10- The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 3, 1998
Belkin optimistic as
tournament nears
I
SARA SCHENCK/Daily
Behind Michael Harris' outstanding season, Michigan coach Jim Carras was pleas.
antly surprised with his team overall.
Carras p
yung team's seasont
By Geoff Gagnon
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan soccer team has
been building momentum for the Big
Ten tournament all season long. And
coach Debbie Belkin's squad is hoping
that its flair for the dramatic, seen
most recently in Sunday's win, can
provide the team with the boost it's
looking for entering Friday's opening
round.
Michigan exhausted all but five
seconds of the game against Kentucky
before putting the Wildcats away on
the strength of a 15-yard blast from
Amber Berendowsky.
The game's lone goal not only gave
Michigan a win in its final contest of
the regular season, but also provided
the team with an enthusiastic spring-
board to postseason play.
"I think scoring a goal that late in
the game, with only five seconds left
to play, really shows us some things,"
Belkin said. "It shows us that winning
late in a game can happen and it also
shows us that playing hard to the end
is what we need to do. It really boost-
ed our confidence."
Michigan, 12-5-1 on the season,
entered Sunday's matchup on the heels
of a pair of losses that threatened to
destroy the team's momentum.
Although Sunday's win snapped a
two-game skid, Belkin said losses to
Brigham Young and No. 5 Notre Dame
in overtime helped the team by giving
it a sense of tournament competition.
"Playing teams like Notre Dame
and BYU late in the season gave us a
good idea of the teams we'll face in
this weekend," Belkin said. "So even
though we lost, those games did help
us quite a bit."
And Belkin says she hopes that
will became evident in the way the
team plays this weekend. The squad is
set to challenge Northwestern on
Friday in Happy Valley in the opening
round'of the tournament.
In Northwestern, Michigan faces
one of only three conference foes that
managed to knock them off - the
Wildcats slid past Michigan, 4-2, more
than a month ago.
But as the team readies for
Northwestern, Belkin warns against
premature predictions based on the
teams' last meeting.
"When we played them in
September, we didn't play well at all,"
Belkin said. "We had gotten our sea-
son off to a strong start, but just didn't
play like it against Northwestern. We
had come right off of a tough loss to
Wisconsin, we were really just flat."
The team is hoping the same fate
won't befall it this time around, and
knows that a win Friday is certainly
possible.
Belkin contends that the similari-
ties between the two teams should
allow Michigan to compete with
Northwestern relatively well. And
despite the fact the Wildcats posted a
school-record 14-3-1 mark on the sea-
son, they are capable of being beaten.
"Northwestern plays a high-pow-
ered, intense game that's very much
like our own." Belkin said. "I am very
excited about the game, I think we
match up with them very well and we
are going to play them straight-up all
over the field. I think we know what
it's going to take to win."
Part of this confidence in knowing
0
DANA LINNANE/Daily
Mari Hoff and her teammates are ready to open the Big Ten tournament.
0l
By Chris Grandstaff
Daily Sports Writer
The young Michigan men's golf
team took another big step in their
growing process, firing an 880 three-
round total, and finished in 11Ith place
in the fall season's final tournament at
the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto,
Calif.
Colorado State won the tournament
using a one-under-par 283 in the final
round to come from six strokes back
and finish with a score of 860, edging
Nebraska by four strokes.
Colorado State did not provide the
only excitement 'on the tournament's
final day, however. The marquee three-
some of the afternoon, which included
tournament medalist Luke Donald of
Northwestern, tournament runner-up
Joel Kribel from Stanford and of U.S.
Open and. Masters fame, and
Michigan's own Michael Harris, all
fired a third round-best 3-under-par 67.
The score vaulted Harris to seventh
place overall - his best finish of the
year.
Carras'joy stemmed from where the
Wolverines stood when the season
began.
They started the season unsure of
what to expect with five of their eight
varsity players having no collegiate
experience.
By the end of the season, however,
all eight players had competed, as
Carras juggled the lineup in each of the
Wolverines' first four tournaments.
Carras finally found the right com-
bination as the Wolverines finished fifth
at the Xavier Invitational in the second-
to-last tournament of the season. The
same five players competed in this
weekend's tournament at Stanford, and
look to be the starting five in the spring.
"Nothing is etched in stone," Carras
said, "but this should be the starting five
in the spring."
"I wish that we could have done bet-
ter earlier in the season," he said, "but
it's awfully hard to be disappointed
when you don't know what to expect.
We're doing what I wanted to get done
by the end of the season. I expected
Mike to be solid and Scott to perform
well, but after that I wasn't sure what to
expect.
"I'm absolutely delighted with the
play of Andy (Matthews) and 'Chappy'
(Andrew Chapman). I expect them to
continue to improve in the spring."
There is still much work to be done
for this year's Wolverines, with the
spring season yet to come. The spring
season includes the all-important Big
Ten Championships. Carras compared
the fall season to "baseball spring train-
ing" and expects even more improve-
ment by the spring.
"We're not bad now, but we're going
to get better."
The Wolverines will tee it up again
from March 5-7 at the Fripp Island
Intercollegiate in Fripp Island, S.C.
For now, the Wolverines "have
accomplished what we wanted to,"
Carras said "And now it's time for
school, school, school!"
what to expect can be attributed to the
experience of many of Belkin's play-
ers. To them, the pressure that comes
from performing in a conference tour-
nament is nothing new.
Opening competition as the
defending Big Ten champion,
Michigan is hoping what it learned a
year ago will translate into solid play.
"We have been there before, and
that certainly helps," Belkin said. "We
know what it takes and we know we
can compete."
And if the Wolverines intend to
compete this weekend, they'll likely be
looking to Amber Berendowsky,
among others, to shoulder a large
share of the burden.
In scoring Sunday's game winner,
Berendowsky, Michigan's career goal
leader, tallied her 25th point of the sea-
son and further staked her claim as one
of the conference's most feared offen-
sive threats.
"Amber has gotten better all season
long, she's a clutch player who's been
coming up big for us," Belkin said.
"Hopefully that will continue and
she'll come up big for us in the tour-
nament."
'M'ofense suddenly absent after weekend
I i
By Philip Maguran
For the Daily
Now is not a good time-for the Michigan women's
soccer team to suddenly lose its scoring touch.
Not in the final week leading up to the Big Ten
tournament.
The disturbing trend continued this weekend at the
Michigan Soccer Field, as the Wolverines split a pair
of tune-up games on Friday and Sunday to finish the
regular season with a 12-5-1 record.
Scoring just one goal in the past three contests,
offensive firepower - or lack thereof - has to be
the main thing on the Wolverines' minds as they tune
up for the Big Ten tournament, to be held at Penn
State this weekend.
On Friday, the Wolverines played a tough Brigham
Young team, ranked 20th in the nation, and found
themselves on the losing end of a 2-0 final score. The
Cougars got both of their goals in the first half, and
then spent their time limiting quality scoring chances
for Michigan.
The Wolverines' forwards were unable to get past
the speedy Brigham Young defenders, and found
themselves pinned on the outside of the field for most
of the game.
When they did manage to get the ball into the mid-
dle of the field, there was always a Brigham Young
defender or midfielder there to knock the ball away
and start it in the other direction.
Other than a couple of good runs by forward
Jessica Limauro, the Wolverines' attack was com-
pletely silenced by Brigham Young's team speed and
midfield ball control.
Finding offense was also difficult for the
Wolverines on Sunday against Kentucky, but all of
their hard work was rewarded with a game-winning
goal, with five seconds remaining, by Amber
Berendowsky.
It was the Wolverines' first goal in three games,
and salvaged what would have been a very disap-
pointing weekend for Michigan.
"Obviously we were disappointed by Friday's
game, but we played hard Sunday and it felt good to
get the win," junior defender Jen Stahl said.
Stahl also said that the lack of goal scoring will not
be a problem in the upcoming Big Ten tournament.
"We have been getting a lot of chances, we just
have not been able to put the ball in the net; she said.
"Hopefully everything will start to click in the tour-
nament".
The Wolverines have nothing special planned for
practice this week, and just plan to continue what
they have been doing all year. Their defense of last
year's tournament title opens with a quarterfinal
game versus Northwestern, to whom they lost earlier
in the year.
The Wolverines look to play better this time
around, and they know that if they play as well as they
have all year, then they have a fighting chance to walk
off with the trophy.to walk off with the trophy.
0
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Kentucky players to
sit out first four games
Bowl Championship
Series poll - Week Two
Team Total
M
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Three
Kentucky men's basketball players will
sit out the Wildcats' first four games,
including two regular-season games,
under suspensions announced yester-
day by coach Tubby Smith.
The suspension of forward Myron
Anthony, guard Ryan Hogan and center
Jamaal Magloire had been expected
since June, when Smith said all three
would be punished for misdeeds off the
court. Smith waited until the day before
the Wildcats' exhibition opener to
announce the details.
"I think they were relieved it wasn't
worse" Smith said of the players' reac-
tions when he gave them the news yes-
terday.
"I'm not surprised," said Hogan, who
pleaded guilty to driving under the
influence in May. "It's what I expected.
.. I wanted to get it over with, move on
and look forward to getting on with the
season.
All the games to be missed are at
home: tonight against the California
All-Stars, Nov. 11 against the
Australian All-Stars, Nov. 17 against
Eastern Kentucky and Nov. 19 against
Mercer.
The suspensions will be over before
the Wildcats play in the Puerto Rico
Shootout on Thanksgiving weekend.
They have December games against
Kansas, Miami, Indiana, Maryland,
Duke and Georgia Tech.
Smith said Anthony will miss addi-
tional games because of academic
problems and will not be allowed to
travel to any first-semester road games
that would cause him to miss class.
Although Smith did not list the games
Anthony will miss, they could include
the Puerto Rico tournament and trips to
Chicago, where the Wildcats play
Kansas in the Great Eight, and
Louisville, where Kentucky plays
Indiana.
In June, after learning Magloire had
been in a car in Louisville with two
men arrested on drug possession
charges, one for heroin possession,
Smith said on local radio that the play-
ers had damaged the image of the pro-
gram, which won its seventh national
title in March.
In May, Hogan was arrested on the
drunken driving charge and Anthony
came forward to admit driving team-
mate Wayne Turner's car during a
September 1997 hit-and-run accident in
Lexington. Anthony's admission came
shortly after Turner himself took the
blame for the accident in an effort to
resolve the controversy, which had
drawn national attention.
"Coach made his decision," Anthony
said yesterday. "I've got to take my
medicine like a man."
Anthony said he felt "a little bit of
disappointment" at the suspension, but
added, "I think that it's going to make
me a better person and a stronger play-
er."
Magloire, a junior, is expected to
start at center for the Wildcats, filling
the hole left by the departure of Nazr
Mohammed for the NBA. Smith has
said Hogan, a sophomore, is in con-
tention to start at shooting guard.
1. Ohio State
2. Tennessee
3. UCLA
4, Kansas State'
5. Florida
6. Florida State
7. Texas A&M
8. Wisconsin
9. Penn State
10. Arizona
11. Arkansas
12. Nebraska
13. Notre Dame.
14. Texas
15. Virginia
16. Tulane
17. Syracuse
3.71
5.70
6.62
8.05
11.99
12.27
17.51
22.09
22.91
23.84
24.90
26.98
28.29
34.68
36.20
39.76
39.90
0
0
No, we don't understand it
either...
For the first time, the Bowl
Championship Series guarantees
a matchup between college foot-
ball's top two teams in a national
championship game. A team's
total score is determined through
a complex series of calculations
involving a team's current rank in
national polls; its Sagarin,
Seattle Times and New York
Times computer rankings; its
strength of schedule; and its
won-loss record. We would print
all of the rules here, but it would
be longer than the Starr Report.
A brief summary of how the pow-
ers that be arrive at a number
like 3.71 for No. 1 Ohio State:
8 The average of the Buckeyes'
rank in the AP and ESPN/USA
TODAY polls: (1+1)/2=1
* S S
OlkCamp
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