6- The Michigan Daily - SPOR T
VOLLEYBALL
TSMonday - Monday, October 25, 1993
Continued from page 1
themalot,"junior setter Julie Scherer
said. "We served pretty tough most
of the time. We got them out of their
'offense sometimes and were able to
capitalize on that."
Friday'smatch with Ohio State was
not a pretty one for either team.
"A lotofpoinfs were scored on the
other team's errors,"Ohio State coach
Jim Stone said.
The Buckeye's serving over-
whehmedMichigan.SophomoreJenny
Jackson accounted for six of Ohio
State's 15 aces.
"Ithought(Jenny's serving) turned
the game around," Stone said. "A lotof
the time you get in the situation where
a given server scores points.
t . "But this also allows other servers
to score points. Because passers start
to hesitate a little bit, it zaps their
confidence so it makes points directly
and indirectly. I thought it was really
a key factor tonight."
After dropping the first game 15-
5 and falling behind 10-5 in the sec-
ond, Michigan battled back to win 15-
12.
"Game two, I mean that's really
how we're playing,"Giovanazzi said.
"We're steadier than we were acouple
of weeks ago."
Sophomore middle blocker Suzy
O'Donnelland setterJulie Scherer have
VOLLEYBALL NOTEBOOK:
Wolverines lose, but
Luze still improves,
EliZABETH UIPPMAN/Day
Michele Horrigan tries to save a point for the Michigan volleyball team against Ohio State Friday at Cliff Keen Arena.
The Wolverines fell to the Buckeyes in four games.
been key contributors during the thus-
far injury-riddled season.
"I was really pleased with Suzy's
frontrow play and herlevelof aggres-
siveness," Giovanazzi said.
"I felt pretty good about tonight,"
O'Donnell said. "I think mostly be-
cause Julie and the people that are
stepping in to do the setting. The balls
were really nice. There were some
really good balls up there. I think that
I was really on tonight."
Giovanazzi said that he also likes
the Los Altos, Calif., native's im-
proved setting.
"I think Julie is playing the best
ball of the season," he said. "Probably
the best that I've seen her .av.
(she's) doing a good job leading the
team.,,
O'Donnell led the team on Friday
with 10 kills against the Buckeyes.
Saturday's top killer for either team
was senior Fiona Davidson, with 14.
By CHAR LIE BREITROSE
and BRETT JOHNSON
DAILY SPORTS WRITERS
There are always growing pains in
the life of a first-year athlete. For
outside hitter Shareen Luze, thejump
serve is a big part of her game. She is
finally starting to feel better about
using it in the game situation.
"I think I'm getting a little more
comfortable using it in games," Luze
said. "There's a little less pressure."
Her coach, Greg Giovanazzi, has
been pleased with the progress she is
making.
"That's a pretty tough skill,"
Giovanazzi said. "She had three aces,
five errors tonight. That's a good ra-
tio. If that were the case every night,
we'd have no problem at all. That's a
sacrifice we're willing to give up."
Luze has also gained confidence
in her hitting game as was displayed
against Indiana and Purdue two week-
ends ago.
She tallied24killsinthetwogames
including a career-high 14 against the
Boilermakers.
ACTION JACKSON: One of
Michigan's major problems Friday
night was Ohio State's Jenny Jack-
son. Jackson, last year's Big Ten
Freshman of the Year, had a career-
best serving night when she recorded
six service aces.
"Last year, I used a spin serve a lot
more," Jackson said. "This year I was
trying to work on my floater serve a
little bit. I figured I'd go back to my
spin serve because the floater wasn't
being as successful as I wanted it.
Sometimes it's on and sometimes it's
not, but tonight I was really pleased
with it.
"I saw from the first serve that if I
served tough they would have to fall
for it. I really didn't try to go for any
particular person or any particular
spot."
There wasn't much to say on the
Michigan side. The team could do
nothing but tip its collective hat to the
sophomore.
1 think I'm getting a
little more comfortable
using it in games.
There's a little less
pressure.'
- Shareen Luze
Michigan outside hitter
"It was a nice serve," Horrigan
said.
M*A*S*H UmT: Although the.
Wolverines have gotten senior out-
side hitter Michelle Horrigan back
into the lineup, they still are a little
banged up. Senior outside hitter
JoAnna Collias is still recovering
from an ankle sprain she suffered at
Indiana. She should return this com-
ing weekend.
Junioroutsidehitter Aimee Smith
is listed as day-to-day with her linger-
ing shoulder injury. She saw back
row action only this past weekend.
Finally, sophomore middle blocker
Shannon Brownlee looks to be al-
most fully recovered from a slight
ankle sprain.
"Shannon's ankle seems to be
pretty good," Giovanazzi said. "She
has to limit her movement a little bit.
A huge part of the injury is the psy-
chological effect that ithas on whether.
you can really trust it or not."
A PAIR OF ACES: Senior middle
blocker Fiona Davidson added five
serving aces this weekend to bring
her career total to 122. This puts
Davidson only 11 aces from vaulting
over Heather Olsen (1984-87) into
third place on the Michigan career
service ace list. Ironically enough,
Fiona's sister Marie Ann Davidson
(1985-88) leads the list with 239.
DANDY DIGGER: Collias ranks third
in the Big Ten in digs per game.
Collias has played in 53 games over
16 matches and is averaging 3.23 digs
per game. The digs category is the
only one in which Michigan currently
has a leader in.
COLLIAS
Continued from page 1
"But, in the two years that I have
been here, she has been without a
doubt our best defensive player.
"It's a very significant statistic
that she is about to become the best
digger in Michigan history. That is
the skill that tends to add
momentum to a team. In the middle
of the game when someone makes a
great dig, it keeps everything alive.
She obviously adds that to our
team."
Former coach and current
associate athletic director Peggy
Bradley-Doppes not only sees the
record as a reflection on Collias'
style of play but also as an
indication of just how far the
program has come over the past
four years.
"It shows her gutsy play,"
Bradley-Doppes said. "People
usually remember the big hitters.
She's the type of player who does
both. She gets down, gets
hammered and picks the ball back
up. I think JoAnna breaking (the
record) shows the improvement of
the level of volleyball here over the
last few years."
Amazingly enough, if things had
gone as Collias had planned, this
record would have never been
broken.
During her senior year at Mother
McAuley high school in Chicago,
Collias was being recruited by
numerous schools, including Iowa,
Northwestern, Miami (Ohio),
Hofstra and Pittsburgh. Michigan
did not recruit her.
She received first-team All-State
honors in Illinois from the Chicago
Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and
the Champaign News-Gazette. In
the end, she decided to come to
Michigan despite not being
recruited.
"My recruiting went really bad,"
Collias said. "I was recruited by
Fsome Big Ten schools that I wanted
to go to, but they didn't offer me
scholarships. I had some offers
from other schools, but ... I wanted
to go to a school that was good
academically and athletically. By
the end of the season, I was kind of
fed up with the whole recruiting
process, and I was just going to go
here and go to school."
By the time summer rolled
around, Collias had enrolled at
Michigan and was playing club
volleyball at the Junior Olympics in
Chicago. At the tournament, then-
coach Bradley-Doppes talked with
her about joining the team as a
walk-on.
"JoAnna was an outstanding
high school athlete," Bradley-
Doppes said. "When I came up
here, she was being recruited by
Miami and Hofstra. I had already
brought in a class with me, and we
had kind of closed the door. I
thought she was going to Miami,
and I saw her at an AAU event in
Chicago.
"I went up to talk to her in a
casual conversation to ask her if she
was going to Miami, and she said
she was coming here for school. At
the time we had nine walk-ons, and
I told her I felt she could make the
team and earn a scholarship."
Collias says by that time, she
wanted to play again and welcomed
the opportunity to try out for the
Wolverines.
"Peggy came to see me play and
said, 'We really want you to come
out for the team,"' Collias said. "By
that time, I enjoyed playing again. I
had a really good tournament, and I
really wanted to play again. So, I
came out for the team. I'm so glad I
did because it's been a great
experience."
Collias turned her walk-on status
into a scholarship after two years of
play for the Wolverines. And after a
junior season and a tough spring
training session, Collias has turned
herself into a top-notch all-around
player.
"She's a great digger - a great
defensive player," Giovanazzi said.
"She's a very good attacker. For
somebody 5-foot-9, she's very
effective hitting outside. She's
difficult to stop because she has the
quickness to get to a lot of different
sets. She's got an excellent serve,
and she's a good blocker. There's
no weakness in her game."
Collias spent a lot of time this
spring working on becoming a
better, more consistent outside
hitter. She credits Giovanazzi for
showing her how to be a smarter
hitter.
"I've never had a coach like
Greg," Collias said. "Most of my
coaches have told me to put the ball
away, be aggressive and just swing
at anything you could hit. A lot of
times you can't do that. Greg taught
me that you need to be a smarter
player rather than just a power
player. I need to be more 'cagey,'
as he puts it."
Not only is Collias' physical
game solid, but so is her mental
game. Her teammates can count on
her to make smart choices as well
as to keep communication going on
around the court.
"She's really intense," teammate
Erica Badran-Grycan said. "She
definitely goes after it and gets key
plays for us when we really need
them. She's really improved her
shots and how smart she plays even
from last year. She's the best all-
around player on the team."
"She's great because she talks a
lot," Scherer said. "She's a really
good communicator. So as a setter,
it's neat because she tells me what
types of things are going on with
her. She's made some huge strides
(since last year). She's become a
real good role model for the team,
especially the younger players."
More importantly from her own
standpoint, Collias has maintained a
high level of play in every facet of
her game.
"I've become more consistent as
a hitter and an all-around player,"
Collias said. "My defense has
usually been pretty consistent.
Offensively, this year I've become
more of an outlet player. The team
can count on me more to put the
ball down."
Scherer sees this as the one thing
that has made Collias so difficult
for opponents to defend.
"JoAnna has been putting any
ball I set up there for her down,"
Scherer said. "She's not just
keeping it in the court but she's
using effective kills. She has
become so much more consistent
passing. She's mixing up her shots
a lot, which has been really tough
for the other teams to play against
her."
All of this improvement has
allowed Collias to take over a
leadership role on the team. As a
senior, she has shown the type of
leadership expected out of an
upperclass athlete. She has been a
leader by example.
"JoAnna has stepped into the
leadership role," Giovanazzi said. "I
think she is the most solid starter on
our team right now. She's the one
that is hitting a lot of bals, passing
a lot of balls, digging all the balls..
I don't know if anybody else is
contributing that much.
"You tend to see the gh0'ses of
the hope you had fcr a pa yr come
through in their senior years. I'm
seeing things in JoAnna on a
consistent basis that I had hoped I
would. Somehow, my vision of
JoAnna has become her vision of
JoAnna as a player. She's now a
leader by example."
Collias sees her leadership role
as part of the natural maturation
process within a colle ge team.
However, her duties have been even
more pronounced due to ky
injuries to two outside hitters,
senior Michelle Horrigan and junior
Aimee Smith.
"Being here for three years
makes the senior class want it more
as a whole than the freshmen
coming in," Collias said. "You need
to lead by example. It's been hard
because we've had a lot of injuries,
but I think it's helped me to come
into my own. It made me realize
that I needed to take more
responsibility on my shoulders than
I would have had they been
healthy."
Collias' role as a volleyball
player will soon be over, However,
the walk-on who came to Michigan
for the education will graduate with
a degree in English. After that, she
doesn't know what she will pursue,
but she knows the experiences she
has had at Michigan will help her.
"After I'm done with school,
I'm not exactly sure what I want to
go into, but I know it's going to
have to do with people," Collias
said. "I've really enjoyed meeting a
lot of different people, and I've
learned so much. The competition
pushes you harder as a student. It's
such a diverse place that it's really
opened me up. I've really enjoyed
learning from different people."
There is no question that Collias
is an outstanding volleyball player.
Soon, she will write her name at the
top of the school's record book as
the all-time digs leader.
So, the only real question left is
if JoAnna will sing the "Star-
Spangled Banner" on senior night.
MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY*
ariers name Big Ten
championship runners
By BARRY SOLLENBERGER
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
The team is finally set.
Friday at Eastern Michigan, the
No. 17 Michigan men's cross country
team found a number nine runner to
fill out its squad for the Big Ten
Championships next Saturday in East
Lansing.
Each conference team is allowed
to race nine runners at the Big Tens
and the Wolverines had eight of their
nine set before Friday.
A redshirt freshman filled the void.
Ryan Burt came to the forefront
and ran really well and will be our
ninth guy running in the Big Tens,"
Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said.
Burt was Michigan's top finisher
at the meet, finishing eighth overall in
the eight- kilometer race with a time
of 25:33.
The race featured 120 amateur
runners from around the state in an
open format. No individual team
scores were kept.
Burt's finish was only three sec-
onds slower than the time that won
the Michigan Interregional a week
ago, but Warhurst said Eastern
Michigan's course was much easier
to run on compared to the University
Golf Course where the Interregional
was held.
"The course (at Eastern) wasn't as
sloppy and as hilly as ours," Warhurst
said.
"Obviously, their course is a little
different from ours. Our course is a
really tough course."
With the regular season behind
them, the Wolverines can now look
ahead to next week's Big Ten Cham-
pionships.
Michigan will need solid perfor-
mances from all of its runners if it is to
win the conference championshipnext
Saturday.
"We're probably going to be
ranked third (in the conference, be-
hind Wisconsin and Penn State) go-
ing into the meet," Warhurst said.
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