Men's Tennis
vs. Wisconsin
Today, 1:00 p.m.
Liberty Tennis and Fitness Club
SPORTS
Softball
vs. Michigan State
Wednesday, 3:00 p.m.
'M' Varsity Diamond
The Michigan Daily Sunday, April 14, 1985 Page 7
Netters top
GopI
By RICK KAPLAN
Smiles came over the faces of the Minnesota tennis
players when they heard that Michigan's top player,
Jim Sharton, was not going to play. But the
Wolverines turned the smiles to frowns, defeating the
defending Big Ten champions, 6-3, yesterday at the,
Liberty Tennis and Fitness Club.
With Sharton home in Massachusetts for his
brother's wedding, Michigan coach Brian Eisner
moved each of his singles players up a notch in the
lineup. The move seemed to fire the team up, as the
Wolverines grabbed four of the six singles matches.
"THE THING that we did today that we haven't
done, with the exception of the Notre Dame match,
(which Michigan won, 9-0) was that we had nine good
matches played," said Michigan coach Brian Eisner.
"In some of them we didn't play quite well enough to
win, but there was not a bad match."
The best performance was turned in by Michigan
freshman Jon Morris. Morris, one of five freshmen
to play for the Wolverines yesterday, defeated Min-
nesota captain Peter Kolaric, 6-3, 6-3. Morris con-
trolled the tempo of the match to easily dispose of his
opponent. -
Filling in for Sharton at first singles was John
Royer. Ordinarily Michigan's number two man,
Royer was overpowered by Minnesota's Matt Grace,
one of the top players in the conference. Royer star-
ted out with a bang, winning the first game without
losing a point, and serving an ace. But Matt showed
grace under pressure, rebounding quickly. Royer
was unable to break Grace's serve in either set, and
lost both by 6-4 scores.
THE FIRST singles match offered a contrast in
playing styles. Royer was extremely excitable,
screaming "C'mon," and "How could you miss that
one," when he misplayed a point. Grace remained
calm and completely emotionless, showing the same
facial expressions after hitting a winner as after
missing an easy putaway.
At sixth singles, Michigan's John Solik won the
quickest match of the day. Solik beat Gopher fresh-
man Tom Olmscheid, 7-6,6-4.
Michigan junior Ed Filer came from behind to
defeat Chuck Merzbacher at number two, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Filer, a transfer from South Carolina and one of the
team's most emotional players, came alive once he
got momentum in the second set.
FRANZ GEIGER also won for the Wolverines in
three sets. Playing fifth singles, Geiger dumped
Minnesota senior David Blackstone, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
ers, 6-3
At number four singles, the Gophers' impressive
freshman Casey Merickel defeated Brad Koontz, 7-5,
7-5. Koontz led 5-2 in the second set but lostthe next
five games. "At that stage, I think Brad was a little
tired," said Eisner. "But as I look at their lineup,
number four singles is their strongest positior4. Brad
played a good match, but if he plays a little better he
gets out of that one."
The doubles matches gave Eisner cause for op-
timism. Michigan won two out of three doubles mat-
ches.
THE NUMBER one doubles team, without Sharton,
consisted of Filer and Jed Hakken (the team of Ed
and Jed). Grace and Merzbacher handled Ed and
Jed, 6-4, 6-2. "(Grace and Merzbacher) are as good a
team as there is in this part of the country," said
Eisner.
Morris and Royer (the Jon-John team) won their
second doubles match over Kolaric and Gary Aasen,
6-0, 6-2. "We did a lot of work with them in practice,"
said Eisner. "Instead of having one up and one back
against the serve, we have them both back. That gives
them much more freedom to use their power."
Koontz and Tomas Andersson also breezed in third
doubles, 6-3, 6-0, over Merickel and Olmscheid. "The
addition of Tomas Andersson, with his quickness and
athletic ability up at the net, and Brad's return-of-
serve ability and power, make that a very good
team," Eisner said.
With Sharton's brother's wedding celebration over,
he will be back today. But he won't find any
celebrations in Ann Arbor, as the Wolverines are
back in action this afternoon against a tough Wiscon-
sin team at Liberty at 1:00 p.m. Wisconsin's only los
in the Big Ten thus far was a 5-4 decision against
Minnesota.
Wolverine Ed Filer prepares to launch a backhand while playing first
doulbes during Michigan's victory over Minnesota. Filer and his partner
Jed Hakken lost the match, 6-4, 6-2, but Filer beat Gopher Chuck Merzbacher
4-6, 6-3, 6-1, in their second singles confrontation.
Solik
... quick win
Volleyball club bows in semis
Womennetters nipped
by Illini, nail Purdue
By LESLIE HAMEL
Team work and great coaching were
the key factors to a much-improved
men's volleyball team. Losing to Notre
Dame in the semi-finals of yesterday's
championship qualifying tournament,
the volleyball was disappointed with
its performance.
Two years ago this team had only one
win all season, but with good coachings
and players working together, the
Wolverines finished at a respectable 19-
14 mark (five of these losses being to
varsity teams).
MICHIGAN hosted eight teams in
yesterday's 1985 Midwest Inter-
collegiate Qualifying Tournament. The
team had a slow start against its first
opponent, Ohio Wesleyan,-losing its fir-
st game, 9-15. After creating some of-
fense, with the help of strong hitting by
team member Tom Swartzendruber.
and captain Tom Franke, Michigan
went on to win its next two games, 15-8
and 15-5.
Gaining power from its victories,
Michigan started strong against Pur-
due, capitalizing on the Boilermakers
sloppy play. Purdue was intimidated
by Michigan's block, and had to resist
to dinking the ball. Consistent hitting
by Barry Epstein and good setting by
Tony Rodrigacy held Pudue to five
points in the two games.
Michigan's next opponent was Nor-
thern Illinois. Although they were
defeated, in two games out of three, the
Wolverines did some of their finest
playing of the afternoon. The teams were
evenly matched in skill, but the
Wolverines couldn't seem to block 6'5"
Joe Mrkvicka of NIU.
MICHIGAN ADVANCED to the semi-
finals against Notre Dame. The
Fighting Irish took them in two games,
11-15 and 11-15. "I can't be too dis-
pointed," said Franke. "They played
better. We really improved this year
We have never had such a good chance
to go to the championships."
Coach Martin McFadden played a
major role in the team's improvement.
"We have had a really good year. We
finished with a winning record and two
all-star players." McFadden went on to
be chosen the Midwest Intercollegiate
Volleyball coach of the year.
Yesterday's final action concluded
with Notre Dame beating Northern
Illinois three games to four. The Irish
will advance to the championships,
leaving NIU in second, with Michigan
following in third.
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SPOR TS OF THE DAIL Y:
Larkin,'s homers key 'M' sweep
By JERRY MUTH
Although they were looking forward
to two Big Ten victories this weekend,
the women's tennis team could
manage to net only one. But there
were signs of hope in this weekend's
tennis action.
The Wolverine women took advan-
tage of strong singles play and a good
doubles effort yesterday to down Pur-
due, 5-4. Turning in strong efforts for
the netters were Paula Reichert at
first singles, Leslie Mackey at second
singles and Tina Basle at third. Each
walked off with straight set wins
against their Boilermaker foes.
EVEN SO, the match was tied 3-3
going into doubles action at the Track
and Tennis building. And then the
doubles teams took control. Reichert
and Mackey teamed up for one
doubles triumph in staight sets, 6-1, 6-
3, while freshmen Tina Basle and
Lynn Wise paired up for the match
clincer in a hard fought 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
battle.
Second singles player Leslie
Mackey was especially happy with
her performance in yesterday's win.
"I played really well. It's the best I've
played in a long time," said the
freshman.
Head coach Bitsy Ritt was also
pleased with the efforts of her doubles
teams. "The doubles looked much
better today, and the top half of the
singles played well," said the first
year head coach.
HOWEVER, Friday's match with
Illinois had a similar script but
yielded a different outcome. The
groundstrokers led 4-2 heading into
doubles action, but ended up losing, 5-
4. Mackey called the loss "a bum-
mer," but was pleased the team
raised its overall record to 2-6 yester-
day
The weekend split with Big Ten op-
ponents should leave the Wolverines
seeded eighth in the upcoming Big
Ten tournament May 3 at Iowa City,
according to Mackey, although there
are still two Big Ten matches to be
played.
Special to the Daily .
COLUMBUS - Michigan shortstop Barry Larkin hit solo
homeruns in both games and went 3 for 6 with 4 RBIs on the
afternoon to lead the Wolverines to a doubleheader sweep
yesterday at Ohio State, 8-5 and 2-1. Michigan ace Scott.
Kamieniecki struggled, but was able to pitch through the six-
th inning and pick up the victory in the opener, raising his
record on the season to 6-0. In the nightcap Mike Ignasiak
turned in a strong performance for the Wolverines, scat-
tering five hits and pitched into the seventh, getting relief
help from Greg Everson.
In'game one, the Wolverines scored four times in the sixth
inning to overcome a 5-4 deficit. The rally started with the
bases empty and two out on back-to-back singles by Matt
Siuda and Randy Wolfe. Then pinch-hitter Jeff Minnick
singled in the tying run and Mike Watters reached base on an
infield single, the winning run scoring all the way from
second base. Larkin capped the scoring with a 2-run triple.
The second game was a pitcher's duel with a total of only
nine hits in the game. The Wolverines got all four of their hits
in the first three innings.
After Larkin homered in the first to give Michigan a 1-0
lead, Jeff Minick singled in Casey Close for what proved to be
the winning run in the second inning. The Wolverines are now
22-5 overall on the season, 4-2 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes
fell to 10-7, 0-2.
Linksters take seventh at Marshall
Special to the Daily
HUNTINGTON, W. Va.-In the last day of the Marshall In-
vitational Golf tournament, Michigan's Peter Savarino and
Dan Roberts shot a 72 and 73 respectively to propel the
Wolverines to an eight-place finish in the eighteen-team field.
Heavily-favored Ohio State ran away with the three-day
tournament, with a total of 861 strokes. Kent State led the
rest of the field with 896. Marshall and Eastern Michigan tied
for third with 900 strokes.
MICHIGAN was only three strokes back at 903, and Dan
Roberts was the runner-up to Ohio State's Clark Burroughs,
who recorded the best overall score. Burroughs won a medal
for his score of 212, while Roberts came close with a 217.
Michigan head coach Jim Carras was pleased with his
team's performance. "It was good to see the improvement
we've made, but we still have to work on our consistency" he
said. "But we're happy with this finish and look to be better
next week (when the Wolverines travel to DeKalb, Illinois to
compete in the Mid-American Conference tournament."
Scott Chipokas pleased his coach with his score of 74, which
gave him a tournament total of 227, just ahead of Savarino's
228.
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