10 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 13, 1994 'M' laxers hope to sow seeds against Spartans By WILL McCAHILL DAILY SPORTS WRITER With visions of seeds dancing in their heads, the members of the Michi- gan men's lacrosse team heads to East Lansing today to take on their instate rival, Michigan State. There is actually only one seed that really matters to the Wolverines, and that's a No. I seed in next weekend's Big Ten championship tournament. Right now, the Spartans are the only thing separating Michigan from that seed. For club lacrosse, the Big Ten is divided into two five-team divisions. With a win against Michigan State, the Wolverines will have defeated the four other teams in the East division, giving them a lock on the top seed. A top seed would give Michigan an automatic bye into the second round of the tourney, where it would face the winner of the contest between the East fifth seed and the West fourth seed. And what of the Spartans? "It's been a Dr. Jeckyl-Mr. Hyde situation with them this year," coach Robert DiGiovanni said of the slightly inconsistent Michigan State team. DiGiovanni said he's seen the Spartans both play well and struggle. "I'm not going to take them lightly," DiGiovanni said. "Their individual sticks should be good, but they're not quite as good with (offensive and defensive sets) which need more teamwork," DiGiovanni added. If the Spartan Mr. Hyde shows up, though, give the Wolverines a 'W' and a top seed in the Big Ten tourney. JONATHAN LURIE/Daily Michigan baseball coach Bill Freehan says execution of plays will be crucial to his team's success. Cracked skin hinders Blue spikers By MELINDA ROCO DAILY SPORTS WRITER 2% O 200 ~OFF "Always remember to moisturize." This is what the Michigan men's volleyball coach Duane Storti had to say after last weekend's matches against Michigan State and Ohio State. During warmups before the Michi- gan State match Friday night, setter Stan Lee cracked his dry hand open after contacting the ball on a block. He was taken to the University Hos- pital for stitches and was unable to set for the weekend. Outside hitter Ernesto Rodriguez filled the setter's spot, but Lee's ab- sence was apparent as the Wolverines struggled through a three-game loss to MSU. "Ernesto did a good job, consider- ing the circumstances," Storti said. "In our regular rotation, he's in the second setter's spot and he's done well picking up the second ball. The players were pretty comfortable with him in this role on the court." The next night against OSU, set- ter Justin Biebel led the team through a five game joust with Lee playing the back row on defense. Michigan was unable to maintain consistency on the court and fell to the Buckeyes. Ending the regular season with two losses, however, has not damp- ened the spirits of the Wolverines. Tomorrow, the squad will fly to Tempe, Ariz., to compete at the Col- legiate Club Nationals. Forty-eight schools will battle it out in this final volleyball showdown. The three days of competition will begin Thursday with 12 pools of four teams. The top finishers in each pool will get a bye into the playoff round. The second- and third-place finishers will continue on in a second round of pool play, with the top finishers in these pools continuing on into playoffs. Michigan will be facing Florida, USC and Boston College in its first day of competition. Lee will be back in the setter's spot, playing with a bandaged hand. "This is what the year comes down to," Storti said. "We've doubled our practice time over the past couple of weeks, and the guys are ready to go." The Wolverines have made a dra- matic turnaround since last season. Af- ter last year's disappointing finishes in major tournaments (seventh in the Big Ten, 16th at the Midwest Champion- ships and 33rd at the National Champi- onships), Michigan came back this year to finish second in the Big Ten and eighth at the Midwest Championships. Syracuse University Division of International Programs Abroad 119 Euclid Avenue Syracuse, New York 13244-4170 1-800-235-3472 S Y R A C U S E A B R O A D Something to write home about! 0 3ow r \ P4Q; x f.J .P. iA ,^ J M ..' 'Little things' key in game agast ND* By BARRY SOLLENBERGER DAILY BASEBALL WRITER Execution of the fundamentals - laying down the sacrifice bunt, field- ing the routine grounder - is crucial in baseball. After a weekend of miscues at Penn State, the Michigan baseball team will place added emphasis on the basics today. Weather permitting, the Wolver- ines (7-5 Big Ten, 13-15 overall) will face Notre Dame (13-7) at Fisher Sta- dium in a non-conference game at 3 p.m. Yesterday's contest against East- ern Michigan at Fisher was postponed due to rain. It has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 3 p.m. The Wolverines are coming off a weekend at Penn State in which they split four games with the last-place Nittany Lions. Coach Bill Freehan said that failed fundamentals cost Michigan a chance of winning three out of the four meetings. "In low-scoring games, we can't fail to execute the little refinements of the game," he said. "For us to win, we've got to do these things right." A couple of failed sacrifice bunts were instrumental in a 2-1 Michigan loss in the opener of the series. The Wolverines also threw asqueeze bunt attempt away in the fourth inning of game three, a 5-2 Michigan defeat. "When we executed (the funda- mentals) this weekend, we were suc- cessful," Freehan said. "When we didn't, it cost us and we probably lost one more game than we should have." With Penn State behind them, the Wolverines have set their sights on the Fighting Irish. Going into yesterday's home matchup with Illinois-Chicago, Notre Dame had won five in a row after sweeping four from Xavier over the weekend in South Bend. The Irish come into the contest batting.307. Third baseman Matt Haas leads the attack with a .391 average. In his last 12 games, Haas has been particularly hot, going 17 for his last 37(.459) with nine RBI, 12 runs scored and four doubles. Heading into the season, Notre Dame's weakness was an inexperi- enced pitching staff. As of yesterday, however, the pitching staff had an impressive ERA of 3.32. "A lot of people worried about our pitching going into the season," coach Pat Murphy said. "But what they don't realize is that there's more to pitching than numbers and we've been able to do all those little things." Michigan, however, has not. "These are the things that we are trying to improve on a daily basis," Freehan said. SOFTBALL Continued from page 9 performances. "All of (our pitchers) are capable of pitching excellent games," she said. "Whoever is out there on the mound, I always have confidence in. As long as they pitch with confidence, then I believe that they're better than any other pitcher on any other team." Led by pitcher Marci Kelley (16- 4, 1.17 ERA), Eastern Michigan's team ERA is 1.34. The other every- day pitcher, Melissa Drouillard (5-6, 1.77) may not have a winning record, but she leads the team in hitting (.333 average) and ranks third in RBI (19). __ ,.. . 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