November 23, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Basketball teams suffer early losses

by Rick Eymer

Despite a combined 40 points from Candice Wiggins and Brooke Smith, Stanford dropped an 84-77 decision to Minnesota in the championship game of the Minnesota Tournament in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sunday.

Stanford beat Long Island University, 69-28, in Saturday's tournament opener.

Stanford (1-1) hosts Fresno State on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in its home opener and that's likely to get the Cardinal's attention. Stanford and the Bulldogs haven't played each other in 17 years.

Stanford also travels to nationally ranked Texas Tech for a Sunday matinee before returning home to host Tennessee on Dec. 4.

The 11th-ranked Cardinal had been trying to schedule a game with the Gophers since Minnesota beat Stanford in the second round of the 2003 NCAA tournament at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford entered last year's Great Alaska Shootout with the assumption the Gophers were also entered. Minnesota later bowed out.

For the Cardinal it wasn't so much about revenge, but getting an early test against one of the better teams in the country. Last year's team didn't seem to suffer from not playing the Gophers and this year's team probably won't suffer too much because of the loss.

Stanford stormed out to an 11-4 lead against Minnesota but the Gophers responded to the challenge. The hometown team took the lead for good with the first points of the second half, breaking a 37-37 halftime tie.

Junior center Kristen Newlin added 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for Stanford, which hasn't started 1-1 in five years.

Wiggins shot 56 percent from the field, making 10 of her 18 attempts, for her 21 points. She also added four rebounds and four assists. In fact, Wiggins and Smith (19 points, four rebounds, and a team-high five assists before fouling out) combined to make 16 of 29 shots (55 percent) while the rest of the team went 16 of 38 for 42 percent.

Smith had 15 points and six rebounds in the win over Long Island. Wiggins added 14 points and six rebounds.

Men's basketball

Stanford coach Trent Johnson was right. He said the Cardinal had very little room for error, and when 6-foot-10 Matt Haryasz was unavailable because of a sprained ankle suffered during practice on Friday, that margin evaporated.

UC Irvine ruined Stanford's season-opener with a stunning 79-63 victory on Saturday, its first over the Cardinal in six meetings.

Haryasz's injury is considered minor and he's expected to play when Stanford hosts USF on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Without Haryasz, the Anteaters were able to get the ball inside consistently and outrebounded the Cardinal by a 35-30 margin.

Dan Grunfeld, in his first game back since suffering a season-ending ACL tear in Stanford's game against Cal last year, scored a game-high 29 points -- 18 in the first half -- and grabbed a team best nine rebounds. Chris Hernandez added 13 points.

UC Irvine shot a sizzling 59 percent, including a 53 percent performance from 3-point range.

Losing Haryasz for the game also exposed Stanford's depth problems. The Cardinal used just nine players and two of them were freshman. The Stanford bench produced eight points on 21 percent shooting. UC Irvine's bench scored 17 points on 62 percent shooting.

Women's swimming

Stanford started the three-day Speedo Cup strong, and finished even stronger en route to a dominating performance in Long Beach.

The third-ranked Cardinal collected 1,7601/2 points, more than 1,000 points ahead of second-place Nevada.

Stanford won all but the final event of the meet, and Elizabeth Durot was named Swimmer of the Meet after winning three events.

Brooke Bishop and Dana Kirk also won three events, while Laura Davis, Erica Liu and Caroline Bruce also earned wins.

Men's swimming

Hongzhe Sun was named Most Outstanding Athlete after winning three events and leading Stanford to its third straight Speedo Cup title in Long Beach over the weekend.

Andy Grant was a double winner for the Cardinal while Shaun Phillips, Daniel Beal and Ben Wildman-Tobriner also won events.

Stanford accumulated 1,819 points over the three-day meet. Air Force finished second with 9421/2 points.

Wrestling

Stanford's Tanner Gardner, Scott Loescher and Ray Blake each placed at the California Open on Saturday. Overall, 12 wrestlers won 28 matches.

Gardner finished second at 125 pounds, Loescher was third at 157 pounds and Blake was seventh at 165 pounds.

Field hockey

Senior Missy Halliday was named to the West Region second team All-American on Monday by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.

"I am thrilled Missy has received recognition for her outstanding career at Stanford," Stanford coach Lesley Irvine said. "She is a phenomenal athlete and had a very successful senior year. Her speed and presence in the game will be greatly missed by the team. We are very proud of her."

Women's golf

Angela King and Catherina Wang have signed letters of intent to study and compete next year at Stanford University, announced coach Caroline O'Connor.

King, a senior at Torrey Pines High School, has numerous top-three finishes in both state and national tournaments, highlighted by finishing seventh in the state meet last year and winning the Southern CIF tournament last week.

Wang, from Orlando, Fla., is a two-time Rolex AJGA All-American and four-time winner on the AJGA tour and has nine other top-five finishes over past three years.

Softball

Stanford announced the signing of four recruits: Alissa Haber, Shannon Koplitz, Rosey Neil and Michelle Schroeder.

"This is a very good recruiting class for our program," Stanford coach John Rittman said. "We have signed four outstanding student-athletes that will add a significant amount of athleticism and versatility to our team."

Men's soccer

Stanford junior Bret Shimizu and sophomores Scott Bolkan and Dan Shapiro were named to the first team all-Pac-10 Academic team on Wednesday.

Michael Brown, Cooper McKee, Evan Morgan, Ryan Oblak and Galen Thompson were second-team selections while Kyle Hency and Luke Sager earned honorable mention.

Women's water polo

Betsy O'Neill is the fourth member of the Class of 2010 to sign a National Letter of Intent to play water polo at Stanford.

A goalie from San Ramon Valley High in Danville, O'Neill helped her team win the North Coast Section title recently. The 6-1 goalie was also named East Bay Athletic League MVP in 2005.

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