14 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 30, 1998
Michigan volleyball still looking
for consistant swing hitters
By Jon Zemke
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan volleyball coach Greg
Giovanazzi told his team Saturday night he
was looking for a team leader to step up.
Now, Giovanazzi has even more concerns on
his list.
"I haven't been completely satisfied with
the swing hitter posi- .---------------
tion," Giovanazzi Volleyball
said.
The position is usu- Notebook
ally occupied by---------------
Jeanine Szczesniak and Jane Stevens, but in
the last two matches, Giovanazzi has given
considerable playing time to Sarah Benke
and Nicole Kacor. All have seen varying
degrees of success.
From hitting well to not particularly pass-
ing well to blocking, Giovanazzi said hes
seen it all. None of the four claimed the
position as her own last weekend against
Purdue or Illinois, and Giovanazzi intends to
keep rotating them until one of them does.
ILLINOIS CONNECTION: When Michigan
travels to Northwestern this weekend,-four
Wolverines will be making a return trip to
their home state.
Senior Jeanine Szczesniak (Evergreen
Park) and freshman Nicole Kacor
(Chicago) both attended Mother McAuley
High School before embarking on their col-
lege careers.
Another pair, sophomore Shawna Olson
and freshman Shannon Melka, hail from
Wheaton, and played for St Francis High
School before coming to Michigan.
Melka and Kacor have seen considerable
playing time as first year players. Melka
splits setter duties with sophomore Alija
Pittenger.
Kacor has steadily worked her way into
the lineup competing for playing time at
swing hitter.
Szczesniak has been a quality contributor
for the last three seasons and shows no signs
of letting up in her final season. She ranks
on many of Michigan's all-time lists includ-
ing fourth on the digs list.
Olson is a vocal leader from the ben
contributing day in and day out during pr
tice. Giovanazzi has characterized her as a
fiery player.
TwIST OF FATE: When Michigan began
last weekend's play, Purdue was unranked
and Illinois was No. 29.
When Michigan begins it first league road
trip this weekend they will again play an
unranked team and then a ranked team. The
Wolverines start against unranked
Northwestern and then take on No. 28
Indiana.
Three of Michigan's four losses hJ
come to teams ranked in the Top 30, and the
other loss was against Purdue - an
unranked Big Ten team
QUICK HITS: The Wolverines have yet-to
beat a ranked opponent this season ... Karen
Chase leads Michigan with 207 kills for the
season and has led Michigan in 1II of its 12
matches this season, Anne Poglits is next
with 124.
Michigan volleyball coach Greg Giovanazzi said this weekend that he's looking for a leader to step up for
the Wolverines. Add the need for a swing hitter to his list of priorities.
Debut of 'Wolverine Weekly' highlights non-revenue sports
-By Jeff Druchniak
For the Daily
Last night, a squealing electric
guitar signaled the birth of another
one of Michigan Athletic Director
Tom Goss's brainstorms.
In all likelihood, though, this one
won't be as controversial as the infa-
mous 'halo.'
Cable viewers were able to witness
the occasion: the debut show of the
Wolverine Magazine, a half-hour
review of the past week in Michigan
athletics.
Go ss put together the deal for Fox
Sports Detroit to produce and broad-
cast the show, which will air at 7
-p.m. on Tuesdays. The show still has
some growing pains to work through,
ut it promises to supply a statewide
adience with coverage of the entire
,ectrum of varsity sports on cam-
pus.
After the opening sequence of an
old-school highlight footage and
high-pitched guitar riff (a riff that
became way too familiar by the end
of the half-hour), the show moved
tight into a leadoff feature piece of
several minutes on preeminent
Wolverine golfer Mike Harris.
The piece featured candid inter-
view footage with Harris, and man-
aged to get across Harris' dominance
of the links to even the most unin-
formed viewer, as well as providing
some long-overdue coverage of one
of Michigan's best, yet under-recog-
nized, student-athletes.
The show continued to offer in-
depth highlights and updates for
every Michigan sport. One of the
highlights was a blistering sideline
speech delivered by field hockey
coach Marcia Pankratz to her team in
the middle of this weekend's match
with Michigan State.
Pankratz was visibly angered at
the short-lived threat that the
Wolverines would let their lead slip
away, and with it the match and their
shot at the Big Ten championship.
Michigan responded to the motiva-
tional ploy to win the match, but the
Fox coverage was able to capture a
rare moment for viewers that no
football broadcast would have the
access to get.
The show was adequately staged
on a sports-bar set, and hosted by
Sandy Heng.
Heng did double duty, handling
both the in-studio hosting chores and
narrating all the features except for
one about the football team's use of
digital video technology for coach-
ing purposes. This was done by
Michigan football radio voice Jim
Brandstatter, who did not appear on
camera.
He did, however, give Fox Sports
Detroit a recognizable media "name"
to attach to the show.
As for Heng, she showed good
knowledge of her material but
seemed to have difficulty reading the
script from the teleprompter.
Heng appeared to do better when
she was allowed to work unscripted
during an in-studio interview with
Michigan volleyball assistant coach
Aimee Smith.
Heng refused to soft-pedal the dis-
appointing start to the Wolverines'
season, asking Smith questions such
as, "Is anybody (on the team) step-
ping up at all right now?"
The Wolverines' football victory
over Michigan State was saved until
near the end of the show. This may
have been simply a producers' ploy
to keep as many people watching as
long as possible, but it served the
additional purpose of securing prime
position for the coverage of less
exposed sports.
This is something that the players
and cpaches of those teams undoubt-
edly appreciate.
The Michigan yol-
leyball team's 0-2
start was one of
the topics of dis-
cussion on Fox
Sports Detroit's
new show,
'Wolverine
Weekly.' Although
highlights frog,
the Michigan Wr-
sus Michigan
State football
game was shown,
the program .
focuses on the
non-revenue
sports at the
WARREN ZINN/ aly
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