Hockey vs. Western Michigan Friday, 7:30 p.m. Yost Ice Arena SPORTS Football vs. Ohip St. Saturday, 12:15 p.m. (ABOJ Michigan Stadium . Pag6 7 The Michigan Daily Wednesday, November 22, 1989 E A Icers try to halt skid No. 15 I 'M' battles ,roncos for third place by Andrew Gottesman Daily Hockey Writer While most students will be digging into their Thanksgiving dinner this week, the Michigan hockey team will try to dig itself out of its current hole in a home-and- *home series against Western Michigan. The series begins Friday at Yost Ice Arena and continues Saturday at Western's Lawson Ice Arena. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m. The Wolverines (6-5-1, both overall and in the CCHA) have dropped five of their last eight games, including last weekend when they were swept by Ohio State. But coach Red Berenson is not quite ready to panic just yet. "We're not going to change our game," he said. "We've just got to play with more consistency." . Western coach Bill Wilkinson is just hoping Michigan does not pick this weekend to come alive. "You're always concerned that They're going to right themselves against you," Wilkinson said. The Broncos (8-4, 6-4) have also been struggling. After sweeping Ohio State on the road, the Broncos came home and split with seventh-place Miami (OH). Western Michigan will have a chance to overtake Michigan in the CCHA standings during the series. Western enters the weekend in fifth place with 12 points, only one point behind the Wolverines, who are tied for third with Ohio State. The Wolverines will have to be consistent when they are under heavy pressure. Michigan has played average hockey when down a man, BASKETBALL Continued from Page 1. Despite not having Elliot and Cook, expectations are high after last season's 29-4 record which included a 17-1 conference mark. Looking to offset their loss is 6- foot-10 sophomore Brian Williams, a center-forward who was redshirted after transferringfrom Maryland last year. Arizona coach Lute Olson looks *to rotate Williams with another 'Our kids would rather be looking. down the barrel at a team like Arizona than a team which, no matter how you play, you're going to win.' - coach Steve Fisher sophomore, 6-11 Sean Rooks, to cause havoc for Michigan under the boards. "There is the possibility that we will have Williams and Rooks compete in one spot, giving us a rotation where we can have one give us four or five minutes of intense play and then let the other guy go for some time," Olson said. "There fs no question that at various times they can be the most impressive of Runners prove they belong by John Niyo Daily Sports Writer The Michigan women's cross country team capitalized on its opportunity on Monday, finishing fifteenth at the NCAA Championships in Annapolis, Maryland. Senior standout runner Mindy Rowand had some welcome company on her plane flight to and from Annapolis this weekend. She was joined by her teammates who unexpectedly earned a bid last Tuesday to run in the final meet. Rowand had placed second individually at the NCAA Regional meet to qualify automatically. The team had not expected to receive one of six at-large bids. Not only did the Wolverine squad participate at the national meet, but they also proved that they belonged there. They were better than seven other teams at the meet, including Minnesota which had finished second in the regional meet, but placed 21st at nationals. "The team ran great. A lot of people will look at fifteenth place and not think much of it, but that's fifteenth place in the nation. This is a team that had a lot of injuries. We were without Kim Haluscsak (Michigan's number four runner last year as a freshman) all season. I think it was a good strong performance," Rowand said. Michigan reverted back to its usual form in Annapolis, with veteran runners Karen Welke and Jennifer McPeck helping Rowand lead the way and rookies Molly McClimmon and Colleen Yuhn providing strong help as well. Welke and McPeck had faltered at the regional meet. "They (Welke and McPeck) really bounced back well from regionals. I was very pleased. We were hoping for a top fifteen team finish. We knew we were capable o>~ something like that with a decent race," Foster said. Rowand knew that she was capable of several things: as well. She set out to accomplish a few goals of her own in the last cross country meet she will run fob Michigan. ,4 "I was shooting for a top fifteen finish, but I talked to Sue before the race and she said I should try for to, ten, instead. My goal was to break 17 minutes at first; Then I saw the course and said 'No way.' The course was brutal," Rowand said. The course was so brutal that Rowand's Big Ten nemesis, Indiana's Michelle Dekkers, could not run. barefoot as she usually does. Much of the race was run' on a gravel road making footing rough for all the runners. Despite the conditions, Rowand raced through the course in 16:53.4 to finish eighth overall. Dekkers placed third with a time of 16:36.5, while Villanova's Vicki Huber blew away the field to finish first ink 15:59.9. Huber led her Wildcat teammates to the national team title in the process. Although Rowand could not beat Dekkers, the Big Ten champion, she was able to overcome her other conference rival, Jeanne Kruckeberg of Iowa, who had: edged out Rowand for second place in the October 28. conference meet. Kruckeberg crossed the finish line in 10th place on Monday. Michigan had something to prove this weekend. They showed everyone that they belonged among the nation's finest teams. JOSE JUAREZ/Di Senior center Rob Brown and the rest of the Michigan squad will look to skate past Western Michigan in a home-and-home series this weekend. allowing 14 goals allowed in 54 attempts (.260). They will be hard pressed to improve upon that average, as the Broncos enter the series with the best power play in the CCHA. They have capitalized on 23 of 74 attempts (.311). "They have a prolific power play right now," Berenson said. But the Broncos offense does not even need the man advantage to be a threat. They field three 20-point scorers in Mike Eastwood (11 goals- 12 assists-23 points), Shane Redshaw (14-6-20) and Keith Jones (8-12-20). Defenseman Mike Posma (3-13-16) is fourth in scoring with 16 points. Michigan's leading scorer, Rob Brown (5-8-13), has 13 points. "That (Western's offense) will be a real challenge to us," Berenson said. "They are probably the best offensive team we've played so far. But maybe that's what we need right now." The Broncos are even dangerous in a shorthanded situation. They have scored eight goals when a man down. Western Michigan holds a 19-13- 3 edge in the series after the teams split four games last year. Each won once on the road and tied once on the road. Spartans give spikers hope in finale by TheodoreiCox Daily Sports Writer The women's volleyball team has one last match before burying this season's last place finish. Michigan (1-16 in the Big Ten) will travel to East Lansing tonight to face another powerhouse, Michigan State (3-14). The Spartans have one win over the Wolverines already this year. Middle hitter Becky Belanger and outside hitter Jill Krumm picked apart the Wolverine defense to snatch an early season victory for MSU at Varsity Arena. "We just didn't have any blocking last time," Michigan coach Joyce Davis said. "The main thing that concerns me is our serve-receive and defense against Belanger and Krumm." Service returning ineptitude is a main reason for Michigan's firm grip on last place. When a team can't handle serves, there is no chance for the squad to set up an offense. "If we play as poorly on serve- receive as we did last weekend against Purdue, we'll kill ourselves," Davis said. Even though the game is meaningless as far as standings are concerned, state pride is reason enough to play hard. "Anytime you have a Michigan State-Michigan match up, motiv- ation is not a problem," Davis said. The fact that they are playing in their last collegiate game will motivate Michigan seniors Carla Hunter, Kim Clover, and captain Karen Marshall. All three will leave their mark in the Michigan record book. Marshalf is the all-time record holder for career kills (1052) and Kim Clover holds the record for block assists (259). There is one more record that will be set tonight, all-time block solos. Clover and Hunter are battling for the title. Hunter is the current leader,; 103 to 101 respectively. our big people." Williams won the ACC Rookie of the Year award two years ago, but with a year off from collegiate ac- tion, Fisher wonders how effective he will be at the start of the season. "He's someone that you never know, after they sit out a year, how long it's going to take them to regain the form they flashed when they were getting all that publicity," Fisher said. Junior guard Matt Muehlebach (7.6 points per game) will be saddled with the job of guarding Robinson because Olson believes he can do the best job of keeping the All- American candidate from penetrating. Muehlebach is teamed in the backcourt with Jed Buechler, another starter on last year's squad who averaged 11 ppg and 6.6 rebounds. In the 1987 Great Alaska Shootout, the Wildcats outgunned the Wolverines, 79-64. Although many player's remain from the two squads, Olson believes this weekend's game will showcase the Wolverine's experience. , "When we met before, we came in as a veteran ball club, playing like a veteran ball club," Olson said. "They had Rumeal and (Terry) Mills coming off Prop. 48. They were unsettled for who was going to play there. We took advantage of that. Now their positions have been pretty much established. It's a veteran ball club with their top six. That's a big advantage going to a first game like this." Fisher added: "You hope and think that veteran players are better able to cope and respond to early season pressures. We weren't green last time - we had a senior in Gary Grant and a junior in Glen Rice, all who started the year before. But we did have Terry and Rumeal who were playing their second games." After being eliminated in the Western Regional semifinal on a last second three-pointer to UNLV, Olson was rumored to be headed to fill the vacant University of Kentucky coaching job. After num- bers reportedly as high $700,000 swirled in Colonel Sanders' land, Olson announced he would remain at Arizona, after receiving a contract extension and raise. While Olson remained in Arizona, he did take something from Kentucky. Highly touted frosh phenom, 6-7 Chris Mills transferred to Arizona after averaging 14.3 ppg and snagging 8.7 rebounds in his first year. However, Mills is ineligible for this season. Mills had been a key person in the NCAA's investigation which led to Kentucky's probation. M' players help USA take silver in Taiwan by Sarah Osburn Daily Sports Writer November is a great month for baseball. Great, that is, if you happen to be playing in Taiwan. It was there that United States baseball team captured the silver medal November 12, in the second annual Presidential Cup. Two Michigan sophomores, Mike Mellenytand Tim Flannely, were part of the twenty member USA team. . "It was exciting just to put on a uniform that said USA," Melleny said. "There were not a lot of fans, but the ones that were there were chanting USA...It was sort of like being in the Olympics." The round robin style tournament was composed of eight teams from around the world made up of each country's best amateur baseball players. The Korean team defeated the USA team 4-0 in the final game, but Korea had already clinched the gold. The USA, coached by Georgia Tech's Jim Morris, finished 9-3. "They did what they had to do and we didn't," Flannely said. "We had opportunities but we didn't take advantage of them." The USA team did not have much time to practice together as a unit. They met in Los Angeles for the first time for one night of practice before heading to Taiwan for the tournament. Flannely, a third baseman hiti .370 as a starter. 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