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Uue sweeps
By Ames Goldstein
an ark Snyder
Dailports Writers
SITROIT - The goal was nothing less than a
swdi.
SWchigan hockey coach Red Berenson stated it. The
Mirigan hockey team stated it. Going into this week-
ollege Hockey Showcase at the Joe Louis Arena,
stiment around the team was the same.
wins, nothing less.
1uichigan met that goal by squeaking past
Minnesota, 4-3 in overtime, on Friday afternoon and
manhandling Wisconsin, 8-4, on Saturday afternoon.
"We set team goals throughout the year and (sweep-
ing the Showcase) was one of the short-term goals we
wanfd to achieve," Michigan assistant captain Jason
Botterill said. "It's an NCAA Tournament-type of
(atnii(sphere)."
n Friday, captain Brendan Morrison once again
7yed the role of hero. Morrison received a pass in
front of the net from Matt Herr and quickly put the puck
through Minnesota goaltender Steve DeBus' legs 51
'M' doesn't look
jie a No. 7 tea
LEVELANIY - One thing became quite clea
after Michigan's 80-74 win over Cleveland S
Saturday.
Michigan is not the seventh-best team in the cou
Both major polls had the Wolverines rated as high b
Saturday's squeaker against the Vikings.
But after Michigan struggle
knock off a pesky Cleveland S
squad, either the Wolverines a
ranked far too high or the Viki
are a lock for No. 8 this week
not a likely scenario.
Despite a large height advar
and an even larger edge in tal
JOHN Cleveland State was one 3-poi
L ROI away from winning the game.
the Vikings down by just three
Out of 33 seconds left, the consensus
Bounds press row was that Cleveland
would pull this one out.
A4ad freshman James Madison, who had canned f
Mrees already, not missed an open shot from 22 fee
Wolverines would have probably lost.
Michigan, up by just three at the half, began the
ond with a 17-2 run. The Wolverines had a 57-41 le
with 13 1/2 minutes left in the game. With 2:34 left
Vikings were down by just a bucket.
After letting Cleveland State climb back into a g
that it should have been blown out of, the Wolverin
played well enough to pull out the win.
That is to their credit.
What is inexcusable, however, is that No. 7 Mich
didn't handily stomp Cleveland State.
The Wolverines, much larger than their Midwest
Collegiate Conference counterparts, only managed
outrebound the Vikings 39-32. That is ridiculous, c
ering that Cleveland State took eight more shots tha
Michigan did, missing six of them.
"I thought we'd have a chance to use our siz
strength to wear them down," Michigan coach
Fisher said after the game. "It looked like, at tim
See .ER01, P
Michigan's junior setter Linnea Me
By Kevin Kasiborski bal
Daily Sports Writer set,
Number one. T
Linnea Mendoza wears No. 1 on the back of was
jersey, which is appropriate when you con- 3,0
er what she has accomplished over the past 8, a
three years. wil
The junior setter for the Michigan women's
volleyball team entered the season with the coa
Michigan record for most assists in a match (73, a sn
accomplished three times), the highest assist the
Scoreboard PHILADELPHIA 24, NY Giants 0
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DENVER 34, Seattle 7
BALTIMORE 31, Pittsburgh 17 St. Louis 26. NEW ORLEANS 10
CAROLINA 24, Tampa Bay 0 Houston 35, NY JETS 10
GREEN BAY 28, Chicago 17 OAKLAND 17, Miami 7
INDIANAPOLIS 13, Buffalo 10 (OT) New England at SAN DIEGO, inc.
JACKSONVILLE 30, Cincinnati 27
MINNESOTA 41, Arizona 17 Home teams in CAPS
Monday
December 2, 1996
11
Showcase showdowns
seconds into overtime.
"I was just hanging out in the slot,' Morrison said. "I
think their guy thought he had me covered, but he had
his back to me. Me and Herr just made some eye con-
tact and I went to the net. He made a perfect pass, and
it was just a one-timer through (the goalie's) five-hole."
The game should not have gone into the extra ses-
sion. Michigan (13-1-1) was seconds away from a 3-2
victory. But, with six Gophers on the ice, Erik
Rasmussen parked himself in front of Michigan goal-
tender Marty Turco and knocked in a rebound under
Turco's pads with 6.7 seconds left in regulation.
Rasmussen's goal gave him a hat trick for the night,
as he provided Minnesota with all of its offense.
Michigan forward John Madden was in front of the
net and had a chance to get in the way of Rasmussen's
shot. And Herr was tied up left of the goal crease.
But it was Herr who felt responsible for the goal. He
had the chance to take some more time off the clock.
"That was me that was skating down the left side
(inside the Minnesota blue line);" Herr said. "I tried to
dump it in, but I should have gone off the boards. I was-
n't thinking and the puck hit off a (Minnesota player's)
chest."
Earlier in the period, a Minnesota player got in Herr's
way, but on that occasion, it was to the Wolverines'
advantage.
With the score tied at two, Herr streaked down the
left side of the ice and was attempting to make a cross-
ing pass. Minnesota defenseman Bill Kohn was playing
Herr tightly. But Herr's pass deflected off of Kohn's
stick, lying almost prone on the ice, and whizzed over
DeBus' shoulder into the top-left corner of the net.
"I guess you know you are having a good day when
something like that happens," Herr said.
Herr had a great couple of days, scoring two goals
and assisting on six others. The junior forward
increased his conescutive scoring streak to 12 games.
Friday, Turco started off not having a good day.
Minnesota's first shot on goal went by Turco for
Rasmussen's first goal of the night 18 seconds into the
game. But Turco looked solid for most of the game, fac-
ing the most shots he has seen since the season's second
See SHOWCASE, Page 12
JONATHAN CURIE/Special to the Daily
Wisconsin and Minnesota may have kept Michigan center John Madden down, but
it opened up avenues for teammates' Brendan Morrison and Bill Muckalt to score.
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age 14
Michigan eeks out
win over Vikings
By Will McCahill
Daily Sports Editor
CLEVELAND - Plundering. Back
in the days when vikings terrorized the
known world, that was what they set out
to do.
And indeed, the latter-day Vikings of
Cleveland State set out to do much the
same Saturday night. As things turned
MIchigan 80
f Cleveland St 74
out, it was all the Michigan men's bas-
ketball team could do to keep the
Vikings from plundering the
Wolverines' No. 7 ranking.
Michigan pulled out an 80-74 victory
Saturday night in Cleveland, staving off
a mad Viking charge that brought them
back from a 16-point deficit with just
under 14 minutes remaining in the sec-
ond half, to within two with 40 seconds
to go.
But Cleveland State fouled the wrong
guy with the clock running down,
putting Michigan's sophomore guard -
and top free-throw shooter - Louis
Bullock on the line. Bullock hit from the
charity stripe with 12 seconds left to put
the Wolverines up, 78-74, and ice the
game.
Bullock missed the second free throw,
but the carom was scooped up by
Maceo Baston - back after missing
almost a month with an Achilles tendon
injury - and he was fouled on the put-
back attempt. He swished the two foul
shots that provided the final margin,
"We just have to put them away when
we have our chance;' Bullock said. "We
let them right back in the game:'
It may have been Baston's surprise
entry into the game with over three min-
utes into the second half that helped
give the Wolverines the cushion they
would need as the game wound down.
Michigan went into halftime with a 40-
37 lead, and after the teams traded buck-
ets, the junior came off the bench and
immediately made his presence felt,
blocking the first shot that came his
way.
The Wolverines then went galloping
off. Guard Travis Conlan stole the ball ;
and made a long outlet pass to the
streaking Bullock, who was fouled
while driving to the goal. The basket
was good, and Bullock canned the free
throw to make it 45-39.
Just over three minutes later,
Michigan seemed to have the game put
away for good, sophomore center
Robert Traylor's jam having staked the
Wolverines to a 57-41 lead.
Cleveland State, under the guidance
of coach Rollie Massimino, was unde-
terred. Senior center Eric Nichelson
started the Vikings' comeback with a 3-
pointer on Cleveland State's next pos-
session on an assist by senior guard
Malcolm Sims. Nichelson returned the
favor the Vikings' next time down, as
Sims' jumper cut Michigan'slead to 11.
Nichelson added another deuce just
over three minutes later, and the score
stood at 60-52. The Wolverines looked
See VIKINGS, Page 14
MARGARET MEYERS/Daily
Though his coach would have liked to have held him out of the lineup for at least another game to rest a
strained Achilles tendon he suffered Nov. 7, Maceo Baston delivered a much-needed lift off the bench.
t k1Lk
the F1~
7ER-Ijole
ndoza is piling up assists after migrating from California to play volleyball in Wolverine country
total in a season (1,478 last year), and the most
assists in a conference season (917 last year).
And on Oct. 5 of this year, in a win over
Northwestern, Mendoza moved into first-place
in one more category - assists in a career.
!It is a special thing," Mendoza says of her
new record. "I don't want to say it's a reward,
but it recognizes the matches that I've played.
With an assist record, there is much more that
goes into it besides me setting the ball. It
depends on the pass and the team.
"I made it a point to remember who hit the
mo
cou
Cal
ear
ing
my
wit
thi
you
1 for some reason. I don't remember what I
but Shareen (Luze) hit it."
The old record, held by Tarnisha Thompson,
s 2,619. Mendoza has since recorded her
00th assist in a win over Minnesota on Nov.
and every assist she registers from now on
I add to her record.
"She is really an elite athlete," Michigan
ach Greg Giovanazzi says. "I think people see
;mall player like that, and wouldn't say that
y're elite. If you just watch the way Linnea
ves and her sense for what happens on the
urt, she is just gifted."
Mendoza, who is a native of Santa Barbara,
lif., credits her court sense and a lot of her
ly development to her days growing up play-
beach volleyball.
"It really helped me in my ball control and
court awareness," she says. "When you play
h just two people on the court, you develop
igs that you wouldn't indoor, especially when
U do it at a young age.
"(The beach) was integrated into our workout
in high school and in club. We would have to
run on the beach, jump in the sand - I was a
beach bum for a long time."
The sun, the surf and the sand. What could be
better?
As it turns out, Mendoza had to be talked
into playing volleyball. She was in sixth grade,
happily playing soccer, when her parents made
her try out for a club team.
"I was going to be the youngest one on the
team, everyone else was in seventh or eighth
grade," Mendoza recalls. "But it was actually a
good thing."
Mendoza kept her good thing going, and
when she got to high school she realized that
athletics could earn her a scholarship.
"It was between soccer and volleyball,"
Mendoza said. "Which one was going to take
me further? Which one did I want to pursue
and put more time in too?
"I ended up playing soccer and volleyball
through high school just so I wouldn't get
burned out on one sport, but I knew in my heart
that wanted volleyball. There were more oppor-
tunities and more programs."
Mendoza only ended up in the Michigan pro-
gram through what she called "a lucky situa-
tion" and what Giovanazzi describes as "good
fortune."
In February 1993, when Giovanazzi was
watching Mendoza's Santa Barbara Club team
play, Mendoza was sitting on the bench. She
was still a junior in high school and there were
two senior setters on the team who the coaches
were showcasing in hopes of earning them a
scholarship.
One of the parents pulled Giovanazzi aside
and pointed out Mendoza.
"This guy who came up to me was the father
one of the other setters" Giovanazzi remem-
bers. "And he said, 'Hey, Linnea should be out
there, not my daughter. I really want you to look
at Linnea, she is something special.'
"As soon as we saw her touch the ball, we
knew that this was a gifted kid. She has been a
See MENDOZA, Page 13
JEANNIE SERVAAS/Daily
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Sales Management Program
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Put Gallo To The Test....
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