Hockey
vs. Western Michigan
Today, 7 p.m.
Kalamazoo
S
Volleyball
vs. Purdue
Today, 7 p.m.
Cliff Keen Arena
'M'to face rough play at Western, UIC
By PAUL BARGER
DAILY HOCKEY WRITER
Whether it is early in November
or late in March, the Michigan hockey
team has come to accept one constant
from all of its opponents: they like to
hit Wolverines. Never is this more
apparent than when Michigan (3-0-1
CCHA, 5-0-1 overall) annually in-
-vades the rinks of this weekend's com-
petitors - Western Michigan (1-3, 3-
3-1) and Illinois-Chicago (0-2, 1-5).
Tonight Michigan heads to
Kalamazoo to face a Bronco team
that always seems to be ready to wage
war with the Wolverines.
Last season, Western was the only
CCHA team other than regular sea-
son champion Miami to even tie a
season series with Michigan. In fact,
the Broncos handed Michigan its most
surprising defeat of the season - an
8-4 shocker at Yost.
The Broncos' outstanding check-
ing is one reason they can play with
Michigan. In a wide-open contest it
would be difficult for any team to stop
the Wolverines, but if tonight's game
becomes a hard-hitting, slower affair,
it could very well go down to the wire.
"Western's gonna come out and hit
us," senior David Oliver said. "You're
not going to win unless you check. That
sums up the CCHA. Coach (Red
Berenson) stresses that in the biggest
way. If we can check, our offensive
firepower will take care of itself."
There won't be any time to re-
cover from tonight's bumps and
bruises, as the Wolverines must travel
to Chicago tomorrow to take on the
Flames in a clash that promises to be
intense from the drop of the puck.
In contrast to Michigan, theFlames
have struggled to a 1-5 record, so the
result of this contest should not be in
doubt. However, there is something
about the Maize and Blue that Illi-
nois-Chicago just doesn't like, and
the Flames will not simply roll over
and play dead.
Last season's confrontations be-
tween Michigan and UIC featured
fights, record numbers of penalties
and unruly fan behavior. In the Wol-
verines' 8-1 victory Jan. 29, the Yost
crowd peppered the ice with paper
goalie masks containing the word "C-
YA" after the referees whistled 107
penalty minutes.
"We need a checking game, where
they have to work for everything they
get," UIC head coach Larry Pedrie
said. "We have to avoid their outnum-
bered rushes."
And if that doesn't work, Pedrie
has another solution.
"When a team like Michigan
comes to town, you go to church and
you pray."
Both the Broncos and Flames
caught a break when Michigan's All-
American goalie, Steve Shields, went
down with a strained left knee last
Saturday. In his place, senior Chris
Gordon will get his first start of the
season. Gordon is 12-7-2 during his
collegiate career and has amassed over
700 saves.
"Western is very skilled up'front
and in the net," Berenson said. "They
always play Michigan well. Larry
Pedrie will have his team (JIC) ready
to play us as well."
The physical play may not be
enough to slow down Michigan. There
is no question that Ann Arbor is the
home of one of the best lines in the
CCHA and possibly in the country
with Oliver, Jason Botterill and Brian
Wiseman leading the league in scor-
ing with a combined 30 points.
The Wolverines have scorched the
net in their first six games of the
season, scoring an average of 6.17
goals, while giving up 2.83.
0l
DOUGLAS KANTER/Dally
Wolverine linemates David Oliver (above), Brian Wiseman and Jason Botterill are tied for the lead in CCHA scoring.
Spikers look to end nine-game slide
Streaking Purdue, Indiana enter Keen for weekend matchups
S
By CHARLIE BREITROSE
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
Four weeks ago at this time the
Michigan women's volleyball team
looked to be on an upswing. After
sweeping a weekend series the week-
end before, and finally starting to
recover from a string of injuries, the
Wolverines (3-11 Big Ten, 7-16 over-
0l1) were in the thick of a hunt for an
NCAA tournament berth.
However, everything went wrong
dtring a trip south to Indiana. Senior
JoAnna Collias sprained her ankle
during the very first game of the week-
end - continuing Michigan's plague
of:injuries - and the Wolverines fell
3-0 and 3-1 to Indiana and Purdue,
respectively.
The two loses not only stopped the
conference winning streak, but sent
Michigan into a nosedive from which
they have yet to recover.
Today and tomorrow the Boiler-
mAkers (7-7, 14-9) and Hoosiers (5-9,
9-14) are once again the competition
fot Michigan. Both matches will be at
7 p.m. at Cliff Keen Arena.
Now Purdue is the team looking
toward postseason play.
The Wolverines will try to sal-
vae some respect in the last few
weeks of the season, which began
with high expectations.
"It's been a rough season," Collias
said. "We've had a lot to deal with.
We just need to stick together.
"We have three more weekends,
and we're just going to focus on each
game individually. Hopefully we can
end on a high note."
To do this, Michigan must have a
"winning" mindset.
"Well, I think it's very difficult
psychologically, once they're on a
streak like this, to snap themselves
out of it," Michigan head coach Greg
Giovanazzi said. "I think there really
is a lack of confidence. I think that's
part of what losing breeds - a ques-
tioning.
"But I think that going into this
weekend, the team's going to be fired
up and they're going to be curious,
'Hey, are we going to be able to put a
few wins together?' I think that it's
important for them to prove to them-
selves that they're a good enough
team to do that."
Michigan has been in most of the
matches it lost, but the killer instinct
to finish off its opponents just hasn't
been there.
"Right now, we just need to focus
on each point," Collias said. "We'll
usually go on a string of points, and
then we'll let a few. We have to keep
pushing all the way to 15, and not let
up at all during the game."
Purdue, however, may not be the
team against which to start a winning
streak. The Boilermakers have upset
Big Ten powerhouses Ohio State and
Illinois the past two weekends, and
have won six of their last eight
matches.
"They're on a roll," Giovanazzi
said. "I think that they'll take at least
four teams from our conference (for
the NCAA tournament). I think that's
why this weekend is so important for
them. They're going to come out fired
up."
The key to Purdue's success is
outside hitter Carey Burvis. The se-
nior is among the conference leaders
in kills, hitting efficiency, digs and
aces.
"She's a great passer, defensive
player, left-side hitter ... She leads us
in serving. She's really a well-rounded
player," Purdue coach Carol Dewey
said about Burvis. "She really does
lots of things for us"
"(Burvis is) definitely one of the
elite players of the Big Ten this year,"
Giovanazzi said. "She's a great out-
side hitter - without a doubt the one
that they count on the most offen-
sively."
In the teams' first meeting, Burvis
led both squads with 17 kills and four
aces. Another top performer for the
Boilermakers, freshmanLauri Grimes,
had 14 kills that evening. Grimes is not
the only freshman contributing to Pur-
due this year; there are three who cur-
rently start for the Boilermakers.
Although Indiana swept Michigan
in the match in Bloomington,
Giovanazzi feels confident playing
the Hoosiers this time around.
"I think that (Indiana is) a team
that I feel very comfortable playing. I
think that we should be successful,"
he said.
The Hoosiers do have some talent
up front, however.
"Marsha Drummund is a really
good outside hitter for them,"
Giovanazzi said. "She's a great at-
tacker. She'll carry a great load for
them.
"Anne Eastman is the middle
blocker for them, and she's very good.
One of the top hitting percentages and
blocks in the conference. So we'll be
trying to contain those two."
One positive thing should come
out of the weekend for the Wolver-
ines, no matter how they fare. Collias
needs only six digs to break the all-
time Michigan digs record of 1,041,
currently held by Lisa Vahi (1984-
87).
"This proves that she's been a
huge contributor here at Michigan,"
Giovannazzi said about Collias' soon-
to-be record-setting career.
JONATHAN LURIEJDaly
Michigan middle blocker Suzy O'Donnell elevates for the spike against the
Nittany Lions earlier this year at Cliff Keen Arena.
Women's swimming meets Gophers in home debut
By MELANIE SCHUMAN
FOR THE DAILY
Tomorrow afternoon, the Michi-
gan women's swimming team will
bring experience, talent and fresh faces
to Canham Natatorium when the Wol-
verines make their 1993-94 home
debut against Minnesota. Most of all,
though, the swimmers hope to further
test their endurance as they compete
in the third meet of the season.
The team returns to Ann Arbor
after completing its most successful
post-season ever. Last season the team
captured its seventh consecutive Big
Ten title and finished fifth at the
NCAA National Championships.
Coach Jim Richardson, who re-
ceived an NCAA honor himself for
Big Ten Coach of the Year, isn't con-
cerned necessarily with the results of
the competition, as he is with condi-
tioning his athletes.
"We're really concerned at this
point in the season with training," he
said. "We don't try to set up the meets
to sacrifice training. We need to main-
tain our integrity day to day."
Co-captain TaraHigginsconcurred.
"Right now we're doing a lot of
distance and conditioning work," she
said. "I think Jim is giving us a lot of
really tough workouts; he's pounding
us, making us as tired as he can."
"The coaching staff is tired, too,"
Richardson added. "The last two
weeks have been the toughest. This is
really difficult at this point in the
season, but I'm very pleased with the
way we're handling it."
Already this season, the women
have defeated two Big Ten rivals -
Michigan State and Northwestern, 89-
36 and 166-134, respectively.
Michigan's strongest women are
juniors Lara Hooiveld--1993 NCAA
Swimmer of the Year - and Alecia
Humphrey - five-time 1993 NCAA
All-American.
The Wolverine coaching staff re-
cruited a strong freshman class for this
season by adding 12 swimmers to the
roster, including 1993 high school All-
American Anne Kampfe.
Freshman Jodi Navta has enjoyed
the team unity thus far, especially the
upperclassmen who helped them get
settled into Ann Arbor.
"Our freshmen class gets along
really well," she said. "On those Fri-
day nights we can't go out, we do all
sorts of stuff together."
One of the reasons Navta chose
Michigan was for its coaching staff,
and she is still pleased with her deci-
sion, despite the rigorous workouts.
Higgins stayed in Ann Arbor this
summer for conditioning. Despite suf-
fering an ankle injury the first week
into training that caused 'her to miss
'We're really
concerned at this point
in the season with
training. We don't try
to set up the meets to
sacrifice training. We
need to maintain our
integrity day to day.'
- Jim Richardson
Michigan women's
swimming coach
ample,"she said. "We both have goals
we want, as does everybody.
Everyone's individual goals will work
to fulfill the goals we set as a team."
Even though the results of this
weekend's meet will not affect the
Wolverines' final standing in the Big
Ten, the team is anxious to tackle a
tough squad.
MinnesotacomestoAnnArborwith
arecord of 1-0, having defeated Indiana
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
MEDICAL SCHOOL
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