Women's Tennis Baseball vs. Michigan State vs. Saginaw Valley Tomorrow, 3 p.m. Thursday, 3 p.m. Liberty Sports Complex Fisher Stadium The Michigan T , A 1 Men golfers weather yet another storm Flu hampers spikers in weekend outings 0 by Elisa Sneed Daily Sports Writer You can't play indoors. Golf is one of those sports that is effected greatly by the weather. Many dual-season sports can practice inside during the winter, and many even have indoor seasons, but not golf. Not only do the players feel the effects while playing in poor weather, but at the beginning of the season, players and coaches feel the consequences of the winter at all times. The Michigan men's golf team is no exception. The Wolverines' 1993 spring season began at the Fripp Island Invitational in South Carolina - ,the weekend of the "Storm of the Century" - which forced an evacuation of the island after only one day of play. Then the Wolverines had a week off, during which outdoor practice in Ann Arbor was not possible. And in the University of Kentucky-Johnny Owens Invitatiopal, their 19th place finish was considerably less than desired based on poor weather, and a general lack of preparation. Last weekend, at the Purdue University Invitational, played on the South Course in West Lafayette, Ind., the Wolverines again felt Old Man Winter's influence. The 54-hole event was trimmed down to 36-holes -18 on Saturday and Sunday - after the weather canceled Friday's round and a frost on Saturday morning forced a late start. Lead by senior co-captain Anthony Dietz's sixth-place 73, Michigan was in eighth place after the first day with 305, 19 strokes behind the leader - Iowa. Although an improvement over their last tournament, this was not something for the Wolverines to be proud of. "I'm unhappy with Saturday's play," Michigan coach Jim Carras said. "This is the first time we've been over 300 on this course ... the kids will agree that it was not a very good performance.", The South Course opened for the first time this season on Friday, and although Carras believes it ordinarily is a fairly easy course, after the winter, it was not really ready for tournament play. Senior co-captain James Carson agreed "They didn't have their fairways cut," he said. "The greens had been cut only once. (They were) about as slow as a carpet. The cold wasn't the hard part, it was the condition of the course.,, However, despite the poor conditions of the course, the Wolverines managed to improve the second day. Their team total of 603 (305-298) was enough to put them in a tie for seventh place with host, Purdue, and Western Illinois, while Iowa remained the uncontested winner with 575, 11 strokes of the next team, Indiana (586). Dietz remained Michigan's top finisher placing ninth (73-75-148) and Carson improved upon his 36th place finish after the first round, moving up to 12th (77-72-149). Senior Bob Henighan, turned in a 35th-place final (78-74-152), and the two new-comers to Michigan's lineup, junior Mike Hill (77-77- 154) and sophomore Chris Brockway (79-77-156) finished in 43rd and 54th, respectively. The Wolverines' inability to prepare for the season has been a source of disappointment for Carras. "It's difficult to get on these kids about how they play because they haven't really had the chance to play or practice yet," he said. "I'm not totally unhappy with Anthony Dietz's, or James Carson's play. Bob Henighan ... doesn't make me too unhappy with his play so far. We're having trouble finding fourth and fifth men. I'd like to get out and play for those spots, instead of just me picking them." As the season progresses and the Wolverines gain experience, Carson said he expects improvement. "It's lack of playing that makes us play bad. It's nothing new to struggle in the beginning of the year. I hope things will get better next week." by Erin Himstedt Daily Sports Writer An unexpected adversary de- feated the Michigan men's volley- ball team this weekend: the flu. Illness was the determining factor in the Wolverines' disappointing losses against Michigan State and Notre Dame Friday and Saturday, respectively. Michigan went down to the Spartans in four games in East Lansing, and in three games against the Irish at home in Keen Arena. Middle hitter Todd Coffey was too sick to attend the Michigan State match. As a result, the Wolverines had to substitute players unfamiliar with the middle position, which threw off the team's rhythm. "Sickness was a very big factor," middle hitter Chad Stielstra said. "It wouldn't have been easy to have beaten them anyway, but Todd's ill- ness took away our attack in the middle and hurt our blocking." Lack of mental toughness, which has plagued the spikers throughout the season, was also important Friday. The Spartans came out strong, and won the first game, 15-2. "They jumped on us right away, which made us nervous," outside hitter Dave Fleming said. "We were intimidated, and we shouldn't have been. They got seven jump serves in a row. That has to do with the men- tal game, because they're pretty easy to pass." The bright spot of the match oc- curred during the second game, which the Wolverines captured 15- 12, but the Spartans soon regrouped, and took the following two games to win the match. "We played better, and got used to the new rotation with the new middle," Fleming said. "We just started going for it; we had nothing to lose, but in the end their experi- ence and depth were just too over- whelming." Saturday held much of the same for Michigan. Coffey was able to play, but both he and setter Stan Lee were hindered by illness. Although the team competed in Keen Arena for the first time, playing on the home court was not an advantage. The Wolverines lacked aggres- sion throughout the match, playing not to lose rather than to win. This strategy was not enough to defeat a strong Irish club. a0 SUSAN ISAAK/D~aily Michigan's Chad Engel (left) and Todd Coffey attemptto block a Notre Dame spike during Saturday's contest at Cliff Keen Arena. The Wolverines dropped the contest to the Irish. Women golfers take fifth at Indiana Invitational by Tyler Rheem Daily Sports Writer With the weather slowly improving and the level of play slowly returning to par, the Michigan women's golf team had an impressive showing in the Indiana Invitational last weekend, placing fifth in the 14-team field. "I think they're moving-up," Michigan wom- en's golf coach Sue LeClair said. "The extra tournament earlier this year helped. Now we need some decent weather. They're getting used to playing in multiple layers of clothing, but it's not fun." The "extra tournament" was in Tampa, Fla. earlier this year. In past years, Michigan did not compete in Tampa. Adverse weather conditions have effected all three tourneys the Wolverine golfers have taken part in thus far. The air has been cold, it has rained and it has snowed - not exactly favorable conditions for golf. Nonetheless, the golfers took to the course this past weekend with a positive at- titude. Fifth place marks the highest finish for the team thus far this season. As the Wolverines' schedule progresses, so has the team's perfor- mance. A check now at the season's mid-point shows improvement upon last year. "I feel pretty good about us," senior Wendy Bigler said. "We had an extra tourney this spring that has given us an advantage. We're better this year than we were last year at this time." Bigler was the second highest placer for the Wolverines, shooting an 80 in the first round, fol- lowed by an 85 in the second. That placed her 21st out of 73 competitors. Freshman Shannon McDonald was Michigan's highest finisher, 18th overall and junior Tricia Good placed 22nd, third highest for the Wolverines. The top three Michigan finishers combined to shoot scores ranging from a low of 80 to a high 85. This is the consistency that Coach LeClair has been looking for. As with previous tournaments, the course at the Indiana Invitational was plagued by the ele- ments. The skies provided mixed rain and snow for two days prior to tournament play which made for rough greens and soggy fairways. Originally slated to be 36-holes, the tournament directors decided to cut the last 18 due to in- clement weather. The golfers simply continued to mush through the course. "All tournament, we were forced to play em- bedded balls on the fairways," LeClair said "It was very wet. The greens were bumpy so that the ball would jump all the way to the hole, no mat- ter how good the stroke was. There were a lot of three-putts,". However, three-putts were on every team's scorecard. Not only the Wolverines were effected by the conditions. "The scores weren't all that low across the board." Bigler said. "On the second day, every- one was higher. I think we played better than our scores reflected." The golfers next meet is on Saturday when they play in the Ohio State Invitational in Columbus. 0 Men's distance runners shine at Texas Relays by Brent McIntosh Daily Sports Writer "Experience." Looking for the key factor in the past weekend's men's track meet, Michigan coach Jack Harvey FOR THE BEST: Crew Cuts--Flat Tops Prnnretons--Militarv summed it up with that ever-crucial element of sport. "We depend a lot on freshmen, and freshmen need consistency," Harvey said. "This kind of meet is going to help in the long run. It's important for them to get big meet experience so they know what's up." The Wolverines competed at the University of Texas Relays, Friday and Saturday, and while the meet wasn't scored for team competition, the event-by-event results led Harvey to laud the performance of his distance corps. "I was pleased in some areas, es- pecially the longer relays, which ran *53 YEARS OF SERVICE* LIBERTY OFF STATE 668-9329 well," Harvey said. "The meet was kind of sprint-oriented, and the com- petition there was pretty good, but our 4x200 just missed (qualifying for the finals)." While the Wolverine 4x200 squad didn't make it to the medal race, three Michigan relays did, all in the longer categories. The 4x800 was the top Wolverine placer of the meet, staking a claim on second place with a time of 7:28.34, less than .4 of a second off the pace set by victorious Oklahoma. Michigan also managed to snag a fourth-place finish in the 4x1500 - 16.74 seconds back of the winning team from Wisconsin - and a sixth- place standing in the distance med- ley, where the Wolverines finished in 9:50.66, less than seven seconds off Texas Christian's first-place time. "In the 4x800, we didn't expect to do as well as we did, so that was great," 4x800 and distance medley member Scot MacDonald said. "And in the distance medley, there were a lot of teams, which made it really crowded. We lost a couple of sec- onds on each exchange." MacDonald, the Big Ten Indoor Track freshman of the year, was one rookie who did display the consis- tency for which Coach Harvey said he was searching. "Scot came up big for us in the 4x800 and the distance medley and it showed in where those relays placed," Harvey said. MacDonald's performance was a continuation of his success during the indoor season, which culminated with him winning the mile at the Big Ten indoors and qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Another Wolverine who scored well in a distance event was Matt Smith, who posted a 8:55.55 in the 3000 steeplechase, good for second place. Michigan's Matt Schroeder took eighth in that event, 12 seconds behind Smith and 30 seconds behind winner Jim Svenoy of Texas-El Paso. "It's natural that we should fare well in the distance events because the southern schools are more sprint- oriented and we'll improve when we run more in warm weather," Harvey said. "The problem comes in training. in the cold and running where it's hot." Unlike the Wolverines, most of the teams that competed in Texas have been running in warm weather for weeks. Freshman high jumper Jon Royce, who has shown promise with jumps of over seven feet, ex- pressed the view that the weather was a major factor in the competi- tion. "I didn't jump well," Royce said. "The weather was really diverse; it was hot sometimes, it was cold sometimes, and it rained all day Saturday, but jumping in that kind of weather will give me experience." Pole vaulter Toby Van Pelt also turned in a solid performance, leav- ing the bar untouched at 16' 6 3/4", good for third place. Lost to University of North Carolina Saturday, 5-4 Sinales 1. Cinda Gurney (UNC) d. Kalei Beamon (UM) 6-1, 6-2 2. Jaimie Fielding (UM) d. Nicole Transou (UNC) 6-2, 6-4 3. Simone Lacher (UM) d. Ariana Cervenka (U NC) 7-5, 6-1 4. Angie Popek (UM) d. Alisha Portnoy (UNC) 6-4, 6-1 5. Freddy Uihlein (UNC) d. Liz Cyganiak (UM) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 6. Scottie Thomas (UNC) d. Allison Schlonsky (UM) 6-4, 6-2 Doubles 1. Gurney/Portnoy (U NC) d. Beamon/Lacher (UM) 6-2, 6-2 2. Cervenka/ Uilhein (UNC) d. Fielding/Popek (UM) 7-6 (8), 6-3 3. Schlonsky/Graff (UM) d. Thomas/Transou (UNC) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 Defeated University of Richmond Sunday, 5-4 1. Kalei Beamon (UM) d. Jennifer Stammen (UR) 6-0, 6-0 2. Ashley Faherty (UR) d. Jaimie Fielding (UM) 6-7,6-4,6-0 3. Mary Beth Laing (UR) d. Simone Lacher (UM) 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 4. Angie Popek (UM) d. Stephanie Lacovara (UR) 6-2, 6-2 5. Liz Cyganiak (UM) d. Kristen Butts (UR) 6-4, 6-0 6. Allison Schlonsky (UM) d. Pam Erickson (UR) 6-3, 6-3 Doubles 1. Camille Walter/Faherty (UR) d. Fielding/Popek (UM) 6-3, 6-3 2. Beamon/Lacher (UM) d. Stammen/Laing (UR) 4-6,6-4,7-5 3. Lacovara/Butts (U R) d. Graff/Cyganiak (UM) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 S 0 Sharp, Namesnik take gold at Phillips 66 championships by Brett Johnson Daily Sports Writer The college swimming season ended a week and a half ago with the NCAA championships held in Indianapolis. However, for some of the Michigan men's swimmers, their seasons have just changed venues. This weekend in Nashville, Tenn., numerous Wolverine swim- mers competed in the Phillips 66 National Swimming Champion- ships. It was their first meters competition since the collegiate yards season had begun, and two Michigan swimmers came home with individual victories. On Thursday evening, freshman Olympian Royce Sharp hit the water in his best event, the 200-meter four years. I haven't swam meters since this summer. I wasn't real happy with how I did." Sharp also finaled in the 400 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. The other Wolverine champion swam on Friday night. Olympic silver medalist Eric Namesnik swam in his No. 1 event - the 400 IM - and came home with the victory. In last weekend's NCAA meet, Namesnik had finished a disappointing third in the 400-yard IM. He said that his victory was an indication that his season was not a "total flop." "I wanted to win NCAA's to prove I could swim yards," Namesnik said. "(My performance at I SWING ITA U AT I. 1 - I