Mayberry at the Bat
It’s hard to put a price tag on the Stanford experience. But if you asked John Mayberry Jr., he might put the figure at a couple million. That’s about how much the freshman reportedly turned down from the Seattle Mariners last summer to play baseball for the Cardinal. Mayberry, the only 2002 first-round draft pick to forgo the majors for a four-year school, hit safely in 22 of his first 23 games and is among the team leaders in nearly every offensive category. With Mayberry’s powerful bat in the lineup, the No. 4-ranked Cardinal is off to a 21-10 start in its bid for a fifth straight trip to the College World Series.
Shaw Joins the 500 Club
Don Shaw became the third Stanford coach in as many months to reach the 500-career-win mark when the men’s volleyball team (14-11) defeated UC-San Diego, 3-1, on February 15. (Men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery and women’s volleyball coach John Dunning both reached the milestone in December.) Shaw recorded 440 of those wins during his 16 years as coach of the women’s squad, which he guided to four national titles. Since moving over to the men’s side in 2001, he is focusing on getting Stanford its first postseason win since the 1997 national championship game.
At the Olympic Training Center, It’s Synch or Swim
As the Stanford synchronized swimming team headed to Arizona in March for the U.S. Collegiate Championships, two of the squad’s top performers were on a plane bound for Colorado. Juniors Erin Dobratz and Katie Norris were headed for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where they are vying for two of the nine spots on the team that will compete at the 2004 Games in Athens. Even without Dobratz and Norris, the Stanford squad was able to claim second at the Collegiate Championships, overcoming a tough field to finish just behind perennial champion Ohio State for the fourth straight year.
Starting the Season with a Splash
When the Stanford women’s water polo team took on the U.S. national team in February, it was sometimes hard to keep track of who was on which side. The national team lineup boasted several recent Stanford grads, while the Cardinal squad was led into battle by senior goalkeeper Jackie Frank and junior driver Brenda Villa, both of whom competed with Team USA at the FINA World Cup over the summer. Stanford dropped the match with the national team, but little else has gone wrong for the defending national champion Cardinal this season. Its NCAA-best 14-2 record includes a pair of wins over rival UCLA.
