The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 28, 1999 - 13
Virginia meets pose early
challenge for men's tennis
Three Wolverines seeking 10th win
By Adam Falkauff
For the Daily
This weekend the Michigan men's tennis team faces a big
challenge when it travels to Charlottesville, Va., to play two
pivotal early season matches against Virginia Tech and
Virginia.
"If we go down to Virginia, play hard, and return to Ann
Arbor victorious, it will give us a great deal of momentum
going into our upcoming matches;" freshman Ben Cox said.
The Hoakies and Cavaliers are ranked 41st and 34th,
respectively, in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association.
The undefeated Wolverines are ranked 59th in the nation,
and seventh in the Midwest region.
Michigan is led by junior Matt Wright. He is the number
one singles player for the team, and has a 9-3 record this sea-
son.
There are three Michigan players that currently have nine
victories. They are Wright, junior John Long and freshman
Danny McCain.
With a victory this weekend they could each reach double 1
digits in the win column.
AP PHOTO
Michigan State point guard Mateen Cleaves led the Spartans with 16 points as they beat Ohio State, 76-71, last night.
DThe Spartans have sole possession of first place in the Big Ten standings with a 6.1record.
Spartans squeak by Ohio State
against Hokies and Cavaliers
Last year, Michigan barely edged out both Virginia Tech.
and Virginia. The Wolverines defeated the Cavaliers in Ann
Arbor and the Hokies at a neutral site match in Boise, Idaho.
The score in both of the matches was 4-3.
Virginia Tech have three players that are ranked among the k
top 100 in the country.
They are led by the Marchetti brothers, Adam and Aaron.
Adam is a sophomore and is ranked 23rd, and his brotheri
Aaron, a senior, is ranked 38th.
Another big contributor is sophomore Niels Oggeson, a
student from Denmark, who is ranked 72nd.
Virginia is led by sophomore sensation Brian Vahaly.
Vahaly is the second-ranked singles player in the country, and
is the pre-season favorite to win the Atlantic Coast
Conference men's singles title.
The Michigan men's tennis team opened up their dual
match season with impressive hgme victories over William &
Mary and DePaul.
The Wolverines destroyed both teams by the score of 7-0
It was the first time since 1994 that the Wolverines registered
back-to-back shutouts.
Senior Will Farah
; -and the rest of
the Michigan
men's tennis
team will face
some tough com-
petition this
weekend against
Virginia Tech and
Virginia.
MARiGARET MYERS/Dail
Michigan State now
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo did-
n't have to say a word to get point
guard Mateen Cleaves' attention at
halftime of yesterday's game with
Ohio State.
"He got in a few guys' faces at
halftime, but he gave me that stare;'
said Cleaves, who scored 10 of his
team-high 16 points in the final 2:09
in lifting the eight-ranked Spartans
to a 76-71 victory over 15th-ranked
Ohio State.
"When I get that stare, I know it's
time for me to pick it up."
Izzo wasn't happy with the
Spartans' first-half offense but cred-
ited the Buckeyes for that - at least
partly.
"We didn't seem to be getting into
our offensive sets in the first half,
but Ohio State deserves some credit
for that," Izzo said. "They were
changing up from a man-to-man to a
zone and we didn't handle it well. We
were running our man offense
against a zone and our zone offense
in driver's seat atop conference standings
against a man.
"Mateen did a lot of good things
out, there but he has to recognize
defenses a little better."
Jason Klein and Charlie Bell each
finished with 14 points for the.
Spartans (17-4, 6-1 Big Ten).
Michael Redd had a game-high 20
points for the Buckeyes (15-6, 5-3).
Scoonie Penn added 17 points and
George Reese a career-high 14.
Klein capped a 9-1 run with the
first of his three second-half 3-point-
ers to give the Spartans a 51-47 lead
with 8:36 left. That came during a
five-minute stretch in which
Michigan State's defense held the
Buckeyes without a field goal.
"We had put ourselves in a posi-
tion to win the game, but Michigan
State turned up the defensive intensi-
ty more than in the first half," Ohio
State coach Jim O'Brien said. "And
they did a better job of getting on the
glass at the offensive end."
Ohio State, which led 37-33 at
halftime, extended the margin to 42-
34 with a 3-pointer by Redd early in
the second half.
Michigan State went ahead 48-46
- its first lead of the second half -
on Bell's tip-in off a missed free
throw by A.J. Granger with 10:47
left.
"We do a lot of work in practice on
getting the offensive rebound off a
missed free throw," Bell said. "My
guy didn't box me out so I went
around him and had an easy tip-in.
We have a lot of great offensive
rebounders, so we'll usually get a
couple of them a game off missed
free throws."
The Buckeyes closed to 72-69 on
a 3-pointer by Redd with 9 seconds
left before Michigan State free
throws sealed the victory.
The Buckeyes jumped to a 6-0
lead and kept ahead for most of the
first half, during which the Spartans'
only lead 23-22 with 5:38 left.
Antonio Smith pulled down a
game-high I1 rebounds for the
Spartans.
Iowa holds off Penn State rally
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IOWA CITY (AP) - For the second
ight game, Iowa got burned from the
perimeter. This time, though, the 16th-
ranked Hawkeyes escaped.
Dean Oliver scored 17 points and
Iowa overcame the hot shooting of Joe
Crispin to defeat Penn State 84-74 yes-
terday, halting a three-game losing
streak.
In a 72-52 loss to Wisconsin last
Saturday, Iowa allowed Jon Bryant to get
loose and he responded with six 3-point-
while scoring a career-best 22 points.
Yesterday, Crispin was almost the hero
for the Nittany Lions as he scored 19 of
his 27 points in the second half as Penn
State gave Iowa all it could handle.
"Crispin was tough. He looks like he's
coming into his own. He's a real sharp
player," Iowa guard Ryan Luehrsmann
said.
Crispin said he is playing instinctively
now instead of trying to think too much.
9"You've just got to go out and play the
game. You get an open look, you take it,"
he said. "I don't try to think about it too
much."
Iowa jumped out to an early 19-6 lead
and built a 15-point advantage in the sec-
ond half but couldn't put the Nittany
Lions away.
"You'd like to be able to put them
away, but I think you have to give Penn
State credit for that. I think we learned a
lot," Iowa coach Tom Davis said. "Penn
State is a very good ball club. Their only
problem is their schedule, who they've
played and where they've played them."
Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said his
team was too sloppy to steal a road win.
"We didn't take care of the ball," he
said. "They made us make some poor
decisions and they got some easy bas-
kets from it."
Jess Settles added 12 points, J.R. Koch
finished with 11 and Luehrsmann had
10 for the Hawkeyes (14-4, 5-3 Big Ten).
Iowa had a 37-34 halftime edge and
then withstood the hot shooting of
Crispin, who scored a career-high 30
points against Illinois last Saturday.
Dan Earl scored 18 points and Calvin
Booth had 15 points and five blocked
shots for the Nittany Lions (10-8, 2-6),
who have lost five of their last six games.
Matt Hankins scored 13 points and had
eight assists for Penn State.
Oliver scored four points in an 8-3 run
to start the second half that extended
Iowa's lead to 45-37. But Penn State
answered with a 9-0 run, capped by
Crispin's 3-poi, to take its first lead at
46-45 with 15:06 remaining.
Neither team gained more than a four-
point edge over the next four minutes.
Crispin kept the Nittany Lions in the
game with two fallaway jumpers and fin-
ished with five 3-pointers in 1l attempts.
A 3-pointer by Earl pulled Penn State
to within 54-53 at the 11:22 mark, but
Koch's reverse layup with 10:59 remain-
ing ignited a 15-1 run, capped by Settles'
free throw, that gave Iowa a 69-54 lead
with 7:02 to play. Koch had six points
during the spree.
Crispin scored eight of his team's final
15 points, including a 3-pointer with
1:11 remaining that brought Penn State
within 74-68.
But Luehrsmann hit a free throw,
Oliver scored off a steal and the
Hawkeyes hit five of six free throws to
hold on.
... _
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