. c e Cic 'tgttn ttiig Sports Desk: 647-3336 a q 1 1 '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