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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Iolani High graduate Chong serves notice before transfer

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Tennis standout Tracie Chong is going to transfer to Rice next semester, but she is going to leave a lot of memories at UNLV.

CHONG
Chong (Iolani '01 of Hawai'i Kai) was selected as the Mountain West Conference's first Player of the Week of the spring season after she went 4-1 and won the consolation bracket at the Collegiate Tennis Kickoff Classic at UNLV.

She defeated opponents from No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Florida and No. 11 Tennessee.

"Tracie Chong proved that she can play with the top players in the country," coach Kevin Cory said. "She just destroyed them, and that's a good indication of how far she can go. The sky's the limit with her," he told the Las Vegas Journal-Review.

Chong helped UNLV rise to a No. 15 national ranking.

"I practiced really hard (at home) over Christmas vacation," she told the newspaper. In the tournament, "I played out of my mind and everything just fell into my hands."

She has since added three more victories to improve to 13-5. Last season Chong went 24-9.

"She has a deceptive game because she hits the ball early and extremely hard. It's difficult to read where she's going to put the ball," Cory told the Journal-Review.

But Chong, who has a 3.9 grade point average at UNLV, is leaving Las Vegas after this semester to further her computer engineering major at Rice.

• Saint Louis

Sophomore Ikaika Jobe (Punahou '01 of Wailupe Peninsula) posted a 12-3 record in the fall and is playing No. 1 singles again this spring. He recently defeated No. 85 Alex Menichini of TCU, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.



BASEBALL

• New Mexico

A change of climate appears to have reinvigorated the career of pitcher Chad Giannetti (Punahou '98 of Hale'iwa).

Giannetti asked for his release from the University of Hawai'i last summer after he had gone from pitching 80 innings with a 5.47 earned run average in 2001 to 13 2/3 innings with a 10.54 ERA last season.

He transferred to New Mexico and after two weeks this season has a 2.70 earned run average in 10 innings for the Lobos with one walk and six strikeouts. He is 1-0 in two starts.

The pain in the knees of starting catcher Scott Tajima (Iolani '98 of Manoa) got to be too much and he is foregoing his senior season at New Mexico.

Coach Rich Alday has signed Pearl City shortstop Chad Itokazu for next season.



WATER POLO

• UCLA

FLANAGAN
After one weekend of the women's water polo season, there already has been a showdown between No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 UCLA.

UCLA senior Maureen Flanagan (Punahou '99 of Hawai'i Kai) scored two goals, but Stanford won 4-3 on Sunday, reprising its victory in last season's NCAA championship game.

"She kept us in the game," coach Adam Krikorian said of Flanagan."

Flanagan's sister, freshman Katie Flanagan (Punahou '02), is in UCLA's 10-player main rotation as a defender.

Red-shirt sophomore Leah Wilson (Iolani '00 of Hawai'i Kai) scored a career-best two goals earlier Sunday against UC-Santa Cruz.

Two other 2002 Bruin recruits from Punahou are no longer on the squad. Annie Richardson, two-time Player of the Year in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, didn't like the big-school atmosphere at UCLA and transferred to Division III Claremont, where she is on the water polo roster. Goalkeeper Meagan Fawcett gave up the sport.

• Yale

Junior Andrew Bassford (Punahou '00 of Wai'alae Nui) is, in the words of an admiring teammate, "an absolute house in the water."

And it is hard for opponents to score in goalkeeper Bassford's house. He was chosen Player of the Year in the New England Water Polo League, composed of club teams.

"He has been the main guy on our team for three years; he kept us all together," player-coach James Tunick said. "He consistently has more than 15 saves a game; he's an absolute house in the water."



BASKETBALL

• Menlo (Calif.)

Nalu Perkins (Kamehameha '02 of Kaimuki) got five seconds of fame recently.

Perkins entered a game against Bethany in the final two minutes and scored a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that lifted Menlo over 100 points to a 101-60 victory.

"The gym went crazy," coach Keith Larsen said.

Miguel Parks (Pearl City '00), a 4.0 student, also is on the team.



• Eastern Arizona (JC)

Phil Jackson, a 1992 Maryknoll graduate who has been out of school for more than five years, has returned to classes and the court.

He joined the Gila Monsters after Christmas and is averaging eight points and five rebounds per game.