The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - November 11, 1996 - 9B
ady Lions oust Blue
stickers from tourney
By Richard Shin In the net, Michigan goalkeeper Amy
Daily Sports Writer Helber stopped seven shots, while
At the Big Ten field hockey touma- Jamie Smith stopped 10 shots for Penn
p ment in Evanston on Friday, the State.
'::Michigan field hockey team attempted Penn State has been nearly unstop-
cool off a Penn State team that is on pable in the past three weeks, winning
ire. its three matches entering the tourna-
Instead, the sixth-seeded Wolverines ment. Two Lions captured Big Ten
got burned. Player of the Week honors for the week
In front of 106 fans, the third-seeded ending Nov. 3.
Lady Lions struck for four first-half On offense, McGuire captured the
goals, defeating the Wolverines, 4-1, to honor, while on defense, Smith won on
oust them and advance to the second the strength of back-to-back shutouts
round in the conference tourney. against Pennsylvania and second-seed-
Penn State attacker and Big Ten ed Ohio State and a 210-minute score-
Offensive Player of the Year Tara less streak.
eGuire lit the fuse for the Lions, net- In the game against Michigan, Smith
1Vig the first goal of the game with 20 recorded a.909 save percentage but had
minutes left in the first half. Michigan her scoreless streak broken against
quickly answered with a goal 34 sec- Michigan in the first half when
onds later by Michigan senior attacker Smulders scored.
Michelle Smulders. "The team that peaks during tourna-
The Lions then exploded for three ment time has the best chance to win
unanswered goals in just over 10 min- the tournament," Flachs said. "Penn
utes to take a lead they would not relin- State is definitely peaking."
quish. The Wolverines lost to the Lions for
Smulders scored her team-leading the third time this season and the fifth
7th goal of the season against Penn time in the last two years. In the nine
tate. Smulders' goal was assisted by matches between the schools, Penn
junior midfielder Julie Flachs, who is State has won eight.
second on the Wolverines in scoring. In The Wolverines suffered from a lack
the past four matches, Smulders has of consistency on offense against the
accounted for four of Michigan's six Lions which has plagued them all sea-
;goals and has scored in 11 of the son and could not take advantage of the
Wolverines' last 12 games. scoring opportunities in the first half. In
The Wolverines were outshot by the the second half, much of the game was
Lions, 14-11, but held the edge on played near midfield, Flachs said.
penalty corners. Although the "That's been a problem," Flachs said.
Wolverines led by a 9-4 margin, they "We usually outstat the other team, but
Wre unable to capitalize, we just can't score.'
"We played very well, and at times, The loss drops the Wolverines out of
we dominated (Penn State)," Flachs the Big Ten tournament, while Penn
said. "We had the same opportunities as State advances to the second round to
them, but we couldn't score." face Ohio State.
Michigan was unable to score in the Overall, the Wolverines finished the
second half and could only muster three season in sixth place in the BigTen at 2-
shots in the entire period. Penn State 9 and finished 7-11 overall. Penn State
could not match its first half output, improves to 7-4 in the conference and
coming up empty on four attempts. 12-8 overall.
JONATHAN SUMMER/Daily
The Michigan women's swimming team overcame No.10 Tennessee in what turned out to be the closest dual meet for Michigan this season. Michigan's Wendy Gendler,
competing in the 200 butterfly, helped the third-ranked Wolverines come away with a victory.
Fatigued women taker's inch past Vols
By Nancy Bter
Daily Sports Writer
If the Michigan women's swimming
team felt any sort of exhaustion after one
of its hardest and most intense weeks of
practice this year, the Wolverines did an
excellent job of concealing it against
Tennessee last weekend.
Running on almost empty, No. 3
Michigan (3-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) won
11 of the 13 swimming events as it
motored its way to a 160-140 victory
over No. 10 Tennessee (2-2).
"We knew that we would be right on
edge, and that is what you try to do this
time of year," Michigan coach Jim
Richardson said. "You try to swim as
close to your fatigue edge as you can
without crashing. In most cases we got at
least two good races out of people before
they really cashed it in."
Junior Talor Bendel appeared to have
a made a pit-stop prior to the meet to
refuel her engine as the All-American
swam two of the most impressive perfor-
mances of the meet.
Bendel held off freshman teammate
Shannon Shakespeare in the 200-yard
freestyle as she touched the wall in
1:49.64, just over three hundredths of a
second ahead of Shakespeare.
Bendel won her second event in a race
that she rarely swims, the 500 freestyle.
Richardson occasionally puts Bendel,
who is a sprint freestyle specialist, in the
distance event to help in her conditioning
for the 200.
In one of the closest and most exciting
races of the meet, Bendel upset
Tennessee's Leslie Mix and Sarah
Nichols, two of the top distance
freestylers in the country.
The competition in the 500 free was
so tight and fast that just two seconds
separated Bendel from the fourth-place
finisher.
"That was an exceptional 500 race,
because your top five people were under
five minutes, and the sixth person was
five minutes and some change,"
Richardson said. "That was a great 500
race."
The Volunteers won their first of three
races on the night as Nichols won the
1650 freestyle in 16:32.94, more than
seven seconds ahead of Hale.
Hale fell behind the two Volunteers in
the first 600 yards of the race as Nichols
swam out to an early lead and distanced
herself from the rest of the field. While
Nichols continued to swim at a solid
pace, Hale began to make her move at
the 900-yard mark and took over second
place from Mix. Hale continued to
lengthen her lead as she finished in sec-
ond by more than eight seconds over
Mix.
"It was a great swim,' Richardson
said. "(Nichols) made the move in the
first 600 and then the rest of the race was
even. I was real pleased with Kern and
Leslie Mix too. Leslie was an NCAA
champion two years ago and had shot4-
der surgery a year ago, and Leslie is
coming back very nicely."
Michigan took care of the rest of the
freestyle events, with Shakespeare tak-
ing the 100 and junior Kim Johnson
sprinting to a first in the 50.
Senior Jodi Navta dominated the 100
and 200 breaststrokes as she qualified
for NCAAs in both events.
In the backstroke, junior Linda Riker
hung on for first in the 100 while senior
Anne Kampfe easily won the 200 in
2:02.04.
The events that Tennessee dominated
weren't even in the swimming portion.
The Volunteers swept both the one- and
three-meter diving competitions to make
it the closest dual meet Michigan has had
this season.
Led by Olympians, M' men drown Eastern Michigan for 20th consecutive time
By B.J. Luria
and Chad Kujala
Daily Sports Writers
Although it wasn't the Olympics, the
Olympians on the Michigan men's
swimming and diving team performed
much like they did over the summer,
helping the Wolverines defeat Eastern
Michigan in their first meet Saturday.
Michigan, which triumphed by a
score of 125-87, has now won all 20
meetings between the two teams, in a
series dating back to 1971. The Eagles
are 2-1 on the season.
The Wolverines were paced by
Olympians Ryan Papa and Derya
Buyukuncu, who won two events
apiece. Papa won the 100-yard back-
stroke (51.21) and the 50 freestyle
(21.50) while Buyukuncu won the 100
butterfly (49.34) and the 100 free
(45.83).
Sophomore Tom Malchow, who
brought home a silver medal from the
Atlanta Games, won the 400 individual
medley (4:00.76), finishing 10 seconds
ahead of the second-place swimmer.
Malchow also won the 200 fly
(1:48.57).
In the first meet of the season, the
younger Wolverines were looking to
gain experience. Freshman Mike
McWha, who won the 200 (1:44.37),
noted the importance of the Olympic
swimmers.
"All those Olympians on the team is
something to look up to," McWha said.
"They are soft spoken but lead by
example. It inspires everyone to swim
better."
Several other freshmen had success-
ful collegiate debuts to help the
Wolverines. Diver Josh Trexler won
the one-meter springboard event, post-
ing a score of 281.03, just ahead of
teammate Brett Wilmot, who scored
280.50.
Other winners included freshmen
Francisco Suriano Siu, who won the
100 (58.61), and Scott Meyer, who won
the 200 breaststroke (2:11.47).
The accomplishments of the younger
swimmers may become even more
important with the possible loss of
junior All-American Jason Lancaster.
Lancaster may be forced to undergo
shoulder surgery to repair an injury
that plagued him throughout the 1995-
96 collegiate season and the U.S.
Olympic team trials. The opening meet
of the year was a momentous occasion
for all the first year swimmers.
"It was different than any other event
I have swam in before," Meyer said.
"It's such a great university with a sto-
ried tradition."
McWha echoed his teammates senti-
ments.
"It was pretty cool,"he said. "I got to
represent Michigan."
Although Eastern Michigan is not a
swimming power, Michigan's victory
was important nonetheless.
"It was a good measuring stick to see
how to prepare for the next meet,"
Trexler said.
The Wolverines will face tougher
competition Nov. 22-23 when Texas
comes to Ann Arbor. The Longhorns
are the defending NCAA champions
and should provide the Wolverines with
some tough early season competition.
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