12 -The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 28, 1995 IMES Continued from page 11. Lion he played against. "It's allowed me to spend more of my energy with the forwards and del- egate responsibility for the coaching end of it to the defense. With MacIsaac back there, and Imes, and the other returning defensemen, it's the strength of our team. "The other thing I really like about him, that I've noticed, is what a good leader he is." Having played with so many great hockey players during his time at Maine, Imes deflects any notion that he's been over- looked. It's further evidence of his un- selfish manner and team-first attitude. "I've never re- N ally played for the limelight," Imes said. "I'm glad I got the opportu- nity to play with Imes the Ferraros, (Paul) Kariya, (Jim) Montgomery, (Scott) Pellerin, (Jean-Ives) Roy, and the list goes on and on. "You've got to have good players and I was real fortunate to play with all those players." Walsh has plenty of praise for his captain and believes he is the defen- sive ingredient that was missing from last year. "He was the guy we really missed back on the blueline," Walsh said. "Having him back is an added boost. He may be the best college defensemen that's played here. ' Every year I've been here I've improved by leaps and bounds"' - Chris Imes Maine defenseman, on his career with the Black Bears "Now whether or not he can play at the next level (remains to be seen), but he's been an overachiever every- where he's been." Imes has enjoyed his four years at Orono and believes he has grown up a lot during that period. In his career as a Black Bear, Imes has only missed one game due to injury. He has personal goals for this sea- son, but he prefers to keep those to himself. Imes, a preseason All-American and Hockey East's Player of the Year this season, simply hopes hockey re- mains a part of his future no matter the level of competition. "Hockey-wise I've improved dras- tically," Imes said. "Every year I've been here I've improved by leaps and bounds. "You mature a lot in college and the college atmosphere has done won- ders for me academically and socially. Academically, I'll graduate and hope- fully I've improved as a student along the way." After a recent practice, Imes re- ceived the ultimate compliment from Standbrook. "He's a character person on and off the ice," Standbrook said. "That says it all." 'M' lacrosse sweeps. weekend matches By Dorothy Chambers For the Daily In the middle of what has been a subpar season, the Michigan men's lacrosse team went into the Big Ten East Regionals at Purdue needing to win all three games. The Wolverines accomplished just that. Michigan faced adangerous Illi- nois team on Saturday and used a strong second half to pull away and win 14-10. Later that same day, the Wolverines crushed Indiana, 17-7. Michigan then finished off the three- game set the next day by dismantling Purdue, 18-8. Despite coming off a heartbreak- ing 8-7 loss to the Motor City La- crosse Club on Wednesday night, the team entered the tournament confi- dent that they could handle the com- petition. Against Illinois, Doug Henke pro- vided much of the offense, scoring five goals and assisting on another. Coming off his best game of the sea- son against Motor City, goaltender Anil Arora once again anchored the defense, making 16 saves. "This was the best team Illinois has had for the past five or six years, and they were really gunning for us," Paul Dreyer said. "We came out and played really strong and beat them, so that was the real key to the whole weekend." Since the second team didn't get much playing time against Illinois, Michigan coach Bob DiGiovanni de- cided to start his reserves against In- diana. The scoring was spread out among several Wolverines, with 17 different players getting attack points. Spencer Alstodt and Tony DiGiovanni led the pack with three goals and one assist each. "I'd like to recognize Tony DiGiovanni," John Kolakowski said. "He is playing the hardest I've ever seen him play and I think if wD can get more people to play the way Tony' plays and try to emulate him, we're a going to have a lot more success over the rest of the season." In Sunday's matchup against Purdue, Henke led the way once again with six goals and two assists. Lyle Shirley chipped in with three goals and an assist and Paul Tauber added three goals. Throughout the weekend, Michigan's ground ball control was,4 especially impressive. The team is, used to playing and practicing on the astroturf at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse, but on road trips, the games are played on natural grass. "The midfielders and defensemen did real well picking up the ground balls, especially Andy Tumpowsky," Dreyer said. "He played on almost every faceoff and did really well con- trolling the midfield on the ground * balls." DOUGLAS KAWTER/ Daily Michigan's Paul Tauber scored three goals against Purdue Sunday. By winning all three games this weekend, the Wolverines earned the first seed in the East Region at the Big Ten Championships April 15-16. Spartans edge Blue for volleyball title By James Goldstein Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's volleyball team had numerous chances to cap- ture the Big Ten Championship in Madison on Sunday. However, the Wolverines just fell short, losing to Michigan State in the finals. In a match that seemed to go on forever, the Spartans defeated Michi- gan, 15-10, 10-15, 24-22, taking sec- ond place in the conference tourna- ment held over the weekend. "(The third game) was insane. It was out of control. Adrenaline was flowing through everyone's bodies," Michigan's Ernesto Rodriguez said. "Both teams were earning their points and when one team faced match point, the other team would get a dig up and put it down. It was some seriously good volleyball play- ing by both teams." The Wolverines had several match points and all they needed were side- outs to win the championship. This is because the two teams played rally scoring in the final game. The scoring system only served to add drama to an already tension-filled duel. The end of the Michigan State match was so close that neither team held more than a two-point lead in the entire game. Michigan wasn't tested prior to the final round. The eight confer- ence teams present were divided into two pools of four. The Wolver- ines had Minnesota, Purdue and Ohio State in their division. The other bracket consisted of Illinois, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Michigan State. Michigan had no trouble with its competition Saturday, beating the Gophers, Boilermakers and Buckeyes in two straight games each. With three victories in their bracket, the Wolverines earned the first seed for the elimination rounds beginning on Sunday. In the quarterfinals, Michigan eased its way to a two-game sweep of eighth-seeded Northwestern and fol- lowed that up with a win against Purdue in the semifinals before suc- cumbing to the Spartans. Injuries remained a factor for the Wolverines throughout the entire tour- nament. In addition to middle Dave Hunter's season-ending ankle injury suffered earlier in the season, starting outside hitter Chad Engel sprained his ankle before the tournament and was unable to play. Outside hitters Jamie Reynolds and Judd Lamed came off the bench to help fill in for Engel's position and Rodriguez chipped in by shifting his role to that of the setter. Rodriguez and senior captain Stan Lee received accolades for their solid play. The two Wolverines were named to the All-Tournament team. Michigan is now preparing for this weekend's MIVAs, which will be held in Lansing. The team con- siders it to be the most important tournament of the season in terms of attaining a high seed for the Na- tional Championships April 13-16 in Minneapolis. "We will probably meet Michi- gan State in the finals (of the MIVAs) again if all goes well," Rodriguez said. "In matches be- tween us, they've won three and we have won two." SO FTBALL Continued from page 11 the first two runs of the first game. She finished the series with six RBI, one double and six hits. She raised her season RBI total to nine. Pitcher/short- stop Sara Griffin leads all Wolverines with 21 RBI on the season, collecting four this past weekend. Five Wolverines had perfect hit- ting performances in the March 25 nightcap. Michelle Silver, Kelly Kovach and Tracy Carr went 3-for-3 and Sara Griffin and Cheryl Pearcy were each 2-for-2. ' Kovach upped her season pitch- ing record to 8-0. She nearly pitched a no-hitter in the second game and held off the opposition in the 4-3, 10- inning victory in the fourth game. She has a .288 batting average and two homers on the season, one behind team-leader Griffin. "(Kovach) is truly our team leader," Hutchins said. "All of our kids showed a lot of poise (this weekend)." Michigan will kick-off a double- header with No. 23 Notre Dame (15- 7) today at 2 p.m. at Alumni Field. The Wolverines will have their hands full with the Fighting Irish, who handed Michigan one of its three losses Feb. 24th at the Arizona State Classic. Notre Dame won the first meet- ing, 4-3, in nine innings. The Fighting Irish's Elizabeth Perkins drove in a Kovach I , , -, I . " k I 1 1 - - - KM'- - - Jt' 4 l k..Y4 6"-s . 1 ' I/~ *;4~44c * .M1 : ; s 4* 3 '44 44444 K4 joo ~ fbP r eoI&d WithSex 04her n!op betivingboperf4 ~ pll gil r- run on a single and scored the win- ning run on a passed ball to secure the victory. "They are a good, solid team," Hutchins said. "They have one of the toughest-pitchers we will face. (Michi- gan and Notre Dame) are two of the; top three teams in this region. We want to come out on top. "We need to control our own des- tiny." Notre Dame boasts one of the top pitchers in the country in junior pitcher Terri Kobata (7-1, 0.62 ERA). She was named to the Hawaii Softball Invitational All-Tournament team af- ter the Fighting Irish's 4-3 showing. 0 INING IT! AT 0 0 RSSTAYRAMt e V !PORTS $Af 0 200 Wings $3.25/Pitcher Any Bud Family 1220 S. University 4~n 665-7777 N ,jQA a $2; 11N Cvr Nw!~rv! ExnW4 .11 a e nated1fo oel Daiud osal it I 1V VV IVls oMIMV 44.. .--I -- -%VI VI rfa Y~if1 II .- t--. . ( F.':... .. .. :,r2~ .l-4,4c - ,. ~ 4'.. 444>4F We've taken RECYCLING out to the Diag! Enter the LifeStyles "Condoms and Safer Sex in the 9O's" Video Contest. Here's your chance to tell all those people trying to get inside