“Hollie adds a ‘true shooter’ to our roster,” says Zips head coach Roxanne Allen. Stephenson averaged 18 points, seven rebounds and 4.5 assists per game as a senior for Lowndes High School and was chosen for the Georgia-Tennessee All-Star Game. Her team finished 23-5 and lost in the second round of the state tournament. Stephenson carries a 3.2 GPA, is in the top 10 percent of her high school class and is looking ahead one day to law school.
She becomes the sixth recruit signed by Allen and her staff during ‘97-98 and joins Felecia Bell (Minneapolis, Minn.), Sierra Cooper (Herndon, Va.), Katie Hank (Medina), Kimberly Larson (Plano, Texas) and Terrah Yeager (Youngstown).
The Zips posted a remarkable 12-18 log in Allen’s first season after going 5-21 in ‘96-97.
First pitch is slated for 6 o’clock. Tickets are priced at $4 for adults and $2 for youths. UA students are admitted free with a current ID.
Coach Deanna Parks’ club won five of six MAC games last week, but trails Central Michigan (20-3-1) for the overall MAC lead with one conference weekend to go. The winner gains the #1 seed and will host the MAC tournament May 7-9. Junior catcher Kelli Metzger (Louisville) cracked two home runs last week and is tied for 10th on the NCAA’s Division I career home run list with 37.
At the Penn Relay Carnival, senior Nate Norris (Elyria/Catholic) narrowly missed (by less than one second) a school mark in the 10,000 meters (30:11.22) and placed 21st. Sophomore Christi Smith (Columbus/Bexley) finished second in the heptathlon (5,214 points). Junior Mike Slomovitz (Woodmere/Orange) placed sixth in the high jump (6-7 1/2).
Hipsher, 43, guided the Zips to a 17-10 mark and the 1998 Mid-American Conference East Division title. He was selected in statewide voting by his peers and edged University of Cincinnati's Bob Huggins (former Zips coach from 1985-89) for the award.
The 1998 MAC Coach of the Year, Hipsher was appointed at Akron on March 29, 1995, and had to rebuild the program from scratch, going 3-23 and 8-18 in his first two seasons. Following the '96-97 season, UA extended Hipsher's contract three years to 2002 and this year again added three more years, taking his pact into the year 2005.
The Zips' 17 wins are the most at UA since a 21-8 slate under Huggins in '88-89 and the school's first winning season since 1991-92. Akron ranked among the top four in the MAC (out of 12 teams) in scoring average (75.3), scoring defense (67.6), scoring margin (+7.7), field goal percentage (47.2), field goal percentage defense (42.9), assist-turnover ratio and blocked shots.
A native of Fostoria, Ohio, Hipsher is a 1977 Bowling Green State University graduate. He served as an assistant under Don Donoher at Dayton for nine years and has since been his league's coach of the year three times during his nine seasons as a college head coach.
A native of Jersey City, N. J., Johnson averaged 18 points and eight rebounds per game last winter for Penn Valley, which has qualified for the Junior College National Tournament the last two years and reached the championship game in 1997.
"Kirene is a great competitor who goes to battle every night," says Zips coach Dan Hipsher. "He can run the floor, score around the basket, and rebound the ball. He'll really help us inside."
Johnson is the fourth recruit and first junior college player to sign with the Zips cage program during '97-98. Just last week, 6-0 point guard Cornell Felton, the 1997 Northern Virginia prep Player of the Year at Hayfield High School (Alexandria, Va.), inked his letter of intent. On April 8, Antwain Lavender (an-TWON), a 5-7 point guard out of Columbus Brookhaven High School, joined the Zips. Lavender was a second-team All-Ohio Division I selection after averaging 16.4 points and 5.4 assists per game as a senior. David Falknor, the 6-7 three-point-shooting forward out of Bellevue, who signed with the Zips last fall, completed his senior season with a 22.4-points-per-game scoring average and earned first-team Division II All-Ohio and district player-of-the-year honors.
In addition, Marco Morgan, a 1997 graduate of Massillon Washington High School and a 1997 third-team Division I All-Ohio pick, is enrolled at UA. A 6-9, 240-pound forward, Morgan attended Moberly Junior College in Missouri during the fall semester and will be eligible to play for the Zips in 1999-2000. He averaged 20.4 points per game for the Massillon Tigers his senior season. Morgan will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Akron posted a 17-10 mark in '97-98 and captured the Mid-American Conference East Division title under 1998 MAC Coach of the Year Dan Hipsher.
The 1997 Northern Virginia Player of the Year, Felton averaged 19 points, six assists and four rebounds per game for Hayfield High School during the '97-98 season. A member of the Washington, D. C. All-District team, he racked up 122 steals and was runnerup for region player of the year.
"Cornell is the kind of point guard that accounts for about 30-35 points each game," says Zips coach Dan Hipsher. "He either scores 20 points with five assists or scores 10 points and has 10 assists. He knows what he needs to do on a given night in order to win."
Felton is the third high school senior to sign with the Zips cage program during '97-98. Two weeks ago, Antwain Lavender (an-TWON), a 5-7 point guard out of Columbus Brookhaven High School, joined the Zips. Lavender was a second-team All-Ohio Division I selection after averaging 16.4 points and 5.4 assists per game as a senior. David Falknor, the 6-7 three-point-shooting forward out of Bellevue, who signed with the Zips last fall, completed his senior season with a 22.4-points-per-game scoring average and earned first-team Division II All-Ohio and district player-of-the-year honors.
In addition, Marco Morgan, a 1997 graduate of Massillon Washington High School and a 1997 third-team Division I All-Ohio pick, is enrolled at UA. A 6-9, 240-pound forward, Morgan attended Moberly Junior College in Missouri during the fall semester and will be eligible to play for the Zips in 1999-2000. He averaged 20.4 points per game for the Massillon Tigers his senior season. Morgan will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Akron posted a 17-10 mark in '97-98 and captured the Mid-American Conference East Division title under 1998 MAC Coach of the Year Dan Hipsher.
1998 Zips Football Schedule
Sept. 5 MARSHALL* (Acme-Zip Game) 7:00 p.m. Sept. 12 at Temple (Franklin Field) 6:00 p.m. Sept. 26 BALL STATE* 7:00 p.m. Oct. 3 at Pittsburgh 3:30 p.m. Oct. 10 at Kent* 2:00 p.m. Oct. 17 at Ohio* Noon (tentative) Oct. 24 TOLEDO* (Homecoming) 1:30 p.m. Oct. 31 at Central Michigan* 1:00 p.m. Nov. 7 at Bowling Green* Noon Nov. 14 EASTERN MICHIGAN 1:30 p.m. Nov. 21 MIAMI (O.)* 1:30 p.m. * -- MAC Games Home Games in CAPS All Times Eastern
Millard, a 3.94 GPA student in biology with chemistry and Spanish minors, is a second-team selection and becomes the first UA soccer player and the 10th University student-athlete to be so honored. Akron athletes have been chosen on the Academic All-America Team 12 times, with distance runner Lynn (Jutte) Brant being recognized three times (1992-94). The last Zip to be named Academic All-American: Patti Godzinski, a second-team pick in volleyball in 1995.
Millard, a midfielder, was named first-team All-Mid-American Conference and first-team Academic All-MAC in 1997. Following his freshman season in 1995, he was named the MAC Soccer Newcomer of the Year.
Competition gets under way Thursday morning at 8:30 when #8 Akron and #9 Toledo square off in an elimination match. The MAC championship is a dual meet format, rather than a bracketed championship. Coach Frank Polito’s women finished the regular season 6-12 (1-7 MAC). Freshman Becky Schrager (South Euclid/Brush) has a 16-15 mark at No. 3 singles. Akron hosted the MAC men’s championship one year ago.
The Zips are coming off an impressive showing at the Northern Illinois Midwestern Invitational over the weekend. Coach Rick Jones’ club won its second tournament of ‘97-98 by seven strokes over runnersup NIU and Bowling Green, 588-595. Junior Billy Williamson (Loveland) and senior Greg Boyette (Hudson) placed second and third, respectively, with scores of 144 and 145.
Metzger, UA’s and the MAC’s career leader in dingers, now is at 34 and nine for the season. Coach Deanna Parks’ club improved to 21-11 overall and 10-2 in the MAC to assume first place in the East and in the overall standings.
Akron also got strong pitching performances from seniors Shelby Howell (Bellflower, Calif.) and Vanessa Williams (Artesia, Calif.). Williams hurled the 29th no-hitter in UA history on Sunday and blanked Marshall, 5-0. The only blemish was a full-count walk in the third inning. Metzger and Williams are the MAC Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Apr. 6-12. Howell tossed 15 2/3 scoreless innings and knocked in the 100th run of her career.
The Zips entertain Kent on Tuesday at 2 p.m. before traveling to Michigan for twin bills at Central on Friday and Eastern on Saturday.
Kimberly Larson is a native of Plano, Texas, and is an honor student (10.3 GPA on a 10.0 scale) at Plano High School. The 6-1 forward started for Plano's varsity basketball team for two years, as Plano requires that only juniors and seniors play varsity sports. In her two years on the varsity, Plano was 21-9 in 1996-97 and 22-9 in 1997-98. Both years, her team was District co-champion. Larson has twice been named first-team All-District and the team's high rebounder. This season, she was also recognized as a team captain and the team's outstanding defender while averaging 10.5 points and 11 rebounds per game, along with 1.2 blocks and 1.4 steals.
Out of Campbell, Ohio, and Youngstown Ursuline High School, Terrah Yeager was a 6-1 power forward for Ursuline's 16-7 divisional finalist team. This year, Yeager was named first-team All-Steel Valley, first-team All-Sectional, sectional tournament MVP, first-team All-District and third-team All-Ohio while averaging 18.3 points, 12.5 rebounds and two blocks per contest.
After transferring from The College of Wooster to follow Coach Allen and sitting out the NCAA's mandatory transfer year, Katie Hank will play for the 1998-99 Zips. Hank, a graduate of Lakewood High School in Medina, Ohio, played the 1996-97 season for Allen at Wooster. That season, Hank played in 23 of the team's 25 games, averaging 8.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game while averaging 25 minutes per game on the floor. Hank will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Larson, Yeager and Hank join Allen's early signees, Felecia Bell (Minneapolis, Minn./North) and Sierra Cooper (Herndon, Va./Oakton) in this year's recruiting class. Bell averaged 10.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.6 steals and 3.8 assists as a part of Minneapolis North's 29-0 Minnesota state championship team, while Cooper earned All-Virginia, first-team All-District and second-team All-Region honors at Oakton High School while averaging 13.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists and two steals per game.
"This group will fill a lot of voids for us," said Allen. "They can shoot consistently well and will give us an outside threat. They're versatile and will give us depth both inside and outside. We now have depth on this team, with three or four players per position instead of one or two. This class will allow us to play a different style of basketball than what we saw last season, as we will be able to combine the experience of our returning players with the talent of our incoming class."
Earning the Best Defensive Player award was sophomore guard Erica Glover (Warren/Warren G. Harding), who also shared the Coaches' Award with senior Mickey Timco (Chardon). Abby Hoy (Williamsburg, Pa.) was the team's assist leader, Amanda Hubbard (Canton/McKinley) led in steals, and Akron's two most recent Mid-American Conference All-Freshman team members, Cheryl Bowles (Kansas City, Mo./Park Hill) and sophomore Jamie Scott (Canal Winchester) were UA's top rebounders. Junior Laura Braaten (Strongsville) was named the team's Most Improved Player, and Amie Marks (Jewett/Jewett-Scio), an honorable mention Academic All-MAC selection, was the team's Zips Scholar.
A second-team Division I All-Ohio selection, Lavender averaged 16.4 points per game during the recently completed season and earned Central District Player of the Year notice. He was a three-time all-city choice and this year was tabbed Columbus Dispatch prep Player of the Year.
"Antwain has great quickness and is a proven winner," says Zips coach Dan Hipsher. "He has the ability to make big plays while also running the show for his teammates."
Brookhaven finished the '97-98 season as regional runnerup with a 22-4 overall record. The Bearcats won the Columbus city league title with a 14-0 mark.
In addition, Marco Morgan, a 1997 graduate of Massillon Washington High School and a third-team Division I All-Ohio pick that same year, is enrolled at UA. A 6-9, 240-pound forward, Morgan attended Moberly Junior College in Missouri during the fall semester and will be eligible to play for the Zips in 1999-2000. He averaged 20.4 points per game for the Massillon Tigers his senior season. Morgan will have three years of eligibility remaining.
David Falknor, the 6-7 three-point-shooting forward out of Bellevue, who signed with the Zips last fall, completed his senior season with a 22.4 points-per-game scoring average and earned first-team Division II All-Ohio and district player-of-the-year honors.
Akron posted a 17-10 mark in '97-98 and captured the Mid-American Conference East Division title under 1998 MAC Coach of the Year Dan Hipsher.
Over 14 home dates, an average of 3,620 fans turned out to see coach Dan Hipsher's 1998 Mid-American Conference East Division champs. That represented Akron's best attendance figure of the 1990s. UA averaged 2,289 spectators during 1995-96, Hipsher's first season on campus.
The Zips topped 4,000 at James A. Rhodes Arena six times last winter, with the final two Kent games attracting 5,338 and 5,460 fans, respectively. (Average home attendance figures: '88-89- 3,780, '90-91- 2,816, '91-92- 3,021, '92-93- 3,111, '93-94- 2,798, '94-95- 1,671, '95-96- 2,289, '96-97- 3,228, '97-98- 3,620.)
Adam Flagler was named third-team All-Ohio and team MVP following his senior season at Westerville North High School, in 1997. Westerville North lost the 1997 OHSAA championship game to Strongsville on penalty kicks last fall. The 6-0, 180-pound defenseman is considered one of the best defensemen coming out of Ohio this year, and has played on club teams with Tim Cooper for the past several years. Cooper is a left-footed defenseman who played at Westerville South High School, and was a member of the Ohio South state team. The pair's club team has won the Ohio state title for the past three seasons.
Orion Bjorneso and Andreas Gallefoss will double the number of Norwegians on the Zips roster, joining 1997 Akron newcomers Christer Larsen and Nicholas Nunn. Both played on the same Fyllingen club team as Nunn. Bjorneso is a five-time member of the Norwegian under-17 national team. The right-side attacker toured Italy with that team, and is very quick and creative with the ball. Gallefoss played three seasons with Fyllingen, and was the team's top scorer at age 17. He is the captain of his state team (Norway has nine state teams, which are one step below the national team), and was named Player of the Year and Most Improved Player for his current club team, Trane.
Matt Sprague will transfer to Akron this fall from The Ohio State University, where he was a key part of OSU's 1995 and 1996 campaigns. The 6-4 North Olmsted native was second-team All-Big Ten as a freshman, playing in all 17 of the team's games and earning the team's Most Improved Player award. As a sophomore in 1996, Sprague played and started in 16 games, scoring one goal and two assists on nine shots and was named Best Defensive Player at the OSU/Nike Kickoff Classic.
Doug Deken will join his older brother Brian, who will be a senior in the fall, on the 1998 Zips roster. The Strongsville, Ohio, native played his freshman season in 1997 at UNC-Charlotte, starting in the first nine games of the 49ers season and playing in every minute of the first six games before moving into a reserve midfielder role. Deken earned NCAA tournament experience in the 49ers' 5-0 loss to Elite Eight participant Clemson in the first round of the 1997 tournament. Deken earned numerous honors during his career at Strongsville High School, including NSCAA Parade All-America recognition, and notice as the Gatorade, NSCAA and Ohio Coaches Association Player of the Year for Ohio. He was a two-time first-team All-Ohio selection, and played with the U. S. under-17 team at the U-17 World Cup in Ecuador in 1995.
"I'm very happy with this recruiting class," said UA head coach Ken Lolla. "This group is quite versatile, and will help us all over the field. They are extremely experienced, as two have NCAA Division I experience, and two have great foreign experience under their belt. It's a group that should be able to step in and help right away."
Akron is scheduled to begin its 1998 season on September 1, when the Zips play host to Oakland at Lee Jackson Field at 7:15 p.m.
Marks, a captain for first-year coach Roxanne Allen, averaged 11.5 points per game and led the team in three-point shooting, sinking 25 of 69 (36.2 percent). She maintains a 3.80 cumulative GPA as a special/adaptive physical education major and was named MAC Scholar-Athlete twice during her career. Akron finished 12-18 overall (8-10 in the MAC, sixth place overall) and qualified for the MAC postseason tournament. Lowe, who placed seventh in the decathlon last week at the 71st Texas Relays and ninth at the '97 MAC Outdoor Championships, carries a 3.21 GPA in graphic design.
Smith broke her own school record (4,828 points in 1997) and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with a runnerup total of 5,218 points. BYU's Marsha Mark won the competition (5,639). Defending NCAA champion Tiffany Lott, also of Brigham Young, placed fifth.
In men's decathlon, senior Aron McGuire (Kent Roosevelt) finished third with a school-record tally of 6,656 points. Junior Mike Slomovitz (Woodmere/Orange) came in fourth.
Indoor high jump All-America Laura Wozniak (Brunswick) cleared 5-10 at Texas, placed third and provisionally qualified for NCAAs as well.
At Ohio's McDonald's Invitational on Saturday, two freshmen athletes set school marks in throwing events. Jessie Sheeran (Fostoria) hurled the discus 140-7 and placed third. Jim Ingersoll (Green) threw the hammer 141-4 to top Ron Johnson's toss of 140-11 last spring.
Also in Athens, freshman sprinter Jamie Johnson (Cleveland/Glenville) won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Another rookie, Heather Globig (Madison), won the pole vault. UA placed fourth in both the men's and women's standings, despite missing the five key athletes who competed in Texas.