assistant athletic
director for marketing at Fresno
State. The radio stations' promotion
helps the school to stay involved in
Shaver Lake tradition continues
By Erik Pfeifle
The Daily Collegian
While many of students were
moving in and trying to prepare for
school, Fresno State's men's and
women's cross country teams were
readying themselves for the upcom¬
ing season by practicing at Shaver
Lake. f
Fbr the past thirty-two years, the
cross country teams have gone to
Shaver Lake to escape the heat of
the valley and also to experience'
distance running in a high-altitude
setting. The advantages of practic¬
ing here are not only limited to
physical aspects. Head Coach Red
Estes feels it is also a great oppor¬
tunity for the team to get to know
one another and grow as a unit.
"The first day of practice on
campus, everything is so hectic the
newcomers feel so intimidated and
it takes them a month before they
know anyone," he said. "Isolated
from everything else, you get to
know each other quite well," he
said.
The teams spend six days prac¬
ticing. The athletes practice twice
a day — for thirty minutes before
breakfast and for three hours after
lunch. However, practice is not the
only thing the runners do — be¬
tween breakfast and lunch (hey
work. In exchange for staying at a
Boy Scout camp for free, the teams
help take down the camp and pre¬
pare it for the winter season. The
camp consists of 14 different camp
sites, with 10 to 15.tents on each.
"We take down.all these tents,
fold them, put them on a big truck
and haul them to the warehouse to
store them for the winter,M- Estes
explained.
The Vork does not stop^there,
though, the runners also cleaned
the mess halls, scrubbed down
walls, refurbished the boat-dock,
dug ditches for pipes, and per¬
formed any other work that needed
to be done.
Of course, the teams still have
to find time to have some fun. Be¬
sides having free time after dinner
to play board games and sit around
the campfire, they take time for ca¬
noe races, balloon volleyball, and
a gag gift exchange in Which ev¬
eryone picks a name out of a hat
and makes a gift for that person.
Overall, Estes feels "it is a good
toughening experience for a lot of
them, and they are pretty tired by
the end of the week, but most of
them I think enjoyed the experi¬
ence."
the community.
"It's a win/win situation all the
way around — for media, for the
school, for listeners, and for the
businesses involved with the pro¬
motion," Diboll said.
O'Neal said the radio stations
plan to get another Dog Pound
started at the other end zone by next
season.
"Nothing does more for sports
than a big cheering section,"
O'Neal said.
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