Volleyball vs. Michigan State Today, 7:30 p.m. Cliff Keen Arena SPORTS Field Hockey vs. Pacific Tomorrow, 7:30 p.m. Oosterbaan Field House The Michigan Daily Wednesday, October 28, 1992 Page 9 'State Pride' on line Men's water polo ties Bucks in final tonight for spikers by Rich Mitvalsky Daily Sports Writer The Michigan women's volley- ball team started the conference season at an impressive 4-0. It could certainly benefit from an- other such string of victories. After splitting last weekend's road games at eighth-ranked Illinois and Northwestern, the consensus opinion of the Wol- verines was that the team is now back to playing at the level it did at the beginning of the season. The Wolverines hope to solid- ify their proclamation tonight in a home match against Michigan some new things to try." The Wolverines will be with- out the services of standout out- side hitter Hayley Lorenzen once again. Lorenzen, who carries the team's third-best kill average of 2.77 per game, missed action last week after succumbing to mono- nucleosis. Senior co-captain Chris White therefore should provide the Wolverines with one of those aforementioned changes, as she will start against the Spartans. Michigan is looking toward this latter half of the conference schedule with renewed vigor, after finishing the first half with a 6-4 record. A spectacular performance in tonight's game would provide a tremendous impetus for the Wol- verines to improve upon their current conference standing. "On Monday we talked about our Big Ten standing and re- capped the first half of the sea- son," Smith said. "And we hope to do better during the second half since we have now seen all of the teams." With upcoming matches against Penn State and Ohio State, teams that have defeated the Wol- verines once already this season, Smith sees the importance of beginning this particular segment of the season positively. "One of the big things about this match, and against Wisconsin over the weekend, will be getting off on the right foot," Smith said. "We need to come out during the second half of the season and play with authority." The Spartans are a consider- ably shorter team up front, with only one player over six feet. With three Wolverine six footers, Mich- igan should be particularly ef- fective up front. Often times, how- ever, smaller squads compensate for their lack of height up front with superior quickness. "They are a scrappy team, and when you think you have the ball by Erin Himstedt Besides fighting to maintain their dominant position in the conference at last weekend's event at Ohio State, the members of the Michigan men's water polo team were being evaluated to determine who will ac- company the team to Madison for the Big Ten finals in two weeks. Despite these pressures, the Wolverines earned a 3-0-1 record for the event, securing the number-one seed for the finals. Michigan de- feated Michigan State, Indiana, and Purdue, before tying Ohio State in the final match. The Wolverines overall record now stands at 17-4-2 for the season. Friday night's victory over MSU was a high point of the weekend. Excitement ran high as Michigan came from behind, scoring a goal in the final minute to defeat the Spar- tans 8-7. "The Michigan State game was a really close game all the way, no one was ever ahead by more than two goals," Michigan coach Scott Rus- sell said. "It was really a well- thought defensive battle. Both teams were trying to win, it was our best against their best, and it was a very hotly contested game. I was im- pressed by the way we controlled the tempo of the game." Despite the youth of the Wol- verines, many of the players are water polo veterans. This was an ad- vantage during the matchup with the Spartans. "We have a hard time playing (State); they have a lot of talent," senior David Prince commented. "(But) they haven't figured out a way to beat us yet; our experience just shows." The reduced size of Ohio State's pool led to some changes for Mich- igan. One of the team's strengths, its speed, was made less effective. Russell credited three players for making up the scoring difference. "We have a lot of speed in our freshman class, when we play in a shorter pool speed doesn't do us much good," Russell said. "I feel (Prince, Drew Hansz, Ben Ewy) in particular are three people that we really look to drive our offense. We're really going to look to these three to score for us in Big Tens." The Big Ten finals were in the front of Russell's mind this week- end. He substituted more of his sec- ond string in an effort to evaluate them in competitive situations. "We got pretty big early leads against Purdue and Indiana, and he has to decide who he's going to take to Big Tens," Prince said. "These games gave him an opportunity to get a look at some people who ordi- narily don't get to play as much. That came back to haunt us against Ohio State." Smith State, in the second of two "State Pride" matches between the schools. In their first meeting in late September, Michigan deliv- ered a sound thumping to the Spartans in three-straight games, marking the third consecutive Wolverine victory in the "State Pride" series. "This week in practice we de- termined that we need to play steady and focused," sophomore Aimee Smith said, who recorded a season-high 15 kills last weekend against Northwestern. "Of course in this match there is added incentive because of the rivalry, but we hope to try some new things against them. Not to overlook them at all, but we have JoAnna Collias spikes over an outstretched Indiana blocker earlier this season. The Wolverines battle Michigan St. tonight at Cliff Keen Arena. down they pop it right back up again," Smith said. "We'll just keep hitting the ball down at them until they don't get it anymore. We'll just adjust our offense ac- cording to their quickness." Currently, the Wolverines are holding onto the seventh ranking regionally. At the regular season's end, only the top seven squads will receive berths into the na- tional championship tournament. Other conference teams ranked ahead of Michigan include top- ranked Illinois, Penn State (No. 3), and Ohio State (No. 5). GRIDDES Drop off your winning picks at 420 Maynard by noon Friday to win a $15 gift certificate to O'Sullivan's Eatery & Pub. 1. Michigan at Purdue 11. Colorado at Nebraska 2. MSU at Northwestern 12. Temple at Boston College 3. Ohio State at Iowa 13. Pittsburgh at Syracuse 4. Illinois at Wisconsin 14. North Carolina at Maryland 5. Indiana at Minnesota 15. Oklahoma State at Kansas 6. West Virginia at Miami (Fla.) 16. Southern Cal at Arizona 7. Stanford at Washington 17. Mississippi State at Kentucky 8. Texas A&M at SMU 18. 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