Page 10 -The Michigan Daily - March 30, 1993 HOCKEY NOTEBOOK Black Bears dominant over CCHA opponents by Trim Rardin Daily Hockey Writer The only mutual opponents between Michigan and its NCAA semifinal opponent Maine have all come from the CCHA. While the Wolverines have not played any teams this season from Hockey East, league of the No.1 Black Bears, Maine has played five different CCHA squads. Like Michigan, the Black Bears beat two of the lesser teams of the CCHA, Bowling Green (8-1, 6-2) and Ohio State (9-4), in fairly convincing fashion. Maine also ousted Western Michigan, 4-1, and Lake Superior, 3-2, in the Great Western Freeze-Out Dec. 19-20. The Wolverines, by comparison, were 1-1-1 against Western and 2-2 against the Lakers this year. Maine also nipped Miami, who went 1-1-1 against Michigan this season, 3-1, at the Dexter Hockey Classic in early January. UP A NOTCH: Ten players have surpassed their season statistics of a year ago so far this season. Senior center Mark Ouimet has experienced the most dramatic turnaround. Ouimet, after a subpar 29 points last season, has exploded for 60 this season, good for second on the team. Junior forward Cam Stewart (57) is close behind with a 29-point improvement, while senior right wing Dan Stiver (44) FIN A L FO U R and sophomoreMike Knuble (42) have upped their point totals by 28 and 27 respectively. In addition, sophomore center Ron Sacka, who played spar- ingly last year en route to just two points, has upped his total to 16 in 27 games this year. BATTLE OF LEGENDS: Saturday's game between Michigan and Wiscon- sin was more than justachance to reach the NCAA semifinals. It was also a' clash of two storied collegiate hockey programs. The Badgers had won arecord 28 NCAA tournament games, while the Wolverines, who are now 24-10 in tourney play, boast the most national titles (7) since tournament play began in 1948. Wisconsin has five NCAA titles to its name. HOTEL WISCONSIN: If you're planning to go to the NCAA hockey champi- onships in Milwaukee Thursday and Saturday, and you don't have anywhere to stay, there is hope. The Ramada Inn in Milwaukee is allotting 95 rooms to Michigan fans for the weekend, available for $75 a night. The Ramada phone number is (414) 272-8410, and rooms must be booked by 3 p.m. today. WHAT ABOUT NEXT YEAR?: The 1994 NCAADivision I Hockey Champi- onship will beheld at the St. Paul Civic Centerin St. Paul, Minn. It will be the third time in the past six years that the 15,000-seat Civic Center has hosted the event. The total attendance record for the championship was established in St. Paul in 1989, as 62,336 people witnessed the games in all. DOUGLAS KANTEW/Daily- Goalie Steve Shields and the Wolverine defense guard against Wisconsin in Saturday's NCAA contest.. Nebraska stops softball march early by Scott Burton Daily Sports Writer Riding the potent combination of the three fundamentals of softball - hitting, pitching and defense - the # 9 Michigan softball team (14-6) streaked to three wins in two days at the National Invitational Softball Tournament in Sunnyvale, Calif. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, two things prevented them from achieving their tournament goal of reaching the championship bracket -Nebraska and rain. Because of a Michigan loss to the Cornhuskers in its second game of the tournament, the Wolverines failed to qualify for the championship bracket of the 16-team field. And after rain fellSaturday, Michigan's tournament play was done with a 3-1 record. "I thought we really played well," sophomore pitcher Kelly Kovach said. "But we were kind of hoping to make the championship bracket and we were disappointed because the teams in the finals we felt we could play with." The Wolverines ended their tournament play Saturday afternoon on a high note, blanking #20 Bowling Green, 2-0. The team was led to victory by Kovach's, whose pitching stymied the Falcon bats by allowing only four hits while striking out seven batters. "My ball was moving real well," Kovach said. "And (catcher) Karla Kunnen called a great game and keptmy head in the game." Earlier in the day, the Wolverines disposed of another top 20 team by beating #15 Utah State, 1-0, in eight innings. Again, Michigan's good fortunes were due to a fine pitching performance. Senior Kelly Forbis yielded only three hits in picking up the win. "I knew I just had to keep shutting them down because I knew my team would eventually break through and score," Forbis said. Michigan's lone loss of the tournament came Friday evening atthehands of unranked Nebraska, 3-1. Cornhusker pitcher Cody Dusenberry baffled the Wolverines offense, staking them one run in the first inning, before shutting Michigan out the rest of the way. The Wolverines managed only one hit off Dusenberry. "We had some problems adjusting to the Nebraska pitcher," said Kovach. "She had more movement than what we had seen." Michigan had no problem scoring in its previous game against Santa Clara, however. It exploded for eight runs on twelve hits, en route to a 8-0 win. But as noteworthy as the offensive production was, the day's highlight was provided by Forbis, who tossed a perfect game. "It was really exciting - it's been three years since I've had a perfect game," Forbis said. "It was just a matter of zoning into the hitter's weaknesses." Patti Benedictmatched Forbis'perfect day on themound with a perfect day of her own at the plate. She went 3-for-3. Baseball shown the broom by Gophers by Paul Barger Daily Baseball Writer Some things just never seem to change. Since the beginning of the sea- son, the Michigan baseball team (5-17 overall, 0-4 Big Ten) just can't put to- gether a game in which it hits as well as it pitches, or vice versa. In game one of last weekend's four game series at Minnesota (13-6, 4-0), the Wolverines lost 7-3. Although they were defeated in the contest, the squad outhit the Golden Gophers by an 8-7 tally. Later that same afternoon, Michigan's pitchers threw well - giv- ing up five runs - while the team committed no errors. However, the squad went cold at the plate, scoring no runs on one hit. To keep the trend alive, Michigan lost a tight contest to begin the Sunday double-dip. The pitching staff, led by Heath Murray, gave up three runs on four hits. But - you guessed it - the Wolverines crossedtheplateonly twice Minnesota's winning hitcame with one out in the final inning. Michigan was red hot at the plate in the final game of the weekend series smacking Minnesota pitching around for nine runs on 13 hits. The home team countered with an 11 run, 11 hit perfor- mance to complete the sweep. "When our pitching was there our hitting wasn't," second baseman Scott - Timmerman said. "When the hitters came along, the pitching fell apart." This run of games was very similar to previous contests. In the very first game of the season the offense pro- duced 9 runs, but the team was still bettered by one. Later in the season, the team pitched very well, giving up one earned run in two games, and lost both. Minnesota managed only one more hit than the Wolverines over the week- end, but still gained four games in the win column. Fewer base-runners were left stranded in the Metrodome with the Wolverines leaving 20 aboard. Michi- gan also improved from a defensive standpoint committing sixerrors. How- ever, team members said they were upset with the final results. .... 1000...... 101..I-N-S-1... 00 ..IMS- - ...... WING IT:? SATI 1 1 15 Wings 1 1 $3.25/Pitcher 1 1220 . ..... .. Bud Fam ily...... .......... ...... -I665 Men spikers caught looking by CMU by Jeremy Strachan Daily Sports Writer Sometimes bad things come to those who wait. This was certainly the case for the Michigan men's volleyball team this weekend at the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association championships held at Tri-State University. The Wol- verines came outflatin the quarterfinals againstCentralMichigan, losing in three straight games after a six hour-long courtside wait Saturday. The loss was especially bitter for Michigan because the Wolverines beat the Chippewas the day before in pool play. Michigan played well in its round robin action, and was given a bye and seeded eighth in the third round of the tournament. But, Central didnotfare as well in pool play and was seeded lower in the tournament. As a result, the Chippewas played two straight matches before beating the Wolverines. "We made it to the final sixteen," Michigan coach Pam Griffin said. "But I think part of (the loss) wasbecause we waited over six hours to play." The first game went to the Chippewas, 15-10. The Wolverines came out slow again, falling behind 10- 2, tied it at 12, but lost, 15-12. Despite great passing from the back row, the Wolverines could not dig out the third game, losing 15-13. "On Friday (in pool play), we were up for the game, and were ready to play and we beat (Central) because we played together,"Michiganmiddle ToddCoffey said. "But on Saturday Central Michi- gan had just beaten Illinois State and came upstairs to play us. "It was 6:30 and we had been sitting at courtside since 11:30 because we did not know when we would be playing. They were all warmed up." I r REWARD Y OURSEL F! 'We didnotplay well,"Timmerman said. "I thought that our pre-season schedule would have us well-prepared. They just outpowered us. I wasn't pleased with our performance at all." 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