Page 8
Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012 The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper
TENNIS
Lone Senior Looks to Lead the Tennis Team Eric Harris Staff Writer
Claudine Paulson, the lone upperclassman on the women’s tennis team, looks to lead the Razorbacks to another successful year in the tough Southeastern Conference to culminate with another appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The senior from Guayaquil, Ecuador, has won 43 singles matches in her Razorback career and played primarily in the No. 3 position last season, but she has performed best in doubles matches with a career record of 66-39. Paulson had a strong season last year. She was a part of the No. 1 position in doubles with Laurie Gringas and competed in the NCAA Tournament against Long Beach State’s Laura Bernard and Rachel Manasse, winning
9-7. Paulson is looking to build off of her junior season where she finished with 13 doubles wins and 16 singles wins, including five of her first six and another five in a row later in the season. With a team full of young talent, Paulson is the only returning letterwinner and will be the main source of leadership this season. She is currently the only player for the Hogs that has gone through the rigors of a long SEC season. Before becoming a Razorback, Paulson was a solid player on the junior circuit. In 2007 she was ranked 85th by the International Tennis Federation. She has represented her home country of Ecuador multiple times in the Federation Cup, where she maintained an undefeated 4-0 record. In addition to being an excellent athlete, Paulson has
also had success in the classroom. Last spring, the human nutrition and hospitality major was one of the 77 Razorbacks to be named to the SEC Spring Honor Roll. She has also worked with the Razorbacks in community service efforts. Paulson and several other tennis and soccer players worked on a community service project, helping Habitat for Humanity build a house for a community member in September. Paulson is currently preparing with the rest of the team for the Country Club of Little Rock (CCLR) Invitational starting on Aug. 21. The CCLR Invitational is the inaugural event for the team this season and they will look to start it off strong. Paulson and the rest of the Hogs will take on Texas Tech, Oklahoma and SEC rival Ole Miss.
Photo courtesy of Athletic Media Relations Senior Claudine Paulson has a career singles match record of 43 wins, and a record of 66–39 in doubles. Paulson is the only senior player on the womens team this year.
SOCCER
Soccer Team Off to Rough Start
Haley Markle Asst. Sports Editor
The Razorback soccer team opened Southeastern Conference play last weekend with losses to both Ole Miss and Georgia. The team fell to the No. 22 Rebels Friday night in Oxford, Miss. by a score of 4-1. Even though the game was a loss, there are still some positives that can be taken away from the game, said head coach Colby
Hale. “There’s obviously things we’ve got to fix, we’re making silly mistakes that they need to get better,” Hale said. The Razorbacks finished the weekend with a 2-0 loss to the Bulldogs in Athens, Ga. Sunday. Hale was also confident that there are some good things the team can gain from this loss. “The first half we were very good. It might have been our best 45 minutes of soccer,” Hale said. “Both goals we gave up were not good. Against good teams you can’t give them goals,
they have to earn it and we didn’t do that.” Arkansas faces Kentucky Friday at 7 p.m. in Fayetteville. The Wildcats have the potential to compete for the SEC title this year, Hale said and will provide a challenge to the Razorbacks. “They’re very good,” Hale said. “This is the best Kentucky they’ve ever had.” The Razorbacks will face South Carolina Sunday at 1 p.m. Hale said they will provide challenges of their own. “They’re very good defensively, they’re organized, they’re
hard to break down, they don’t give the ball away,” Hale said of the Gamecocks. Hale is pleased with the effort he is getting from his team, but knows winning is what matters. “We’re going to work on the win, the result being the focus of what we do,” Hale said. “I feel like in terms of some process goals and changing culture and training habits and working on the organization of our team, we’ve made some progress. It’s time for us as a team to start saying the results matter.”
Mary McKay Staff Photographer Head soccer coach Colby Hale looks to improve his 0-2 SEC record this weekend against the Kentucky Wildcats and the South Carolina Gamecocks.
from SEDBERRY page 8 “I am appreciative of the opportunity Jeff Long, Jon Fagg and Eric Wood have given me to help lead this important part of the Razorback program,” Sedberry said. “Throughout my career, I have had a passion for helping student-athletes grow as individuals through intercollegiate athletics. I am excited about the direction of our program and the commitment that has been made to student-athlete development.” Before joining the UA athletics department, Sedberry was the director of Student Services at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. There he was in charge of the creation, development, supervision, implementation and evaluation of life skills programs for all UCF studentathletes. Since 2009, Sedberry has served as a consultant for the National Consortium for Academics and Sports and in 2011 he was selected as a member of the NCAA’s Leadership Institute. He is the author of the book “Be You! 10 Essential Qualities to Becoming an Exceptional You!” and is a co-author of the book “100 Pioneers: African Americans Who Broke Color Barriers in Sports.” Sedberry attended the University of Nebraska where he earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing and was a letterwinner on the Huskers’ track and field team. He then attended the DeVos Sports Business Management program at UCF and earned a master of business administration degree and a master of sports business management degree.
COMMENTARY
The South and Football: Hogs Will Rise Again Liz Beadle Staff Writer
At the advent of college football, the South wasn’t doing a whole lot of winning. Not when it came to football games, not when it came to national championships and not when it came to much else, either. The first official national champion was recorded in 1869 — at the height of Reconstruction when this was the most unpopular area of the country, not to mention the poorest and most backward. It wasn’t until LSU in 1908 that a team south of the Mason-Dixon line won a national championship in college football. My point is that these days we often think of the South — especially when it comes to football — as a culture based
exclusively upon winning. But in reality, this culture has just as much, if not more, to do with losing than it does winning. The South is a culture of fighting back, a culture of rising again, a culture of defying the odds, a culture of responding to adversity and ultimately a culture of being on the absolute wrong side of some crucial battles in this country. To be Southern, it has just become imperative to have a little bit of a chip on one’s shoulder. Arkansas fans, at this particular moment in time, know all too well that losing is a part of life. It sounds cliché, but life truly is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. Some very bad things have happened since that ill-fated April Fools Day when Bobby Petrino had a little too much fun with a motorcycle
and a mistress. In the long run, it’s our reactions that matter. I’ll tell you one person whose reaction I could not have been more proud of these past few days: Tyler Wilson. He seems to be the only leader within the program stepping up and expressing what we everyone wants to — that this is not okay. Arkansas fans are proud people. I won’t speak for all of you, but my ego is badly bruised right now. As Wilson said in the press conference Monday, “I’m an Arkansas kid; I know how much it means.” We are all proud of this school and this football team, and you know what? I, for one, am mad. I’m really mad.” It was good to see Wilson get mad. His statement after the game Saturday could not have been more accurate — simply put, “it sucks.”
It could be argued that this is the lowest point in Razorback football history. Since 2008, the Hogs have been out-scored 198-55 by Alabama. This Alabama win was the biggest shutout win for the Tide since 1948. Arkansas has been outscored 89-10 since losing Wilson to an injury “above the shoulders” in the second quarter against ULM. This was the first shutout in Fayetteville since 1966. Arkansas is currently ranked 86th in total offense, 93rd in total defense, 106th in rushing offense, 112th in time of possession and 119th in turnover margin. There are 120 NCAA Division I football teams. In the words of John L. Smith in his postgame press conference Saturday, “that’s about as bad as I can remember as a football team.” Don’t even
get me started on how much this whole debacle is costing. Now it’s time for the rest of those involved to react. Athletic director, coach, player and fans all have to react positively, strongly and promptly. Arkansas has to display the fight and the resilience that has kept Southerners going since Gettysburg and the burning of Atlanta. There are nine games left in the season, and the Hogs control their destiny in every single one of them. The Hogs have to prove that down is not out if they want what was supposed to be their dream season to be anything short of a complete and total nightmare. Liz Beadle is a staff writer for The Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears every other Wednesday. Follow the sports section on Twitter @UATravSports.
COLLEGE SKI & BOARD WEEK Breckenridge Keystone
• •
Vail • Beaver Creek Arapahoe Basin
breckenridge
20 Mountains. 5 Resorts. 1 Price. FROM ONLY
plus t/s
WWW.UBSKI.COM
1-800-SKI-WILD • 1-800-754-9453