Show Monday March 29 1999 The Herald Journal Logan Utah Page6 Purdue claims first title Sports snapshot SAN JOSE Calif (AP) — When Carolyn Peck joined the Purdue coaching staff she found a picture frame and in it placed a sign: "Reserved for Purdue’s first national championship team" A picture of this season's team will go in that frame "You made history ladies and The fact was not lost on the rest of the team "Before the game there were all kinds of emotions going on in this room and coach Peck just told us to use them to our advantage We had people that were happy we had people that were sad and had mixed emotions" junior guard Tiffany that's awesome" Peck told her AP photo fan watches as his Cuban national baseball team goes down In defeat to the Baltimore Orioles 2 in 11 innings in Havana Sunday The exhibition game was INI first time a Major League team piayM in Cuba since the Cuban Revolution In 1959 A 3-- Sports briofs Aggie womens tennis team wins third straight The Utah State women's tennis team won its third match in a row Saturday night in Las Vegas by crushing the UniCity 0 in versity of Missouri-Kansa- s team match play The Aggies dominated from the start of the match They won all three doubles matches easily and continued their stellar play into the next two singles matches Emily Watkins won her fifth straight match crushing Lisa Siepke of UMKC 6-- 0 6-- 0 Tracy Bertagna also won her second straight in a rout of Becky Klontz 6--0 6-- 0 USU clinched the team match after Bertagna's and Watkins wins and appeared to be on its way to a 9--0 sweep of the match However it was getting late and the Aggies had obligations to be in Logan by Sunday morning Since USU had already won the team match the players agreed to retire the next four singles matches and head home USU players' records were not affected by retiring Retiring a match does not count as a loss or a win However several of the players may feel slightly cheated out of a personal win because of the poor timing of the match Before the Aggies left Sarah Lowe was cruising to an easy win at the number one spot and Amy Thatcher had a large lead over her opponent at the number two position In the doubles matches Sarah Lowe and Amy Thatcher set the tone by winning the first match 1 against Kola Subramanian and Deepa Mangalal at the number one position At the number two position Mindy Nelson and Tracy Bertagna defeated Becky Klontz and Jennifer Bailey 3 while at the same time Jackie Ellis and Heather Dutson got a hard fought win over Emily MacQuaid and Lisa DeCastro 5 at the number three position The win over Missouri-Kansa- s City brings USU’s overall record to 0 on the season The Aggies have won three straight matches and will begin a four game homes-lan- d Friday against Southern Utah team “Congratulations” The Purdue women won their first national title Sunday night 5 with a 62-4- come-from-behi- victory over Duke It was the perfect ending to a nearly perfect season as Peck and star guards Stephanie White-McCar- ty and Ukari Figgs all ended their college careers Peck who has been head coach of the Boilermakers for two seasons heads now to the Orlando Miracle of the WNBA Team coand Figgs captains are both seniors White-McCar- ty Young said "We knew that this wax our last game and we wanted to come out cm top no matter what” For a while however it looked like it might not happen Boilermakers had The the lowest first-ha- lf point total in an NCAA championship game trailBut ing Duke 22-1- 7 and Figgs were not about to let their final game slip away The duo lauded as one of the best backcourts in the nation keyed a 12-- 1 run that put Purdue (34-1- ) ahead for good in a Figgs who went scoreless first half had 18 points in top-rank- White-McCar-- ty the second In the end her performance earned her honors as die outstanding player of the Final Four "I knew I had 20 minutes to be a winner or a loser" Figgs said "I don't like being a loser” Duke (29-7- ) was left struggling to keep up The Boilermakers who had six turnovers in the first half had just two in the second one coming in the final minutes after lead they had built an Sadly the victory wasn't all it could have been With just over four minutes left White-McCarbent over in pain at midcourt Figgs helped her best friend and teammate to the sidelines nt ty White-McCar- who finished ty with 12 points wailed in pain from the bench with a severe ankle sprain and was eventually taken AP photo from the court with her husband by her side Her team already riding Purdue's Stephanie center cheers on her on momentum went on to make teammates after suffering an Injury against Duke In the NCAA women's championship sure they claimed victory White-McCar- ty Tonight is The Game S-- ST PETERSBURG Fla (AP) — The game everybody wanted has been in the making for a decade Duke and Connecticut inexorably linked by Christian Laettner's shot in 1990 and a whole season of quiet anticipation meet tonight in a national championship game that can settle a lot of scores The Huskies (33-finally can give coach Jim Calhoun the prize he’s been chasing all these years Duke (37-1- ) can establish itself as one of the best teams in college basketball history 2) See GAME on Page 7 Field set of 8-- Mitch MaacaroHerald Journal Utah State base runner Lisa Layton is tagged out at home plate by New Mexico State catcher Adrian Nobles in the fifth Inning Sunday The Aggies ended up winning the game in the bottom of the seventh inning 8-- 8-- Sunday! icoro NBA Orlando 94 Miami 87 Indiana 101 Boston 93 Detroit 104 Seattle 87 V Toronto 91 Chicago 78 Milwaukee 94 Minnesota 85 LA Lakers 99 New York 91 Charlotte 105 Cleveland 84 Portlain 88 Phoenix 86 Houston 107 Sacramento 93 NHL Buffalo 4 Pittsburgh 3 OT Tampa Bay 3 Carolina 3 tie Edmonton 5 San Jose 2 Detroit 3 Philadelphia 2 OT Chicago 3 St Louis 1 Colorado 7 Los Angeles 2 New Jersey 2 Florida 2 tie Dallas 3 Nashville 0 Anaheim 5 Calgary 1 IHL Long Beach 4 Utah 3 Cleveland 4 Michigan 3 (SO) Cincinnati 3 Indianapolis 1 Grand Rapids 4 Milwaukee 2 Chicago 3 Fort Wayne 1 Detroit 3 Manitoba 2 (SO) MLS USU picks up BW win Late run lifts Aggie softball team past Roadrunners Scott Dunn sports writer By moments before The outcome of Sunday’s softball dash between Utah Suite and New Mexico Stale “We got robbed!" Ferfieri snapped as she stomped oft the field following the game She then wheeled back around to add “The umpires here suck! You can print that!” left NMSU head coach JoAnn Ferfieri frothing and fuming and flinging epithets at the umpires as if they were underlings of the devil himself The Aggies’ mood on the other hand was considerably cooler They might have summed up the day's denouement in just one word: That's because Brcannc Nickle the freshman catcher known familiarly to her USU teammates as “Bre" played the role of heroine on Sunday driving in the run with a two-odouble in the bottom of ilw seventh inning Bre's blast a low liner into the gap cracked a S tic and lifted the Aggies to their first home win of the season It also provided some measure of revenge for the Ags (1-- 2 who dropped a doublehcader to the Roadrunners on Saturday The fiery Ferfieri however found the 6--5 setback extra distasteful because she thought Nickle should never have come to the plate: she argued that the 'Runners were bamboozled by a blown call gray-irouscr- Bre-utif- cd ul game-winni- ld S-- 6) Ferfieri's fury was not unjustified: immediately prior to Nickle’s game- winning hit it appeared NMSU had got out of the inning by doubling up USU pinch runner Trina Job at second base Job running for Sandy Millard (who singled off the pitcher's foot to start the inning) had ventured well off second on a line drive to right center and was forced to dive back to the bag when the liner was caught by NMSU rightficldcr Melissa Briggs Briggs' throw to second appeared to beat Job's dive hut the field umpire ruled the USU runner safe Had he rung her up it would have been out number three and the game would have headed to extra innings When asked if she thought the call was a pixir one Job smiled wryly and replied "No of course not I was safe all the way” More candid was Nickle who had a good view of the play from the circle: “She was out” the freshman catcher admitted USU head coach Pam McCreesh was naturally pleased with the call Nickle'i on-de- ck New York-NeJersey 1 Columbus 0 Miami 2 New England 1 SO Los Angeles 1 Dallas 0 SO 5:30 pm ESPN2 — NHL Hockey NY Islanders at NY Rangers 7 pm CBS — NCAA Basketball Tournament championship teams TBA at St Petersburg Fla Today! quoto “I'm not very happy how things have gone The game slips away and I have to work my way back Sometimes the puck seems like a beach ball and sometimes it !(X)ks real small like s golf ball But that doesn't matter 1 have to stop them" — Carolina goalie Arturs Irbe after the Hurricanes' 3-- 3 tie with Tampa Bay coach was then quick to refract the postgame spotlight to Nickle “She came off the field and I told her ‘You’ve got the biggest heart— you deserve that’ The kid works so hard I'm glad she got it” The Aggie's afternoon certainly didn't begin as fortuitously as it ended Wispy snow flurries accompanied the opening pitch of Sunday's game and as the home fans bundled up in blankets and quilts the Aggies proceeded to unravel like a cheap sweater USU starter Kelly Martin issued a Icadoff walk and it was shortly followed Road-runnby a throwing error by Nickle four hits another walk and a booted grounder by shortstop Michelle Powell finalg When the ly ended Utah State found itself facing a 4-- 0 deficit “We came out extremely flat” McCreesh said “Martin was off the defense was off — everything was off It's still not official but invitations have been sent to collegiate gymnastics teams for the upcoming regional meets Utah Stale who moved up a spot in the rankings this morning to No 17 is one of six host sites for the regional meets to be held on April 10 The Aggies wrapped up the regular season last Saturday at the Big West Conference Championships by road score with a recording a season-hig- h 19520 but finished second to Boise State (195475) USU improved its Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) to 1951312 ' “The national committee is still meeting so it's not official" said Aggie head coach Ray Corn this morning “The schools still have to accept the invitations" The top 12 teams in the country get split up and sent to different regions around the country Then the next four teams within the region round out the field No 2 Alabama (1970875 RQS) and No 11 Ohio State (1956125) are the two top 12 teams that will be sent to Logan The rest of the field for the Region 2 meet would include No 13 Deqver (1954187) No 16 Iowa State (1951875) No 17 USU (1951312) and No 19 Minnesota (19500) "This will be one of the toughest regions in the country" Corn said “Six of the top 19 teams in the country will be coming here Alabama stands out but only six tenths of a point separate Ohio Stale and Minnesota" The top two teams from each regional meet qualify for the NCAA Championships to be held in Salt Lake City on April 22-2- 4 "This is a phenomenal format to make it to nationals this year” Com said “We have as See USU on Page 7 good a chance as anybody else to make iL" er half-innin- wins moves to No w On tolovislon clutch hit and the victory that resulted from them To her the outcome was simply a case of good karma “You know they even out" McCreesh shrugged “That’s just the way it works You get a break and you try to take advantage of it and that's what we did" The By Shawn Harrison sports writer PONTE VEDRA BEACH Fla (AP) — Shirts off chests painted stood side by side the five teen-age- rs near the 18th green the human bulletin board read It was a salute to the hometown favorite David Duval who parlayed the energy of the crowd and control of his own emotions into a victory at The Players Championship on Sunday Thr rifle earned over four treacherous days at the Stadium Course on the TPC at Sawgrass propelled the Jacksonville native to No 1 in the world rankings It also came on the same day his AP photo father Bob earned his first profesDavid Duval reacts after chipping close to the flag on the sional win five hours away at the 18th hole of The Players Championship Sunday senior Emerald Coast Classic near Pensacola "I don’t know if I could have dime it without crowd you" Duval told the "I'm like all of you I remember standing behind the practice tees following the players It's turning into a dream year already and it's only March” Duval will head into April on a high note thanks to a 285 good enough to beat Scott Gump by two veteran without Gump a nine-yea tour victory shot 1 -- under 71 to join Duval as the only other player to finish the tournament under par Duval's final two rounds of 73 were average by 74 and his standards but his performance on the par-- 3 17th hole — the island ar 1 hole — is what set him apart With a two-strolead Duval pulled out a wedge and smoothed the ball over the black lagoon to six feet from the pin He sank the putt to go to 3 under locking up a tournament he had long dreamed of winning He excelled under pressure by setting emotions aside and putting himself in the shoes of Nick Price who won the tournament with a similar shot in 1993 Duval's last year on the Nike Tour "He walked up there grabbed his club stood over the ball and hit it" Duval said "Just never even gave himself enough time to think about ke anything other than hitting it up there close Thai's all I tried to do was grab the club and hit iL” I 'i i |