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'Detroit' fails
Guevara as''
fi11s to Duke
By Josh Kieinbaum
Daily Sports Writer
For most people it's just a city. For the Michigan women's
basketball team, it's the play that decided their biggest game
of the young season.
When the Wolverines were trailing No. 15 Duke by one
point with 15 seconds left yesterday, Michigan coach Sue
Guevara called Detroit.
'e play is simple. Anne Thorius finds Pollyanna Johns
un er the net for a layup.
But Duke had double-teamed Johns, and Thorius couldn't
find her. Instead, the freshman hit Ann Lemire coming off a
screen. Lemire took the pass, penetrated the defense, and
took an open six-foot jumper with three seconds left in the
game. But she missed.
The Blue Devils won, 64-63.
Just minutes earlier, with 1:58 remaining, Duke forward
Peppi Browne had missed a free throw, giving the Wolverines
the ball, down by three. And Guevara called her favorite play
- Detroit.
9his time, Thorius found Johns for the layup, cutting the
lead to one and setting the stage for Lemire's final shot.
Johns led the Wolverines with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Stacey Thomas added 19.
The Wolverines beat Florida A&M in the Classic opener
Saturday, 78-5l1.
But the glaring weakness for the Wolverines was not their
field-goal shooting, but their free-throw shooting. Michigan
hit just 11 of 21 from the charity stripe, and made only eight
of 15 in the second half. Freshman point guard Anne
T rius missed a free throw with just less than two min-
See BLUE DEVILS, Page 7B
Reid, Wolverines
By James Goldstein
D~aily Sports Writer
The Michigan basketball team entered Saturday afternoon game against
UNLV with a recurring, frustrating trend. So far this season, if the
Wolverines grabbed a sizable lead - instead of putting the opponent away
- they relinquished it and let the opposing team back into the game.
It happened against Towson on Nov. 24 as Michigan fought tooth-and-nail
in its 75-72 victory. The pattern remained against Detroit last weekend with
the Wolverines needing a last-second shot to win.
And yet again, Wednesday against Florida International, Michigan was up
13 points in the early stages of the first half but couldn't finalize the issue,
having to pull out a nine-point victory.
In the Wolverines' best defensive effort and all-around performance of the
season, Michigan (5-1) cruised to a 83-59 victory before the announced
crowd of 12,333 at Crisler Arena. It was the Wolverines' fifth consecutive
win, heading into tonight's game against Bradley in Peoria, Ill. Michigan
plays Eastern Michigan at Crisler on Wednesday night before Saturday's
showdown against No. I Duke.
Saturday, the Wolverines faced a situation they have seen several times
before, gaining a double-digit lead midway into the first half. But Runnin'
Rebels point guard Mark Dickel drained a 3-pointer to cut the Wolverines'
cushion to nine with over four minutes to go in the half.
The opportunity was there for the Wolverines to stumble and continue the
lead-blowing trend. But it didn't happen. Nineteen seconds later, Michigan's
Robbie Reid nailed one of his team-high five 3-pointers to push the lead back
to 12, a cushion that stayed in double-digits for the remainder of the game.
This time, Michigan held on to the lead as tight as a Latrell Sprewell
strangle-hold.
"We got up 10 or 12 points on other teams and then we just kind of fig-
ure, 'Well, that's good enough for now,"' Reid said. "We just kind of get
lazy. Today, we said, 'This is a good team, but let's put them away. Let's give
people something to talk about other than 'they just snuck by' or 'they got a
win on a last second shot."'
See REBELS, Page 5B
SARA STILLMAN/Ddaiy
Robbie Reid, who scored 17 points on six-of-10 shooting from the floor, had his best game of the
season, leading Michigan to an 83-59 victory over UNLV on Saturday.
Icers say 'Soo' long
to Lake Superior
By Pranay Reddy
Daily Sports Writer
SAULT STE. MARIE -The trip to the Upper Peninsula to face Lake
Superior has usually been an unpleasant one for the Michigan hockey
team.
But Friday night looked like the first step toward erasing those bad
memories for the Wolverines as they annihilated the Lakers, 7-0.
The struggle Michigan (7-2-I CCHA, 12-3-1 overall) expected the
entire game lasted only a period against Lake State (6-3-2, 5-7-3), as the
Wolverines soon turned the affair into a one-sided beating after the first
intermission.
After a scoreless first, Michigan came out with a vengeance led by for-
ward Bill Muckalt, who began the period like a man possessed. After get-
ting the puck at the left slot, Muckalt curled around a couple of Lake
Superior defenders and slid a shot past the left leg of goalie Rob Galatiuk
for the first goal of the game at 1:18 in the period.
Besides giving Michigan its first lead of the game, the goal also sig-
naled the return of Michigan center Matt Herr, who fed Muckalt the puck
for an assist. Herr had been out of action for the Wolverines with a groin
injury since a 3-2 victory over Minnesota on Oct. 10.
"I thought (Herr) was fine tonight," Michigan coach Red Berenson
See LAKERS, Page 5B
CO
in NAs
Josh Kleinbaum
Daily Sports Writer
All good things must come to an end.
The Michigan volleyball team learned that lesson all
too well Friday night, as Texas A&M ended the
Wolverines' first-ever NCAA tournament run, 15-10, 15-
6, 15S-6, in the second round.
After Michigan jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the second
game, the No. 16 Aggies (26-7 overall) scored 12
straight points on the strength of Amber Woosley's
,ong serving. Woosley's play put the game, and the
olverines (13-7 Big Ten, 21-12 overall), away.
"There was a complete collapse, probably the worst
collapse we've had the entire season," Michigan coach
Greg Giovanazzi said.
"Their server got hot. She was doing a good job of
going after some of our passers."
Giovanazzi tried to use substitutions to mix up the
Wolverines' game and snap Woosley's streak, but
Woosley responded by serving directly at the substitutes,
attacking them before they had a chance to get into a
oove.
The second game was the low point of a dismal attack-
ing match for the Wolverines. Michigan could not do
anything offensively, putting together an attack percent-
age of .000. And that was only slightly worse than its
,092 overall attack percentage.
The Aggies countered with a very strong attack game
of their own. Outside hitters Stacy Sykora and Kristie
Smedsrud paced the Aggie attack with .500 and .650
MARGARET MYERS/Da~Iy
MARGARET MYERS/pai y
scored one of Michigan's seven goals on Friday at Lake Superior.
Freshman forward Josh Langfeld
THE CAPTAIN RETURNS
Senior Matt Herr appears on the ice for the first time since suffering an injury in October
By Pranay Reddy
Daily Sports Writer
hockey player's senior year is supposed to
be the pinnacle of his entire collegiate expe-
ence. It is the culmination of both his ath-
letic and academic efforts over the previous
three years - it's why he plays college
hockey in the first place.
Michigan hockey coach Red Berensonf
has said time and time again, "You're only _
as good as your senior class."
No one knows this better than Matt Herr.
His hard work and determination over the
past three years were all preparation for this
season. He was finally in the spotlight for the
Michigan hockey team, and he couldn't wait to
begin writing the final chapter of his four-year
story.
But those plans were put on hold.
A nrmnin iniirv nn Oct .I. in Michigan'sfirst
fast forward.
..
Coming into the season, expectations were high for Herr,
considering the departure of Michigan's greatest hockey
class ever.
"The leadership this year is even more important than
it was last year, especially with a small senior class and
a large freshman class,' Berenson said. "Matty Herr
will set a good example by the kind of person he
is, the kind of player he is, and the kind of stu-
dent he is.
"He's learned what it takes to win and will
pull everybody together."
Pressure was at an all-time high for Herr,
considering the lofty standards left by the
departed class, and the relative inexperi-
ence that surrounded him in the locker-
room. From the beginning, Herr knew what
he had to do, as captain, to help this year's
- i. team step out of the shadow of Michigan's
- a symbolic move that Herr hoped would help begin the
structuring of this year's squad.
"It's a new team, a team with a new attitude, Herr said.
"Last year's team didn't win it, and people were saying we
were the greatest college hockey team of all time.
"I look at that as sort of a challenge to say 'OK, the best
hockey team of all time didn't win it all, what can the hard-
est working team do?"'
While it sounded ambitious to even apply last season's suc-
cess to this season, Herr was well aware of the realities
involved with heading up such a young group of players. But
he remains committed to the belief that Michigan's season
has no limits if everyone comes together at the right time.
"I was sitting in my psychology class and the guy sitting
next to me was talking about the hockey team and said,
'Goddammit, I'm going to kill those guys if they lose 10
games this season,"' Herr said. "Whatever expectations peo-
ple outside the program put on us, I'm sure inside this lock-
erroom the expectations are even loftier."
Ironically, his hard-nosed commitment to winning might