Golf hall honoring UA coach

Considering her playing career ended less than 10 years ago, Arkansas Coach Shauna Estes-Taylor was surprised to learn she had been nominated for induction into the National Golf Coaches Association Coaches and Players Hall of Fame.

“I had no idea,” said a laughing Estes-Taylor. “I thought I was a little young.”

Estes-Taylor learned of her nomination via a telephone call roughly a month ago, and it was announced Tuesday that she’ll be inducted into the hall on Dec. 10 in Las Vegas. Estes-Taylor came to Arkansas as an assistant coach in 2003 and is in her second season as head coach.

Estes-Taylor played at Georgia, where she became the first golfer in SEC history to win SEC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors, as well as the SEC Championship in 1997. She also won league titles in 1998 and 1999 and was part of three SEC championship teams that finished among the top 10 nationally.

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“Not very often do I think back on my accomplishments as a player, but I pull from those experiences a lot as a coach to try and lead my team here at Arkansas,” Estes-Taylor said. “It’s just a really proud moment for my parents and the sacrifices they made to give me the opportunity to play college golf... and then the leadership of my golf coach, Beans Kelly at Georgia, which is why I’m in coaching today. “ I’m just really thrilled and excited about it.” Estes-Taylor will be introduced for induction by Kelley Hester. Hester has known Estes-Taylor since their days at Georgia and hired her as an assistant at Arkansas before eventually returning to succeed Kelly.

SWIMMING Four records fall Arkansas’ 21 st-ranked swimming and diving team continued an impressive fall season with a handful of recordbreaking performances at last week’s Minnesota U. S. Grand Prix.

Leah Pierce (100 and 200 breaststroke ), Katie Kastes (200 IM ) and Lynette Eng (100 backstroke ) set school records in what essentially served as the Razorbacks’ final fall event. The efforts of Kastes and Eng were a long time coming in at least one regard, as the mark Eng broke had stood for 15 years while the mark Kastes topped was 18 years old. “We’re excited to make them more current,” Coach Jeff Poppell said. “That’s for sure.” Arkansas now enters a “basebuilding period” of training before opening the spring season Jan. 10. “This period of training, from now through January, is actually one of our heavier training periods of the year,” Poppell said. “As pleasing as our performances were this fall, I think everybody understands that that’s just more or less a start. “ In February, we’re looking forward to even better things.”

VOLLEYBALL New blood It was understandable when first-year volleyball coach Robert Pulliza missed his usual weekly news conference to attend to recruiting matters.

Arkansas is just 7-20 this season, including 4-13 in SEC matches. The Razorbacks host LSU (15-9, 10-7 ) on Friday and Georgia (16-12, 9-8 ) on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Pulliza announced the signing of three new players: Amanda Anderson, Jasmine Norton and Kendall Cleveland. Anderson is a 6-2 middle blocker, while Norton and Cleveland are outside hitters.

“I can’t even express how excited we are for our first recruiting class here at Arkansas,” Pulliza said through a news release. “These three athletes came on campus and saw the vision we have for Arkansas volleyball and they saw what the University of Arkansas has to offer and they want to be a part of that.

“ I think we’ve addressed some of our needs during the early signing period, and we’re looking forward to making this 2009 class one of the best in the country as we continue to work towards our next signing date.” On tap SPORT COMMENT Cross country NCAAs on Monday Swimming & diving In the fast lane Volleyball Sign ‘ em up