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. 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