6 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, April 10, 1995
SOFTBALL
Continued from page 1
Wolverines off of the bases.
"We're just hoping that we don't
hit as many fly-balls into the wind,"
she said. "We're definitely going to
change that. We want to hit on the
ground more so that they have to
make harder plays."
Michigan was able to find defen-
sive success as well. Iowa was kept
off of the bases for most of the day,
with its lone run coming off of two
sacrifice bunts in the fifth inning.
Freshman Sara Griffin earned her
10th win, tallying two strikeouts and
allowing only four hits.
That Wolverine victory was fol-
lowed up by an extra-inning mara-
thon in which neither team could find
the plate until Iowa came up big,
scoring three runs in the top of the
14th.
In what was described by the score-
keeper as "windy/freezing" condi-
tions, the two teams carried a score-
less battle through 13 innings. Since
Iowa played the game as the visiting
team, they had the opportunity to score
three runs in the top of the inning. The
Wolverines were unable to catch the
Hawkeyes, finishing the game with
three straight groundouts.
Kovach and Griffin split time on
the mound, with Kovach striking out
five and Griffin striking out seven.
However, Griffin's efforts weren't
enough to prevent her from picking
up her fourth loss.
Michigan is now in the midst of a
small slump, losing four of its last
five games. However, team members
are keeping an upbeat outlook on the
season.
"It's not going to matter who our
losses were to," Kovach said. "It's
important, but it's just like any other
Big Ten game, and we realize that."
second green jacket
TONYA BROAD/Daily
The Michigan softball team dropped three of four to Iowa this weekend,
including a 14-Inning marathon yesterday.
AUGUSTA, Ga (AP) - As the
final putt fell making him Masters
champion, Ben Crenshaw curled into
a knot of emotion, holding his head
and thinking thoughts of Harvey
Penick, his trusted teacher who died
just a week earlier.
"I let it all go,"' Crenshaw said.
"I couldn't hold it in any longer."
Everything that Crenshaw had
bottled up inside himself since Penick
died last Sunday, a week after giving
Crenshaw one last putting lesson,
poured out on the 18th green after
Crenshaw tapped in the 18-inch putt
that gave him a one-stroke victory
over Davis Love III.
"It was like someone put their
hand on my shoulder and guided me
through," Crenshaw said about his
final-round 68 Sunday. "I believe in
fate. Fate has decided another cham-
pion like it has so many times be-
fore."
Fate and an absolutely brilliant
putting touch that tamed the slick,
dangerous greens of Augusta National
Golf Club.
Not once over the 72 holes did
Crenshaw three-putt on the steeply
contoured greens groomed to table-
top speed for the Masters.
His 14-under-par 274 was three
better than Greg Norman and Jay Haas
and five better than David Frost and
Steve Elkington.
As his final putt dropped on the
last green, Crenshaw bent over and
clasped his head with both hands,
overcome with emotion.
"I had a 15th club in the bag today
and that was Harvey - Harvey
Penick," Crenshaw said, the green
jacket of the Masters champion look-
ing comical over his patterned golf
shirt.
"I don't know how I got through
the week, I really don't know," he
said. "It was an emotional week. This
place charges me up like nothing."
It was a slam-bam finish after the
day started with 12 players within
four strokes of Crenshaw and third-
round co-leader Brian Henninger.
And it all turned, as always, on the
tricky back nine at Augusta.
The crunching blow came at No.
16 when, with Love safely in the
clubhouse at 13-under, Crenshaw hit
a brilliant 6-iron shot that showed
great knowledge of the course, hitting
well right of the hole on the par-3 and
curling down the slope to within three
feet.
It was like
someone put their
hand on my
shoulder and
guided me
through."
-Ben Crenshaw
Upon winning the Masters
one week after the death of
his coach, Harvey Penick *
He knocked it in for the birdie that
put him at 14-under and rode that
exceptional sequence to a 12-footer
for birdie at No. 17.
"I played it like a dream,"
Crenshaw said about No. 17. "It was
a killer 9-iron and the prettiest putt I
ever hit. I'll never forget 16 and 17 as
long as I live."
He played No. 18 safely and made*
a bogey.
"I really don't thinkthere was any
stopping Ben," said Love, who quali-
fied for the Masters by winning in
New Orleans last week. "He was
driven. He was charged and obvi-
ously he is one of the greatest putters
ever.'
It was the second Masters title for
the 43-year-old Texan, who won in@
1984 and also has finished second
twice and in the top 10 seven other
times, certain proof he is one of the
game'4 best putters.
Crenshaw, who went to Austin,
Texas, Wednesday for Penick's fu-
neral, saw the famed 90-year-old
teacher a week before he died.
"I had one last lesson with
Harvey," Crenshaw said earlier in0
the tournament. "He said, 'Can you
please get a putter and show me how
you're stroking that ball?' And he
said, 'Now, I want you to take two
good practice strokes and then trust
yourself and don't let that club get
past your hands in the stroke."
No course requires more nerve,
touch and confidence with the putter
than Augusta National. Crenshaw
mastered it brilliantly.
"You have to admire somebody
who flies back to Texas to be at Harvey
Penick's funeral and to be apall bearer
and then come backs here," Norman
said. "I think that is the strengthof his
character."
'M' spikers trample and get tr ampled
By James Goldstein
Daily Sports Writer
It was a sweet and sour weekend for
theMichigan men's volleyball team at
Cliff Keen Arena.
Friday night the Wolverines
swept Michigan State, 15-6, 15-11,
15-4.
However, the following night at
the same place, Michigan fizzled
against Western Michigan - the
Broncos filled in after Notre Dame
cancelled. Western Michigan pre-
vailed, 15-8, 4-15, 17-16, 15-12, in
adisappointing and emotionless per-
formance by the Wolverines.
"I don't think everyone came in
with the same attitude (against West-
emMichigan)as they did against Michi-
gan State," Michigan coach Jennifer
Slosar said. "Especially after the sec-
ond game, when we blocked and
served them off the court.
"It was a lack of consistency and a
serious lack of focus."
Michigan couldn't have focused any
harder against the Spartans.
Maybe it was Michigan State's
"1995 Big Ten Volleyball Champion"
practice T-shirts that got the Wolver-
ines fired up for the match.
Perhaps it was the fact that the
National Championships are com-
ing up this week, and the team
wanted as much momentum as pos-
sible.
Or maybe Michigan desperately
wanted to beat its intrastate rivals for
the third time this season, tying the
season series.
Whatever the motivation was, the
Wolverines used it to their advantage,
jumping to a quick 7-0lead. Michigan
grabbed five of the seven points on its
serve, highlighted by Brad Yeager's
three blocks.
The last one brought out the Wol-
verines' emotion, and this fire lasted
for the rest of the match.
The Spartans made a run of their
own, cutting Michigan's lead to 8-
5. Midwestern Volleyball Associa-
tion tournament MVP Chip Popa
had a key kill for Michigan State in
its only bright spot of the opening
game. However, the Spartans
weren't able to catch the Wolver-
ines in the first game.
Michigan's only shaky part of
the contest was at the beginning of
the second game when it looked as
if the Spartans could turn the match
into another grueling five-game
event.
Twice before this season, Michi-
gan and Michigan State dueled to
the final game. And after the Spar-
tans took the first three points of the
game and had an early 6-1 advan-
tage, it seemed as though the match
would be heading in that direction
again.
But the Wolverines were fired-up,
and this time no deficit would be too
large to make up.
"We're used to fighting," Slosar
said. "I never giveuponourteam at all.
We could be down as much as 14-5, but
we still are fighting."
Once again, Yeager was a huge part
of Michigan's turnaround. Themiddle
blocker, along with outside hitter Gun
Unluer, brought the Wolverines back.
Yeager struck with a consecutive kill
and block that woke up Michigan,
and Unluer contributed with a power-
ful kill and two straight aces that tied
the game at 9-9.
Yeager completed the comeback
with an ace that gave the Wolverines
their first lead of the game and from
there, Michigan cruised to victory.
The Wolverines' match against
Western Michigan was a disappoint-
ment. However, it may have been a
blessing indisguise.
"Losing to Western may have, in
fact, been good for us," Slosar said.
"It is going to refocus us and get us
ready going into the nationals."
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