Volleyball vs. Illinois Tonight, 7:30 p.m. Champaign Si 'S Football vs. Houston Tomorrow, 1 p.m. Michigan Stadium 'M' volleyball visits rough Huff Following loss to MSU, spikers face Illinois in noisy HuffArena By CHARLIE BREITROSE DAILY SPORTS WRITER Michigan must be wondering how they got into this mess. The women's volleyball team rolls into Champaign tonight dazed and hobbled. The Wolverine train had been run- ning smoothly and was gaining speed until Wednesday night. Michigan (4-5 overall) had im- proved in each of its first three week- ends of play. The team had just come off a successful trip to Colorado. But Wednesday, an upstart Michigan State team derailed the Wolverine's express to success, upsetting Michigan in three straight games. The Wolverines head into a hornet's nest tonight, Huff Arena - home of defending Big Ten champion and NCAA regional finalist Illinois. Huff is reknown for its large, rowdy crowds. The Illini (3-5) led the nation in attendance in last year, drawing a total of 52,666 fans. "They have a pretty big gym, and they just pack it," said junior outside hitter Robyn Read, a Hoopeston, Ill., native. "And the crowd, they really get into it, they're really loud. It's hard to play there." A hard task under normal cir- cumstances, the Wolverines will have the added burden of trying to win in Huff without three regular starters. Outside hitters Aimee Smith and Michelle Horrigan, who are the focus of most of the Wolverine of- fense, both went down with injuries in the first game of the Michigan State match. Sophomore middle blocker Shannon Brownlee will miss the match for personal reasons. "Obviously (Smith and Horrigan) were a big part of the team," Read admitted. "Aimee is always a really consis- tent player, and we really need that. Especially against a team like Illinois, we get a little excited, we need some- one like Aimee who's calm. She al- ways has her composure, and she can always get the job done." Michigan coach Greg Giovanazzi will change his team's look for the game. "We're going to have to move a lot of people around to fill that void," Read said. "It's going to be a weird lineup. "We're going to have to use people that are not used to their spot. It's going to be hard, and we don't really have time to practice this lineup. We're just going to go out and do whatever we can." Assistant coach Jennifer Dhaenens noted some of the changes in the Wol- verine attack. "We'll probably work a little more with our three middle (blockers) tak- ing on the brunt of the load," she said. "Our outside hitters are going to be a little more inexperienced than Michelle and Aimee are." The burden will fall on the shoul- ders of Fiona Davidson and JoAnna Collias. Davidson may move from her middle blocker spot to outside hitter. Even with the Wolverines' lineup scrambled, Illinois coach Mike Hebert isn't looking past the Wolverines. He and his team still remember the '90 and '91 losses in Ann Arbor. "We have a lot of respect for that program," Hebert said. "I consider it one of our tougher matches of the season." Furthering the respect is the fact that the Illini are no longer thejugger- naut that finished 32-4 a year ago. "We lost a first-team All-Ameri- can (Kirsten Gleis) and four-year starter, and an all-conference player (Lorna Henerson)," Hebert pointed out. "So the team's a lot different without those two." However, All-Big Ten selections Kristen Henriksen and Tina Rogers do return. Henriksen leads the confer- ence in hitting efficiency, putting down .393 of her attempts, and Rogers is 10th in the same category. Illinois' record does not totally reflect its talent. The team started 0-5, but all five were against top-20 oppo- nents, and the last three defeats took a full five games. Hebert describes his club as "a real Jekyll-and-Hyde team." "We're making more mistakes than we were last year," he said, "and have been more inconsistent. "We've just been butchering a lot of easy plays. We can't do that against Michigan or we'll lose." Michigan also must be more con- sistent. "We were really beating ourselves out there," Read said. "Wejust weren't playing our game, we had a lot of unforced errors. Michigan State did not beat us (Wednesday night), we beat ourselves." Read saw one positive aspect to Wednesday's loss. "If anything it fired us up more than it discouraged us," she said. "Be- cause we just had a really poor show- ing. I think it will help us get fo- cused." ANASTASIA BANICKI/Daily Michigan's Fiona Davidson spikes the ball against Michigan State. Davidson will lead the Wolverines in tonight's contest against Big Ten power Illinois at Champaign. THE MATCHUPS By RYAN HERRINOTON I- Tomorrow's game will be an interesting test for Todd Collins. After suffering his biggest setback at Michigan two weeks ago against Notre Dame, the junior will look to regain the composure he possessed against Washington State. While only playing the third game of the season, the pressure is on junior Tyrone Wheatley to have a monster day if he hopes to remain a viable threat for the Heisman Trophy. With Derrick Alexander said to be at 90 percent, the Wolverine receiving corp should be back in full force. Mercury Hayes, a Houston-native, and Amani Toomer will take aim against an inexper- enced Cougar secondary which has allowed 296.5 passing yards per game. Marc Burkholder and Pierre Cooper will again share duties on the line at tight end, often playing together in running situations. While the six-man rotation which began the year for Michigan is still being tinkered with, expect to see Jon Runyan, Shawn Miller, Marc Millia, Joe Marinaro, Mike Sullivan and Trezelle Jenkins all get playing time. A key for the Wolverines will be whether the line can open up more holes in the middle of the field for Wheatley and Co. - something missing against Notre Dame. A disappointment two weeks ago against ND, the front three of the Wolverines will face a much easier task against Houston. Senior co-captain Buster Stanley has only seven tackles and one sack thus far this season. Tony Henderson continues to nurse a sprained foot and Ninef Aghakhan looks to improve on his three tackles. Jason Horn and Steve Rekowski also will Last year's trouble with injuries at the linebacker position has carried over into 1993. Steve Morrison will miss tomorrow's game after reinjuring his once-broken foot. Marcus Walker underwent arthroscopic knee surgery yesterday and is out for at least three weeks. However, Matt Dyson looks to be back at 100 percent and the Wolverines will more than likely show a six DB formation against the run-and-shoot. After an embarrassing defeat against Notre Dame and two solid weeks to stew over it, the Wolverines will come out aggressive against the Cougars, just as they did a year ago. While another 61-7 blowout might be too much to expect, Michigan should cover the 34-point spread. Look for the reserves to come in early as Michigan handles Houston with easy. With junior Jimmy Klingler out with a sprained ankle, redshirt freshman Chuck Clements will make his first-ever collegiate start tomorrow. Unfortunately for Houston, his debut must be in front of 100,000-plus fans at Michigan Stadium. Best of luck, Chuck. It will take a lot for superback Lamar Smith, to overshadow the super back on the Wolverines sideline. Smith has all but three of the Cougars rushing yards. Coach Kim Helton's run-and-shoot offense features four-wideouts who have gotten an equal number of receptions this season. However, Keith Jack is the lone receiver to have made a TD grab in 1993 and Houston has averaged only 206.5 yards per game in the air (compared to Michigan's 262.5). In addition, the Cougars longest catch has only been 27 yards. LB Allen Aldridge is used at TE in third-and-short situations. The Cougars are facing an equally difficult time at the line positions, with only one returning starter in sophomore Jim Herndon. With two juniors, a sophomore and a true freshman at the other spots, the Cougars are vulnerable to a sustained pass rush, which they are bound to see from the Wolverines. The Cougars 4-3 front is led by seniors Stephen Dixon and Nahala Johnson. The pair have 28 tackles between them yet have struggled in halting the USC and Tulsa offenses in their first two games. Look for 6-foot-6, 255 lbs. Otis Grant and 6-foot-5 315 lbs. Bruce Thompson, both freshman to help bolster and otherwise small defensive line. Senior middle linebacker Ryan McCoy is the best Cougar player on either side of the ball. The Butkus Award candidate lead the team in tackled with 27. He is flanked by Aldridge and sophomore Delithro Bell. In the secondary former quarterback-turned- free safety, Donald Douglas, Gerome Williams and John H. Brown protect against the long bomb. Brown has the Cougar's lone interception this season. Poor. FOOTBALL Continued from page 1 Michigan and Houston meet again tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Michigan Sta- dium. And though both teams are com- ing off a loss in their last game and a bye week, many believe that we may leave the game with a similar result as last year. The Wolverines are 34-point favorites, and to hear the Michigan players talk, that may not be enough. "Our goal is to come out and put the game away in the first half," sopho- more cornerback Ty Law said, "and study things (give thereserves achance to play) in the second half. We want to win it in the first half." Michigan could certainly use the confidence boost-of an easy victory. With all but the faintest hopes of a national championship dashed in the loss to the Irish, critics of the team have come out in droves, and all of the preseason praise has turned into early- season pessimism. ESPN's latest round of predictions, televised Monday night, projected the Wolverines third in the Big Ten, be- hind No. 7 Ohio State and No. 9 Penn State. Michigan's lack of defensive lead- ership has been rouiidly criticized. Critics point out that only three play- ers - senior strong safety Shonte Peoples (18 tackles, 1 interception for the season), senior inside linebacker Steve Morrison (13 tackles, but he's out this week with a reinjured foot), and freshman free safety Chuck Win- ters (11 tackles) - have performed consistently for the Wolverine defense. Naysayers have also targeted Michigan's inability to play funda- mentally sound football, harping on the missed tackles and poor blocking that appeared in the Notre Dame game. "Personally, I don't read the news- papers too often, so I don't worry about that," senior defensive tackle Ninef Aghakhan said. "We'll see what they say about us after the season is over." In addition to boosting team mo- rale, a huge victory might also quiet the critics for a while. Texas A&M made everyone forget about its em- barrassing loss at Oklahoma by run- ning up 73 points on Missouri last week. And the Buckeyes, who thumped Pitt, 63-28 - in Pittsburgh, no less - have actually made Ohio State coach John Cooper a popular man in Columbus. Further, Houston appears ripe for the taking. Under first-year coach Kim Helton, a former NFL assistant, the Cougars have played in a state of disarray. They opened the season by being demolished at Southern Cali- fornia, 49-7, and followed that with the home loss to Tulsa. Much of their problems appear to originate with the offense. A tradi- tional run-and-shoot team - this is the school of NFL QB's Andre Ware and David Klingler, after all - Hous- ton is attempting to convert to a more traditional offense this season. But the experiment doesn't appear to be working. Returning quarterback Jimmy Klingler, David's younger brother, has only put up 251 total passing yards this season. He averaged 347 a game last year, and passed for 613 yards in last year's game against Rice. Fur- ther, the running game is not picking up the slack. The Cougars have netted only 131 yards thus far, and their leading rusher, senior tailback Lamar Smith, has all but three of them. But wait - Klingler sprained an ankle in the Tulsa loss, and won't start tomorrow. In fact, Helton said he may not even play. That leaves redshirt freshman Chuck Clements, who is 19-33 for 159 yards and two intercep-. tions, as the signal caller. Clements, whose brother, Steve, runs the Brigham Young offense, saw signifi- cant action in the Tulsa game, but this will be his first start. At least Clements will have ample targets to aim for. Split end Keith Jack returns for his senior season, and the Wolverines should remember him well. He hauled in a 58-yard strike from Klingler last year for one of the few Houston highlights. Jack will be joined by senior Sherman Smith, an All-Southwest Conference player last year, junior Ron Peters, who scored the Cougars' only touchdown last year on a25-yard pass from Klingler, and junior Daniel Adams in the Cougars' experienced receiving corps. Of course, Michigan has its own problems to face. An inexperienced offensive line has prevented the Wol- verine ground game from really being established, and the defense has seemed to lack the ability to shut down the opposition at key times - witness Notre Dame's march to the end zone to close the first half two weeks ago. Further, injuries have again become a problem for the defense, as Momson and fellow linebacker Bobby Powers (whounderwentknee surgery Wednes- day) are out of action. Despite this, Law said that the Notre Dame showing was the excep- tion to the rule of solid defense for Michigan. "There were high expectations, and we didn't perform in the first half," he said. "But we showed them in the second half that we're one of the bet- ter teams in the country, because we came out in the second half and shut Notre Dame down. Law has a point. Notre Dame only scored three points in the second half, and shut the Irish down on three con- secutive drives, only tohave the Michi- gan offense sputter. Despite the media attention, a key question to be an- swered tomorrow concerns the cohe- siveness of the offense, as well as the defense. Will the Wolverines silence their critics and repeat last year's laugher? When we leave the game tomorrow, we'll have the answer. mommmmid U U } 4v... :;. i i: ":i ... :K;: is ;: :. i:.;}?::} ': v..... :::. .. ..v:. Y:}': ;. 4 . :;:j" ' ... , , J ... k ,, ALOHA ENTERTAINMENT'S STATE THEATRE on State St. at Liberty - 994-4024 MZICJADO IAf i AAAR "