Page 4F THE MICHIGAN DAILY NEW STUDENT EDITIONSPORTS THURSDAY,SEPTEMBER 8,_1994 Baseball Hitters return to Big Ten prominence Women's Lacrosse Laxers go 11-0 with new coach, training By RYAN WHITE Daily Baseball Writer The Michigan baseball team sailed into uncharted waters during its 1994 season, namely the Big Ten playoffs. The Wolverines made their first postseason appearance in five years when they qualified as a No. 3 seed in the conference's tournament. They didn't do it the easy way either. Michigan waited not only until its final game to clinch the playoff spot, but let that go into extra innings. In their final game of the regular ,season the Wolverines defeated Illi- nois, 8-6, in 12 innings. That win, coupled with Michigan State and Iowa splitting a weekend series in East Lan- sing put Michigan in the playoffs. Michigan went into the tourna- ment, held at C.O. Brown Stadium in Battle Creek, knowing that the only way that it would make the NCAA tournament would be to win the play- off championship. And most consid- ered the chances of that happening to be about the same as the chance of finding no beer at a frat party. The Wolverines, however, made things interesting in the Cereal City. After losing its opening game to Minnesota,8-1, Michigan got on a roll. They beat Michigan State, 5-1, and Minnesota, 4-2. In the tournament's double elimination format the victories knocked out the Spartans and the Go- phers, and sent the Wolverines into the championship round against Ohio State. The Buckeyes had yet to lose a game in the tournament, so Michigan would have to beat them twice to win the title. In game one the Wolverines took a 3-0 lead into the top of the ninth, but Ohio State rallied with two out to tie the score and send the game into extra By JEN DiMASCIO Daily Sports Writer An enthusiastic core of first-year players, combined with a few seasoned veterans and a determined new coach, Ty Wilkinson, led the Michigan women's lacrosse team (11-0-2) to a banner season. Wilkinson, a former player for the Detroit Tubes, came aboard early in the team's winter training. He stepped up conditioning efforts and added con- structive drills, said formercaptain Kara Groschner. It paid off. After a slow start - two games were canceled because of snow - the Wolverines marched on. They collected wins at the Ohio State University, Indi- ana University and Michigan State University tournaments, losing only two times and winning by large margins. In their only home contest, the team defeated Michigan State 12-2, drawing on stellar performances from the team's high scorers, senior Karen Ross and junior Kate DeRosayro. Both losses were suffered to the Chicago Club -a team comprised of players from Northwestern's now de- funct Division-I team. Laura Foreman said the Michigan State tournament's trophy presentation proved to be the season pinnacle. "It was great to come together as a team and finally see a reward for it all," Foreman said. "I'm looking forward to a good season next year because we had so many freshmen." She said teams at Pittsburgh Uni- versity and Carnegie Mellon Univer- sity are starting a league for club teams. Such a network will offer an expanded schedule and added incen- tive - awards for league champion will be given. Brian Simmons holds up his bases loaded, two-out diving catch against Ohio State in last season's Big Ten tournament. The Wolverines won the game, 4-3. innings. Michigan won the game in ended up losing the game, 9-7. the 12th when catcher Scott Niemiec "This can do nothing but help the hit a single with the bases loaded to program," Michigan coach Bill score the winning run. Freehan said of the team's tourna- In the championship game the ment success. "This represents a move Wolverines got off to a sloppy start in the right direction." which resulted in an early five run The team should continue in that deficit. It was one which they were direction next season as it will lose only unable to battle back from and they three players to graduation. I . I at a second rate gym at WOLVERINE FITNESS CENTRE 1993-94 season leaves women's volleyball team asking questions By CHARLIE BREITROSE Daily Sports Writer "What if? Only if... " This is what the Michigan women's volleyball team must have been saying after finishing with a disappointing 11-18 record, 7-13 in Big Ten play. If the season had turned out the way that head coach Greg Giovanazzi and the rest of the Big Ten coaches had anticipated, the Wolverineswould have finished third and received their first ever NCAA tournament bid. However, this was not to be. Michigan's record was just good enough to avoid the Big Ten cellar. The final three weeks of the sea- son brought out the best in the team. The Wolverines won four of six games, including wins over strong Illinois and Purdue teams. These final weeks was one of the few times when the Wolverines had a completely healthy squad. Four of Michigan's outside hitters went down at least once during the season. Two of the Wolverines out- side hitters closed their collegiate ca- reers with school records: Michelle Horrigan the kills record and JoAnna Collias the digs record. POWERHOUSE GYM with the GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICE in town! membership valid Sept.1-May 1 Premium Equipment " Free weights 9 Stairclimbers " Cybex * Arrow Rowers * Trotter treadmills * Life Cycles * Custom programs * Personal Trainers Avl AEROBICS : All new wood floors! - -3 Washtena hours: Mon.-Thurs. 6am-12am " Fri. 6am-11 pm " Sat.-Sun. 8am-8pm I m 'MS111'10 '11114 k, ' *On shoes costing $25 or more..Expires 10/30194 Choose from Tiger * Avia " Mizuno " Etonic * Adidas * Patrick " Pony " Puma * Saucony " Doc Marten's * Airwalk " (Converse All-Stars Excluded) Biggest S lewest priced athistc shoe Invuetn"y on campus Horrigan's record is especially impressive considering she was in- jured for most of the first half of the Big Ten season. She incurred an ankle injury in the first conference game against Michigan State. The match-up with the Spartans marked the beginning of a chaotic Big Ten schedule. The Wolverines had finished with a 4-4 record in a tough non-conference schedule. Michigan hoped to build on their solid start. Instead Michigan State, a team picked to finish last, swept the Wol- verines in three straight games. To make matters worse both Horrigan and junior Aimee Smith went down with injuries. The Wolverines were finally healthy two weeks later when Wis- consin and Northwestern came to town. The return of Horrigan sparked a weekend sweep. With a 3-3 confer- ence record things seemed to be im- proving. But bad luck hit Michigan once again. After being swept at home by Notre Dame the Wolverines lost two matches against Indiana and Purdue, and Collias sprained her ankle inthe first match of the weekend. These losses were the start of a nine-game losing streak. The streak ended when the Wol- verines won two thrilling five-game * matches against Indiana and Purdue. Sophomore setter Erin McGovern helped spark the winning weekend with a career-high 55 assists. The sweep of the Indiana schools began a successful final three weeks of th' year for the Wolverines. HEADQUARTERS For All Sports I e ___ :_. ... - Racket Sports -Lacrosse-FielHockey In-Line Skates Sales & Rental 663-6771 419 E. Liberty 2 blocks off State St. ActionSportsmar Validated parking in the Maynard St. structure SAVE 0 EY 0 BOOKS! IF YOU GOTTA GO BACK TO SCHOOL, AT LEAST YOU'LL BE ON TIME. I THE STUDENT BOOK EXCHANGE: * A non-profit organization by students and for students * A cheaper alternative than bookstores * SAVE 50% - 75% OFF new book prices * SAVE 10% - 50% OFF stores' used book prices THE STUDENT BOOK EXCHANGE: * Students' books are placed on consignment - they are not bought, only put on display for other students * Students set their own prices for books and take 80% of each sale (more than any of the bookstores). The other 20% covers room rental and publicity .- "" " 0 D Di a z C1 Back to School Sale! Best Prices of the Year on Bikes I i