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6 • The Red and Black » Thursday, January 10, 1991
SPORTS
FANFARE
The Lady Dogs basketball team ran away from South Carolina
State with a win Wednesday night 10054. Camille Lowe was the
Dogs' leading scorer with 19 points. The Lady Dogs used their
team speed to open a lead, which never was In danger.
Volvo Tennis ranks
Dog luo an exception to the
Georgia’s Parker and Arnold at top
usual
Talk about a one-two punch.
As Georgia’s men’s tennis team
prepares to open up its 1991 dual
match season, it’ll find itself with
one of the strongest possible line
ups at the No. 1 and 2 singles posi
tions.
When the Volvo Tennis Colle
giate Tennis Rankings were re
leased on Dec. 12, Georgia’s top
two players, A1 Parker and Patricio
Arnold, found themselves respec
tively ranked No. 1 and 2 in the
country.
“It’s pretty rare to have players
ranked No. 1 and 2 from the same
school,” Paul Rydings, the Intercol
legiate Tennis Coaches Associa
tion’s Chairman of Division I
tennis rankings said. “You usually
have two players ranked in the Top
10. That’s happened before, but
No. 1 and No. 2 is pretty unusual.”
Parker and Arnold are only the
second duo hailing from the same
school to be ranked in the top two
positions since the men’s rankings
were introduced in 1979. Pepper-
dine’s Robbie Weiss and Andrew
Sznajder were ranked No. 1 and 2
respectively during the winter of
1988. On a few occasions, Stanford
women have ranked No. 1 and No.
2 in the Volvo Tennis women’s
rankings, including the current
standings which place Sandra
Birch No. 1 in front of teammate
Debbie Graham.
“It’s a very nice honor,” Georgia
Coach Manuel Diaz said. “We
shouldn’t pay much attention to
the rankings, but to what got us
that recognition. We have to re
main hungry and keep working on
what got us those honors.”
Ivan Baron is ranked
highest among
freshmen
Parker, who tallied a 12*2 fall
season record, won two tourna
ments in the fall including the first
leg of the collegiate Grand Slam,
the Volvo Tennis Collegiate
Championships. Arnold, a sopho
more from Argentina, won the
second leg of the Grand Slam, the
Dupont National Clay Court
Championships, en route to a 18-4
record.
Parker, a senior from Claxton
Ga., earned the No. 1 ranking in
the nation for two months last
winter. However, a multitude of in
juries in the remainder of the
season dropped Parker from the
top spot down to a final ranking of
No. 7. Arnold, who arrived at
Georgia last January, was at one
point ranked No. 75 last year, but
dropped from the year-end rank
ings. In the Volvo Tennis pre
season polls, Parker was ranked
No. 5, wnile Arnold was unranked.
Georgia’s prospective No. 3
player, Ivan Baron, is ranked No.
18 in the current rankings — the
highest among freshmen in the
country. Baron was ranked No. 24
in the Volvo pre-season poll, and
won the Southern Collegiate sin
gles title in his first ever collegiate
competition.
However, both Parker and Ar
nold won’t have time to relish their
achievements. They'll continue to
work to improve and sharpen their
S ames in preparation for Georgia’s
an. 19 season-opening dual match
against Northwestern at the Amer
ican Airlines Classic in Chicago.
Tracy Stanbarg/The Rad and Black
Al Parker (L) and Patricio Arnold (R)
Spivey: Serious challenge to all-around record
By LYA WODRASKA
Sports Writer
Georgia freshman gymnast
Hope Spivey and her mother were
watching the gymnastics portion of
the 1976 Olympics when she
turned to her mother and said
“Mom, I’m going to do that one
day.”
Spivey’s prophecy rnng true as
she competed in the 1988 Olympic
Trials in Salt Lake City, where she
finished third out of the top 20
gymnasts in the nation. Her per
formance, which included a 9.875
on vnult, earned her a spot on the
1988 Olympic team.
Although she trained with the
Olympic team in Houston for two
weeks before leaving for Seoul,
Spivey thought the whole scenario
was a dream until the team arrived
at the Olympic village.
“When we were flying to Korea,
we kept thinking about com
peting,” she said. “When we got to
the village, we looked at each other
like ‘Guys, we are here. We are at
the Olympics.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
Although Spivey’s attention was
focused on the competition, the
opening ceremonies are her fa
vorite memories.
“It’s hard to explain the feeling
of being there,” she said. “I had to
think of the meet as just another
meet so I wouldn’t get really ner
vous, but the opening ceremonies
was something I’ll never forget.”
Spivey’s scores in the Olympics
ranged from 9.85 on vnult to a
9.275 (after a fall) on the uneven
bars. Her overall score of 77.45 (out
of a possible 80) was g(X)d enough
for fourth on the U.S. team and
30th overall.
Ironically, Georgia’s new assis
tant coach is Delene Darst, a
former judge and an assistant on
the 1984 Olympic team, who has
worked with Spivey and judged her
at different times throughout her
career, including the 1988 Olym
pics.
“One of the things I was most
impressed with was her flexi
bility,” Darst said. "She’s not natu
rally flexible and in 1986 (during
the Goodwill Games) and competi
tions leading up to that, she was
struggling to develop the leg flexi
bility she needed to do well. She ac-
uired that flexibilty by the
lympics.”
Spivey’s journey to the Olympics
began when she left her family and
her hometown of Suffolk, Virginia
and moved to Allentown, Pennsyl
vania, at 13 to train with the Par-
kettes gymnastic club.
Some 13-year-olds might be hes
itant about leaving their families,
but it didn’t bother Spivey.
“You’re young so you don’t re
alize what’s going on,” Spivey said.
“Back then, I just wanted to be the
best gymnast I could be.”
“My parents were really sup
portive. If I felt I couldn’t handle it
emotionally, I knew I could go
home.”
Donna Strauss, her coach at the
time, suid Spivey’s power and de-
qu
01
termination were her greatest as
sets.
“She was very determined,” she
said. “When she fell on bars (at the
1988 Olympics), she came back and
finished on the balance beam with
a very good routine (9.675 score).”
Strauss continued to coach
Spivey through various competi
tions that eventually led to the
1987 Pan American Games. As a
member of the gold medal team,
Spivey competed with a stress frac
ture in her back that hindered her
uneven bar routine.
“We knew there was something
wrong with my back beforehand. I
did a straddle back (a movement
from the high to the low bar ending
in a handstand) and my back went
out. I was in a back brace for six
weeks.”
Spivey’s long training hours
le in high school, (five days a
week for six hours a day), placed
her school work secondary to gym
nastics.
“My freshman and sophomore
years were hard because I was
hardly ever in school. When I
wasn r t training, we were at meets
where we’d be gone for a week.”
However, academics played a
major part in Spivey's decision to
become a Bulldog.
‘The developmental studies pro
gram caught my attention because
of my high school experience. I
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The Red & Black
We need writers for news, features,
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knew I needed help on picking up
things I had missed.”
A potential trap that athletes
can fall into is slacking off on their
training once they reach college.
However, Spivey hopes to avoid
that pitfall.
“I still push myself because I
know that the desire is still there
and why shouldn’t I do something
when I know I can?” Spivey said.
Georgia gymnastics coach Suz
anne Yoculan agrees.
“Hope knows that the training
today will pay off later,” she said.
“She takes gymnastics very se
riously. She practices hard and
doesn’t waste any time.”
“If there is anyone that can chal
lenge the all-around record at
Georgia it is going to be Hope,” Yo
culan said. “She is very capable of
scoring a 9.8 (out of 10) on all four
events.”
Even though gymnastics has
been a focal part of her life, Spivey
doesn’t regret anything.
"Sometimes I ask myself why I
am doing this, but it’s because I
really enjoy the sport,” Spivey said.
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