r Lt ji u ttig MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Baltimore 9, SEATTLE 3 ATLANTA 13, Houston 3 FLORIDA 7, San Francisco 6 3nt CPS PRO TAMPA BAY 4, HOCKEY Carolina 2 Detroit at PHILADELPHIA 3, CALGARY Florida 1 Edmonton at San Jose, inc. Buffalo 3, ST. LOUIS 1 Washington 4, TORONTO 1 Dallas at RniDO Annc. Los Angeles 3, PITTSBURGH 3 (OT) Ottawa 2, MONTREAL 2 (OT) Chicago at Phoenix inc. Thursday October 2, 1997 9A wSILJtcrn d, i...- - omen's golf fights the blues athome By Dan Lev For the Daily Michigan women's golf coach Kathy Teichert hopes there's no place like home for the Wolverines. After two tour- naments, Teichert hasn't been pleased # what she's seen. "Right now our freshman and upper- clmssmen are not really coming through tohere I'd like to see them be," Teichert said. "If that continues to happen, we'll have trouble being competitive." Ax struggling women's golf team will look-to get on track this weekend when Michigan hosts its only tournament of the year, the Wolverine Invitational. 'Two weeks ago at the Lady Northern I2Lte at Penn State, Michigan finished a ppointing 14th out of 16 teams. The p6of finish was especially frustrating for the-Wolverines, because it came a week after a promising fifth-place perfor- manfce at the Spartan Invitational. Michigan's top player, Sharon Park, has been averaging a score of 78.5 in two-tournaments. Park finished tied for 1th place last year in the Wolverine Invitational, but this year she hasn't been Wjfied with her scores. haven't been playing well, Park s4g"What I need is to gain confidence itOdyself. Once I do that, I'll probably -(better." .'ark sees improvement in the Olverines' future. Our team has gotten off to a slow sat, but we have a lot of potential," said. "This tournament is a good ofrtunity to show that we can play it seems that our team, like myself, confidence. We need to play well c to get going." chigan has the advantage of play- n its par-73, 5,962-yard home cese. Knowing the course should give fbiiigan golfers an edge. Ve have a huge advantage playing ea1r home course" Teichert said. "We k the greens better than anyone else. inow the holes. We know when you to take a little extra club and when greensWill hold." rk, on the other hand, doesn't see tdo Michigan golf course as home sweet home. "It's somewhat of an advantage' Park s. But then again, it's such a difficult golf course that there is no way we can match up to it ourselves.' Michigan will be part of a 13-team field featuring five Big Ten teams, including last year's Wolverine fitational tournament champion, diana. The tournament will be played in a six-count-four format, meaning that six players from each team will play, with the lowest four scores counting. The golfers will play 36 holes Saturday and 18 holes Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m. each day. The six-golfer lineup will include Park, seniors Laura Hess and Nicole Green, redshirt freshman Jennifer '*umann and true freshmen Amy Balliet and Amy Talbot. Freshman Trish Watkins won't be in the lineup this week- end, due to a bout with mononucleosis. - Teichert has high hopes for the tour- nament. -"I'd like to have' every person have their lowest individual scores and lowest tournament scores this weekend," Teichert said. "We'll do okay, we just need to get everyone going and we'll be :e." M' spikers wake up, sweep 'Cats Blue improves to 3-0 in Big Ten By Josh Klolnbaum Daily Sports Writer For the first five minutes, the Michigan volleyball team struggled. Then, the Wolverines woke up and routed a sloppy Northwestern team, 15- 11, 15-7, 15-11. After two Northwestern points and 14 side outs, the Wolverines (3-0 Big Ten, 10-4 overall) finally got on the board - and they did it in style, scor- ing seven of the next eight points. The Wolverines are off to their best start in the Big Ten since 1992, when they went 4-0. That is largely a result of getting back to the basics - well-bal- anced attackers combined with a strong defense. "This is by far the best Michigan team I've been on," junior Sarah Jackson said. "We play defense better than any team I've been on. We've got well-rounded attackers, it's not just one or two people.' The Wolverines made the victory look easy, and it was, largely because Northwestern (1-2, 10-4) was doing all of the work for them. Thirty of the 45 points Michigan scored were a result of errors by the Wildcats. "We're struggling right now to play consistent volleyball," Northwestern coach Kevin Renshler said. "Right off in the first game, we missed six serves. It was a case where Michigan didn't have to do anything." But the Wolverines did do something - particularly freshman outside hitter Sarah Behnke. Behnke has played solidly in the absence of outside hitter Karen Chase, who is sidelined with back injury. It seems every week another aspect of her game improves. First, it was her attack- ing, then it was her passing. Last night, it was her serving. In the second game, the Wolverines unleashed a streak of eight straight points on Behnke's serve, including three consecutive aces. "We have a rule that once you ace a player, you keep going after that play- er," Behnke said. Because of that rule, Northwestern outside hitter Jennifer Higgins was the victim of all three of Behnke's aces. The serving game as a whole was a strength for the Wolverines. In games. one and three, Michigan tried to serve short to disrupt Northwestern's attack patterns. "That caused them problems, and they got sloppy," Michigan coach Greg Giovanazzi said. "In game two, Sarah just blew them off the court." It was almost as if two different matches were being played. In games one and three, the Wolverines relied on forcing Northwestern errors and on a solid defense, ending long rallies with kills. In the second game, Michigan was much more aggressive, netting many quick points with service aces and a strong power game, led by Behnke's serving. Both methods worked effectively and served to dis- rupt the Wildcats, throwing them off- guard. "We have a tendency to go back to the old ways," Renshler said. "In my humble opinion, I don't think the old ways are going to win. The old ways are not going to win for Northwestern - 30 straight Big Ten losses before a victory this past week- end proved that. Renshler said the old ways are a slow style of volleyball that fails to get the whole team involved. In order to win, the Wildcats have to gom around the opposition. They're not big enough to go through them. But the Wildcats failed to do that, particularly in the third game. They challenged Michigan at the net and, as a result, got blocked nine times, six times in the final game alone. The key to the match was the second game, in which the Wolverines jumped out to a 14-4 lead, tearing the heart out of the Wildcats. "We didn't play with a lot of heart in game two" Renshler said. Heart was something the Wolverines didn't have to worry about, although Giovanazzi was a little concerned that his team might look past the game to Michigan State tomorrow. "Just walking into the gym tonight and seeing the look on the players faces, I knew that they were ready to play tonight," Giovanazzi said. J^"N'4 'T'Di"y Michigan freshman outside hitter Sarah Behnke sends one of her many kills behind the Northwestern defense. Behnke also served well in helping the Wolverines move to 3-0 in conference play. Wolverines overcome mistakes, adversity to shine By T.J. Berka Daily Sports Writer The measure of a good team is not how much talent it has, but how it overcomes mistakes and adversity. Mistakes and adversity have been a common mantra for the Michigan vol- leyball team under coach Greg Giovanazzi. But last night's three-game sweep of Northwestern has the Wolverines sporting a 3-0 con- ference start and alone in first place in the Big Ten. The undefeated start, and a seven-game winning streak dating back to Sept. 13, has the_ Wolverines thinking that they are finally in range of the Big Ten elite. "What feels great is that we have a tremendous amount of momentum right now" Giovanazzi said. "We have corrected mistakes we made in the beginning of the year, and we are learning to close out games." While the term chemistry has become so overused in the world of sports that it is now cliche, it has applied to the Wolverines thus far this sea- son. Even with the injury to junior outside hitter Karen Chase, Michigan has pulled together and has seen freshman outside hitter Sarah Behnke jump from the high-school ranks and become one of the Wolverines' leading hitters. "I'm just trying to take advantage of my increased playing time and help out the team," Behnke said. Another positive has been attitude. Women remain supportive, even when they are not playing. Senior middle blocker Darlene Recker and fresh- man Joanne Fielder, who were instrumental in the non-conference season, have sat the bench for the better part of the past two weeks. "We have the luxury this year of having a great deal of depth," Giovanazzi said. "This year, our depth is more concerned with seeing our team do well than seeing themselves do well. "Darlene and Joanne have been great in sitting the past few weeks and putting the team in front of themselves. They both are legitimate Big Ten vol- leyball players." The Wolverines will see how far they are among the conference elite tomorrow night when in-state rival Michigan State drives down to Keen Arena to renew the two teams' grudge match. But in con- trast with the past few years, Michigan has a legit- imate claim to be among the Big Ten elite. THE TERMINATOR: At the end of each game last night, there was one thing in common -the appearance of Anna Poglits. The 6-foot-4 sopho- more outside hitter has been key off the bench late- ly with many timely kills. Last night was no exception, as Poglits was sec- ond on the team with nine kills, only one behind Jackson. In last night's game, Poglits's kills were not note- worthy due to quantity, but rather because of their timing. In each game-point last night, Poglits was present and delivered the fateful point. MORE MENDOZA MILESTONES: Another game, another Linnea Mendoza milestone. Or so it seems. The senior setter, who has become Michigan's all-time assist leader and has broken the 4,000 assist barrier already this season, is clos- ing on another mark. After a 34-assist performance last night, Mendoza needs 19 assists to become the 17th play- er in Big Ten history to hit the 4,125-assist mark. GETTING BACK INTO THE FLOW: Last night's game saw the return of Karen Chase, who has been on the shelf for the past four weeks with a disc injury in her back. Or did it? Toward the end of the first game, Giovanazzi put in Chase for a possible game-winning point. Northwestern won a sideout, and Chase promptly exited the game. She did not return. "We wanted to get her out on the court before Friday," Giovanazzi said. "She isn't at full strength yet, but we can use her to block and hit some if we need it.' OH HOW THEY HATE MICHIGAN STATE: It's no secret that there is no love lost between the Wolverines and the Spartans. Kids growing up in the state of Michigan are bred to love one school and hate the other. The same goes for out-of-state students who attend either school. As the rivalry is set to erupt tomorrow night, it allows one to reflect on how they feel about their rival. "Coming from Minnesota, at first I really didn't care about Michigan State," Jackson said. "Ever since I have been here, I have developed a real hatred for them. "I don't know why, but they really get under my skin.' Men's cross country searches for respect By chaykjdata ly Sports Writer Montana. Where the buffalo roam and the deer, the antelopes and the Wolverines play. That's right, the Michigan men's cross country team travels to Missoula, Mont., this weekend, but not to play. "If there is one thing we don't do, it's nIav" Michigan' Chris Runt said "We as September's athlete of the month. Mortimer set a record at the Jayhawk Invitational two weeks ago and finished second last week at Illinois. If the Wolverines are looking to strengthen their national respect, this weekend is the perfect time to start. The Montana Invitational features a strong field of teams. Amonia some of the field featured this The Michigani men's cross country team is on a mission to earn the respect of the Michigan students, the media and the nation. The Wolverines are off to a pretty good start already. Here's a few reasons why they deserve respect. A The Wolverines won the Jayhawk Invitational, beating a group of Jamaicans more than five years their senior 0 Michigan placed first in the Illinois Invitational, with Kevin Sullivan and John Mortimer finishing first and second, respectively N Michigan was fourth in the nation last year for team grade point average. And that's not with cheese-puff majors, either. 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