Men knock off Iowa,
denied by Minnesota
The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, April 4, 1994 - 3
KEN SUGIURA
Close But No Sugiura
By JENNIFER DUBERSTEIN
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
The Michigan men's tennis team
missed seeing the Diag crowd on Hash
Bash, and it didn't go home to its
families for Easter Sunday.
Instead, the Wolverines opened
their Big Ten season this weekend
against Minnesota and Iowa at the
Liberty Sports Complex in Ann Ar-
bor, coming away with varied suc-
cess.
They dropped a 5-2 decision to the
No.26 Golden Gophers Saturday. The
match was close with the outcome com-
ing down to the final two singles
matches. Yesterday, Michigan came
back to beat the Hawkeyes, 4-3.
Despite losing to Minnesota, the
two-time defending Big Ten champs,
Michigan still believes that it can beat
the Gophers at the conference champi-
onships, which will be played in Min-
neapolis.
"We have a really good shot of
taking them out," Michigan's fresh-
man Andy Yani said. "They are
beatable. We proved to other teams and
ourselves that we are a strong con-
ANASTASIA BANICKI/Daily
Michigan's No. 1 singles player, Dan Brakus, who is ranked 28th nationally,
knocked off Minnesota's top player, Paul Pridmore, Saturday.
tender for the Big Ten champion-
ship."
The Gophers extended their streak
to 31 straight Big Ten dual meet vic-
tories.
Although senior Dan Brakus felt
ill, he still beat Paul Pridmore,
Minnesota's No. I singles player. As
of last week, Brakus is ranked 28th in
the nation, while Pridmore is 51st.
"I played pretty well in the big
points," Brakus said. "I played very
solid. I played a lot better as the match
went on."
The Wolverines spent yesterday
preying on the Hawkeyes. The Iowa
victory helped provide Michigan with
some confidence.
"It's starting to come together,"
sophomore John Costanzo said. "Physi-
cally, we're the most talented team in
the Big Ten. Against Minnesota, we
didn't win mentally."
The Wolverines have had plenty of
time to prepare for their conference
dual meet season. Michigan had a three-
week break between its match against
Eastern Michigan and its Big Ten
opener.
"(The layoff) was tough on the
team," Yani said. "It was tough on us to
go' out and play (the No. 1 team in the
Big Ten)."
Individually, the players thought
that the hiatus helped them.
"I needed it," Brakus said. "I needed
to work on some things like my serve."
"I think (the break) helped me, be-
cause our team has been playing very
well," added Costanzo, who had been
injured earlier this year. "It gave me a
chance to get my form back and not
really worry about losing."
Costanzo also said that the break
made the team focus on April as the
most important part of the season.
"April is when it all happens,"
Costanzo said.
If the Wolverines can keep playing
well, they have an opportunity to make
things happen. The team hosts two
more Big Ten matches this week,
against Michigan State and Penn State.
Lake State takes title over BU, 9-1
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - This
time, Lake Superior State didn't need
overtime.
The Lakers won their second
NCAA hockey title in three seasons,
scoring during three straight second-
period power plays to break open a
close game Saturday and rout Boston
University, 9-1.
LakeSuperior(31-10-4), which also
won the 1992 championship, had gone
into overtime 13 times this season, in-
cluding its first three tournament games.
But the Lakers made sure they
*wouldn't need overtime this time.
They scored five second-period goals
and recorded the most lopsided cham-
pionship victory since Denver beat
St. Lawrence, 12-2, in 1961.
"We haven't had many games like
that, especially in the playoffs," said
Blaine Lacher, who made 24 saves
and finished the season with a nation-
leading 1.98 goals-against average.
"We've been in a lot of tight
games," Lacher said. "So I was say-
ing all along, 'I keep losing my hair in
these overtime games, I keep finding
it in my helmet. A 4-1, 5-1 game
would just be great for my nerves."'
And a 9-1 game was all the better.
"It was disappointing when we
lost last year," said Sean Tallaire,
who scored twice and was named
tournament MVP. "It's a good feel-
ing that we won because now I feel
like I'm not a loser any more."
The margin of victory still wasn't
enough to calm Lakers coach Jeff
Jackson.
"I'm chewing on Tums," he said
as he sat down for the postgame news
conference. "As people might notice,
I don't show much emotion on the
exterior. But my interior is a mess."
He said that before the game, he
told a Lake Superior State adminis-
trator: "I love these kids. There's only
one thing I want - championship or
no championship, I don't want to see
those kids in the locker room crying."
He got his wish. All the tears were
shed by the Terriers (32-8-1), who are
still seeking their fourth title and had
their 12-game winning streak snapped.
Rob Valicevic also scored twice
and Gerald Tallaire added four assists
for Lake Superior, which finished the
season with a 14-1-2 run to win the
third title in school history.
Target has changed, but
Pelinka's aim still true
The sun, painfully shy the past few months, was making an appearance
in Ann Arbor Friday of last week, and it was receiving a welcome
normally reserved for astronauts and heads of state.
The Diag overflowed with students bathing gratefully in its warmth,
catching up on the past with this old friend. Seated on a bench a few steps
away, first-year law school student Rob Pelinka was looking back, too. The
brilliant light he reflected on was not the sun, but his days as a Michigan
basketball player.
His memory wandered back to the final basketball game he played for
Michigan, in particular the game's climactic play, when his teammate Chris
Webber dribbled into a corner and, well, you probably know the rest.
"I was standing on the spot where Michael Jordan had hit a jump shot
on the baseline of the Superdome, where Keith Smart had hit his," he says,
referring to the corner of the floor where both players had hit
championship-winning shots. "And I was standing on that spot that they'd
been showing on ESPN and CBS, saying, 'This is the spot, something's
gonna happen this year again for the third time in a row.' I was thinking I
was gonna get the ball."
More than reliving games, though, Pelinka, as befits a law student, says
he has been thinking deeply about the game and the time he spent playing
it.
"It's been something that I didn't expect," he says. "I just thought I
would cut the strings to the past and be able to go on. I think it's something
that every athlete faces, having to make that transition." As if to provide
evidence of this struggle, Pelinka was wearing a Michigan Law School
sweatshirt under his varsity letter jacket.
"Last year's Final Four seems like it happened yesterday, especially
because right now, it's March Madness," he says.
It is interesting that he thinks the time has passed so quickly. It is
interesting because in the 365 days that have passed since last year's
championship, he has traveled a long and rich journey. One would figure
that last year's championship would seem like decades ago to Pelinka, not
days.
"It was definitely the most fulfilling four months of my entire life," he
says of his summer of 1993.
Last summer was a good time to be Rob Pelinka. He had just completed
a season as a valuable sixth man to the Fab Five, having played extensively
in the tournament run. He had just earned his bachelor's degree in business
education with a 3.92 GPA and had been awarded the Big Ten's Medal of
Honor. He had been accepted to a host of top law schools, including
Michigan.
The Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers, among others, wanted
to give him a shot at making their rosters, and right behind them were
teams in Europe and even Japan. The possibilities of working on Wall
Street looked promising as well, as did the chance to politic in Washington.
Strike while the iron is hot? You needed SPF 15 if you wanted to get
near this metal.
About the only people who didn't want a piece of Pelinka were the
student-athletes he had beaten out to receive the NCAA's $10,000 Walter
Byers postgraduate scholarship. Come to think of it, those people probably
did want a piece of Pelinka.
"I knew that I needed to seize the moment and use the opportunity
while it was still there," he says.
Pelinka reared back, and struck as hard as he could. ,
He turned his back to the offers, and instead toured the state of
Michigan and the entire country, speaking at basketball camps. In his
words, he tried "being a positive role model and letting them know what
See SUGIURA, Page a
Crew teams cruise past Cincinnati to open season
By TIM SMITH
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
Novice crew member Steve Fisher
summed it up best when he described
the Michigan crew team's perfor-
mance Saturday:
"We kicked some Cincinnati butt,
baby!"
The Wolverines opened up their
spring season registering convincing
wins in the men's and women's nov-
ice and varsity races on East Fork
Lake in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The race gave Michigan the chance
to compete on a lake that is noted for
its quality.
"It was fairly flat and the wind
wasn't blowing us around a lot, so it
gave us a decent sense of how accu-
rate our times were," novice coach
Charley Sullivan said. "It's a good
course because it's the place where
they hold the collegiate national cham-
pionships in June."
The men's team started out by
racing its first and second varsity
against the varsity team of Cincinnati
in the 2000 K. The Wolverines domi-
nated with times of 6:13 and 6:23,
compared to Cincinnati's time of 6:28.
"You're always a bit nervous about
the first race," Sullivan said. "To see
that the crews can race with a good
deal of maturity this early in the sea-
son is very promising."
In the most exciting competition
of the day, Michigan's third varsity
edged the Bearcats' second varsity,
6:33 to 6:35. Michigan's comeback
in the last 500 meters was the high-
light of the race.
The first novice team also came
out with an easy victory, defeating
Cincinnati's novice team 6:28 to 6:48.
The women's varsity team knocked
off Cincinnati's varsity, 7:03 to 7:13.
The second varsity also competed in
the race and narrowly missed beating
the Bearcats, finishing with a time of
7:14. In addition Michigan's first nov-
ice team gained a victory over the first
novice teamof Cincinnati,7:25 to 7:53.
"I was very impressed and I
thought they did an excellent job,"
novice women's coach Amy Gragg
said. "It was a beautiful day, so we
were real excited to get out there and
start the season."
Because it was the Wolverines'
first meet, the regatta was somewhat
of a warm-up for the rest of the sea-
son. Since most of the meets this year
have many teams, the dual meet gave
the Wolverines a chance to get out
some of the kinks after a winter away
from the water, as well as the opportu-
nity to start building for the rest of the
season.
"We were real confident because
winter training went really well," club
president Ben Jeffers said. "Each race
we hope to progress and get faster,
because our whole season is geared
toward peaking in May."
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Because you can't fit
it all in your backpack..
L Iaa h1
Department of Recreational
Sports
INTRAMURAL
SPORTS PROGRAM
ATTENTION
Saginaw
Bay
Midland
Tuscola County
Students
This Fall, why don't you take
something back to college
besides your suit case?
Earn extra academic credit this Spring/Summer at Delta College and
transfer the credits back to your university this fall.
CROSS COUNTRY RUN
(3.0 Mile Course)
Entry Deadline: Friday 4/8
4:30 p.m.
IMSB Main Office
Run Date: Saturday 4/9
Run Location: Mitchell/Gallup
Starting Time: 9:00 a.m.
For Additional Information Contact IMSB 763-3562
ANDVE-"Iu~
SImiii
C YOUi
LEAVEU
1 E
IUniver8ity Tower8 Apartlment
536 S. Forest Ave. 761-268
Here's a sample of the courses we will be offering this Spring & Summer:
1
a
Intensive French Courses
in North America's French Capital
* Small classes - All levels * Communicative approach * Integration into the
French-speaking milieu * Exceptional sports facilities * Campus housing or
accommodations with francophones * Age 18 or older
Accounting
Advertising
Algebra (4 levels)
American Government
Analytic Geometry & Calculus
Anatomy & Physiology
Art History
Astronomy
Autocad
Biology
Business Communications
Business Law
Career Decision Making
College Composition
Cnmnnter Literacv
Computers/Programming
Criminal Justice
Differential Equations
Drafting
Economics
Geography
Geology
History
Inorganic Chemistry
Keyboarding
Literature
Management
Marketing
Master Student
Medical Terminnonov
Microbiology
Music
Organic Chemistry
Philosophy
Physical Education
Physics
Pre-Calculus
Psychology
Sales
Sociology
Spanish
Speech
Statistics
Trigonometry
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