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Show RaeReece ee SPORTS SECTION Doilys Herald WEDNESDAY,SEPTEMBER7, 2005 . SPORTS EDITOR | Darnell Dickson - 344-2555 ddickson@heraldextra.com OPEN U.S. OPEN iowsters and Sharapovago Steve Wilsti THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK Acrobatics and dogged effort trumped artistry as Kim Clijsters, two gamesfromlosing in straightsets, scrambled backto beat an exhausted Venus Williams and reach the U.S. Open BILL KOSTROUN/Associated Press semifinals. Kim Clijsters of Belgium returns a shot to Venus Williams of the United Clijsters, trying to shed herlabel as States at the U.S. Open tennis tournamentin New York on Tuesday, the best woman on tour never to win a with Williams serving in the second set. Fridaywill be top-seeded Maria Sharapo- Clijsters, the hottest player on tour with six titles this year but nonein the majors,saw this victory as oneof the va, whoyielded a set for the first time in the tournamentbeforebeating fellow Russian Nadia Petrova,the ninth seed, 75, 46, 6-4. “I wasn't really thinking about the “I just tried to keep fighting andjust kept runningforeachball.” biggestin her career. She missed the U.S. Openlast year while recovering from See U.S. OPEN, C7 HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS BASEBALL Owlz seal spot in playoffs | PhillipMorgan. HERALD CORRESPONDENT score,”said Clijsters, whotrailed 4-6, 24 Grand Slam title, performed more than a dozen ofher patented leg splits chasing balls Tuesday night to take down Wil- liams 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Waitingfor the Belgian in the semis Knights feel weight of errors | Doing somethingfive years in a row would makeit a tradition. In a 6-2 homevictory over the Ogden Raptors the Orem Owlz clinchedtheir fifth playoff berth in the teams five year existence. “It’s nice to clinchit tonight,” said Orem Manager Tom Kotchman. : “It was nice . ees OWLZ RAPTORS 6 2 | | | | on your home field, in front of our homefans. Sometimesit doesn’t work out that way, butit did soit’s nice for the people here to see a good ame.” Since the year 2000, the Orem Owlz,formerly the Provo Angels, have madethe playoffs each year. “Wedoit in a different way each year,” Kotchman said. “In years past, we've hit theball all overthe yard. This year we have relied on ourstarting pitching to, get us through ball games.” For Orem on Tuesday nightit was a combination of the past and presentto win. After the Raptors scored two early runs in thetop of.the first inning, the Owlz responded with a lead-off triple by Bradley Coon. Orem shortstop Hainley Statia then scored Coon with a double downtheleft-field line. JEREMY HARMON /Daily Herala Lone Peak’s Christie Carpenterreturns the ball as teammates TamiPeterson,left, and Christina Evans, center, watch as the Knights host the Brighton Bengalsin Highland on Tuesday. “It was important to answer (Ogden's) two runs,” Kotchman Lone Peakfights hard but mistakeslet Brighton grab win said, “Weadded two morein the second and third, which allowed (Oremstarter) Daniel Hawkins to pitch well.” Hawkins pitched through five innings beforegiving the ball to the Orem bullpen: Hawkins only allowedthe two runs thefirst while striking out five Raptorbatters. “I thought Mike Pete pitched well in his inningofrelief,” Kotchman said. “Rafael Cruz closedit out for us. He throwsstrikes.” Cruz,in three inning of work only faced ninebatters, striking out three. After two two-run innings by the Owlz, Brett Martinez hit a towering homerun to extend the Oremlead. Notto be out done, the following batter, Colby Overstreethit his own dinger,rallying the Orem faithful and putting the game out. of reach for Ogden. “Wewonit with class,” Kotch* mansaid. “Now we head to Idaho Falls and hopefully nobody gets hurt. Weare looking to get people healthy that need the rest and maybe play somepeople that don't get to play as much.” Orem hasa couple of players that could usethe time off, such as secondbasemenBilly Boyer, whowent 3-for-4 and made a couple of spectacular plays up the middle includinga diving stop to his right for the final out of the ball game. The Owlz will finish up the season with a two-gameseries with the IdahoFalls Chukars, who recently beat the Casper Rockies in two straight games. Oremwill open the Pioneer League playoffs with a home game on Friday against Ogden, a team that the Owlz took 3-of-4 from this week. “Wehope that wecan lot of fans to comeout to the game on Friday,” Kotchman added. | || Jared Lloyd DAILY HERALD The Bengals used a 10-0 run, including four acesin the decidingfifth game,to beat the Knights in Highland, lia match pitting twoofthe top Class 5A volleyball teams in the state, both sides knew they hadto avoid mistakes, espe- cially on the serve. LonePeak struggled to get the ball in play, making 18 service errors. When the match was on the line, Brighton put the serves right where they needed to be. _to-error ratio down. Whenthose serves arein, they're tough.” Both coaches sawplenty of room 3-2 (25-15, 14-25, 25-20, 22-25, for improvementas the teams 15-6). “We're trying to be more offensive on ourserve, take morerisks,” Lone Peak head ee battled mental mistakes as BRIGHTON 3 muchastheybattled the opLONE PEAK 2 ponent. “Wewerebad,” Brighton coach Deanna Meyersaid. “We saw head coach Jeramiah Larsonsaid. the need forit (at a tournament)in Las “That was our worst gameso far. We Vegas. But we needto bring ouracewereinconsistent, we had mentaler- Lehi blanks Provoin girls soccer Shooting key in Pioneers’ win overBulldogs Neil K. Warner DAILY HERALD After watchingfilm of his team play in the preseason, Lehi coach Brett Bergholm had this simple advicefor his girls when they played Provo on Tuesday afternoon. hoot. Wardwell fired off a Shot with a defender on her hip and caught the left side of the net. “I had one defenderslide at meandhad onedefender on my right side but I was abletoslide and getoff a shot with myleft foot that went in,” Wardwell said. “He (Bergholm)told us he In other words, don't wanted us to shoot more. wait for the perfect shot. Wegot offa lot of shot: Whenyou get a chance Wehada lot of chances.” to shoot,takeit. Sas Pioneers scored It turned out to be just LEHI 3 again five minutes later whatthe Pioneers needed PROVO 0 when Alyssa Hill was to hear as Lehi whipped Provo,3-0. “In our only twolosses to American Fork and Dixie felt like we weretrying to get a per- fect shot,” Bergholm said. “We really worked on that. We wanted the girls to take shots.” Lehi’s shoot first ask questions later offense jumped on Provo15 minutes into the game whenKiley fouled in the goalie box and Lehi was awarded a penalty kick. ThePioneers gave the ball to Breezy Chandler and she delivered, sneaking it past Provo keeper Kristen Chambers with a shot in the right corner ofthe net. The Pioneers thought they had another goal when Kammi Hunt slipped in the weakside of Provo’s defense and apparently kicked a goal, but Hunt’s shot hit the top ofthe crossbar and went down. While Lehi celebrated, Chambers picked uptheball and kicked it out as play continued on. “Welearned lot right there, that even if you think it's in, kick it again,” Bergholm said.“I was really proud of them.This is a hugeconfidenceboost for us:I've told the girls we've always been oneofthe better 3A teams and now we're 4A wehave toPlay with the sameconfidence.” Lehi’s offense continued to flirt with Provo's defense as the See SOCCER, C4 CHAD CHENIER/Daily Herald Provo's Cami Brimhall(31) attempts to get theball from Lindsay Judd of Lehi during their match at ProvoHigh schoolon Tuesday. WWW.HERALDEXTRA.COM — CALL 375-5103 TO SUBSCRIBE rors, you nameit, we did it. I'm hoping thisis the worst wecanplay.” Meyer sawsomeflashesofbrilliance from her team, but said thegirls need- ed to string themtogether. “It all comes back to consisten shesaid. “We wantto take aw factor and worryabout‘thet ‘ The Knights gotoffto a slowstart, See VOLLEYBALL, C4 |