Women's Tennis at ITA Midwest Championship Tomorrow, all day East Lansing SPORTS Women's Volleyball vs. Penn State Friday, 7:30 p.m. Keen Arena The Michigan Daily Wednesday, November 4, 1992 Page 9 'M' spikers drop tight contest in South Bend Laxers fall short at West Virginia by Rich Mitvalsky Daily Sports Writer Notre Dame spoiled the Michi- gan women's volleyball team's out- of-conference excursion last night in South Bend, taking the Wolver- ines in three straight games. The Fighting Irish (22-5 overall), No. 4 regionally, exploited Michigan in- juries and blanked the seventh- ranked Wolverines, 15-9, 17-15 and 15-12. Although Michigan (16-8) suf- fered from the earlier loss of senior outside hitter Hayley Lorenzen, the Wolverines rotated additional play- ers into the lineup to compensate for the lack of up-front hitting power. But an additional injury to junior outside hitter Michelle Hor- rigan put the Wolverines in a bind up front. "Michelle's leg was bothering her, and her loss in the game made a huge impact up front," head coach Greg Giovanazzi said. "We had to move Aimee (Smith) over again, and Suzy O'Donnell started as well." Smith, a sophomore, began the season in the middle blocking posi- tion. However, with the loss of Lorenzen, Smith was forced to move to the right outside hitter position. And with Horrigan's ab- sence in South Bend, Smith again switched, this time to the left side. "It was very hard to get into the flow of our offense tonight, espe- cially after all of those changes in the lineup," Giovanazzi added. "We have been working on new offen- sive strategies, but we couldn't use them tonight. Our middle attack was ineffective, and our middle hit- ters hit in the negative. But these games were very close and could have gone either way." Individually, several Wolverines' provided bright spots for the team. Smith led all players with 16 kills and also added 12 digs. Junior" JoAnna Collias tallied 14 kills, along with 16 digs, and senior co- ' captain Tarnisha Thompson recorded 34 assists while hitting a team-high percentage of .500. "JoAnna had one of her best hit-% ting nights so far, and Suzy started for the first time and did a very nice job," Giovanazzi said. "All in all, we had some very fine individual performances." Despite the 3-0 score, Gio-F vanazzi and the Wolverines remainT optimistic heading into two key matches this weekend. "We will just put this game be- hind us right away," Giovanazzi said. "With Ohio State and Penn State coming in, we just have to ex- ecute very well. We should be able 4: to do that with both Michelle and DOUGLAS KANTER/Daily Hayley back possibly by the week- Michigan outside hitter Aimee Smith led the Wolverines with 16 kills last end." night, but it was not enough as the Wolverines lost to the Fighting Irish, 3-0. by Jeremy Strachan The Michigan men's lacrosse team ended its fall season with a 2-1 finish at a tournament in West Virginia Sunday. The Wolverines failed to advance from round-robin play after a 2-0 start. The team now awaits the Big Ten club season be- ginning in February. The tournament consisted of 16 teams from across the country, in- cluding Green Turtle, a former club national champion. There were four divisions with four teams in each. After round-robin competition in the division, each division champion advanced to the semifinals. The Wolverines finished second in their division behind South County (Md.), eliminating them from tournament play. After pounding Slippery Rock, 9- 1, Michigan then took on West Virginia. The team quickly fell be- hind, 2-0, in the first half, but re- grouped to score five goals in the second half for a 5-3 victory. The Wolverines finished the round-robin competition against South County and lost, 8-5. "The team played well together in the first two games," Michigan captain Ron Givadvani said. "South County is a good team, and we gave a solid effort against them in that last game." Attackman Steve Simich led the Wolverines with seven goals and two assists in the three games. On defense, junior Ben Hohmuth played well, as did sophomore Jaime Borteck, who scored two goals from the defense. The team outscored its opponents, 19-12, and is satisfied with its play this fall. Among this autumn's successes was a rout of Bowling Green. "We played Bowling Green at home last October and beat them re- ally bad," junior Ivan Frank said "We were ahead by six goals after the first period, so everyone got to play." After their winter hiatus, the Wolverines will attempt to win their fourth consecutive Big Ten-club ti- tle. Nine of the 11 Big Ten schools have club teams, and Frank feels Michigan's depth will play a factor in its attempt to defend the crown. "We have an extremely deep team. The freshmen are very good," Frank said. "Our defense has the most depth. The only minor weak- ness, I would say, is our midfield. This winter, we should be one of the favorites to win the conference title." In addition to the Big Ten, Michigan also faces a challenging non-conference schedule. Lacrosse powers Buffalo and Carnegie- Mellon and a host of other east coast schools await the Wolverines next spring. Michigan begins the season at a tournament in Louisiana over spring break. tU.E:~~W.EU3 r~:zrausu~wu. ;~ U fl I'll Uw.U U~