Star-Bulletin Staff
HPU women knocked out
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. >> The Hawaii Pacific women's tennis team lost to Georgia College 5-0 in the round of 16 at the NCAA Div. II national tennis championships yesterday.
Dada Joksimovic, Davi Godinet and Shakti Stream were winning their matches for HPU when Georgia clinched it.
Hawaii's three other teams advanced to the quarterfinals.
HPU's men shut out North Florida 5-0 while Brigham Young-Hawaii's men beat Lander 5-2 after falling behind 2-1 after the doubles competition.
BYUH's women improved to 34-0 with a 5-2 win over Abilene Christian. The Pirates, who lost to BYUH in the title match last year, beat the Seasiders' top doubles team but could not match the defending national champions in singles, losing four out of five.
Roper to suit up for Monarchs
Former UH basketball player Christen Roper will make her WNBA debut for the Sacramento Monarchs in a preseason game against the Seattle Storm on Sunday.Roper is one of 16 players trying to earn 11 spots, but has survived three cuts and will be in uniform Sunday.
"I'm so excited," Roper said. "My parents were planning to come up to Seattle and I was so happy to tell them that I will be there for sure. Even if I don't get to play, at least I get to wear a uniform, sit on the bench and warm up in front of all of the fans."
Baker new cheerleading coach
Former Hawaii cheerleader Michael Baker has been named cheerleading coach at Hawaii, replacing former co-coaches Erica Buder-Nakasone and Kellie Mikami.Baker had coached at Washington since 1996, the last two years as advisor/head coach.
Vulcans eighth at West Regional
LITTLETON, Colo. >> The Hawaii-Hilo men finished eighth at the eight-team NCAA Division II West Regional golf championship on Wednesday.The Vulcans were led by Nick Mason, who shot 72-67-75--214 to tie for 10th place in the individual standings.
Hawaii Pacific replaces Maruoka, Block
The Hawaii Pacific basketball team signed a pair of post players to replace graduated seniors Leandro Maruoka, Rashad Davis and Nate Block yesterday.Aleksandar Bojic and Kapena O'Neal signed on with the school.
The 6-11 Bojic averaged 9.5 points per game for Garden City Community College in Kansas and O'Neal (6-8) played for Santa Barbara City College, averaging 12.5 points per game.
Uchima, Judd honored at softball banquet
Senior shortstop Kate Judd was named Most Inspirational and sophomore right fielder Tracie Uchima received the Coaches' Award at the Hawaii softball team's year-end banquet last night at Dave & Buster's.Judd, the two-time defending Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, has played 203 consecutive games at short. The inspirational award is voted on by the team.
Hawaii will learn Sunday to which NCAA regional it will be sent next week. This will be the Wahine's sixth appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Ing all district: Iolani School product Mitzi Ing, a junior center fielder for Fresno State, was named to the 2003 Verizon Academic All-District VIII University Division Softball Team yesterday.
Ing had the highest grade point average of the District VIII selections with a cumulative GPA of 3.92 in business administration.
Chang earns another win at Sunset Series
Victoria Chang ran 3,000 meters in 10 minutes, 18.82 seconds to win the ninth edition of the UH Sunset Series Wednesday at Cooke Field.Chang was followed by teammates Teryn Bentley and Shayne Enright. HPU's Christian Madsen won the 5,000-meter race by 43 seconds over Matt Stevis of the Running Room.
More awards for Hilo's Sing Chow
Leo Sing Chow, who was named the PacWest's Freshman of the year earlier this week, was named UH-Hilo's athlete of the year along with basketball player Ryan Abrahams and baseball player Nalei Sooto yesterday.Sing Chow was also named to the West region's second team yesterday.
Football tickets go on sale for UH members
The line starts at 7 a.m. tomorrow for Hawaii 2003 football season-ticket sales for UH faculty, staff and students.Those who show up early will receive a number in accordance with their place in line. The ticket windows at the Stan Sheriff Center ticket office open for this special early sale at 9 a.m. and close at 2 p.m. Staff and student sales will resume on Monday at the SSC and UH Campus Center ticket offices.
Kennelly on her way to fourth title
Defending Billabong Pro Teahupoo champion Keala Kennelly of Kauai showed her domination at the notorious reef break of Tahiti yesterday, opening with a perfect ride to take out Prue Jeffries in the third round.Kennelly has won at the site three times. Rochelle Ballard controlled Trudy Todd to also advance.
See line scores and results in
the [Scoreboard] section.