p I Perfect no more ... The Chicago Bulls' quest to go 41.0 at home this season was ended last night by Charlotte. The Hornets shocked Chicago, 98-97, at the United Center, ending the Bulls' 44-game home-winning streak. Chicago must now be content with trying to tie Boston for the best single-season home-court mark ever. The 1985-86 Celtics went 40-1 at Boston Garden. jlot-hitting Tuesday April 9, 1996 9 Wolverines face slumping Spartans in pair By Andy Knudsen Daily Sports Writer Over the weekend, the Michigan soft- ball pitching staff froze Northwestern hitters, allowing only two runs in the three-game series. But Michigan coach Carol Hutchins looked to other elements to explain her team's weekend sweep of Northwestern. "Our hitting is what cane through for us," she said. "We hit the ball well and played good defense." The Wolverines (7-1 Big Ten, 28-9 overall) will need to continue their strong hitting performance as they head up I-96 today for a 2 p.m. twinbill with intrastate rival Michigan State (1-5, 17-12). Against the Wildcats, freshman leftfielder Cathy Davie had no trouble warming her bat in the not-so-spring- like cold weather. She had five hits off of Northwestern pitching, including a rally-starting triple in Saturday's series opener with the Wolverines down 2-0. Michigan came back to win, 3-2. Davie also got the game-winning RBI in Sunday's 6-0 victory with a first inning single. Fellow freshman and first baseman Traci Conrad also warmed up the action with seven hits, six of which were singles. Conrad attributed the team's perfor- mance at the plate to its patience. "Ithelps when wejustwait forourown pitches because then we just hit the ball a lot harder," Conrad said. A Michigan-Michigan State matchup in any sport is usually a hot rivalry, but today's contest could be chilled by an- other cool spring day. The biting breeze of a Michigan spring, however, will be nothing new for either team today. "This is the nature ofthe game," Michi- gan coach Carol Hutchins said during last weekend's breezy weekend series versus Northwestern. "We don't look at the scoreboard and say, 'There's a weather column,"' she continued. "You just play the game." The players can't help but notice the absence of the burning summer sun usu- ally associated with the softball diamond, but they do their best to ignore the condi- tions.' "The weather was a little cold," Davie said. "But I just went up to the heaters before I went up to bat." The trick obviously worked against the Wildcats. Despite their slow start in the confer- ence season, the Spartans' statistics sheet shows that Michigan State is nota team to be taken lightly. Senior third baseman Patti Raduenz is her own self-contained offensive ma- chine. Playing in all of Michigan State's 29 games, she has a .506 batting aver- age and has sent nine of her 43 hits out of the park. In comparison, Michigan, as a team, has only five home runs, all hit by differ- ent Wolverines. The Spartans will hope that any brisk breeze today is heading out for the fences. Raduenz is the Frank Thomas of the Spartans - a slugger with a good eye. She has earned 12 free passes to first while striking out only nine times. Michigan State's pitching has struggled in the last four games - three of which were against conference front-runner Minnesota (5-0, 27-6) - allowing five, seven, four and seven runs respectively. For the season, though, the Spartans' team earned-run average is an impressive 1.85. Stacey Smith (9-6, 1.5 ERA) and Ste- fanie Noffsinger (7-5, 2.05) are expected to take the mound for Michigan State today. The steady Wolverine pitching of sophomore Sara Griffin (16-4, 1.28) and junior Kelly Holmes (12-5, 1.47) will challenge the Spartans' duo. Big Ten Standings Team and record (conference, overall) 1. Minnesota (5-0, 27-6) 2. Michigan (7-1, 28-9) 3. Purdue (6-1, 21-10) 4. Iowa (4-2, 27-10) 5. Indiana (3-2, 23-14) 6. Ohio State (3-5, 14-28) 7. Northwestern (2-4, 8-18) 8. Michigan State (1-5, 17-12) Wisconsin (1-5, 10-22) 10. Penn State (C:7, 17-15) MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily TheMihigan softball team will carry its hitting and pitching streaks to East Lansing today. Slugging shortstop leads Fighting Illni M freshmen divers gain some expenence By Will McCahill Daily Sports Writer Two and a half years ago, a motor scooter accident almost ended his base- ball career. Today, he leads the Big Ten in home runs andruns battedin, and is inthe top 10 13 of the conference's offensive cat- egones. Meet Josh Klimek, starting shortstop and slugger extraordinaire for the Fight- ing Illini. Klimek has propelled his team into second place in the Big Ten, with a 8- 3 record in the conference and an 18- 12 mark overall. Only Michigan is ahead of Illinois in the league, by a 1 f game. The Illini are scoring an average of 7.27 runs in each conference game, thanks in large part to Klimek, who is averaging 2.27 RBI per contest through this past weekend. Hard to believe Klimek sat out the entire 1994 season recovering from the broken' leg and shoulder injury he suf- fered when his scooter crashed in No- vember 1993. Looking over the sheets of Big Ten ensive statistics, it's easier to count the egories Klimek does NOT appear in. There are only two: triples, and triples per game. "He's tearing things up," Illinois out- fielder Dtanny Rhodes said. Rhodes said he's not surprised to find Klimek's name peppered throughout the Big Ten's leader board. "I knew he would be up there," the sophomore said. "He's a tremendous #der and ballplayer. He works the hard- est on the field, and (Klimek) is bringing our team as far as it's come this year." Not that the success in the conference comes as a shock: counting all Illinois' games, Klimek leads the nation in RBI, with 61. "I expect Josh to be a good player," Illini coach Richard "Itch" Jones said. Undoubtedly much to the chagrin of Illinois' future conference opponents, Jones said he can't see Klimek's hot pace at the plate cooling off anytime soon. "There's no reason for it to stop," the sixth-year coach said. Jones and Rhodes also concurred on Klimek's defensive abilities. "He's an outstanding defensive player, with an exceptionally strong arm," Jones said, pointing out that Klimek went through the 1995 Big Ten regular season without a fielding miscue. "His defense is unbelievable," Rhodes said. "He's got a rifle (arm), and the softest hands I've ever seen." For his efforts in the last week, the St. Louis native was named the Big Ten's Athlete of the Week. Klimek batted a monster .550 while the Illini won four of six. With 17 round-trippers in 30 games, Klimek is already within two dingers of the team's single-season record. And given that he's taking apitch deep at a rate of more than half a homer per game, it's safe to say Klimek will own that mark by the Ides of April. Unfortunately for Klimek and the sec- ond-place Illini, they have no regular- season date with the Wolverines to look forward to. If the two teams are to meet head-to-head, it will have to be in the Big N .,.'4 .\ ... . .i3j.X . 'rv I By Susan Dann Daily Sports Writer Sports ethics dictate that winning isn't everything. Three Wolverines typified this ethic this past weekend at the U.S. Diving Zone Meet held in Rockville, Md., leaving before the final results were posted. Freshmen Nate Shepard, Jill Unikel and Laurel Dougherty competed in the U.S. National qualifying meet, but weren't concerned with their standings. "Honestly, I didn't stick around long "enough to see how I finished," Dougherty said. "Ireally just went to the meet to gain some experience." The meet began a chain of national competitions. From the regional meets across the country, divers advance to the U.S. Diving Senior National Meet in Miami, Ohio. The top eight finishers in the platform and three-meter springboard, and the top four in one-meter competitions atNation- als qualify to compete on the national team at the Pan Am Games and other international meets. The divers who make the national team twice become eligible to compete at the Olympic Diving Trials. The Zone meet is not a pre-qualifica- tion meet for the diving series, which explains why the remainder of the Wol- verine men's and women's diving squads did not attend. "Some people wanted to take a break and concentrate on their studies for the rest of the term since we've been so busy training for the regular season," Shepard said. To qualify for the Zone meet, the en- trants' dives had to meet national degree- of-difficulty standards. About 50 men and 50 women com- peted in the open. The open-entrant for- mat provided a large field for a wide range of skills. "All in all, the competition wasn't that great," Dougherty said. "Everyone was good enough to be there; we had all pre- (qualified), but it was not as competitive as I had expected." Unikel echoed disappointment with the level of competition. "(At the meet) there were some really good divers," Unikel said. "The people were good, but the competition itself wasn't as good as it could have been. People didn't dive as well as they could have." Although the Wolverines weren't pleased with their final results, the meet was not a lost cause. The meet proved to be a test of character for the freshmen. "I haven't been diving that long and haven't been in that many high-pressure situations," Dougherty said. "It was a good opportunity to dive in a competitive atmosphere and get used to the pressure." Likewise, Shepard needed to adapt to the competitive constraints. The day before leaving for the meet, Shepard learned that his prepared dive from the three-meter springboard did not meet the degree of difficulty standards. He changed his two-and-a-half inward tuck to a pike. "(The dive) went all right in practice but it didn't go as well as it could have in the meet," Shepard said. "I don't usually have to change my dives that quickly or close to a meet, but now I know I can do it and I'll probably add it to my list of dives." ILINOIS SPORTS INFORMATION Shortstop Josh Kilmek has led Illinois to second place in the Big Ten - behind Michigan - by hitting 17 home runs and knocking in 61 runs. Ten tournament, May 16-19. Jones said he's looking forward to play- ing Michigan if both teams finish the season in the top four of the league and make the conference playoffs. The off- kilter Big Ten schedule accounts for the teams not meeting this year. "You can only play what you have," Jones said. "We may see Michigan down the line." NEWM Hinton's strong performance leads golfers; rest of squad battles inconsistency By John Fdedberg Daily Sports Writer The Michiganmen's golfteam returned to Ann Arbor with a familiar refrain: The more things change, the more they stay r same. One golfer shot well, but the am struggled. The Wolverines finished ninth in the 18-team Marshall Invitational in Hun- tington, W.Va. Michigan had hoped to play its way into the top five of a tourna- ment for the first time this season. How- ever, the Wolverines were unable to battle through the unseasonably cold weather. For the third time this spring, the team's rformance resembled the weather - rmy and inconsistent. Big Ten rival Ohio State won the team event with a spectacular three-round total of 868. Miami (Ohio) finished 21 strokes behind the Buckeyes. The Wolverines will compete against both Ohio State and Miami for the rest of the season. The Wolverines' 917 total shows how much they need to improve. "Ohio State is a very, very good team and Miami (Ohio) is very strong," Michi- gan coach Jim Carras said. "We need to start playing better if we are going to be competitive." As in all of the Wolverines' week- ends this spring, there has been a bright spot, in this case the play of sophomorebKeith Hinton. Hinton posted the best 54-hole score of his career with a four-over-par 220. Hinton finished seventh in the meet, leading to his first collegiate medal. "Keith was the least experienced player that we brought with us this weekend," Carras said. "His strong play was encour- aging." Aside from Hinton, the rest of the Wolverines were inconsistent at best. Junior Kyle Dobbs shot a 73 in the second of the three-round competition. Dobbs could not maintain his form, how- ever, evidenced by his 79 and 76 perfor- mances in the first and third rounds, re- spectively. "Kyle Dobbs was reasonably good," Carras said. "But he needs to start putting those types of rounds together. Unfortu- nately, we had young men shooting rounds in the 80s. We can't have that if we are going to be competitive." Hinton was not the only Wolverine making strides this weekend. Freshman Isaac Hinkle played well at times, but he had his troubles. His three-round total of 232 was six strokes above his season and career-best. Carras's lineup changes did not work out as well as he had hoped. Junior Brent Idalski's three-round score of 242 was six shots worse than his best finish of the year. The left-handerstruggled with three rounds in the 80s. Senior captain Chris Brockway's return was marked by the same diffi- culties that have hindered him all year. His 239 placed him fourth among his teammates. The loss of top player. David Jasper hurt the Wolverines. The junior has been the most consistent golfer on the team and would have played in the No. 1 slot. Jasper figures to be back for the Leg- ends of Indiana tournament in Franklin, Ind. this weekend. ATTENTION CLASSIFIED ADVERTISERS! Beginning April 10, 1996 The Michigan Daily JOIN AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY at the ECUMENICAL CENTER'S INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCE i 1 tillu1 rw1T1 nT I