Hockey vs. Michigan State Friday, 7:30 p.m. Yost Ice Arena SPORTS Tuesday, January 26, 1988 Men's gymnastics vs. Minnesota Friday Crisler Arena The Michigan Daily Page 9 Blue Lines Icers injuries... F-I ...blessing in disguise? By JULIE HOLLMAN With only four more weeks remaining in the 1987-88 hockey sea' son, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings don't look much different from the way they have in the past three years - except for the third place spot. The stranger hovering just within the top third of the league is Michigan, a team which has seen no better than seventh since the 1984- 85 season. Despite suffering a tough loss to Ferris State last Saturday, the Wolverines look strong. "You have to give Michigan credit," said Bulldog head coach John Perpich. "They're a great team and I think they can win the division." Winning the CCHA title looks doubtful, but Michigan should at least make its presence felt as the season winds down. The Illinois- Chicago series, Jan. 15-16, marked the first time this season head coach Red Berenson has been able to compile three strong lines. These three combinations propelled the Wolverines to their first conference sweep over the Flames and the dominance continued into the next series. LAST FRIDAY night against Ferris, the Wolverines controlled the game. After falling behind 1-0 in the first period, Michigan came back in the second to score four goals and unsettle the Bulldogs for the rest of the night. More importantly, Michigan continued its firing attack in the third period, its chronic trouble spot, by slapping in four more goals. Saturday, the Wolverines played strong again but only for two-thirds of the game. They came out of the lockerroom sluggishly and didn't begin to play until the second period. They then battled back from a three goal deficit to tie the game before giving up a power play goal and an insurance goal in the third frame. If Michigan has one major flaw at this point, it is the failure to play the full 60 minutes. Keeping the intensity level high will be a key to Michigan's success against Michigan State and Lake Superior, the league leaders. One player whose intensity has been on overload is Bryan Deasley. Since working his way back to 100 percent after missing the first six weeks of the season, Deasley has made up for lost time.by scoring in 10 of the last 11 games, including two hat tricks in the last fourgames. Besides Deasley's scoring barrage, another major factor in the Wolverines' improvement is the rash of injuries. "You don't like to look at injuries in a positive light, but it gave other players an oppor- tunity to play, which increased our depth," said Berenson. THE PLAYER who has benefitted the.most from this ironic for- tune is newcomer Jim Ballantine. Since the beginning of the new year when four wingers dropped in and out 'of the lineup, Ballantine has scored six of his seven points. Others who reacted positively to the voids left by the casualties, are Todd Brost, Billy Powers, and Don Stone. When the injuries reached their height, the three were placed on the same line in order to counter- act the loss of fire power provided by Joe Lockwood and Brad Mc- Caughey. The new line met the demands by taking over the offense. Brost, the junior captain, has scored seven of his 16 goals in the last nine games. In his last eight games, Powers has scored 18 of his 35 points while increasing his scoring streak to 19 of the last 20 games. Stone refused to be left out and reacted by scoring 13 of his 28 points in the last nine games. For the first time in Berenson's Michigan coaching career, the Wolverines look destined to go beyond the first round of the playoffs. Right now, the team is on the brink of being ready to seriously contend for an NCAA bid. CCHA Scorecard Daily Photo by DAVID LUBLINER Todd Brost (9) has benefitted from the recent rash of injuries to hit the Wolverines. By scoring 15 of his 35 points in the last nine games, he has emerged as one of Michigan's top scoring threats. SPOR TS OF THE DAIL Y Men spikers defeat Fort Wayne Bible College, Michigan State over weekend By STEVEN COHEN Competing with little financial or fan support , Michigan's men's club volleyball team has nonetheless opened its season with three consecutive victories. The men's volleyball team participates on the club level. In other words, the team must spike, set, block, and volley without the monetary aid accorded to teams on the Division I level. In fact, the members of the team bought their uniforms themselves. First-year head coach Peg Mc- Carthy, who doubles as the women's assistant coach, must deal with addi- tional duties unrelated to coaching. "The school gives us a certain amount of aid but we also rely on the players' parents and outside sources for donations." INSUFFICIENT FUNDS forced the Wolverine squad to miss the national championships last year, but neither money nor talent should hold back the team this year. "I think we will finish in the top eight in the nationals in Maryland. We have a big, blocking team," said McCarthy. In order to succeed at the nation- als, Michigan's team must continue t to perform at a high level. In their first contest this year, the team de- feated Grand Valley State with club captain Tony Rodriguez and sopho- more Bill Fink performing capably for the Wolverines. THIS PAST weekend, Michi- gan topped Fort Wayne Bible Col- lege and Michigan State. Coach McCarthy had two objectives, to win and to give all 15 members playing time. She accomplished both goals. In the first match against Michi- gan State the team dropped the third" game, 15-13, but won the others, 15-3,15-13, and 15-5. Michigan also needed four games to defeat FWBC on Saturday. Coach McCarthy was disappointed in los- ing a game but was glad that she could play everyone. Michigan won 15-1, 12-15, 15-4, and 15-4. Next on the schedule is Notre Dame on Saturday. Last year the Irish gave the Midwest Champion Wolverines their stiffest competi- tion. "Notre Dame has some strong outside hitters. We must concentrate on our passing and defense to win," McCarthy said. McCarthy feels that this team is better than last year's and should fare well against the remaining competi- tion. The schedule includes such schools as Toledo, Bowling Green, Illinois State, and Miami of Ohio. Women cagers lose again The Michigan women's basket- ball team took its show on the road Sunday to DeKalb, Ill., but the re- sult was definitely not a "hit". The home court advantage, along with 33 Michigan turnovers, enabled Northern Illinois to capture a 81-78 victory over the Wolverines. While Michigan head coach Bud VanDeWege was disappointed with the Wolverines' 31 shooting perfor- mance against Michigan State, the Wolverines responded with a 52 per cent shooting performance. NORTHERN Illinois forward Gena Stubbs led the Huskies with a game-high 26 points. Stubbs domi- nated the first-half in leading North- ern to a 39-38 halftime lead. Sophomore Tanya Powell who scored 25 points and grabbed 10 re- bounds fueled the Wolverine attack. Lisa Reynolds played a supporting role with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Michigan's Leslie Spicer was a welcome surprise in her first start of the season. The sophomore forward scored her season-high 21 points, while keeping the Wolverines close. Stubbs put Northern Illinois up for good with a three-point play with 3:08 left in the contest. Spicer closed the Huskie lead to one with eight seconds left with a jump shot but, Stubbs once again grabbed cen- t ter stage with the final two points of the game. VanDeWege was not exactly pleased with the referees after the game. He criticized the officials for missing "a lot of obvious stuff," and favoring the home team. MICHAEL SALINSKY NCAA Hockey Spicer ... season-high 21 points Michigan Daily SPORTS 763-0376 1. Maine 2. Minnesota 3. L. Superior 4. Michigan St. 5. Harvard 6. Wisconsin 7. N'Eastern 8. Colgate 9. Lowell 10. Denver 11. St. Lawr. 12. MICHIGAN 13. Vermont 14. Bowl. Green 15. Cornell W 20 22 20 18 12 19 13 14 13 15 14 17 12 16 10 L 4 6 4 7 4 11 11 5 1 6 1 4 9 5 Poll T Pts 2 99 0 84 4 53 3 46 0 45 0 0 39 0 0 37 1 32 0 0 2.5 2 2 23 0 22 3 0 16 1 13 2 7 0 4 3. MICHIGAN 1 3 1 1 0 2 6 4. W. Michigan 12 9 1 25 5. Bowl. Green 11 9 2 24 6. Ferris State 8 12 4 20 7. Ill. Chicago 8 13 1 .17 8. Ohio State 5 13 4 '14 9. Miami, Ohio 5 18 1 11 Jan. 29 Games Michigan State at MICHIGAN, 7:30 p.m. Bowling Green at Ill. Chicago Lake Superior at W. Michigan Ohio State at Ferris State x-Mich. Dearborn at Miami Jan. 30 Games MICHIGAN at Michigan State, 7:30 Bowling Green at. Ill. Chicago Lake Superior at W. Michigan Ohio State at Ferris State x-Mich. Dearborn at Miami x-non-conference CCHA tandings W L T Pts 16 4 4 36 16 5 3 35 1. 2. L. Superior Michigan St. Knight will not resign BLOOMINGTON, Ind., (AP) - Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight denied rumors yesterday that he was resigning after his team's subpar performance so far this season, calling the reports "bull." Indiana University President Thomas Ehrlich also denied the ru- mor, saying early last evening , "No, coach Knight did not resign. Right Now he should be out on the court practicing basketball." The Hoosier practices are closed and Knight could not be reached for direct comment, but he attempted to scotch the rumors last night at the start of his radio talk show. "The key word in the whole thing is bull," Knight said. "If we com- ment on it now we might as well comment on it for four hours:" The rumors apparently started yesterday afternoon with an Indi- anapolis radio station, WIBC. After- noon disc jockey Jerry Baker went on the air to report that listeners had called to inquire whether Knight had resigned. WANTED: TREASU RER. MICHIGAN STUDENT ASSEMBLY (MSA) * Serve your student government in a leadership role " More than just a resume padder " Flexible hours RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE: u Composing and allocating $500,000 annual budget. . Maintaining MSA financial records. * Implementing a computerized bookkeeping Counseling Services Group INTIMACY AND INDEPENDENCE HOW CAN WF RF Cl OSF