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by Rick Eymer
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tanford sophomore guard Toni Kokenis played Tuesday night’s game in the rather large shadow of her better known teammate, Nnemkadi Ogwumike, one of the top players in the nation. There will be days, though, in which Kokenis will need to step out of that shadow and produce at key moments. Against Tennessee she showed she was ready for such moments. While Ogwumike netted a career-high 42 points in No. 4 Stanford’s convincing 97-80 victory over No. 6 Tennessee, Kokenis also produced a career night with 26 points. With the Pac-12 season on the horizon next weekend, it was a good sign for the Cardinal, which was heavily favored to beat Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday afternoon and improve upon Toni Kokenis its 8-1 record. “I think this was a breakout game for Toni,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “For her to knock down her 3s, to run the offense, we had two turnovers at halftime. That’s says something about great pointguard play.” Stanford opens the conference season next Thursday with a trip to USC. The Cardinal is at UCLA next Saturday. Kokenis, a regular in the starting lineup, upped her scoring average to 10.2 from 8.3 against the Lady Vols. The Pac-12 is a guard heavy conference and for Kokenis, who also leads the team in assists, to step forward means Stanford won’t have to depend on its inside game quite so much. “We need to be more aggressive from the guard spot to be able to knock down our shots, look for our shots more because we need to be threats from the outside,” Kokenis said. “We learn from every game and it’s just about improving every day as a team. It was a big step.” Ogwumike, who benefited from Kokenis’ production, appreciates her take-charge attitude. “Toni was telling me what to do, which I love because we need that leadership from the guard spot,”
Stanford senior Nnemkadi Ogwumike had plenty to get excited about as she scored a careerhigh 42 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in a 97-80 victory over Tennessee on Tuesday.
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STANFORD FOOTBALL
Former rivals look forward to a Fiesta homecoming by Rick Eymer unior wide receiver Drew Terrell has done a little bit of everything for the Stanford football team this season. He’s rushed, passed, received and returned punts. Junior Trent Murphy has started all 12 games for the fourth-ranked Cardinal as a linebacker. He has 39 tackles, nine for a loss, and has 5 1/2 sacks. One thing they share is that playing inside the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, site of January 2nd’s Fiesta Bowl between Stanford (11-1) and third-ranked Oklahoma State (11-1), is no big deal for the
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Phoenix-area residents. Not only has Terrell and Murphy watched games at the 5 1/2-yearold stadium, they played against each other there in high school state championship games. “It’s kind of like home for me,” Murphy said. “Though the last time I played there we lost. I’d like to rectify that this time.” Murphy’s Brophy College Prep team lost to Terrell’s Hamilton High in its senior and sophomore years. Murphy beat Terrell in the 5A Division I state finals as a junior. (continued on next page)
Don Feria/stanfordphoto.com
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Ogwumike and Kokenis help KO Tennessee as the Cardinal preps for Pac-12 opener
Don Feria/stanfordphoto.com
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John Todd/stanfordphoto.com
CARDINAL CORNER . . . The Stanford men’s soccer team will begin the new year with a new coach after Stanford Director of Athletics Bob Bowlsby announced the appointment of Jeremy Gunn to that position on Wednesday. The 40-year-old Gunn becomes the 15th coach in the program’s history. He succeeds Bret Simon, who resigned on November 15 after 11 years in the position. The Cardinal went 14-20-2 over the past two seasons. Stanford reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament in 2009. Gunn previously served as head coach at the University of North-Carolina Charlotte for the past five seasons, building the 49ers’ program into a national title contender. He led Charlotte to two NCAA tournament appearances, including this season when the 49ers advanced to the championship match of the College Cup before losing to top-ranked North Carolina. During the five seasons at Charlotte, Gunn compiled a 64-26-14 record, including a 5-2 mark in the NCAA Tournament. The 49ers also won a pair Atlantic-10 Conference titles under Gunn’s guidance in 2010 and `11. A 1993 graduate of Cal-State Bakersfield, Gunn began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater. He served on both the men’s and women’s coaching staffs during his seven-year stint at Bakersfield, helping the Roadrunners to the 1997 NCAA Division II National Championship and an appearance in the 1995 national semifinal. After leaving Cal-State Bakersfield, Gunn went to Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., where he built the program into a Division II power. Fort Lewis advanced to three national title games and won the 2005 Division II championship with a 22-0-1 mark, earning Gunn national coach of the year honors. Gunn finished his eight-year career at Fort Lewis with an overall record of 123-35-17 and in 13 seasons at Fort Lewis and Charlotte, Gunn is 18761-31 (.754) . . . Stanford added to its preseason baseball resume on Tuesday when Collegiate Baseball named right-hander Mark Appel to its first team and infielder Kenny Diekroeger to its second team. Third baseman Stephen Piscotty was named a first team preseason All-American by the National’s Collegiate Baseball Writers earlier this month. In other baseball news, Stanford was rated No. 3 by Collegiate Baseball in its national preseason poll. This is the highest ranking for the Cardinal program since it was rated No. 1 by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball in 2002’s preseason and No. 6 by both publications prior to the start of the 2004 and 2005 seasons . . . Stanford freshman diver Kristian Ipsen secured another spot at the World Cup in February, finishing second in the 3-meter on Monday at the Winter National Championships in Nashville, Tenn., following a combined score of 1516.55. Ipsen lost the gold medal by .20 points. Ipsen previously had secured a spot in the 3-meter synchro with a win during the weekend at the Winter Nationals.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Linebacker Trent Murphy
Wide receiver Drew Terrell
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