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. THE DAILY CLASSIFIEDS ARE A GREAT WAY TO GET FAST RESULTS CALL 764-0557 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. NOT ENOUGH ROOM IN YOUR TRUNK? , 4 ti ,; . i. -. ;.: /1, Advertise in CLASSIFIEDS Sell your lofts, furniture, carpets and other white elephants before you leave. YEAR END SALE April 17 I want my ad in: Q April17 a rn N~mA Name I