The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 14, 1994 - 15
i3lue hits
By DAN MCKENZIE
Daily Sports Writer
For most athletic teams, the home
field advantage is crucial to a suc-
cessful season. A loss on the road can
quickly be remedied by a trip back to
familiar turf. However, for the Michi-
'an women's cross country team, its
eet in Ann Arbor tomorrow is even
more special. It's the Wolverines'
only home meet of the season.
Not only will the Wolverine In-
terregional be No. 8 Michigan's only
chance to run with the support of the
local crowd, but coach Mike
McGuire called the meet "the most
important of the season outside of
the NCAAs."
Due to restrictions placed on how
any runners can be taken to away
meets, this is the only meet of the
regular season in which all Michigan
runners will be able to compete.
However, the Wolverines will be
without All-Americajunior Courtney
Babcock, who is still nursing a knee
injury. Filling in for Babcock will be
freshman Deanna Arnill who, in her
first two college meets, placed see-
stride for home run
ond overall and led all Michigan run-
ners.
This is the first meet for the Wol-
verines in which they are not the top-
ranked team going in. That position is
being filled by the No. 4 Stanford
Cardinal, who enter undefeated.
Michigan placed second in the Rocky
Mountain Shootout earlier in the sea-
son, finishing behind then No. 11
Colorado.
However, the Cardinal are not the
Wolverines' only worry. Besides
Stanford, Michigan will be up against
four other nationally-ranked teams.
"This is the biggest event that
we've run so far," McGuire said. "It
has national ramifications."
McGuire stressed the importance
of tomorrow's meet in paving the
way to the NCAA Championships in
November. Since so many top-ranked
teams from around the region will be
competing, the Wolverines' perfor-
mance could be crucial in determin-
ing whether or not they will qualify
for the NCAAs.
Fortunately for Michigan, history
is on its side. The Wolverines have
won this meet the last two years and
their only loss this year came on a
course on which they hadn't run be-
fore.
However, McGuire doesn't con-
sider the Wolverines' familiarity with
the course to be a huge advantage.
"It's a very demanding, physical
layout," McGuire said.
The course spans five kilometers
of the Michigan golf course. McGuire
pointed to the third kilometer of the
course as being especially important
to determing the outcome of the race
because the runners will be forced to
run over the most grueling hill of the
course twice.
However, after jumping barriers
in Montana and fighting the altitude
in Colorado, the Wolverines feel fairly
confident about their ability to deal
with the elements of going into the
meet tomrrow.
"Our strategy is to not to get out
fast in the first mile in order to hold
back for the third kilometer," McGuire
said. "We're going to run in packs
and try to stay with Stanford through
the middle of the race."
Drop off picks at the Student Publications Building by noon Friday. The winner receives a $15 gift
certificate to 'Sullivan's Eatery & Pub. Limit five entries per person.
1.
4,
5.
6.
8.
9o,
10,
Penn State at Michigan
Ohio State at Michigan State
Purdue at Wisconsin
Iowa at illinois
Northwestern at Minnesota
Brigham Young at Notre Dame
Auburn at Florida
Nebraska at Kansas State
Virginia at Florida State
Arizona at Washington State
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Baylor at Texas A&M
Alabama at Tennessee
Arizona State at Washington
Maryland at North Carolina
Texas at Rice
Oklahoma at Colorado
Wake Forest at N.C.State
Virginia Tech at East Carolina
Texas-El Paso at Colorado St.
Yale at Dartmouth
fT'ebreaker -- Penn State at Mic higan
Total Points:
> <:
Women's soccer puts pride on the
line in major conference matchup
By NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's soccer
*am will travel to Pennsylvania this
weekend, facing St. Francis (Pa.) to-
day and Penn State on Sunday. But
the Wolverines will be playing for
more than wins and losses.
They will be playing for pride.
Michigan (1-4 Big Ten, 6-4-1 over-
all) and Penn State (3-0,9-2) are both
first-year programs, and the winner
of Sunday's game will stake an early
aim of dominance in the brewing
conference rivalry.
"Penn State had better watch out,"
Michigan midfielder Whitney
Ricketts said. "It's going to be first-
year program against first-year pro-
gram. We're playing for pride."
Penn State will also be playing for
the top spot in the Big Ten. The Nittany
Lions have racked up nine staight wins
d are undefeated in league play.
A major reason for Penn State's
quick success has been its speedy
offensive front. Lion freshman Rachel
Hoffman leads the Big Ten in scoring
with 12 goals in II games. Her com-
panion on the forward line, Lauren
Olmsted, has been outstanding as well,
tallying 5 goals.
Michigan's defense will try to slow
down the Penn State forwards and
prevent them from being a factor.
"They're a very offensive and a
very fast team," Michigan coach
Debbie Belkin said. "We're going to
mark up their two forwards hard and
try to take them out of the game early."
While trying to neutralize the Lion
offense, the Wolverines will be work-
ing on scoring their own goals.
Michigan's forwards spent
Wednesday's practice working on
their attack.
"We have been working on our
finishing a lot," Michigan midfielder
Deb Flaherty said. "We spent the
wholepractice working on it(Wednes-
day) and it will be important."
Ricketts agreed. She feels all the
work will be needed against the Lions.
"We've got to get the job done on
Sunday and finish plays," Ricketts
said. "Penn State is in first place, and
we're going to have to be at our best
to beat them. But we can't look past
St. Francis."
Before Michigan can get its
adrenaline pumping in State College,
it has to make a stop at St. Francis
College today.
The Red Flash (3-8-1) have had a
rocky season thus far, being outscored
140-63. But the Flash are coming off of
a9-0 win over Robert Morris and could
pose aproblem for an unprepared Michi-
gan team, that didn't dominate as much
as it would have liked in Tuesday's 2-1
win over Siena Heights.
"We can't take them lightly,"
Belkin said. "This is their third year
and they have played some teams that
I know. We just have to go out and
stay focused."
Michigan forward Amanda
Gauthier also feels St. Francis cannot
be overlooked.
"We have to be ready for every-
body," Gauthier said. "We have to
treat them like they are a Big Ten
team and take it to them as hard as we
will to Penn State."
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