oss, and batted down a crucial pass at the

MANHATTAN, Kan. Will Harris Youth Jersey . -- The threshold for climbing into Kansas State coach Bill Snyders good graces is quite high.Take the case of running back Charles Jones, who earned an uneven grade despite gashing Texas on Saturday because of his goal-line fumble. Or quarterback Jesse Ertz, whose near-flawless first half was followed by a tough second half that drew Snyders infamous ire.That may be why defensive end Jordan Willis has stood out so much.The senior had a pair of sacks in Saturdays 24-21 victory , giving him 22 1/2 for his career and moving him past Monty Beisel for fourth-most in school history. Willis also tied for the team lead with seven tackles, including three for a loss, and batted down a crucial pass at the line of scrimmage.It led to a glowing review from Snyder, no qualifiers involved.Jordan just plays so hard and he prepares exactly that way, the 77-year-old coach said. There is not one-tenth of a second of any snap that he takes that is not the best effort that he can give. I admire him and appreciate him so very much.Thats the flip-side of the high bar that Snyder sets. When you manage to achieve it, the feeling is almost otherworldly -- like a player has somehow qualified for the most exclusive of clubs.Willis has managed to scratch and claw his way in over the past four years.He was a lightly recruited defensive end out of perennial power Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, and wound up choosing the Wildcats over an offer from Indiana and not much else. But he made big strides from the moment he set foot on campus, and even earned playing time as a freshman.That would be another rarity in Snyders program.He still remembers his first sack, too. It was against Iowa State as a freshman and he had gotten into the game in the fourth quarter. It was third down and Willis lost containment on the quarterback, but managed to track him down before he got across the line of scrimmage.It went down as a sack. Willis got bawled out by the coaches on the sideline.That was not only his only sack that season, it was his only tackle. But Willis fought his way into the lineup more as a sophomore, piling up 4 1/2 sacks in 11 games, and added 8 1/2 sacks and 14 tackles for loss last year, when he earned a reputation as one of the Big 12s best pass rushers.Hes made improvement in that area, Snyder said. He just reacts quicker to certain things that have allowed his pass rush to become better. It is a matter of experience again.Perhaps the reason that Willis has been so successful is that his own standard is quite high. And in that respect, he walks lock-step with his hard-to-please coach.I think my pass rush can always be better, he said. There are always small things like pad level that we can improve on, but as a team we need to get better at tackling. ... There were not a lot of communication issues last game, but we can still improve there.We did a lot of good things but there are still some small things we can improve on.The Wildcats (4-3, 2-2) are not a team of star power, like they were with Collin Klein or Tyler Lockett or Darren Sproles in years past. Their offense takes on a decidedly committee-like approach to moving the ball, and their defense is a collection of solid, blue-collar players.As a result, Willis has become one of the few players who have stood out.Yet of all the things that endears him to Snyder, his desire to put the team first might just top the list. Willis has made enough plays that his spot in the Kansas State record book is secure, but he would rather the record ultimately show that his team was a winner.Weve had our ups and downs, he said. Right now, were a team that is doing well and then not so well -- its just a matter of putting it all together. I know Coach Snyder has been speaking about it, so its just a matter of starting the game and finishing the game and doing it all the way. T.J. Hockenson Womens Jersey . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. Matthew Stafford Youth Jersey . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. http://www.lionsfanspro.com/Black-Will-H...ey.html?cat=972 . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. The third-seeded pair of Sania Mirza and her partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic advanced to the doubles final of the Wuhan Open, winning their quarter-final and semi-final matches, both of which were played in Wuhan, China on Friday. While they beat sixth-seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 7-6 [7-5] in the early evening session, their semi-finals win by a score of 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 came in an hour and 26 minutes against?the second-seeded pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chin of Chinese Taipei a few hours later.Sania and Strycova lost serve three times in the opening set, but broke four times to take the first set in just 27 minutes in their semi-final.?The second set saw the higher-ranked Chan sisters break their opponents early on, and they maintained that lead to open up a 4-2 lead in the process. Though Sania and Strycova broke back, they would drop serve immediately afterwards, and the set was wrapped up by the Chinese Taipei pair in a little over half an hour.?Sania and Strycova tried their best to keep pace with their opponents in the 10-point tie-breaker in the final set, despite trailing 3-1 and 4-3 at different stages. They were able to win five of the last seven points played to wrap up the match on the very first match point they got.Earlier in their quarter-final, Sania and Strycova were the first to break serve in the first set, taking a 2-0 lead in tthe process. Austin Bryant Youth Jersey. Both teams then traded a break apiece over the next two games, before the Indo-Czech pair held to go 4-1 up. There were no further service breaks, as Sania and Strycova won the first set 6-3 in 27 minutes.After the second set began with two service holds, Babos and Shvedova were broken again to give the third seeds a 2-1 advantage. But they broke their opponents immediately to restore parity. Sania and Strycova broke serve in the seventh game, however, and then had their first four match points with their opponents 0-40 down at 3-5 in the second set. Babos and Shvedova came back to hold, and then faced another match point as their opponents looked to close out the match on serve, but broke back to make it 5-5. Serving at 6-5 down, this time Sania and Strycova had to save three set points to take the second set into a tiebreak, which they won 7-5 to take the second set in 53 minutes.Sania will defend her doubles title at this event, which she won alongside Martina Hingis in 2015, against fifth-seeds American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic in the final.Sania and Strycova have already won two out of three events entered since coming together after the Rio Olympics in August, with their most-recent title coming in Tokyo last weekend. ' ' '