h'
Women's Soccer
vs. Western Michigan
Tonight, 6 p.m.
Mitchell Field
SPORTS
Football
at. Indiana
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. (ABC-TV)
Bloomington
er 15, 1992 Page5
CCHA coaches,
media polls rank
'M' icers No. 1
by Chad A. Saf ran
Daily Hockey Writer
DETROIT - Once a cellar
dweller in the Central Collegiate
Hockey Association (CCHA), the
Michigan hockey team is now the
envy of the rest of the league. For
the second consecutive season and
the second time ever, the media and
coaches have chosen the Wolverines
as the team to beat for the confer-
ence title. The rankings were re-
leased at the CCHA's annual lun-
cheon at Joe Louis Arena yesterday.
Last season, Michigan lived up to
expectations, gaining 47 points to
win its first CCHA title. Lake
Superior State was the runner-up
with 44 points. Although the Lakers
went on to win the NCAA title, they
are chosen to finish second once
again, as they did a year ago.
"The polls are not always that ac-
curate, as evidenced by last season,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said.
"I know that the bottom five or six
teams will not end up that way. We
need to do it on the ice. (Being cho-
sen No. 1) puts some more addi-
tional pressure on us, and that's
good."
Lake Superior State coach Jeff
Jackson likes his team's chances to
finish on top this season.
"Top to bottom, we may have a
better team than a year ago," Jackson
said. "We are going to change a
little, playing more like the team we
had two years ago."
WHO MAKES THE CALL?:
Hockey always features its share of
officiating controversies. To combat
these problems, the NCAA has insti-
tuted the use of two referees and one
linesman, but not all are happy with
the new situation.
"It is a knee-jerk reaction to a
not-well-officiated final game of the
NCAA," CCHA commissioner Bill
Beagan said. "It is not necessary, but
we are committed to making it work.
We would have put our coaches be-
t cach s.pl
1
1
Te
eam (first-place votes)
1. Michigan (8)
2. Lake Superior (3)
3. Michigan State -
4. Miami
5. Western Michigan
6. Illinois-Chicago
7. Ferris State
8. Bowling Green
9. Ohio State
10. Kent
11. Notre Dame
98
92
83
69
65
48
46
44
27
19
14
Michigan goalie Steve Shields attempts to make a save against Lake State in a game last year. The Wolverines have been picked No. 1 in the Central
Collegiate Hockey Association in both the coaches' and media preseason polls. The Lakers are ranked second in both polls.
hind the eight ball (by using the old,
system), but I think our teams would
have been hurt using the one referee
and two linesman all year. If we did
that, at the NCAAs we would have
given the NCAA and their officials
an excuse to call more penalties
against us because they will say,
You just aren't used to this.
Despite this ruling, the CCHA
has decided to go even further and
experiment with the use of two ref-
erees and two linesmen. The league
may try this format for up to 10
games and then will review how
well the policy functions. This Fri-
day game between Illinois-Chicago
and Laurentian (Ont.) will be the
debut of this new setup.
"We are taking it one step further
because the integrity of line play will,
suffer," Beagan said. "It will suffer
because the primary job of a referee
is to call penalties and we've now
put the referees in the dual role of
calling line play and penalties. I
know on those bing-bang-bing calls
it's going to be difficult."
If success is measured by the
number of first-place finishes, then
the Michigan men's and women's
crew teams failed last weekend at
the Head of the Rock Invitational in
Rockford, Ill.
But if success is measured in
proximity to Wisconsin's finishes,
then the Wolverine squads were suc-
cessful in their recent regatta.
Though Wisconsin swept the
men's and women's lightweight and
heavyweight races, the Michigan
crews placed directly behind the
Badgers in each category. Out of 15
crews, the men's varsity squad came
in fifth.
"Wisconsin was dominant -
they may have set a record on this
course," men's coach Will Brewster
said. "We measure how well we did
in comparison to them. We always
look for 'contact' with Wisconsin in
our finishes - we hope to get an
long time. It's a big plus for us if we
'We have a lot of improvement yet to make, can get more local competition."
but I think we have a ton of potential over The Wolverine squads next com-
previous years.' pete against 40 other crews Oct. 24
Will Brewster at the Head of the Schuylkill in
- WPhiladelphia, and the following day
Michigan crew coach against the Ivy League's best squads
at the Princeton Chase in Princeton,
overlap in our boats with their's. I finishes for the lightweight men's N.J.
{
was pleased with how the team did."
The women's varsity crew fin-
ished fourth. Varsity rower Nikki
Dobija was pleased with the team's
performance.
"I think we did pretty well,"
Dobija said. "It was our first race,
and it gave us a good indication of
how we stack up, since we didn't
know how we were going to do. We
actually raced better than we had in
practice. This shows us what we
have to do for the next two weeks.
Everything is starting to fall into
place."
Other results included third-place
eight-man crew, the novice men's
squad and the novice women's team.
The lightweight men's four-man
rowers placed second.
In addition to Wisconsin's strong
showing, Brewster was also pleas-
antly surprised by the improvement
of rival crews.
"Rowing in Michigan has taken
a jump," Brewster said. "They have
a new coach at Grand Valley, and
they are looking much better than
they have in the past. Also,
Michigan State did well (third in
women's varsity) in this race.
They've been nowhere at all for a
In preparation for these regattas,
Brewster said, "We will be working
on being able to move the boat
through the water, as well as improv-
ing technical aspects and fitness
levels. We have a lot of improve-
ment yet to make, but I think we
have a ton of potential over previous
years."
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