The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - September 3, 1996 - 3F Sixth in country, Wolvenne I gymnasts plan to soar higher . M'spikers on the track to success In the past, postseason for the Michi- gan women's volleyball team usually has anslated into reflecting on the previous season and looking forward to the next. But not this year for the Wolverines. Michigan competed in its second-ever postseason tournament - the National Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship - and won two games against Massa- chusetts and Arkansas. Losses to Butler abd San Diego eliminated the Wolverines from tournament contention. Michigan (11-9 Big Ten, 19-15 over- 1) finished sixth in the conference. The Wolverines completed the season with : three consecutive wins against Penn State, Northwestern and Purdue, and were disappointed to hear they didn't get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines' senior co-captains, Shannon Brownlee and Suzy O'Donnell, were the leaders on and off the court. w Outside hitter Brownlee led Michigan during the regular season in kills (456), Cttmpts (1,160) and digs (313), and ame the first Michigan player ever to idake the All-Conference first team. O'Donnell, a middle blocker, was the - Wlverines' regular season leader in kill percentage, converting 31 percent of her " spikes. K' Without (Brownlee and O'Donnell) wd wouldn't have had nearly the success : had," Michigan coach Greg Gio- yanazzi said. "They played as well as I ave ever seen from a Michigan athlete." Michigan now must carry on without last season's team leaders. One player 6wo could become a leader this season is stter Linnea Mendoza. In her sopho- «tinore season, Mendoza led the team in : sists (1,277). Mendoza, along with senior outside hitlers Shareen Luze, Colleen Miniuk and Kristen Ruschiensky, will have to Ssep up her game if the Wolverines want advance farther this year. !We see ourselves as a very young team (this year),"Giovanazzi said."(This year's) senior class will give us a lot of depth." Men's cross country The Michigan men's cross country team can't seem to catch Wisconsin. Even in a successful year, the Wolver- nes weren't able to overcome the deep Badger team for the second-straight year. Michigan took second in the Big Ten championship on Oct. 28. For. the season, the Wolverines cap- tured two team tournament titles and fin- ished runner up in two others. Michigan -was led by Big Ten Athlete of the Year -Kevin Sullivan and Freshman of the Year Sohn Mortimer. Sullivan blew away the rest of the tour- ament field by running the 8,000-meter run in 24:21.4. Mortimer, in his first Big Ten tournament, placed seventh with a :25:08.9 time. Sullivan and the Wolverines missed AW-American senior Scott MacDonald, who broke his leg early in the season and was red-shirted by Michigan coach Ron :Warhurst. MacDonald focused on mak- ing the Canadian team for the Olympics. y red-shirting, he will be able to com- te this year. Michigan qualified for the NCAA National Cross Country Championship y receiving an at-large bid after placing third in the regionals. The Wolverines finished 11th out of 22 teams. Sullivan ended his cross coun- try career at Michigan with a eighth place finish and Mortimer placed 37th. jomen's tennis The Michigan women's tennis team began the 1995-96 season with seven players on its roster and concluded its schedule with five and two walk-ons. The roster was changed due to season- ending knee injuries to senior Angie Popek and freshman Jennifer Boylan. w The Wolverines (6-5 Big Ten, 8-12 overall) still emerged with a tie for fifth lace in the conference and an appear- ce in the first-ever NCAA Regional competition, where it split two matches. Michigan was led by junior Sarah Cyganiak and sophomore Sora Moon - -both named to the All-Big Ten team for the second consecutive season. Cygani- :ak, who led the Wolverines with a 16-4 By Kevin Kasiborski Daily Sports Writer Alabama is a not-so-sweet home for the Wolverines. Performing in front of its home crowd, Alabama pulled away from the field - includ- ing Michigan - in the final rotation to win its third women's gymnastics national champi- onship April 26. The Crimson Tide finished with a score of 198.025. The Wolverines came in sixth, less than two points behind with a tally of 196.375. Leading the Wolverines once again was senior Wendy Marshall, who scored a 39.475 in the all-around. That mark was good enough for the fourth-highest score in the team finals. Although the Wolverines finished second last year, and were the No. 4 seed entering the meet, coach Bev Plocki said she was not upset with the sixth-place finish. "We don't think of ourselves as losers," Ploc- ki said after the meet. "I don't think a lot of people thought we would make it this far after losing five seniors, much less make it to the Super Six (again),' she said. The Wolverines' performance in the prelimi- naries April 25 almost kept them from making the Super Six. Michigan scored 193.50 in the early session, its lowest output since March 1. However, the score was good enough for third place in the early session, qualifying the Wolverines for Super Six competition the fol- lowing day. The Wolverines had an up-and-down regular season, winning some big matches, losing some unexpectedly and seeing some valuable players downed by injury. Michigan defeated defending national cham- pion Utah and came close to national power Georgia. Marshall keyed the team throughout the sea- son, especially after fellow seniors Tina Miran- da and Dianna Ranelli - both All-Americans - suffered season-ending knee injuries. The team will seek strong leadership this year from its senior standout Andrea MacDonald. Also, the Wolverines will build on years of strong recruiting. "Most teams don't want to have to count on the freshmen in the do-or-die," Plocki said before the regional championships. "Our freshmen have come through with flying colors." Those freshmen - now sophomores - won four individual events at Big Tens, including the all-around. The Wolverines will look to sophomores Beth Amelkovich, Nikki Peters, Kathy Burke and Lisa Simes, along with juniors Lauren LaBranche and Heather Kabnick. Kabnick and Peters are both coming off injuries this season. Performances in the Big Ten should continue to improve this year. After years of dominance, the Wolverines were upset three times by two Big Ten opponents - Minnesota twice and Michigan State once. MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily Senior co-captain Wendy Marshall, the team's all-time leader in perfect 10s, celebrates another successful event. Men swimers focus on Atlanta By Doug Stevens Daily Sports Writer It's all about priorities. Throughout the 1995-96 campaign, Coach Jon Urbanchek and his Michigan men's swimming team focused on one thing. It wasn't an 11th consecutive Big Ten title or a successful defense' of the team's national championship. Rather, the Wolverines decided to focus their energy on a strong showing at the Olympic Trials and, ultimately, on earning a trip to the Olympic Games in Atlanta. In the end, Michigan's expectations played out pretty much to form. Despite a shocking defeat at the hands of Minnesota at the Big Ten champi- onships in Ann Arbor and a third-place finish in Austin, Texas, at NCAAs, three Wolverines in particular exemplified why the Michigan swimming program is con- sidered among the nation's best. Nine-time NCAA champion Tom Dolan, NCAA champion John Piersma and freshman Tom Malchow all earned trips to Atlanta, due to their strong per- formances at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Ind., in early March. Dolan, who is arguably the best swimmer in the world, qualified for the Olympic team in three events - the 400 individual medley, the 200 IM and the 400 freestyle. Piersma swam the 400 freestyle and Malchow the 200 butterfly. Crew becomes varsity Michigan becomes fourth Big Ten school with women's crew By Will McCahill Daily Sports Writer Another sport will join Michigan's athletic fray this fall when the women's crew team is elevated to varsity status. After spending 20 years as a club sport, the squad was chosen from among a handful of women's club sports as part of a University effort to reach gendet- equity goals in the athletic program. The team placed ninth in national championship competition last season, in a field that included many varsity teams. Michigan is the fourth Big Ten school to add women's crew to its varsity slate, joining Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio State. Wolverine head coach Mark Roth- stein said the goal for the program in its first season will be to qualify for the NCAA championships, which would involve winning regional regattas in competition with the other Big Ten pro- grams. "The other three Big Ten schools are certainly starting to become pretty big rivals," Rothstein said. Anchoring the top boat - which is crewed by the team's top eight rowers and the top coxswain, who directs the rowers - will be senior rowers Jeannette Staws- ki and Lisa Lavadie and senior coxswain Naz Siddiqui. All three have two years' experience with the squad, and Stawski and Lavadie were invited to national- team camps this summer. File photo Tom Dolan qualifies for the top spot In the 500 freestyle during the preliminaries at the NCAA men's swimming and diving meet In March. Dolan also qualified for the Olympics. Due to the Wolverines' strong show- ing at the trials (Michigan's qualifying members of the Wolverine team who competed in Atlanta, Derya Buyukuncu total of three was high- er than any other school), Urbanchek hardly regretted his decision to de-empha- size the collegiate championship meets. "We made the deci- sion not to focus on (those meets), but on the Olympics," he said. "We have to cater to the Olympians. I admit it would have been great to plan for (Big Tens and NCAAs) to satisfy our fans and Michigan. We had to decide "Discipline is the ability to wait .for long-term goalS., -Jon U rban~hek Men's swimming coach of Turkey and Ryan Papa of the Philippines both represented their respective nations at the Games. Canada's Owen von Richter and Japan's Shuichi Mat- sumoto also attempted to earn spots on their country's squads. While the emphasis of the season was undoubtedly aimed at achieving success at the Olympic Trials, numer- ous Wolverines were able to overcome disap- pointment at that meet to freshman Andy Potts all overcame near misses at the trials to earn All-American status at NCAAs two weeks later. Perhaps the most remarkable perfor- mance in Austin was put up by Dolan. The junior, who later decided to forego his final year of eligibility (although he will return in the fall to work toward his degree), wrapped up his prolific college career by capturing three more individual titles. Dolan won the 500 freestyle, the 1650 freestyle and the 400 individual medley, all by considerable margins, to help Michigan place third overall. "He won nine NCAA titles and helped Michigan to the team title in 1995," Urbanchek said. "It's time for him to move on and take the opportunity to expose swimming on a national scale. "Swimming needs someone to pick up the sport and publicize it." where our priorities were. Discipline is the ability to wait for long-term goals." In addition to the three American contribute greatly to Michigan's effort. Jason Lancaster, Chris Rumley and Golf team loses stars after season's success By James Goldstein Daily Sports Writer Michigan women's golf coach Kathy Teichert got back from her post-season vacation to find out something she didn't want to hear. Another player had left her. All-Big Ten senior Shannon McDon- ald graduated, but that was the tradition- al way to leave a coach. What the co-Big Ten Coach of the Year didn't know until weeks after the Wolver- ines' fifth-place finish in the Big Ten tournament was that one of her prized newcomers was also on her way out. Big Ten Freshman of the Year Katy Loy told Teichert she was transferring. "We will definitely recover from (Loy transferring)," Teichert said. "We will go on. I think we have very good kids in our program and they are just going to have to step up their game another notch." Now, it's Sharon Park, Wendy Westfall, Ashley Williams and Sarah Lindholm who have to carry the team this season. The Wolverines are coming off one of the best seasons in the program's 20- year history. Michigan captured three invitationals and came away with three individual first places - both the most in Teichert's three-year tenure. McDonald led the way, winning all- conference honors for the first time in the school's history, and topped the team with an 80-stroke average per round. The three-year team leader in scoring average finished first in the Lady Kat Invitational on Oct. 6-7 with a 217 three- round score. "(McDonald) was a great leader for us on and off the course," Teichert said. "She kept the team together and made sure they were unified." Loy was supposed to be one of this year's important players. The freshman from Ann Arbor captured the Saluki Invitational on March 23-24 with a 154 for 36 holes. Michigan also came away with the team title at the invitational. Without Loy, Park looks to be a crucial pieces of the puzzle. 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