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Page 8-The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 5, 1992
Griddes!
Just drop off your picks at the second floor of the Student Publications
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Building at 420 Maynard, by noon on Friday.
1. Michigan at Northwestern
2. Wisconsin at Michigan State
3. Iowa at Indiana
4. Purdue at Illinois
5. Minnesota at Ohio State
6. Washington at Arizona
7. Alabama at Louisiana State
8. Louisville at Texas A&M
9. Southern Mississippi at Florida
10. Maryland at Florida State
11. Kansas at Nebraska
12. Oklahoma State at Colorado
13. Boston College at Notre Dame
14. Virginia Tech at Syracuse
15. Arizona State at Washington State
16. Southern Cal at Stanford
17. North Carolina at Clemson
18. Georgia Tech at Baylor
19. Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan
20. Penn at Princeton
Tiebreaker: Michigan at Northwestern To
Name: Phone:
Women netters face
top foes at ITA meet
otal points:
by Vivek Jayaraman
Members of the Michigan wom-
en's tennis team travel into Spartan
territory this weekend to test their
mettle against the nation's toughest
competition.
Six team members will be travel-
ing to East Lansing to participate in
the ITA Midwest Championship to-
day through Sunday.
The tournament will bring to-
gether competitors from 26 colleges.
They will be grouped into two
flights, one for singles and one for
doubles. Michigan will have five
players competing in the singles
flight and two teams in the doubles
flight.
The Wolverines competing in the
singles flight are senior Kalei Bea-
mon, sophomores Liz Cyganiak,
Jamie Fielding, Simone Lacher, and
freshman Angie Popek. In all, 64
players will take part in the singles
draw. The format is single elimina-
tion, and the champion will be
crowned after five rounds.
In doubles, Cyganiak will be
joined by freshman Tara Graff.
Fielding and Popek form the other
team.
The fall season has been some-
what of a struggle for the team.
However, coach Elizabeth Ritt re-
mains optimistic.
"We have a very talented team,"
Ritt said. "On paper they're inexpe-
rienced, but they are playing tough
competition and gaining confidence.
"We're not overly concerned
with results. We're more concerned
with improving the play of each in-
dividual, and trying to determine
which style of play suits them best."
Last weekend, members of the
team took part in the All-American
Invitational in Pacific Palisades,
Calif. Members of the team took part
in both singles and doubles play.
The team struggled, but one
bright spot was the play of Fielding
who won five rounds in the pre-
qualifiers before eventually bowing
out in the qualifiers. Fielding was
the only Wolverine to reach the
qualifiers in the singles event.
"Jamie had a good tournament in
California," Ritt said. "However, we
also had other players who played
well, but were just victims of a tough
draw."
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Kalei Beamon serves the ball against Ohio State last season. Beamon is
the Wolverines' number one singles player.
'M' water polo eyes
Big Ten title repeat
by Erin Himstedt
Daily Sports Writer
Here we go.
The Michigan water polo team
heads to Madison this weekend for
the long-awaited Big Ten finals. The
Wolverines come into the event as
the No. 1 seed and defending confer-
ence champions.
Michigan finished regular-season
play with a 13-1-2 record in the Big
Ten. Although clearly the dominat-
ing force in the conference, the
Wolverines are taking nothing for
granted during the finals.
"I think there's a lot of pressure
on us as the No. 1 team," Michigan
coach Scott Russell said. "We will
be every other team's biggest game.
We have to be careful that we don't
let ourselves down enough so that a
team like Iowa could beat us.
There's a difference between looking
past something and taking it
lightly."
Freshman John Miedler agreed.
"I expect everone to play a lot
tougher game than in just a tourna-
ment," he said. "Yeah, I think we're
going to win, as long as we show
up for every game. It's definitely not
going to be easy."
The Wolverines will compete
against Ohio State, Illinois, Indiana
and Iowa during round-robin play
tomorrow and Saturday. The first-
and second-place finishers in this
pool will proceed to face the winners
of the bracket containing the other
five Big Ten teams in the semifinals
and finals on Sunday.
Russell does not foresee any
obstacles in the preliminary rounds,
although Michigan did not play Iowa
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or Illinois during the regular season.
"I know (Iowa and Illinois) fairly
well, and I don't think we should
have any problems," Russell said
"You don't want to look past any-
body, but I'm pretty confident about
our first four games."
The final rounds, however, will
be another situation. The opposing
pool contains the Wolverines' sea-
son-long nemeses - Northwestern
and Michigan State - and Wiscon-
sin may also be a threat in its home
pool.
"(The Badgers) always peak at the
end of the year," Russell said.
"They'll be very difficult to play
against in their home pool."
The team hopes to avoid 1990's
scenario, where an underrated Indiana
team stunned the Wolverines in the
semifinal match of the champi-
onship. Michigan finished in a
disappointing third place. This year,
less than the best is unacceptable.
"A team has to be playing very
well to make it to the semifinals;
you don't just get lucky." Russell
said. "If you mess up in the semifi-
nal, the best you can do is third
place."
The Wolverines' winning season
reflects the team's talent, depth, and
conditioning. In preparation for this
weekend's event, Russell has made
few changes in practice.
"We've been going over all the
things we've practiced all year,"
Russell said. "We're adding one or
two offensive and defensive wrinkles
that the other teams haven't seen be-
fore.
"Nothing's broken, so there's re-
ally nothing to fix."
BIG TEN
Continued from page 5
With the spread at two-and-a-
half, and four of Illinois' five con-
ference games decided by one or two
points, someone might have to stick
Tim Cheveldae between the pipes at
the finale. Regardless, Purdue wins.
Do not assume Penn St. will
change things in the Big Ten next
season. The Nittany Lions have lost
three of their last four games and
were lucky to beat West Virginia.
The conference could still be bad.
If we, the puck prognosticators,
have picked the games correctly,
eight Big Ten teams will be at .500
or worse come Sunday.
Instill excitement into Big Ten
football? It's like pumping air into a
football with a hole in it.
You want to make Big Ten foot-
ball entertaining? Give these guys
sticks and put them on skates.
Glad we're going to be in the
Upper Peninsula this weekend. They
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Another
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Low Budget,
Weekend
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