The Michigan Daily - SnortsMonday - March 6. 2000 7 7R . v .. rv. rbw r vv. -Fw, W, 4..%JJW I Li 9''women repair doubles dilemma By Joe Smith Daily Sports Writer After coming within one win of number 200 a few weeks ago, Michigan women's tennis coach Bitsy Ritt *robably thought the milestone victory would never come. Despite starting off 4-0, the Wolverines dropped three straight matches, including two against visiting Big Ten foes Northwestern and Illinois on Feb. 25-26. Apparently a trip out West was what the doctor ordered, as the Wolverines (0-2 Big Ten, 5-3 overall) notched Ritt's 200th career victory and ended their three-match slide by defeating San Diego State 6-3 this past Friday. This match was played in the typical nonconference for- "nat - the six singles being played first, followed by the three doubles matches. This contrasts with the regular 'onference format, which has the three doubles playing irst, followed by the six singles matches. After Brooke Hart lost at No. I singles for only the foirth time in her last 12 matches, the Wolverines then won the next three contests at the two, three and four spots to take an early 3-1 advantage. At No. 2 singles, Danielle Lund captured her 72nd carcer victory, pulling within one win of No. 6 on the 'Wolvcrines' all-time list. She is 3-I in singles since returning from abdominal injury a few weeks ago. :.Junior Szandra Fuzesi returned from a groin injury that 4ept her from competing against Illinois, and won in raight-set fashion at No. 3 singles. Freshman Joanne Musgrove followed suit by continuing her impressive rookie season with a tight three-set victory -t the No. 4 spot. Musgrove's 12 victories thus far (12-6) places her second on the team, right behind Hart, who has 14. But the Aztecs did not give up, winning the final two s4ingles matches in three sets, tying up the dual match 3-3 going into doubles. This proposed a problem for the Wolverines, for their -oubles combinations have struggled of late. After start- g ofT 1-4 in doubles this season, the tandems then went Injured 'M' trips to 6th-place finish By David Mosse Daily Sports Writer Jen Duprez helped the Michigan women's tennis team chase down San Diego State this past Friday. 1-5 in their next two home battles with Northwestern and Illinois. This included an unusually unsuccessful 0-2 showing by senior co-captains Lund and Brooke Hart, who have peaked at a national No. 10 ranking in their career together. Also, injuries to junior Jen Vaughn and senior Erryn Weggenman forced Ritt to make massive changes to the doubles lineup. The Lund-Hart combination was split up, and junior Alison Sinclair made her season debut at doubles, teaming up with Musgrove at No. 3 doubles. But the resilient Wolverines swept the doubles competi- tion in three tightly contested matches to give Ritt her 200th victory. Hart and Jen [)uprez teamed up for a 9-8 victory at No. I doubles, and the combos of Lund-Fuzesi and Sinclair-Musgrove each pulled out 9-7 triumphs in the eight-game doubles contests. Michigan will not compete again until March 17, when it takes on No. 18 Tennessee. "We have a few weeks now to hopefully get healthy, because it is really going to be important that we are all ready to go for the rest of the Big Ten season," Fuzesi said. Winning the Big Ten conference is never easy. But winning it, without your full arsenal is close to impossible. The Michigan men's track team learned this lesson the hard way as it took a battered and bruised squad to Bloomington, stumbling to a sixth-place finish in the 2000 Big Ten Indoor Championships. After a ninth-place finish a year ago, Michigan began the season with visions of capturing the indoor conference crown. But the week-to-week grind of the regular season took a toll on the Wolverines and by the time they reached Indiana, their team bus resembled an ambulance. "We had a lot of adversity to deal with," distance runner Mike Wisniewski said. "We had lots of guys sick and a few guys with nagging injuries." The opening day did not go badly for Michigan. Pole vaulter Charles DcWildt placed second with an NCAA provision- al qualifying score of 17-foot-2. The Wolverines also scored in three other events and stood in fourth place after Day I with a total of 21 points, not far behind the leaders. But the second day proved to be Michigan's undoing, as sev- cral Wolverines performed well below their best form. The disappointment began in the most unexpected of places. Michigan rode an incredible streak into the 2000 Big Ten Championships. Since 1993, a Wolverine had captured first place in the mile run every year. The streak included Jay Cantin's victory in 1999. This year, Cantin performed won- derfully during the regular season and was favored to win the race again. But Cantin got off to a poor start, falling well behind the rest of the field. A late surge earned him third place but also brought an end to the Wolverines' remarkable run. "The first two laps I had trouble get- ting started," Cantin said. "It's very dis- appointing because I know I was capable of winning." On the surface, Cantin appeared to have run a very poor race. But moments after the race ended, it was revealed he, had sustained a severe ankle injury that hampered his ability to compete. "Jay couldn't even jog," Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "It's amazing he was able to run the way he did." Regardless, Cantin's defeat, coupled with pole vaulter Brent Scheffer's inabil- ity to score the day before, cost Michigan 14 points it figured on having. Then in the 600 meters, Jeremy Schneider, who excels in the event, inex- plicably placed seventh behind team- mate Steve Moffat, who ran sixth. "It's probably the most disappointing race of my life,"schneider said. "I felt so good and thought I was in perfect posi- tion - I should have beaten those guys." Michigan was also hurt by a ham- string injury to sprinter Ike Okenwa that prevented Okenwa from taking part in his patented 60-meter and 400-meter relay races. Okenwa did place fifth'in the 200 meters, while Derrick Applewhite paced the sprint team with a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter hur- dles. The field events produced twoscor- ers. Patrick Johannson placed sixth in the weight throw with a distance of 57- 1/2 and Oded Padan, in only his second meet all season, took seventh in the triple jump. "Everyone was very nervous," Padan said "Not everything went like it was on paper" Michigan did receive a boost in the 5000 meters as Wisniewski and Steve Lawrence finished second and third, respectively. "I would have liked to have run a bet- ter time,' said Wisniewski. "But having Steve there helped me a lot." Yet, without a single individual victo- ry in an event, Michigan wound up ina sixth-place tie with the Hoosiers, 88 points behind first-place Wisconsin. I L LIVE AND LEARN JAPANESE. The \/aseda Oregon Transnational Program, Fall 2000 and Spring 2001, is a comparative US-Japanese Societies study program that mixes US-based and international students with undergraduates from the prestigious Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. Three levels of Japanese language instruction are offered in addition to US-Japanese Societies courses in the humanities and social sciences. Scholarships of up to $1000 are available! For more information, contact: Waseda Oregon Programs Office - Our Fast Copiers Don't need Coins or Cards! We have great self-serve copiers that can collate, staple, reduce and enlarge. So why bother with the hassles of other copy shops. B&W COpies1, I3 - serue;8.5xlh0, bopes /31/00 COPYING 611 Church Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (734) 665-9200 " (fax) 930-2800 digita Ideuce corn. (800) 823-7938 info@opie.org (503) 223-7938 www.opie.org 4 ' 1 F s A w 4 4 a s * f L Touchstone Pictures it .tt aSGiddat~ti# UA A COMPLIMENTARY ADVANC UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - ANN ARBOR @ Lorch Hall Auditorium 9:00 PM Tuesday, March 7 FREE ADMISSION* while passes last INFO?: call 763-1107 www.ukans.edu/~sua mybyte coms E SCREENING ak ad. CampusCareerCenter.com The world's largest campus job fair *Pick up passes UAC Office.