The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 3, 1995- 11 .Gymnasts look to bolster rankings No. 4 women travel to Kalamazoo for Michigan Classic By Sarah DeMar Daily Sports Writer With confidence and health on its side, the Michigan women's gymnas- tics team may prove unstoppable Sun- day at the Michigan Classic. The Wolverines (3-0 Big Ten, 5-0 overall) travel to Kalamazoo to face four unranked opponents -- Michi- gan State, Western Michigan, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan. After snatching victories from Big Ten foes Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa last weekend, the fourth-ranked Wol- verines are confident heading into this weekend's competition. "We know the Michigan teams don't pose as big of a threat as a couple of other Big Ten schools," senior May May Leung said. "We're not worried about losing as much as scoring well as a team to boost our national ranking." Georgia, Utah and Alabama are the teams ahead of the Wolverines in the rankings and are the main ob- stacles that stand in Michigan's path toward a national title. After last week's victories, the Wolverines' lack of confidence in themselves has been greatly dimin- ished. Senior Kelly Carfora struggled to come up with a major weakness of the undefeated squad. "Our greatest weakness may be in the confidence ofourselves. Actually, I might have said that before last week- end, but then we came off with two really good meets, so that'snot much of a problem anymore," Carfora said. It may appear that the Wolverines may not be up to their full potential on the balance beam, but national rankings beg to differ. "The beam is always going to be tough," Carfora said. "After all, it's only four inches wide, but we are ranked fourth." A lack of injuries is the another reason why Michigan has high hopes for the tournament. "We're all healthy, knock on wood," Leung said. "In fact, we were talking about that in practice. We were like, 'Wow, nobody's in the training room!' There is no rea- son we shouldn't do well." Of all the teams attending the Michi- gan Classic, intrastate rival Michigan State should give the Wolverines the most difficulty. But Michigan has its sights set on the top and hasn't bothered to look behind. "I have no idea about other teams in Michigan," Carfora said. "We can take everything if we think that we can." No. 2 men host Big Ten foes at Cliff Keen Arena By Julie Keating Daily Sports Writer After having a weekend off, the Michigan men's gym- nastics team will faceoff against Big Ten rivals Illinois and Ohio State tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Cliff Keen Arena. Michigan has met the Illini and the Buckeyes previ- ously this season - finishing fourth at the Windy City Invitational behind both teams in early January. Ohio State swept the meet and Illinois finished third, barely overtaking Michigan. However, since regular season competition has started, the tables have turned, and now Michigan is out on top. The Wolverines are currently ranked second in the nation, ahead of the No. 12 Buckeyes and No. 14 Illinois. After a strong showing against Western Michigan two weeks ago, the Wolverines are ready to compete against the two former national title teams. "If Western was an indication of how we can do, it's going to be a really positive effort this weekend," Michigan coach Bob Darden said. The lineup for the meet is still unsure. The Wolverines sport a very deep squad and have no "starting team." With the exception of regular performers Brian Winkler, Rich Dopp and Raul Molina, the rest of the roster is undecided. "We are still waiting for adjustments to be made so we can get in the strongest lineup personnel-wise," Darden said. Junior Chris Onuska and sophomore Flavio Martins have shown considerable strength in their respected areas and are expected to improve in this weekend's meet. The remainder of the team is developing, showing that the Wolverines should be a threat at the upcoming NCAA Championships. Freshman Justin Semion will attempt to repeat his exceptional vault performance from two weeks ago, while up-and-coming Tim Lauring will also be counted on for a strong effort. The competition will be a preview of the Big Ten championship at Illinois. The team's nucleus of seniors will have to perform well by hitting their routines and staying on the pommel horse if they hope to come out on top. "When the chalk dust finally settles, the results will be known," said Darden, referring to the Big Ten rankings. "We are definitely capable. Right now we have the scores; we just have to perform as well in competition." * Michigan hits the road Blue cagers venture to Purdue and Illinois SARA STILLMAN/DOay Beth Wymer and the No. 4 Michigan women's gymnastics team will face four other Michigan schools in this weekend's Michigan Classic. Blue spikers try to sustain winning ways By Ravi Gopal Daily Basketball Writer Mired in a five-game losing streak and coming off a last-second one- point loss to Indiana, the Michigan * women's basketball team should be demoralized entering this weekend's contests. But it's not. On the contrary, the Wolverines (2-7 Big Ten, 7-12 overall) are raring to go as they embark on a two-game road trip. Michigan plays at Purdue tonight and faces Illinois Sunday. Michigan's confidence stems 10 from the positives of its last game. Against the Hoosiers, the Wolver- ines started out strong, unlike their previous four outings. Their frontcourtwas dominating (freshman Tiffany Willard led all scorers with 21 points), the guard play was re- freshing (freshman Akisha Franklin displayed newfound moves to the basket) and the defense was suffocat- ing, as Michigan's press created all sorts of problems for Indiana. "Our kids played well, and they deserved to win (against the Hoo- siers)," Michigan coach Trish Rob- erts said after the 78-77 loss. The Wolverines will have to ex- ceed all expectations if they are to compete with the Boilermakers (6-3, 14-6). Purdue returns all five starters from last year's NCAA Final Four squad. In order for Michigan to excel tonight, it must solve the riddle posed by Purdue's 1-3-1 half-court trap. The defensive weapon is a mainstay of the Boilermaker arsenal and has allowed them to put away many an opponent. In the last game of last year's regular season, this trap allowed Purdue to hand the Wolverines a 101-51 shellacking. The insult re- mains fresh in the minds of the Michi- gan veterans. "Oh, yeah, (we're thinking about revenge)," sophomore Amy Johnson said. "Going in, I want to give them a run for their money." Run is exactly what the Wolverines will have to do. The Boilermakers hold a large size advantage over Michigan, making setting up a half-court offense tough. Regardless, the Wolverines are driven to halt their losing skid. "Everyone's really intense in prac- tice," Catherine DiGiacinto said. "Losing (to Indiana) made us angry, and we're coming back fighting." Against the Illini (9-10, 2-7) Sun- day, Michigan will be fighting forsome- thing it lost in its last meeting with the Illini -respect. Illinois snuck by the Wolverines, 68-64, in a game that left Michigan wondering why it didn't come out with a victory. The Wolverines don't have any lack of motivation, either, as no less than five Illinois natives dot Michigan's roster. However, only two, Franklin and Johnson, will be seeing time versus the Illini. "Going to Illinois will always be a big game for me," Johnson said. "I have been waiting to go back and play in front of my friends and fam- ily." Johnson hopes to break out of a season-long shooting slump. She is averaging only 12 points per game this year, compared to 15.6 ppg av- erage last season. By Alan Goldenbach Daily Sports Writer There's no better medicine for a struggling team than a string of victo- ries. The Michigan men's volleyball team received this panacea over the past weekend, and it came just at the right time. The Wolverines played champion- ship-caliber volleyball last weekend in their victories over Western Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin. Theirperformance was similar to the play that they dis- played earlier in the season. That level of play will have to continue this weekend as Michigan (7-2) faces a top-notch opponent - Sacramento State - tonight, and then competes tomorrow in the Col- legiate Classic Tournament. The match with Sacramento State will take place at 5:30 p.m. Friday evening at Pioneer High School. The CCRB will host the tournament Sat- urday starting at 9 a.m. and lasting until about 10 p.m. Sacramento's State's size can be misleading. "Its program this year is the stron- gest it'sever been," Michigan's Kevin Urban said. The depth of Sacramento State is also extraordinary. It has entered sev- eral tournaments in California and in one instance its first team played its second team in the finals. "We can expect Sacramento State to be one of the dominant teams in the tournament," Urban said. "They'll be good preparation for us for Saturday," The Collegiate Classic Tournament will be comprised of 40 of the top teams in the United States and Canada. Four of the more highly regarded teams going into the tournament are Graceland College (Iowa), Park Col- lege (Mo.), the University of Windsor (Ont.) and Sacramento State. Graceland advanced to the finals of this tournament last year and both Windsor and Sacramento have de- feated Michigan State this year. The 40 teams are divided into two 20-team brackets. The more talented programs will be placed in Division I and the remainder will be placed in Division II. Among the teams in Divi- sion I are Graceland, Park, Windsor, Sacramento State, Michigan, Purdue and Michigan State. Division II will house teams like the "B" teams from Michigan and Michigan State and those from smaller programs. Naturally, a divi- sion wouldn't be created so that a team's "A" team and "B" team could potentially meet up. "The reason for creating the two divisions is to find equality of play and matching up physical abilities between teams," Michigan coach Jen- nifer Slosar said. Each division will also be subdi- vided into four pools of five teams each. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the tournament round. "It's going to be a real blood battle to get out of the pool because there's a lot of good teams in each pool," Urban said. "We're going to defi- nitely have to play better than we did in the previous weekends. This last weekend we really played well. "People wanted to play because we had some good competition and itcaused us to pick our level up that much more." Michigan will not have to worry about the injuries that hindered its play throughout the month of January. Out- side hitters Ernesto Rodriguez and Gun Unluer have both recovered from their. shoulder injuries and are ready to go full-tilt this weekend. "This is probably the highest-pro- file tournament this side of the Missis- sippi for club volleyball," Urban said. "This tournamentplays abig role in getting us national visibility and for placement in the Big Tens and the nationals," Slosar said. Thoughts like these show how much is at stake this weekend for the Wolverines. A strong showing would not only look good come tournament time, but could also do wonders.for Michigan's confidence for the remain- der of the season. Catherine DiGlancinto attempts to alter an opponent's shot earlier this season. The Wolverines look to snap a five-game losing streak tonight. Men tankers close out Big Ten season tomorrow By Dan Mckenie Daily Sports Writer Tonight the Michigan men's swim- ming team will participate in its last dualmeetof the season. But this will be no emotional send-off for the seniors as they take on Michigan State for the last time. Ina fitting end to its long schedule, a somewhat apathetic Michigan team heads to East Lansing to take on a considerably overmatched Spartan squad. "(Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek) is trying to use the Indiana meet and this meet to see those guys that are on the bubble, to see if they're going to make it (to NCAAs) or not," sopho- more Tom Dolan said. "He'sleaving a lot of guys at home that automatically (qualify for Big Tens)."' To say thatMichigan Statedoesn't strike fear in the hearts of the Michigan swimmers is probably an understate- ment. I'mt pretty mc using it as a train ing (meet) more than as a performance meet." -- Tom Dolan Michigan swimmer ball," Dolan said. "It's not too even a comparison between their team and our team." Freshman Derya Buyukuncu agreed. "I don't think it's that big because they have a weak team and we will probably win NCAAs," he said. "Idon't think it's that much of a big deal." While the apparent mismatch of the two teams involved in this meet will allow the Wolverines to relax and not worry as much about win- ning, Urbanchek plans on making sure his team swims with intensity. "Jon said he wants me to go up there using it as training more than as a performance meet." Urbanchek does not even plan on taking the entire team. Two big names that will be swim- ming against the Spartans are Dolan and Buyukuncu. Both were sick two weeks ago and did not make the trek to Indiana. Probably the best competition of the night will take place on the div- ing boards. Junior Alex Bogaerts and senior All-American Abel Sanchez will be going up against some of the better competition they've faced this season. "They have two pretty good divers," Sanchez said. "I would say that they have at least one diver who will finish in the Big Tens of the springboards." However, Sanchez was willing to admit that by the time he takes his first dive, the meet will probably be decided. "Despite the fact that we'll have the lead by the time the diving comes along, the fact that they have some pretty good divers is a good motivator for me," Sanchez said. "My goal is to just go out, have fun and have a good meet personally." JOIN THE MOST PROMISING PROFESSION OF THE 21ST CENTURY! -- BECOME A TEACHER!1 Applications are available at the School of Education, office of Student Services, Room 1033. Call 764-7563 for more information. Deadline: March 1, 1995 /'wAr'11rrr I irl"rx r !" "M MAI rr%^^r% 91