By Abe RakovThe Daily Northwestern
Both softball and baseball begin their seasons this week. Softball plays five games in the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz., and baseball starts its slate in Lubbock, Texas, with two games against Texas Tech and two versus Western Illinois.
Kate Drohan’s team, the NCAA runner-up last season and preseason No. 4 this year, has the talent to make another deep postseason run. The Cats return two-time defending Big Ten player of the year Garland Cooper, reigning Big Ten pitcher of the year Eileen Canney and last year’s Big Ten freshman of the year Tammy Williams.
Paul Stevens’ squad is coming off a season in which it had a chance at the regular season Big Ten title going into the final weekend. The Cats lost ace Dan Brauer and their No. 2 pitcher, George Kontos, to the Major League Baseball draft, so it will be hard to repeat the success of last year. NU should be fine offensively, though, as the team returns eight position players who started in at least 30 games.
Killer Schedule
NU’s men’s tennis team blitzed No. 30 Arkansas 7-0 last Friday, improving its record to 4-3.
Coach Paul Torricelli always has a challenging non-conference slate, which helps get his team ready for a strong Big Ten season. The Cats’ three losses have come against No. 10 Pepperdine, No. 24 Wake Forest and No. 29 Louisville.
NU still has non-conference matchups against No. 6 Mississippi and No. 11 Notre Dame, and faces No. 3 Ohio State, No. 7 Illinois and No. 24 Michigan in Big Ten play. In other words, if the Cats are anywhere close to .500 at the end of this brutal schedule they should get very strong NCAA Tournament consideration.
Championships begin
NU women’s swimming begins competing at the Big Ten Championships on Thursday. NU finished the year 3-6, but was the second team out of the Top 25. Seven Cats swimmers have earned NCAA “B” cuts, some of which could easily turn into “A” cuts in the normally fast Big Ten Championships.
Athlete of the Week
Willy Lock. Even though his team already handled Arkansas, Lock fought off four match points in the third set “superbreaker” to complete the sweep of the Razorbacks.
Home game to watch
Men’s basketball against Illinois tonight at 6 p.m. The game should be a sellout – although Illini fans probably will make up a big chunk of that. Don’t throw food.
Deputy Sports Editor Abe Rakov is a Medill junior. His NU Notes column runs every Wednesday. He can be reached [email protected].
