Women's Basketball vs. Wisconsin Friday, 7:30 p.m. Crisler Arena SPORTS Men's Basketball vs. Iowa Tomorrow, 8 p.m. Crisler Arena The Michigan Daily Tuesday, February 11, 1992 Page 8 O pSpikers drop two of three ...~..Illinois proves only haven on road *I by Dan Linna Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's volleyball team managed to salvage its week- end with a stop in Champaign Sunday. The Wolverines began the week- end by dropping four out of five games to Minnesota and Purdue in Madison Saturday before rebound- ing against Illinois the following day. A tough Illini squad made it dif- ficult for Michigan to post a vic- tory on the trip. The Wolverines got off to a fast start, taking the first game, 15-10. However, Illinois had other ideas and came back to edge the Wolverines, 17-16, in game two. Michigan took the next game,15- 12, and held a 7-0 lead in game four. An Illini comeback fell short, though, and Michigan took the game and match, 15-11. "We played some of the best de- fense I have seen this team play," sophomore Michael Rubin said of Michigan's Sunday effort. The Wolverines would have had a chance for another victory if they had faced Indiana in Champaign. However, the Hoosiers didn't show up for the scheduled tri-match and no explanation was offered. Going into Saturday's match, Michigan suspected Minnesota was the team to beat in the Big Ten this year. The Gophers did nothing to dispute this as they bounced the Wolverines in two games,15-11 and 15-12. "Minnesota is a very good team," first-year hitter Stan Lee said. "I'm not too disappointed in the way we played. It was an en- lightening experience but losses in the Big Ten will be costly for us." The Wolverines did little better when they matched up against Purdue in the other match of the day. Michigan was able to take the first game, 15-12. However, Purdue ran the Wolverines out of Madison with two straight 16-14 victories. "Purdue just took advantage of our defense not being at its best," Lee said. "We could have and should have beaten Purdue." The Wolverines' frustrations mounted Saturday as they felt the officials failed to control the games. "One of the officials was very The Michigan men's volleyball team hit the road last weekend and gained only one victory in three matches. The Wolverines lost to both Minnesota and Purdue on Saturday, and ended the trip with a victory over Illinois. The most reusable piece of plastic on campus. lax and was letting everything go," Rubin said. "We can't really com- plain because all of the teams had to deal with it, but our opponents seemed to take advantage of it better than we did." Middle blocker Tim Werner felt that the poor officiating may have affected Michigan mentally. "The officials were really bad," Werner said. "All teams complain about officiating from time to time but this was very legitimate. It was as if they didn't know the rules as well as they should considering they are officials. It was absurd." While the Wolverines were flat at times, the team refused to say they were still recovering from an emotional second-place finish in the Wolverine Collegiate Classic one week ago. "We didn't let down," Werner said. "We just didn't play quite as well as we know we are capable and they played well." "This weekend can't be consid- ered a setback though. Sunday we showed that we can play when we want to. I think we improved as a team," Werner added. BAKBALL NOTEBOOK Women's season reaches midpoint by Ryan Herrington Daily Basketball Writer EAST LANSING - The Michi- gan women's basketball team has reached the midway point in the Big Ten season, and it has not come any too soon for the Wolverines. Languishing in the conference cellar with a 1-8 conference record (5-13 overall), Michigan is looking0 to regroup as it begins to meet con- ference foes for the second time. While the Wolverines' results have not come close to the expectations they had prior to conference play, the first half of the season has not discouraged the players. "I believe this team is ready to get started again and we look at the second half of the conference as a brand new start," Michigan center Trish Andrew said. "There isn't a team we're scared of or intimidated by. We just have to get on the court and prove that." Michigan coach Bud Van- DeWege sees the second half as a chance for the Wolverines to redeem themselves, but only if the players do not become complacent with the way the season has progressed thus far. "It comes down to what do you want to accept for the season,' Michigan coach Bud VanDeWege said. "You can't let what has hap- pened get us down. You can't be- lieve you're as bad as the record says." SOLID AS A BLOCK: Blocking out the competition has been a spe- cialty of Andrew's this season. In last Friday's matchup with Michi- gan State, Michigan's 6'2" junior had seven blocked shots in the first half alone. Andrew ended the game with nine blocks after playing only nine minutes in the second half. Andrew's nine blocks tied her career high for blocks in a game; which she set two separate times earlier this season - against Wis- consin and Indiana State. The nine blocks gave Andrew a total of 95 on the season, setting the Wolverine record for most blocks in a season. The previous record was also established by Andrew last sea- son when she tallied 88 on the year. Andrew, whose 5.4 blocks per game average leads the NCAA, is on pace to break Wisconsin's Janetta Johnson's Big Ten single-season record for blocks of 130. With 250 career blocks- Andre'w The AT&T Calling Card will never go to waste. You can use it to make a call from almost anywhere to anywhere. Once you have one, you'll never need to apply for another. It's the least expensive way to call state-to-state on AT&T when you can't dial direct. E And now you could also get 10% back on all the long distance calls you make with your card.* R Of course when you use your Calling Card, you'll always be connected to the reliable service you've come to expect from AT&T. LDSo, as you see, there's only one way to describe the AT&T Calling Card in today's college environment. Indispensable.