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Show Wednesday, April 20, 2005 Sports Editor: Jon Nelson Page 11 The Signpost Sports Phone: 626-7983 Women's tennis prowling the courts and Karla Pretorius teamed up to win the No. 3 doubles match. By DAVID WILLIAMS The Wildcats won five of the six correspondent | The Signpost matches in a clear victory over the Falcons. The team recently swept The women's tennis team is enjoying a good winning Idaho. In a clear victory, they season this year with a 10-8 won all their matches to come record. Their most recent win out with a perfect 7-0 win. Kate was against Idaho State, beating Ennenga was positive about them 7-0 in an overwhelming their upcoming matches against victory. The women's team Montana State and Montana will play for second place in University. the conference tournament "They are doing very well," in Phoenix, Ariz. With the end Ennenga said. "If the lady of the semester at Weber State Wildcats can beat these two coming to a close, the women's teams they can enter the tennis team is looking forward conference tournament in to making this year one of their second place and have a real best ever. good chance of winning it all." The team is young with The team traveled to Westmont College in Sedona, one senior, Drews, who has Ariz. The Wildcats were played well, said women's impressive, winning six singles tennis head coach Wendy matches to sweep in a 6-1 Compton. Compton also said victory. With only one loss, the that she would like to see Drews Wildcats looked promising and spotlighted this year. would keep showing the fighting "She is a very instrumental spirit of the team. player on the team," Compton One of their most memorable said. "She is the team captain wins was the victory over Air and played the middle of the line Force that ended with Weber up - the No. 3 position, one of State winning their third- the most important positions in straight match 6-1. This was the lineup." Weber State's pivotal win that Tennis is scored by winning helped form their season into a two out of three matches to win winning season. In the match, one point. The maximum total Alexandra Illie and Gabriela is seven points between single Venditto teamed up to win the and double matches played. No. 2 match, and Chelsee Drews There are a total of six single Elana Smit prepares to return a serve during a match against Hawaii on April 5 in Ogden. Smit and the Lady 'Cats will play at Montana and Montana State on Saturday and Sunday. matches and one doubles match worth one point, but two out of the three matches must be won. Compton said one of the standout players for the women's tennis team and a strong competitor is Karla Pretorius, a junior from Centurion, South Africa. Pretorius has been mentioned by many others on the team as an inspirational and pivotal player. "The team is doing well, and I would just like to see more people attend our games," Illie said. ' The women's tennis team is looking good going into the last part of the season this year with a bright future ahead. You can leave a message for reporter David Williams by calling 626-7983. Monday Night Football to leave ABC for ESPN Football team to host annual Purple and White Intra-squad game Saturday The Weber State University spring football game will be held Saturday at noon in the Stewart Stadium. The game serves as the culmination of spring football. There will also be a Coach McBride Chalk Talk at 11:30 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Stewart Stadium Sky Suites. WSU head football coach Ron McBride will discuss Wildcat football and answer any questions. The spring game and "Chalk Talk" are free to the public and the concessions stand on the fourth floor will be open during the game. WSU's home opener will be Saturday, Sept. 3 against Western State University at 5:30 p.m. The Labor Day weekend game will include a giant fireworks show. WSU officials are expecting one of the largest crowds in school history. The largest crowd ever to see a Wildcat home football game was in 1973, when 17,312 watched WSU battle Utah State. Men's tennis defeats Northern Colorado Weber State picked up its seventh win of the season Sunday, knocking off Northern Colorado 5-2 in the final home match of the season. Northern Colorado, winless all season, started out strong by winning the doubles point. The Bears won two of the three doubles matches with WSU's only win coming at No. 1 doubles with Jonathan Engelbrecht and Zach Levetan teaming up for a 8-4 win. The Wildcats won five of the six singles matches to grab the 5-2 win. Engelbrecht, Mathis Saberon, CJ Adamson, Levetan and Daniel Abu all won singles matches. The seven wins for Weber State are the most since the 'Cats won 11 matches during the 2000 season. Weber State will face three Big Sky matches this week to wind out the regular season. They will play at Idaho State Tuesday and at Montana and Montana State on Saturday and Sunday. Lady 'Cats off to slow start at Big Sky Conference Championships The Weber State University women's golf team got off to a slow start to the Big Sky Conference Cham pionship tournament on Monday with a 31-over-par 319. The 'Cats sit in seventh place after the opening round. Portland State shot a school-record 1-over-par 289 to comfortably place themselves in first place. Second-place Montana State sits 12 shots behind the Vikings, while Northern Arizona (307) Eastern Washington (308) sit in third and fourth place. WSU's No. 3 player, Jessica Thomas, stepped up to lead the Wildcats. Thomas shot a five-over-par 77 on the 6,050-yard, par-72 layout at Palm Valley Golf Course to position herself in a tie for 13th place overall. Katie Higham shot 78 on the opening round, and was the only other Wildcat to break 80 on the day. The second round of the 54-hoIe tournament were Tuesday; no results were available at press time. The third and final round will be played today. • --~ -•*-- "-»-.«--«.'.»««•• By TEDDY GREENSTEIN Knight Ridder Tribune what is currently a three-anda-half hour experience on ABC could become a full night's programming on ESPN, with a build-up the night before and during the day. And for $1.1 billion a season, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was willing to risk losing viewers by going from network TV to basic cable. Sixty-seven percent of U.S. homes are-now wired for cable. "Who would have thought 25 years ago (when ESPN | was born) that we could have ' 'Monday Night Football,' an : American institution?" said ; George Bodenheimer, president • of ESPN and ABC Sports. "Monday Night Football" stands as the second-longest running prime time network series,trailingCBS's"60Minutes" by two years. While rumors of ESPN's move had cirtulated for months, NBC provided the day's surprise by announcing it had bought the rights to "Sunday Night Football," which had been on ESPN, for a reported $600 million per season for a six-year deal. NBC officials immediately crowed that its Sunday night package was superior to Monday night because the deal calls for flexible scheduling, allowing the It was launched in 1970 as a dramatic experiment, a prime-time sports series on network television that created a buzz before that was even an expression. ABC's "Monday Night Football" was watercooler chatter for people who weren't necessarily football fans. What got them talking? If it wasn't "Dandy" Don Meredith and Howard Cosell playing country bumpkin versus city slicker, ft was Bo Jackson steamroiling Brian "the Boz" Bosworth for a touchdown. If it wasn't the Dolphins ending the Bears' undefeated season or Dennis Miller's ill-timed rants, it was Nicollette Sheridan dropping her towel at Terrell Owens' feet. The show will go on, but after this season, ABC will no longer ask America: "Are you ready for some football?"That task will fall to ESPN, which won the rights by agreeing to pay the NFL $1.1 billion for eight years. And that's $1.1 billion per year, not total. It was a conscious move for Walt Disney Co., which owns both ABC and ESPN, opting to bid sports -network-,- where - - - ^See ESPN page'T2' |