The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 23, 1997 -4A 'M' women's tumblers will see lamiliar face in Massachusetts By Jacob Wheeler Daily Sports Writer When the No. 11 Michigan women's gym- nastics team travels to Amherst, Mass., for a eet against No. 22 Massachusetts, it will be a union of sorts. But don't expect the Wolverines to be gra- cious guests. Fourth-year UMass coach Dave Kuzara used to be an assistant coach under Michigan coach Bev Plocki. But if Kuzara remembers anything from his days in Ann Arbor, he'll know that facing the Wolverines could be a handful for his Minutemen. The Wolverines have won the last five Big *n championships and made appearances in the NCAA championships each of the last four years. "Dave's a great coach" Plocki said. "He has brought that program up from nothing in the last two years with fantastic recruiting classes. "But overall, we should beat them." The Wolverines, coming off their first win of the season last Saturday against Minnesota, have had relative success smoothing out many ( their early season problems. ,The Wolverines upped their score on the bal- ance beam to 48.4 against the Gophers, a world of improvement over their scores at the begin- ning of the season. x "We had a lot more confidence," sophomore Beth Amelkovich said. "Hopefully we can carry what happened into next weekend." jut Plocki is not satisfied with her team's sta- W. quite yet. "I hope we'll be able to make improvements on (our performances)," she said. "We're not where we want to be on any event." The Wolverines dominated the first three rotations Saturday and will head to Amherst favored in three events. But the Minutemen have dominated the beam the entire season. "We're not where we want to be on any event. " - Bev Plocki Michigan women's gymnastics coach In fact, the Minutemen were ranked sixth nationally on the beam as late as last week. Anita Sanyal will be the primary threat on beam this weekend. The beam was the Wolverines' weakest event before the Minnesota meet. They will also need to return to form on the floor exercise to contend. The Wolverines' scores dropped dramatically on the floor, their last event, this past Saturday. It was the first time this season that their floor scores were low. "I don't know if the problem was the floor," Plocki said. "We had a big lead and there might have been a mental letdown." The Wolverines cannot expect to build up as big a lead against UMass however. The Minutemen haven't lost a home meet this season, and Michigan is winless on the road so far this year. Last event lapses won't help if the Wolverines expect to challenge for the national title again this year. "I have yet to see the competitive fire in my team this year that other teams have had in the past;' Plocki said."They can't just expect good things to happen, because they're talented." That talent has suffered a bit in the past weeks. Co-captain Andrea McDonald has had a nasty bout with influenza and may only com- pete in the floor exercise, if she returns at all this weekend. Junior Heather Kabnick, an integral part of the Wolverines' squad, probably won't be ready for any events that involve running this weekend. "We can probably count on her for at least beam and bars, Plocki said. "But we ran into problems when we put tumbling into her floor routine in practice." The Wolverines need. an experienced tumbler like Kabnick competing to ensure there are no more mental letdowns. Though there were question marks, the Wolverines turned their attitudes around last weekend. Plocki thinks there's no reason that can't carry over against the Minutemen. "I would think that we could expect as good a performance as last week for the rest of the sea- son, but with a few smaller strides in improve- ment," Plocki said. Andrea McDonald, who has been hampered by the flu, is questionable for this weekend's meet. Extra men's netters get chance to swing in tourney Read ,. x T : ,- : by Jordan Field Daily Sports Writer 'As the defending Big Ten champi- tlhe Michigan men's tennis team will travel to Champaign this week- end for the 1997 Big Ten indoor sin- gles championship. *In the field of 64, the Wolverines will showcase six players in the sin- gle-elimination championship draw. Two other Wolverines will com- pete in the No. 7 and No. 8 player bracket. -"The bracket was created to allow each school to send additional play- ers to compete outside of the 64-per- son limit. "This tournament is one time here players that would not nor- lly have the opportunity to play now have the chance to play against very good competition at all levels," Michigan coach Brian Eisner said. Eisner said that unlike other tour- naments played this year, this one does not have doubles competition, leading to a slightly different approach for the team. "We have focused extremely hard on individual improvements this week," Eisner said. "We really need- ed to work on two major areas, the return of serve and hitting passing shots. "We have had great progress this week working on those parts of the singles game." Last year, the Wolverines fielded three of the final four semifinalists - two of whom are returning this year. Juniors Arvid Swan and David Paradzik will attempt to repeat last year's performance. "The courts in Champaign are real fast," Paradzik said. "I certainly want to go down there and play the way I know I an "I'm not guarantee- ing a repeat of last year, but losing in the first or second round would certainly be a disap- pointment." The third of last year's semifin al- ists, Peter Pusztai, graduated last year and beat Swan in the semifinals m capable. Ten singles title. "I've got a big tr "I'M not guaranteeing a repeat of last year, but losing in the first or second round would certainly be a disappointment." -- David Paradzik Michigan tennis player ophy cup in my office with Peter's name on it," Eisner said. "It's a traveling tro- phy, so I'll have to bring it with me to the tourna- ment, but hopefully we can bring it back for another year with one of picked up seeds in the tournament. Swan grabbed the No. 6 seed and Paradzik No. 10. "We certainly would like to come away from this tournament with good results," Eisner said. "But not only good results on paper, we also want to leave with the feeling that we played well and feel confident about our performance." Junior transfer Brook Blain, who is making his first appearance at this championship, echoed his coach's words. "I really don't have any expecta- tions for this tournament," Blain said. "I just want to play well and leave there with a couple good wins, and especially with my confidence high. "As a team, we should leave this championship feeling confident about ourselves." SPORTSMonday for the latest coverage of all Michigan.' sports.. our guy's on it." other name and then defeated Minnesota's Ben Gabler for the Big Swan and Paradzik, who both carry rankings in Region IV, both EAGLES Continued from Page 10A won the mile and the 3,000-yard race. Harvey also noted an impressive per- 'xmance from freshman Steve Iawrence, who finished third in the mile last week. Devasher won the 55-yard dash last weekend. He says he is learning with each race and is focusing on his start this TEST Continued from Page 10A * rst away meet of their careers. "I don't think that will be intimi- dating," Henry said. "We had excel- tent competition this past weekend, ad we didn't win as many events as the previous week, but our perfor- mances were better. So the intimidat- ping factor is normally in the compe- tition, not necessarily the environ- ment - I have more confidence in em than that." Ouellet is anxious to make her mark on the Wolverines, especially after having to sit out the entire cross country season due to an injury. "I only really started running about 2 1/2 years ago," Ouellet said. "I got some good coaching back home, and I'm really starting to feel like I could come into my own. I'm really hoping to do well for the team id individually, just to make myself appy. ' "I'm really happy, because I've never run this fast indoors, especial- ly at the start of the season." Two other Wolverines to watch are sophomore Nicole Forrester and junior Tania Longe. week. Freshman Steve Jenkins also ran strong in the 55, finishing only .04 sec- onds behind Devasher. All eyes will be on junior Don McLaughlin, whose running has improved tremendously in the last two weeks. McLaughlin ran a personal best in the 800 last weekend by shaving six seconds off his time. The meet begins at noon with the field events, and the running events kick off at 5:45 p.m. Harvey hopes that things will run smoothly and the runners will be able to control themselves throughout the day. "It's a good rivalry, it's good competition, but there's no reason to let it resort to that again," Harvey said. Forrester has proved herself to be a consistent power in the high jump, placing first in both of Michigan's meets this season. Longe, the 1996 outdoor Big Ten champion in the heptathalon, is com- peting but is still taking things slow- ly while recovering from a back injury. "The back is getting better," Henry said. "She's doing more in her prac- tices, but I'm just optimistically cau- tious that I feel good about how things are going. "There's no need to stretch her or rush her progress. We have bigger and better things to look forward to. Right now this is the most important meet, but we're not going to pull out all the stops to win it," Henry added. As good as the Wolverines are now, Henry is looking forward to a season of developing their full potential - a potential he feels is still untapped. "We improved (in) the second meet," Henry said. "But this is an interesting team, because they don't know how good they are, and they don't know how good they can be. We're getting sharper, but we're still not at a point yet, and it will be exciting to see how this team develops." "l1min+2Omin 1 ' ' - 1 , ," ® j', 1 32 Lamp Super Beds Hexes ® CD Players SNew power booth: 3600 watt, 36 definition tan W EXTENDED HOURS " m--Mon.- Fri: 9am- midnight I .. . . . .. .........-- I m man MENIfto Iftw mwm mftwmmmqwmko qww