I
NCO eS ?an x e AS
MAJOR LEAGUE Thursday, Oct. 23,
BASEBALL Game 5
World Series Al Florida at CLEVELAND,
games are on NBC) 8:20 p.m.
Game 3 Saturday, Oct. 25,
Flonda 14, Game 6
CLEVELAND 11 Cleveland at FLORIDA,
Tonight, Game 4 8 pm, if necessary
Flondaat CLEVELAND,
8:20 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 26,
Game 7
Cleveland at FLOIA
735 p, it neeary
PRO
HOCKEY
PHrLADELPHIA 7,
Tampa Bay 1
VancOuvef 5,
DALLAS 1
Boston.
EDMONTON. no.
A naheimi
P HOENiX no.
LOS ANGELES,
N.Y. isianders, inc.
Wednesday
October 22, 1997
Titan-ic
game for
Blue
occer
By Andy Latack
Daily Sports Writer
For the Michigan soccer team,
today's matchup against Detroit is
the calm before the storm.
The Wolverines take on the nearby
Titans in a game that serves as a pre-
cursor to an even bigger contest on
Snday - a meeting with cross-state
al Michigan State.
The Wolverines can clinch second
place in the Big Ten with a win at
home against the Spartans, providing
momentum going into the confer-
ence tournament.
But according to the Wolverines,
their focus is clearly on today's
game.
"We're not looking past (Detroit)
at all," Michigan coach Debbie
lkin said. "They're a very physical
Team, and we can't afford to take
them lightly."
Indeed, the Titans, who tied for the
regular season championship in the
Midwest Collegiate Conference last
year, upset the Wolverines the last
time the two teams played at Titan
Field.
The Titans boast an equally solid
team this year, going 8-5-2 overall
d45-1-2 in the MCC. They defeat-
ed Butler last Friday, a team that
took the Wolverines into overtime
earlier in the season before suc-
cumbing, 2-1.
Since that Sept. 12 meeting, how-
Over, the Wolverines (13-2-1 overall,
6-1-1 Big Ten) have lost only game,
on their way to eclipsing school
records for conference and total vic-
tories.
With important games in the near
tune, Belkin is making sure that
the Wolverines approach the sea-
Harris leads 'M'
men's golfers to
2nd-place finish
By Rick Harpster
For the Daily
The Michigan men's golf team
believed that it was a favorite to wain
this week's Persimmon Ridge
intercollegiate in Louisville, Ky. The
young, untested Wolverines placed
fifth in their previous two tourna-
ments against some stiff competi-
tion.
The Persimmon Ridge
Intercollegiate, consisting of 23
Midwestern schools, offered an
opportunity for Michigan to estab-
lish itself as one of the premier
teams in the area.
The Wolverines responded well to
their lofty expec-
tations and com-
pleted another
successful tour-
nament yesterday,
tying for second
place in the 36-
hole event.
The Wolverines
opened the tour-
nament with a
298 on Monday Harris
to put them in
third place after the first round.
After firing a 301 yesterday,
Michigan gained one spot on the
field to finish the competition in
second, seven shots behind the
leader Akron.
Akron won the tournament with a
team score of 594. Kentucky and
Indiana joined the Wolverines in a
three-way tie for second.
"I am pleased with how we played
this week," Michigan coach Jim
Carras said. "We came down here
with the expectation of winning this
tournament.
"Although we did not do that, we
played well on a very difficult golf
course, (one) which is the most diffi-
cult we'll play all season."
The par-72 course at Persimmon
Ridge Golf Club was no match for
Michigan sophomore Michael Harris.
Fresh off his first-place finish at
last week's Kroger Intercollegiate in
Memphis, Tenn. Harris fired an
even-par 144 (72-72) to tie for the
lowest score in this weekend's tour-
nament.
Harris then won a sudden-death
playoff in dramatic fashion over
Akron's Greg Boyette and Eastern
Kentucky's Mike Whitson.
The three-man playoff began on
the 18th hole - a 544-yard par five.
After hitting a booming drive, Harris
stuck a two iron on the back edge of
the green.
The shot was a gamble because of
the water hazard that sits behind the
18th green.
Harris' aggressive play paid off,
though, as he proceeded to two-putt
and win the championship with a
birdie.
"(Harris) has just been spectacu-
lar," Carras said.
"It's almost unthinkable that a
sophomore has been able to win two
out of the four tournaments he's
played in on some very difficult golf
courses."
Junior Kevin Vernick also played
well, posting a 149 (74-75) to finish
tied for 10th place.
Senior Keith Hinton finished at
153 (75-78), tying for 30th.
Freshman Kevin Harris, Mike's
brother, posted a 157 (78-79) in his
second varsity appearance, while
freshman Scott Hayes shot a 158
(81-77).
Overall, Carras said he is very
pleased with the team's progress this
fall, especially with the play of his
top three players.
"If we can get some better num-
bers from our four and five spots,
and our first three players (Mike
Harris, Vernick, and Hinton) keep
playing like they have been, we will
be very competitive," Carras said.
"This is a feisty group of guys,
and they have a very competitive
mentality."
The Wolverines return to action in
two weeks, competing in the
Stanford Invitational beginning Nov.
7 in Palo Alto, Calif.
KEVIN KRUPITZER/Daily
Sophomore Mari Hoff and her Michigan teammates head to Detroit to face the Titans in a non-conference game that should
serve as a tuneup for a showdown against Michigan State on Sunday.
son's homestretch one crucial game
at a time.
"Every win will help us," Belkin
said. "Our goal is to make it to the
NCAA tournament, and every win
we get moves us closer to this."
The Wolverines have been advanc-
ing toward this goal by leaps and
bounds in the last two weeks.
After suffering a loss at the hands
of conference champion Minnesota,
and tying Penn State two days later,
Michigan has been on an offensive
tear.
In their four games during this
span, the Wolverines have outscored
their opponents, 24-1, allowing just
18 shots. Thanks to this surge, the
Wolverines are now the l3th-ranked
team, just three spots behind the
Gophers in the national polls.
But if Michigan does not look past
Detroit, they still may have difficul-
ty focusing on the Spartans.
Next on the schedule after
Michigan State is a season-finale
meeting with No. 2 Notre Dame in
South Bend.
Playing the high-powered Irish
(14-0-1) the week before the confer-
ence tournament should allow the
Wolverines to gauge their progress.
"It's a good refresher." Belkin said
of the teams' non-conference slate.
"This way, when we go back into the
Big Ten tournament, we're not play-
ing the same teams we just got
through playing."
Despite the importance of the
upcoming contests, the team remains
focused on today's game.
"We remember what happened last
time (we played at Detroit)," Belkin
said.
"We can't afford to slip up."
Pack the luggage: Boilermakers could go bovlig
t seems that Purdue Pete, the
Boilermakers' mighty mascot,
should start looking for some lug-
gage.
After all, some of his armor is big
and bulky and if lie doesn't have the
right-sized suitcase, it won't fit com-
fortably. Then there's the oversized
helmet, which probably needs to be
boxed separately, but will still be too
big to be considered a carry-on.
But if Pete is as mathematically
*ute as most of the Purdue student
body, he should have no problem
packing his gear.,
Why, you ask,.
does a mascot
need to worry
about luggage, or
for that matter,
anyone or any-
thing associated
ith Purdue DANIELLE
Wotball? RUMORE
Well, it looks
like for the first Rumore
time in 13 long Has it
-years, the
Boilermakers
will have somewhere to go for the
winter holidays - and that includes
Pete-
At the midway point of the college
football season, Purdue appears on
s way to its first bowl game, bar-
ring a catastrophic ending, since los-
ing to Virginia in the 1985 Peach
Bowl.
And we're talking about a good
bowl game, not the Motor City Bowl
or the Toilet Bowl or anything like
that.
Purdue, with its very respectable
5-1 record, including a 3-0 mark in
the conference, has designs on one
4 the Big Ten's five bowl sites - or
somewhere even better.
Right now, the Boilermakers are in
a three-way tie for first place in the
Big Ten standings with Michigan and
Penn State. They are ranked in the
op 25 - No. 22 to be exact - for
the first time since 1984 and are off
to their best start since beginning the
1978 season 7-1.
They started the season with a loss
to Toledo, 36-22, but then beat Notre
Dame, 28-17, the next week. Then
they beat Ball State, Northwestern,
Minnesota and a good Wisconsin
team, 45-20, this past Saturday.
"We ran into a very hot Purdue
team last week," Wisconsin coach
Barry Alvarez said. "Joe Tiller and
his staff have done a heck of a job."
If all of this is hard to swallow,
don't worry - you're not alone.
The Boilermakers have not had a
winning season since 1984.
This season, they lost their best
player, fullback Mike Alstott, to
graduation and gave former coach
Jim Colletto the boot after six
straight losing seasons.
The Boilermakers' new coach,
miracle worker Joe Tiller, inherited a
shaky program, to say the least. But
none of that seems to matter now,
nor does the usual two-to-three year
transition period after a major
upheaval, now that Purdue has Tiller
- the same Tiller who led Wyoming
to its first top 25 finish since 1988
last season.
"Joe Tiller has done an outstanding
job," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr
said. "I think I'd be less than honest
if I didn't say I was surprised. They
have beaten some very good football
teams, and usually there's a transition
period in any program. They are in a
good position."
There are five games remaining on
Purdue's schedule, two that appear to
be locks but three that should prove
to be a struggle.
Let's play this one conservatively:
Purdue should beat Illinois this week
and Indiana to finish the season. And
let's say for the sake of argument that
they lose to mightier Iowa, Michigan
State and Penn State in between.
That leaves Purdue with a 7-4
overall record, 5-3 in the conference.
Normally, that should be good
enough for the Alamo Bowl in San
Antonio or the Sun Bowl in El Paso,
Texas. But everything depends on the
rest of the Big Ten.
Three Big Ten teams are undefeat-
ed, three have one loss each and one
has two losses. That kind of parity
makes determining the bowl scene a
little difficult.
And even if the Boilermakers get
shafted from the Big Ten's five
bowls, and say they have a 7-4
record, they should still wind up
somewhere.
"I like to think that we're not an
overconfident team because we're only
at the halfway point of our season,"
Tiller said. "I think if we look back
about six weeks ago, it hits you right
between the eyes that we certainly
can't afford to assume anything."
STUCK IN THE SHADOWS: There
seems to be two divisions in the Big
Ten this year - the good division
and the not-so-good division.
Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan,
Michigan State, Iowa and now
Purdue are in the good division and
Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and
Northwestern are in the not-so-good
division (although, occasionally, one
or two slip out to the other side).
Somewhere in the midst of bowl
talk, the national title race and the
cellar dwellers, someone forgot
about Wisconsin.
The Badgers, even more quietly
than Purdue, have managed to rack
up a 6-2 record, including a 3-1
mark in the Big Ten, and a three-
way tie for second place in the con-
ference.
They lost to Syracuse in the
Kickoff Classic in August and to
Purdue last Saturday.
But in between their two losses,
the Badgers have quietly chugged
along.
Their six wins mostly came
against lesser opponents, but they
still have the ability to finish high in
the conference standings. Hey, they
have Ron Dayne, the fourth-best
rusher in the nation who has already
rushed for 1,088 yards. The Badgers
will not have to play Michigan State
like Purdue does, but they still have
Iowa, Michigan and Penn State to
finish the season.
Anything can happen.
- Danielle Rumore can be
reached via e-mail
at drumore@umich.edu.
1997 Persimmon Ridge Intercollegiate
Team standings
1. Akron
2. Michigan
Kentucky
Indiana
5. Memphis
6. E. Kentucky
7. Murray State
8. Wisconsin
9. St. Louis
10. Eastern Michigan
Marshall
12. Morehead State
13. Louisville
14. Xavier (Ohio)
15. Cincinnati
16. Notre Dame
594
601
601
601
602
606
610
613
615
616
616
617
618.
622
623
624
Individual standings
1. Michael Harris I
Greg Boyette R
Mike Whitson 1
4. Randy Leen 1
Ryan Loghry 1
Willie Kent
Ryan Helminen '
8. Blair Scurlock 1
9. Dan Chartrand
10. Rob Couture
Jason Worbacher
Kevin Vemick
Brandon Tucker
34. Keith Hinton
60. Kevin Harris
71. Scott Hayes
Michigan
Akron
E. Kentucky
Indiana
Kentucky
St. Louis
Wisconsin
Memphis
Memphis
E. Michigan
low a
Michigan
E. Kentucky
Michigan
Michigan
Michigan
144*
144
144
146
146
146
146
147
148
149
149
149
149
153
157
158
k won in a sudden eath playoff on the 18th hole
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