Women's Sports Expands Varsity Role

Earl Webb

Cavalier Daily

Cavalier Daily

1975-09-03

Cavalier Daily

Women's Sports Expands Varsity Role
With an ever-increasing emphasis being put on women’s sports, students at the University have the opportunity this year to watch some of the finest women’s athletics around.
In the words of women’s athletic director Barbara Kelly, “We haven’t got equal funds and we are using poor facilities, but I guess we are pretty well-satisfied with the way things are improving.
The ladies compete in field hockey, swimming, basketball, tennis, and lacrosse on the intercollegiate level. All of the sports were part of the programs last year except lacrosse which was started last year as a club sport.
Last season’s field hockey squad sported an improved 9-3-2 record (over a previous 1-4-7 season) and placed two players, Kathy Devereux and Cindy Hook, on the all-star team in the Blue Ridge Hockey Tournament.
The team did not lose any players to graduation and will be under the direction of new coach Linda Southworth. Southworth will be the first full-time hockey coach and will also coach lacrosse.
The women’s swim team, in its first full season last year, posted a sparkling 10-1 record, finishing second in the state swimming meet. This season they will play a smaller but much more competitive schedule.
This season the women will swim against powerful schools such as VCU, Maryland, and N.C. State. The loss of female athlete-of-the-year Nan Hawthorne will hurt the Cavs, but coach Ron Good thinks he has recruits who more than adequately fill the void.
Graduation may be the worst enemy of this season’s women’s basketball team. New coach Dan Bonner will take over a team without it’s [sic] previous season’s scoring and rebounding leaders, Chris Dawson and Leslie Berens.
Last season’s squad finished with a fine 15-7 record, a five-win improvement over the previous tournament, the Cavs lost to Randolph Macon but came back to win the consolation tournament behind Dawson and Berens.
Returning guards Kathy Williams and Dianne Frederick will control the action in backcourt but Bonner will be searching for a complete new front line.
The Virginia women’s tennis team had their best season last year, posting a 7-4 season and sweeping the state championship.
This season’s squad will be without Kathleen Weber, one of the original organizers of the team. Returning for the Cavs are the O’Donnell twins, number one player Cheri and number two Keri, who faced each other in the state championship in Division I last year. Also returning are Dindy Hargadon, division II champ, and Julia Park, winner of Division III.
Virginia’s fledgling women’s lacrosse team began hapless and disorganized, but finished with a respectable 4-5 record for the season and two wins in the state tournament. This year there has been one significant change in the program – it has gone from a club sport to an intercollegiate sport.
The squad will be led once again by co-captains Barry Kilbourne and Kathy Smith, with the entire squad returning from last season.
Kelly stresses the lack of structure as a big roadblock to women’s athletics here. “Nothing here is really set yet, and structure is basic to any program,” Kelly states. However, if the trend in Virginia’s women’s sports continues along with it’s [sic] great improvement, there may be no need for added structure.