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 Use your dollars; with sense. The Associates Student VisaO can help you manage college expenses with fewer worries. Your dollars go further with all these great benefits. * 3% cash back on purchases* *No annual fee e Credit ine up to $2,500 F rA $'> p 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 I