10 - The Michigan Daily --Tuesday, April 16, 1996
'M', Irish vie for regional supremacy
By Richard Shin
taily Sports Writer
Forthe Michigan men's tennis team,
the luck ofthe Irish is not somethingthe
team wants.
Today, the Wolverines may actually
be hoping that the luck of the Irish runs
out.
Michigan hosts Notre Dame today in
a battle of the top two teams in the
region. The Wolverines, ranked No. 22,
are four places above the Fighting Irish
in the national rankings. In regional
rankings, however, the Wolverines are
second behind Notre Dame.
(Notre Dame, which is 15-9 for the
season, is coming off a 4-3 defeat to a
strong Texas team. The difference in
that match came at doubles, where Texas
won two of three matches.
Atdoubles, Michigan hasbeen nearly
unbeatable the past two months. The
first doubles team of Peter Pusztai and
John Costanzo has been solid all sea-
son, while the second duo of Arvid
Swan and Geoff Prentice has the best
doubles record on the team.
Up and down the lineups, the
matchups look even on paper.
"It's going to be amatterof which team
performs the best on that particular day,"
Michigan coach Brian Eisner said.
The Wolverines are in contention to
win the top seed in the Big Ten champi-
onships for the second straight year.
Michigan is led by a strong singles
lineup that features Pusztai, who has a
15-2 record in the Big Ten and is No. 22
in the nation.
Swan, Michigan's No. 3 singles
player, has been impressive the past
month, extending his winning streak to
a team-high nine matches.
"We've hadagoodchancetosee(Notre
Dame) play this year," Eisner said. "We
were in tournaments with them this fall
and at the Blue-Gray championship.
We've seen their results."
Although the Fighting Irish are ranked
first in the region, the Wolverines' play
at the national level has earned them the
higher national ranking.
"There's a reason why our national
ranking is a little higher than (Notre
Dame's)," Eisner said. "We've per-
formed a little bit better at the national
level than they have."
It's a
runaway
Moses Tanui
won the 100th
running of the
Boston
Marathon
yesterday,
finishing in
2:09:16. Uta
Pippig won the
women's race
- for the third
straight time -
with a time of
2:27:12.
AP PHOTO
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Men laxers
get-defensive
" . -
in win over
Northwood
By Pranay Reddy
Daily Sports Writer
Things weren't quite what they seemed
Sunday in Midland, Mich.
The Michigan men's lacrosse club( 14-
4) defeated Northwood handily,just as it
has its last three opponents. What was
different this time, however,wtas the score.
"The game was not nearly as close as
the score indicates," Michigan coach Bob
DiGiovanni said.
The Wolverines won 14-6-notquit
the average 18-goal margin of victor
Michigan has posted over the past two
weeks. During that time, the offense has
dominated, but roles were reversed Sun-
day, as the defense took control.
"The defense played superbly the en-
tire game," DiGiovanni said. "It was the
offense that was erratic."
After scoring 11 goals in the first half.
Michigan scored only three times in the
second, an unimpressive number consi4
ering that it took 45 shots the entire game.
"We played pretty strong in the first
half," attacker Brian Molitor said. "We
got a big lead but we just sat on it."
Since the Wolverines were playing a
Division 11 varsity team in Northwood,
NCAA varsity referees were used for the
game, although Michigan is accustomed
to club referees. The change was seem-
ingly insignificant, but it made quite an
impact on the flow of the game.
"We have an aggressive defense, so*
lot of fouls were called," DiGiovanni
said. "We were a man down for most of
the second half."
That was where the defense showed its
mettle. Northwood was up a man 12
times in the game, yet scored only three
goals in those opportunities.
Playing shorthanded, the Michigan
close defense, consisting of defenders
Alex Cedro, Marc DeCristofaro. Jim Pap,
Sean Calvillo and Andrew Farbman. waW
vital to the Wolverines' success Sunday.
These players received extended min-
utes, since some Michigan defenders did
not make the trip.
Wolverine midfielder Eric Bannat also
got some playing time. In fact, this was
Bannat's first appearance in some time
- he was out with mononucleosis for
two months. Bannat played particularly
well, considering he saw limited action.
as he scored two goals and added a
assist.
"I'm still trying to get my strength
back,"Bannat said. "This was a good step
towards getting back into the flow of the
game.
Blue women
win twice, 0
but also lose
for first time
By Kevin Kasiborski
Daily Sports Writcr
The Michigan women's lacrosse tean
cruised into Ohio this weekend und
feated and hoping to clinch a playoff
berth.
"Thle Wolveriines won twvoout ofthlree
games, but their first loss of the season
put playoff plans on hold.
In the opening game of the weekend,
Michigan fell to Miami (Ohio), 6-3.
The Wolverines rebounded. however,
to defeat Michigan State for the third
time this season, 9-0, and Grove City
12-4.
"Wewere flat thefirstgamc hMihi
gan coach Marcos Dachary said. We
weren't ready to play that early in the
morning, in the early game.
Senior captain Bethany Charboneau
agreed with her coach's assessment.
"We weren't picking up grounders,"
she said. "We were slow in reacting.
We let the fast break score too many
times."
The importance of the loss goesb
yond ruining the Wolverines' perfect
record. Miami and Michigan are divi-
sion rivals, and only the top two teams
from each division advance to the
postseason. The Wolverines must beat
Notre Dame this weekend to ensure a
spot in the playoffs, now that they've
host a division game.
After that loss, however, Wolverine
captain Cara Stockpoole said theo
fense was able to step up and executeM
better.
"We had really good transitions down
the field," she said. "There was a lot of
good passing."
Stockpoole credited the center rota-
tion of Aaleya Koreishi, Heather
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