The Michigan Daily -- Wednesday, March 16, 1994 - 11
SIXTH-PLACE BOWLING GREEN IN CCHAs:
Falcons try for huge upset
Bowling Green lost to Michigan, 2-1, at Yost Ice Arena Jan. 25.
Women's golf escapes to Tampa for
*sun, a few rounds at Pebble Creek
By MICHAEL ROSENBERG
DAILY HOCKEY WRITER
Bowling Green is one of six CCHA
teams with a chance to receive an at-
large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, they are
the sixth of those teams.
Bowling Green, which is coming
off of a sweep of Ferris State, will
almost certainly have to reach the
CCHA final Sunday atJoeLouis Arena
in order to receive a bid to the tourna-
ment. If the Falcons win, they will
receive an automatic bid. If they lose in
the final, they
The Road could receive an
to at-large bid.
But first
The Joe Bowling Green
will have to take
careofMichigan
State Friday
night. The win-
nertakesonLake
CCHA Superior State
Championship Saturday.
March 18-20 "We have
good momen-
tum," coach Jerry York said. "We are
coming off agood series win for us. We
thought Ferris was a tough draw."
Bowling Green has one of the
conference's brightest young stars in
netminder Bob Petrie. The CCHA All-
Rookie selection has a 3.11 goals-
against-average and has turned away
88 percent of the shots he has faced.
"Petrie has given us durability,"
York said. "His three-point GAA is
'We don't feel like we
can score any goals,
yet we are the fourth-
best in the league (in
goals). I would like to
see more offensive
punch in the game. I
think it would make
the game more
exciting.'
- Jerry York
Bowling Green coach
outstanding. That is an enviable statis-
tic."
The Falcons will need Petrie, be-
cause they have mediocre special teams
and a limited offensive arsenal. They
are fifth in the league in scoring, sixth
in penalty-killing and ninth in power
play percentage. Bowling Green will
need to take advantage of every oppor-
tunity against Spartan goalie Mike
Buzak Friday.
"We don't feel like we can score1
any goals, yet we are the fourth-best in
the league (in goals)," York said. "I
would like to see more offensive punch
in the game. I think it would make the
game more exciting."
Captain Jeff Wells, a first-team all-
conference defenseman, leads Bowl-
ing Green. Wells has scored 27 points
this season to push his career total past
the century mark.
Other top Falcons include forwards
Brian Holzinger and Sean Pronger.
Holzinger, a second-team all-confer-
ence performer a year ago, has a disap-
pointing 36 points this season, but he
has scored 21 goals and remains one of
the most feared players in the league.
Holzinger is a strong skater with the
ability to score in bunches, as evi-
denced by his hat trick against Michi-
gan earlier this season.
Pronger is Bowling Green's other
major threat. If he and Holzinger play
their best, then the Falcons are capable
of beating anyone in the country.
"We were a lot closer to a second-
or third-place team," York said. "We
could have been anywhere. We have to
expect the unexpected."
Earlier in the season, it looked like
Bowling Green would in fact be a sec-
ond- or third- place team. The Falcons
got off to their best start in almost a
decade and climbed to No.7 nationally.
However, they could not sustain the
Holzinger
early season hot streak and fell to sixth
place in the conference by the end of the
year. Still, that was an improvement
over last year's seventh-place finish.
In another conference, Bowling
Green probably would be better than a
sixth-place team and would have a
good shot at an NCAA berth. But in the
CCHA, it looks like the Falcons will
need to pull off major upsets to earn a
chance at a national championship.
- The Daily will preview the re-
maining teams in the CCHA title hunt
all this week.
By REBECCA MOATZ
FOR THE DAILY
Who couldresisthoppingon aplane
and heading down to Tampa, Fla. to
spend two days basking in the sun of
the Pebble Creek Country Club?
While the situation may sound ideal
* to those trying to escape the winter
freeze, the members of the Michigan
women's golf team look at it as another
day on the job.
The Wolverines, who flew to Tampa
yesterday, will be competing in a 19-
team tournament hosted by Northern
Illinois. Having competed on the same
course last year, the team looks for-
wardtoplaying on thewell-keptgreens.
Michigan has been forced to prac-
tice on indoor mats due to the weather
and will have to adjust its swings to the
natural greens.
"It is hard when you don't practice
on actual grass," Michigan coach Cathy
Teichert said. "We hope to get our
timing back, but it shouldn't be a prob-
lem."
Michigan's toughest competition
may not prove to be a team itself, but a
little factorknown as spring break. While
the Wolverines have been back in school
for two weeks, many ofthe other squads
were on vacation last week, practicing
in warm weather environments.
TheWolverines, however, have not
been sitting idly on the sidelines. Dur-
ing its spring break, the team traveled
to Phoenix where it trained and com-
peted in a tournament.
The team worked on its repetitive
swing every day, and while the Wol-
verines placed fourth in the four-way
tournament, the invaluablepractice time
will benefit the team this week.
"When you take time off in the
winter ... it takes time to get your
swing back," Jenny Zimmerman said.
"We worked hard on our short course
(chipping and putting) over spring break
and that should help us now."
Another obstacle for Michigan may
be its own confidence level. Individu-
ally, the members perform well, but the
Wolverines lack experience playing as
a team.
"We need a better finish and to
boost our confidence ... before the Big
Tens," rookie Wendy Westfall said.
The first 18 holes will be played
Thursday, and then the teams will be
grouped in threes based on their scores
for Friday's final 18 holes.
"Obviously our goal is to be in the
last group on the second day,"
Zimmerman said. "If we get our confi-
dence up at the same time, we should
do some serious damage."
Spikers stay mentally tough for a sweep
By MEI NDA ROCO
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
Fans of the Michigan men's volley-
ball team witnessed the debut of a new
squad Saturday night, as the Wolver-
ines defeated Cincinnati and Central
Michigan at the CCRB in a tri-match.
It wasn't a new roster or a new
offensive strategy that served as the
key to the dual win.
The Wolverines simply kept their
heads in the game.
Noted in the past for its inconsis-
* tency and mental lapses, Michigan re-
mained focused and intense.
Despite beginning play two hours
later than scheduled, Michigan swept
Cincinnati in the first match, 15-7, 15-
7 and 15-7. Outside hitter Bill Seeley
led the team in both offense and de-
fense, totaling 11 kills and 14 digs.
Middle hitter Chad Stielstra rallied
seven kills, and defensive specialist
Duke Arora served up four aces to help
clinch the win.
Against Central, the Wolverines
claimed the first game, 15-8. The sec-
ond and third games were more of a
challenge as Michigan lost, 12-15, and
foughtfora 16-14win. Asthemidnight
hour drew near, Stielstra finished off a
total of 13 kills and setter Stan Lee
picked up 11 digs in the fourth-game, a
15-5 blowout.
Outside hitter Ernesto Rodriguez,
who left the team in January due to
personal obligations and returned to
the squad last week, put down 13 kills.
Coach Duane Storti made full use
of Michigan's deep bench and was
pleased with the play from both the
starters and the substitutes.
"Again, our seniors played steady,"
Storti said. "Duke gave us some point
strings. Brad (Yeager) saw his first time
back since his injury (a month ago).
Chad (Engel) and Gun (Unluer) filled
the second swing hitting position well.
"Many of the guys have been play-
ing well in practice and deserved play-
ing time," added Storti, referring to the
second string players starting in the
second game against Central.
Outside hitter Kevin Urban said
that the efforts of the entire team during
practice carried over into the game,
making it easier for the bench to click
with the starters.
"In drills, scrimmages and
warmups, we're always working with
different players and trying different
combinations," Urban said. "When we
do run into problems in a game, the
team accepts a switch in any position.
We don't have to work to establish
chemistry between the starters and the
bench because we're already used to
playing with each other.
"There also isn't the pressure on the
starters to fully carry the team because
our bench is so deep," he added.
Tonight, the Wolverines take on
Notre Dame in South Bend. Saturday,
the team competes against Purdue and
Iowa in a tri-match in West Lafayette.
"We expect Notre Dame to be pretty
strong," Storti said. "Right now, we're
trying to establish procedures on the
bench in terms of scouting the
opponent's offensive and defensive
strategies so that we can adjustour own
game. We'll need to be able to do this
in Arizona (forNationals) when we run
into teams we've never seen before."
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Continued from page 10
led the team in scoring throughout the
tournament.
On the college side, Adam Koplan,
a freshman fly-half, earned laurels for
his strong play over the weekend.
"Adam Koplan, who played high
school rugby in Virginia, was a
standout for the younger team,"
Warburton said.
"He did a great job holding the
backs together," senior Tom
Vestergaard added.
Regardless, the invitational was
looked atmainly as achanceto give the
younger members of the team a chance
to play, and to prepare the team for the
regularseason. Michigan hadn'tplayed
a game since November, so this meet
acted as a tune-up for its first game of
the season, against Toronto April 2.
"With the undergrad (college) team,
half of them hadn't even played before
this weekend," Warburton said. "We're
going to try (to work) on the all-around
improvement of the younger guys'
skills."
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