10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 4, 1995
Volleyball drops heartbreaker to Purdue,
lw ANIL.
By Alan Goldenbach
Daily Sports Writer
After weeks of solid play which seemed to
secure it a high seeding for the National Champion-
ships, the Michigan men's volleyball team was
dealt a crushing blow at the Midwestern Volleyball
Association tournament last weekend.
The Wolverines lost in three games to Big Ten
rival Purdue in the quarterfinals of the tourney. The
loss was especially shocking to Michigan since it
had defeated the.Boilermakers five times through-
out the season.
"It's always difficult to beat (a team) six times in
a season," outside hitter Kevin Urban said. "But I
think that the heads of most of the guys on the team
were going in different directions this weekend, and
it showed. We should have beaten Purdue."
Judging by the team's reaction immediately
following the match, the result was unexpected.
"At the end of the match, there wasn't anything
said," Urban said. "We just stood around in a circle
for about 15 minutes and said absolutely nothing.
We were so shocked."
Entering the tournament, Urban guessed that
Michigan would be awarded a seed somewhere
around seven or eight in Division I - the toughest
division in the nation. Now he's pretty sure that
won't be the case.
"We're now looking at a seed in the low 'teens,"
Urban said. "I'm not even sure, but all I know is that
we definitely won't get the ranking that we would
have had before this tournament.
"We've beaten Michigan State twice in five
matches so far, and we've just destroyed the rest of
the Big Ten. Now we'll just have to wait it out and
see."
To make matters worse, the Wolverines faced
the enemy that always appeared at the worst times
this season - injuries.
Outside hitter Ernesto Rodriguez injured his
AlllIknowis that we
definitely won't get the
ranking that we would
have had before this
tournament.f
- Kevin Urban
Michigan volleyball player
mw
ankle during the tournament, which limited his
mobility. The team was still trying to find the right
combination to replace injured middle Dave
Hunter, who is out for the rest of the season.
The Wolverines will have one more chance to
show the tournament committee that they deserve
a high seed. They host the Spartans at Cliff Keen
Arena, Friday and take on Notre Dame Saturday.
Lacrosse surpasses expectations in Pittsburgh
MOLLY STEVENS/Daily
Bojana Jankovic helped Michigan win two matches this weekend.
TENNIS
continued from page 9
The Wolverines' top three singles
players, Sarah Cyganiak, Bojana
Jankovic and Sora Moon (playing for
the injured Angie Popek) all lost. But
the three remaining singles players
all emerged with wins showing that
Michigan is not a team reliant upon its
top players.
Fielding won at No.4 singles, 4-6,
6-2, 4-6, after being down 3-0 in the
deciding set.
Co-captain Simone Lacher battled
for four hours in 85-degree heat until
she emerged with a solid 6-7, 6-3, 6-
3 victory.
Due to the long singles matches
the doubles matches had to be played
under the lights which was a tough
adjustment for the Wolverines.
Michigan won two out of the three
doubles matches which all went the
full three sets. The performance
showed that the Wolverines have im-
proved upon a facet of their game that
plagued them during the first half of
the season.
"We've identified the ability to
win three-set matches as a key to
success," Ritt said. "And we're win-
ning more of those because we've
played more matches and been in
more difficult situations against top
teams.
"We've gained a lot from compet-
ing against the best teams and all
those experiences have helped us and
now we're coming together as a team.
We have more confidence and we
believe we can win the close matches."
By Amber Uyesato
For the Daily
Having never advanced past the
semifinals at the Pittsburgh Invita-
tional, the Michigan men's lacrosse
team expected to be watching rather
than playing in this year's finals.
The 1995 Wolverines, however,
have been playing their best lacrosse
of the season, winning the Big Ten
East Regionals last weekend.
Michigan began this weekend's
tournament by dominating Kentucky,
14-1, Friday and Penn State, 11-2,
Saturday. Later that same day, the
Wolverines easily defeated Pitts-
burgh, 7-5.
Michigan's performance earned it
the first seed and the right to meet
fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Lacrosse
Club in a semifinal match Sunday.
Pittsburgh Lacrosse Club, which
consisted of college graduates, had
more experience than the Wolver-
ines. But the youthful Michigan team
began the match faster. The teams
exchanged goal for goal leading to a
sudden-death overtime.
Michigan midfielder Paul Tauber
drove towards the net and scored an
unassisted goal early in overtime.
Tauber's goal put the Wolverines into
the finals for the first time.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines,
they had to face second-seeded Vir-
ginia Tech only a half an hour after
playing an exhausting overtime. The
result was a 10-5 loss.
"We came out playing really well
in the first quarter against Virginia
Tech,"senior midfielder Paul Dreyer
said. "For the rest of the game we
looked sort of sluggish. They ended
up out running us and that was a big
factor in the game."
The Wolverines were not just
fatigued, but injured as well.
Midfielders Dreyer, Brent Plater and
Derek Bridges all suffered injuries
during the tournament. Dreyer
pulled his hamstring against Pitts-
burgh.
"It seemed like it wasn't going
to be really serious at all," Dreyer
said. "But it ended up that I couldn't
play in our semifinal and final
games. I think (all the injuries) hurt
our chances in the finals."
Though fatigued and bruised,
Michigan left the tourney with its
highest finish ever. All weekend,
Tauber, attackmen Doug Henke and
Tony DiGiovanni, led the Wolverine
offense. Tauber tallied eight goals
and two assists, Henke notched eight
goals and five assists and DiGiovanni
scored eight goals and collected four
assists.
The defensive corps of Alex Cedro,
Josh Veith, Andrew Katz and tri-cap-
tain Marc DeCristofaro, gave Michi-
gan the support it needed. Their hard
work was recognized by the tourna-
ment as Henke, Tauber and
Women 's golf places 12th
at Indiana Invitational
DeCristofaro were each iamed to the
All-Tournament first team.
The Wolverines were very satis-
fied with their performance and feel
confident going into the Big Ten
Championships in two weeks.
"We're playing real well as a team
and everyone is contributing," Dreyer
said. "We should win the Big Tens
again this year."
By Dorothy Chambers
For the Daily
The Michigan women's golf team
went into the Indiana Invitational last
weekend hoping for a strong team
performance.
However, what the Wolverines
ended up with was a disappointing
12th-place finish in the 15-team tour-
nament.
Playing at the par-74 Indiana Uni-
versity Golf Course in Bloomington,
Michigan finished with a 54-hole, 977
total. The Wolverines carded apairof
328's Saturday and a 321 over the
final 18 holes Sunday.
One bright spot in the tournament
for Michigan was the individual per-
formance of-senior Jen Zimmerman,
who had the best 54-hole tournament
of her career. Her 237 total placed her
in a three-way tie for 19th out of 81
competitors.
"Jen Zimmerman played very well
for us over the weekend and she should
be very happy with her performance,"
Michigan coach Kathy Teichert said.
"She putted the ball very well and
didn't make many mistakes."
After shooting an 80 in the first
round, Zimmerman fired a career-
low 76, two-over-par in the second-
round, followed by a final-round
81.
"I played this course a few times
as a junior, and it was nice to say
good-bye to it in a good tournament,"
Zimmerman said.
Junior Shannon McDonald, who
leads the Wolverines in scoring aver-
age, turned in another solid perfor-
mance. She finished in a four-way tie
for 25th with a 240 total, her best 54-
hole score of the season.
McDonald finished the tourna-
ment with a one-under-par 73 after
carding an 82 and an 85 over the first.
two rounds.
Sophomore Molly Vandenbark
(84-81-81) placed 42nd overall at 246
and sophomore Wendy Westfall (82-
89-86) tied for 69th at 257. Freshman
Nicole Green (84-86-90) tied for73rd
at 260. Sophomore Ashley Wilson
made the trip and competed as an
individual, tying for 53rd with a 251
total.
The short game plagued Michigan0
throughout the weekend. Many of the
Wolverines seemed to have difficulty
adjusting to the greens and had prob-
lems with putting.
Zimmerman said that the prob-
lems can be partially blamed on the
bad weather during the week. Michi-
gan was not able to practice outside
because of the snow, and working on
the short game is one thing that can't
really be done indoors.
Despite the disappointing team
finish, Teichert is happy with the way
the team is coming along.
"I believe our players are on the
verge of playing really well as a team,"
Teichert said. "They are really work-
ing hard and I see their game and their
mental approach to the game improv-
ing all the time."
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