0 Page 14-The Michigan Daily- Friday, November 8, 1991 *FU LL CO URT. IPRIESS Early schedule will test young alent by Albert Lin Daily Basketball Writer Expectations are high for this year's Wolverine basketball squad. Fans - and the coaches - want to know whether or not the five highly-touted Michigan frosh can make an immediate impact at the collegiate level. Most experts expect the Wolverines to be back in the college basket- ball limelight. Michigan has'been ranked in the top 25 in most preseason polls, and in the top 20 in several others. Wolverine coach Steve Fisher does not yet know whether his precocious rookies will be able to take the team to that level immediately. In fact, he's not even sure how many will be starters. "I'll be honest with you," Fisher said during the team's annual Press Day. "We are in our 18th or 19th practice, and we have not even come close to putting together a group that you could say, 'Yeah, he's looking to see if they can start.' We've done none of that; we've mixed everything up throughout each practice with the 16 kids." The Wolverines face a challenging pre-Big Ten schedule. Unlike the Bill Frieder cupcake days, this year's slate includes a game against the de- fending NCAA champions, as well as several tough matchups away from home. Fisher admitted, "We've got a schedule that I think is pretty good, maybe better than we need to have this early. ... We're going to do things against many of those teams that we're going to have to do against Big Ten competition to be successful." During these games, Fisher will experiment with different combina- tions of players, trying to find that perfect rotation. The regular season opens with consecutive road games, Dec. 2 at De- troit and Dec. 7 at Cleveland State, which is coached by former Michigan assistant Mike Boyd. Fisher knows these two games will provide tests for his young squad. "Everybody thinks we're automatically going to win," he said, "but when you go on the road, lots of things can happen." The Duke Blue Devils bring a national championship squad that lost only Billy McCaffrey and Greg Koubek - and added premier high school big men Cherokee Parks and Eric Meek - to Ann Arbor Dec. 14. The Wolverines hung tough in last year's contest at Durham, N.C., so with all the new talent, it would seem this season's game would be much closer. Not necessarily, Fisher said. "We're hopeful we can keep you (the media) all there until the end of the game," he said. Avoiding a blowout, maybe even winning the game, would be a big boost to the team's confidence. The pre-conference schedule concludes at the Red Lobster Classic in Orlando, Fla. In the first round, Michigan faces a Brigham Young squad depleted by Mormon missions. Fisher hopes to meet Florida in the finals. By that time, Fisher wants to have a rotation set. He said that he would like to have a definite starting five, but acknowledged that that will probably not happen because of the team's inexperience. "We probably will have a multitude of starting lineups," he said. "We'll try to base it on merit. Practice will dictate the first game or so, and then go from there with practice and game performance." When conference play begins Jan. 9, everyone should have a clearer pic- ture of how far this edition of the Wolverines can go. .1- Stickers close 1991 campaign at MSU by Andy Stabile Daily Sports Writer These games are for pride. Going into the last weekend of the season, Michigan field hockey coach Patti Smith knows pride might be the only motivating factor left in her team. The Wolverines (2- 6 in the Midwest Collegiate Field Hockey Conference, 7-10 overall) travel to East Lansing where they face Michigan State (0-7-1, 5-12-1) today and Northern Illinois (1-6-1, 5-10-1) tomorrow. Michigan finishes its season against the only conference teams it has been able to notch victories. Al- though no chance of post-season play exists for the Wolverines, Smith sees the last two games as important. "It's how you want to end your season," Smith said. "It's big for us to end our season on a positive note and to put us up around the .500 mark where we should be. "It's also important to beat ;a team twice. Northern Illinois has been a tough team, and if we beat Michigan State twice, that would really mean something for this p6- gram." Michigan is trying to end a three- game losing streak, including an overtime loss to Ohio State Sunday. "It was a great game," Smith said. "The team took the loss ha.L The game might have been in our hands, but we couldn't finish it. But that's the nature of sports." Although this weekend marks the end of the season, Smith wll keep the Wolverines busy. "The ball keeps rolling arouid here," she said. "We will work on things over the winter. We have a good group of recruits to draw from. We should be tougher next year. I think we should have a real exciting season next fall." Kalli Hose and the Michigan field hockey team will try and stop their three-game losing streak this weekend in East Lansing. The Wolverines will play Michigan State today and Northern Illinois tomorrow to close out their season. Blue can learn from, by Tim Spolar Daily Sports Writer "Challenging' is a mild way to describe the season ahead for the 1991 University of Michi- gan field hockey team." As the opening statement of this year's media guide predicted, the Wolverines fought an uphill battle all year long en route to what has been a disappointing season. . The Wolverines opened the season ranked in the nation's top 20 teams. However, September losses to powerhouses such as New Hampshire, Duke, Virginia, and Northwestern - all on the road - dropped Michigan from the nation's elite. While the Wolverines came out of the first month with a .500 record, their victories came against schools that they were expected to beat, such as Springfield College and Central Michi- gan. They were never able to pull off the upset necessary to give them a boost of confidence go- ing into the conference season. Perhaps Michigan coach Patti Smith and the schedulemakers felt the team was strong enough to compete with some of the best teams in the country, but one must question whether playing all of the big games away from Oosterbaan Field House was the soundest of strategies. However, Michigan did not have an excep- tionally poor year in the Midwest Collegiate Field Hockey Conference (2-6 going into this disappointing weekend's matches against Michigan State and our team. It's going to Northern Illinois). Four of the six losses were works hard this wintce to Iowa and Northwestern, against whom the Apart from the Wolverines have never won a game. Wolverines' most glar The most stinging pair of losses were to Ohio their futility in putting State. Both games were decided by one goal, 2-1 Wolverines have mana in Columbus and 3-2 in overtime in Ann Arbor goal in only four of t last weekend. the defense and goa "The first game against Ohio State was quite well, Michigan' (where we started to go downhill)," sophomore or go-ahead goals ha Kalli Hose said. "That was a team that we team members all seas should have beat, and we didn't. We were all "Not just singlin pretty upset after that match." though they should h- Next year, the Wolverines' matches with the more, but the (offens Buckeyes will be equally essential to a success- just wasn't there," Ho ful season. The Wolverines should bounce back everyone motivating e with a strong senior class, featuring high-scor- eral needs to be more c ing forwards Katie Thomas and Katie Vignevic, Despite the disapf as well as a junior class that includes Hose and Michigan field hockey her twin sister Lelli, and standout goalkeeper to grow and improve Nicole Hoover. However, the Buckeyes will re- season. While the We turn goalie Sue Wilson, one of the best in the from the caliber of t conference, and Danielle Dayton, who burned the was able to come awl Wolverines for four goals in this year's games. greater understandin What could be the difference is the develop- grams' consistent leve ment of the Wolverines' underclass players. and maturity separate "Jenny (Ridgley) is one of our freshmen, and "When we went ag she's really fast," Hose said. "I think they're go- tion, we saw that u ing to work her into the starting lineup (to re- level," Hose said. "W place Kristin Shaiper). We have a lot of people teams are made of.' with a lot of potential; we have a lot of depth on played and what work season* be a matter of seeing who er." difficult schedule, the ring shortcoming has been g points on the board. The ged to score more than owe heir fifteen games. White ilkeeping have performed s inability to score tyi , as frustrated coaches and on. g out the forwards, hj- ave put the ball in the ret ive) intensity of everyone use said. "It has to do with ach other. The team in gen- offensive-minded." . pointments of the season, y as a whole has been alle through the course of tite olverines' record suffernd heir opponents, the team ay from the games with a g of how dominant pd- l of play, team confidence, them from the crowd. - gainst such tough compet9 we're almost up to that e got to see what the good,. We got to see how they ed for them." The Mnze "N"B63lue Deli T HE MICHIGAN DAILY GET THE FACTS GET THE DAILY Call GET THE FACTS64' I I I 1329 S. Universityf call in orders 996-0009 GET THE GET THE GET THE GET THE DAILY FACTS DAILY FACTS DAILY Water polo dives into Big Ten championships, 10% DISCOUNT OFF OUR HUMONGOUS SANDWICHES WITH STUDENT I.D. ALL KOSHER EATS!' ATI NEWS .SPORTSeARTS OPINION & PHOTO r /"i1f II SI I , /1 I I /i i iIIo If 1,1I IIW r " , I" I f1 ti3 Ut i 11 andpubt On Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday O'SULLIVAN'S EATERY AND PUB features live entertainment!!! Sun. Jerry Sprague Tues. Mike Ridley Thurs. Lou Russ Inexpensive drink specials 8 different beers on tap O'Sullivan's Eatery and PubY by Tim Spolar Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's water polo team travels to Northwestern for the Big Ten championship tourna- ment this weekend. The Wolverines are seeded second overall, behind the host Wildcats. The Wolverines will play the four other teams within their bracket, Purdue, Iowa, MSU, and Illinois, in a round-robin format. The top two teams in each bracket will play in the semifinal matches, with the winners deciding the championship at 7 p.m. Sunday. In bracketing the Wolverines and Wildcats opposite one another, the schedulemakers have set up a con- frontation to decide the season se- ries between the schools. While Northwestern has taken two of three from Michigan, none of the games has been decided by more than one goal. Although the match will be held at Northwestern, Michigan coach Scott Russell feels that the Wild- cats' home-pool advantage over the Wolverines will be minimal. "Any time you play in your home town, you get a certain advan- tage," Russell said. "However, the big thing is that Northwestern's pool is very similar to ours. We train in a pool that is about the same size as Northwestern's, so we won't have any of the adjustment prob- lems you sometimes have when playing away from home." While the Wolverines are fa- vored to waltz into the final match, Russell remains tentative about Michigan's chances. "The big thing that concerns us is that two of the teams in our bracket are teams we have never seen Crew expects high finish at Head of the Elk this season, and that's Illinois and Iowa," Russell said. "Based on them records against other teams, we - ticipate that we will (win). Any- time you're playing a team for the first time, it's somewhat scary,;bow cause there's a little bit of an un- known there." by Chad Safran After a respectable finish two weeks ago on the East Coast, the men's and women's crew teams are looking for a championship this Sunday at the Third Annual Head of the Elk regatta in Elkhart, Ind. The Head of the Elk is one of the largest and longest fall Midwest meets at 3.8 miles. In addition to Michigan, the race will feature 40 teams, including Notre Dame, Michigan State, Tennessee, and the defending champion Detroit Boat Club. Men's varsity head coach Will Brewster feels positive heading into this race. "We are usually very strong in the Midwest. The heavyweight eight is really coming together," Brewster said. "We are going to do real, real well." Charley Sullivan, women's varsity head coach, shared Brewster's outlook. "Racing back east really helped. We pushed up the (stroke) rating," Sullivan said. "It is what we have been pointing at this fall and we are going after it." Men's varsity captain.Daryl Laninga is looking for the team to capture the overall point title as well. "Our hopes are pretty high," Laninga said. "The team looks pretty strong and the competition is on our level. We are looking to place a lot of medals, but one of the main things this weekend will be staying warm. The emphasis is on winning, and everyone is excited this year." The entire crew team is traveling to Indiana this weekend. The men's team will consist of two open eights, one lightweight eights, two heavyweight fours and one lightweight four. The women's team will be racing one lightweight eights, two open fours and three open eights. * LAST CALL FOR I m rFO 7"k _J ..Wz PREP* Get 9 weeks of the most effective LSAT preparation in just 2-4 weeks! Time is growing short, but you can still take advantage of Kaplan's December 7, 1991 LSAT special Compact LSAT Prep Course for the December 7th exam. It's not a cut version. It's the same number of hours of live instruction-- 1 A Th 'TfI71 1 { LJJ rtrAjNS INIV. 1 I-H! II 1 11 "' . i~im v 41f ro c' - FmFrin f-inrt~ ni t af-vI %A,4rvA'-NFAIJL \ . . . I