The Marshall News Messenger from Marshall, Texas • 13

Sunday, Dec. i. 1991 5b News Messenger First world champions! soccer team wins first title champion of women's soccer." Norway, playing an unattrac-. live but effective style of kicking long balls, blunted the U.S. attack for most of the game, and overtime appeared certain.

defender Tina Svensson hit a weak back pass toward goalie Reidun Sethi, but Akers-Stahl intercepted, dodged around Seth and pushed the ball into the open goal. It was one of the few mistakes the tough Norwegfan defense made in the game. "Not to take anything away from Michelle Akers-Stahl, she's the top goal scorer in this tournament (10 goals)," Dorrance said, "but the odds of a player of that caliber making that kind of mistake are remote. She jumped on the chance." In the first half, Akers-Stahl jumped to head a free kick from Shannon Higgins into the net for a 1-0 U.S. lead after 20 minutes.

But the Norwegians struck back eight minutes later on a similar ball lobbed into the penalty area, and Linda Medalen, Norway's top scorer, headed in her sixth goal for a 1-1 tie. Sweeper Heidi Stoere nearly won it for Norway with another head ball in the second half, but the ball flew-just over the -cross bar. "I knew before the game that tactically werwould have to play almost perfect, and I think we did a good job," Norwegian coach Even Pellerud said. "We created our chances and we might have scored, but we didn't. It was a very deserved victory for the U.S." "I never thought I'd be a starter," said U.S.

defender Linda Hamilton, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament a year ago and recovered in time to win back a starting spot. 1 U.S. women's CANTON, China (AP) The player U.S. coach Anson. Dor-rance calls the "consumnate goal scorer" scored the biggest goal of her career Saturday, giving the United States team the title in the first FIFA women's world soccer championship.

Striker Michelle Akers-Stahl took advantage of a Norwegian mistake and scored with three minutes left as the U.S. defeated Norway -2-1 before 60,000 fans at Tianhe Stadium. "I'm excited," said Dorrance, who has coached the U.S. women's team since 1986. "When they start listing world champions in women's soccer, the United States is at the top of that list.

That's a thrill. "But I'm'" not going to have any delusions of grandeur, because Norway could easily have won the game. We feel very lucky and privileged to be the first leads to gia Tech's backcourt of Jon Barry and freshman Travis Best to a combined 8-for-22 shooting effort, and that helped nullify the Yellow Jackets' size advantage up front. "Our big people went against some tough people and they had difficult people to cover," Eddie Sutton said. "We went with our smaller lineup because it's super quick and that's our best basketball team." Sean Sutton had 20 points and MVP Byron Houston added 19 as the Cowboys did have to sweat AMERICAN WINNERS Carin Jones, right, and Kimberlee Maslin Karmerdeiner, left, hold the FIFA Women's World Championship trophy after Saturday's final in Canton.

The U.S., which has never had much success in international soccer, won its first world title with a 2-1 victory over Norway. (PhotoAP) championship it a nine-point lead with a three-point play on a driving scoop shot after running the 45-second shot clock down to five seconds. "We were fighting for anything we could and we fought hard and got back within four," Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins said, "but that three-point play by Sean Sutton just broke our back." Matt Geiger led Georgia Tech with 19 points and Malcolm Mackey had 15, while Best finished with 12 points and nine assists. out a scoring drought in the second half that turned a comfortable early lead to a 52-48 squeaker with 10:21 left. "They had the momentum and we got stagnant, but our players held their poise," Sutton said.

"We got fatigued." The Cowboys remembered to get the ball to Houston and his with 6:35 left gave Oklahoma State a 60-53 lead. The Yellow Jackets were never closer than six again. The last time they were that close was 64-58, and Sutton made tr I I' When your air conditioning unit blow's its cool, you may face the choice of either replacing it with a new air conditioner or an electric heat pump. Before you decide, get the cold, hard facts about the heat pump. For starters, installing a heat pump may require putting larger duct work into place.

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Affordable Natural Gas. Tlx money-saving energy. JUMP Byron Houston, left, of Oklahoma State jumps after the ball with Matt Geiger, center, of Georgia Tech right behind. Houston, scoring 19 points, led Oklahoma State to a 78-71 victory in the preseason NIT Tournament. (PhotoAP) A broken air conditioner France closes in Defense NEW YORK (AP) Eddie Sutton has always believed successful basketball starts with defense.

Ask his players. Ask his family. Ask anyone who fits in both categories. Ask anyone who saw his 11th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-0) win the Preseason NIT on Friday night with a 78-71 victory over No. 18 Georgia "We take a lot of pride in our defense and that is my father's philosophy," said Oklahoma State guard Sean Sutton, also the son of the aformentioned Eddie.

"The way we defended is pretty typical of our backcourt and we have enough confidence that we can take the other guys out of their games." Georgia Tech (3-1) had looked like a scoring machine in a wild 120-107 semifinal win over Texas. Oklahoma State, which had held Pitt scoreless for 7:39 in the second half of its 74-63 semifinal win, changed all that with some old-fashioned make-em-earn-it defense. "We like to cover you, play defense and not turn it over," Eddie Sutton said. "We like to see balanced scoring." Oklahoma State checked Geor- on Cup and Forget 14-2. The two lefthanders have won all eight of the Davis Cup matches they've played- together.

Leconte, with the most stunning victory of an erratic career, transformed the final from a potential rout into a thriller with his 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 defeat of Sampras on Friday. In the other opening match, Agassi demolished Forget, 6-7, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. Sampras, perhaps the hottest player in the world in the past few months, seemed less bothered by the ecstatic, foot-stamping crowd than by Leconte's go-for-broke style. The 20-year-old Californian won the ATP tour championship this month in Frankfurt but was making his Davis Cup debut. the Pines LUNAR TIMES Longitude 94.23 Latitude 32.42 Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moon up Moon down Accuracy to 1 minute ishq reason to give up on OS 3 '-5 many waving French flags.

"The people are with us. It's fabulous," said Forget, seemingly free of any scars from his straight-set trouncing by Agassi on Friday. Noah, who gambled by picking Leconte for three matches despite his back operation in July, was almost overcome by emotion. "There's still one point to go," he said. "We can't let up." Flach and Seguso have been playing Davis Cup since 1985, winning 10 matches and losing only once previously, though they had never before played in a final.

They were runner-ups in last weekend's world doubles championship in Johannesburg, South Africa. Both French players have excellent Davis Cup doubles records Leconte is now 16-4 J50LUNARLUNAR TIMES Caddo Lake Lake of SOLUNAR TIMES 1991 A.M. P.M. Dec Minor Major Minor Major tne iamily unit. LYON, France (AP) Guy Forget and Henri Leconte put France within a point of its first Davis Cup since 1932, beating the U.S.

doubles team of Ken Flach and Robert Seguso 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 today. The victory, before an ecstatic crowd, gave France a 2-1 lead heading into the two reverse singles matches Sunday. Forget will play Pete Sampras, then Leconte faces Andre Agassi. Leconte, an instant national hero for his singles victory over Sampras on Friday, also was the dominant force in the doubles. His repertoire of exhortations, fist pumping and handslapping seemed to bolster Forget as well as himself, and a brilliant lob and service return helped break Flach's serve for a pivotal 3-2 in the fourth set.

The French duo, now 8-0 in Davis Cup play, lost service only twice and broke the Americans six times. Seguso lost his service four time, lwice on double faults. Leconte "won the match with a service', winner, then joined the entire French tearrii including reserves and captain Yannick Noah, in a melee of hugs and hand-slapping at courtside. The sellout crowd of 8,300, excluding a few dozen U.S. fans, stood in a deafening ovation, Dry Clcsns Ccrpots Instantly HOSTs liny cleaning "spongos" absorb deep-down diri.

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