The Michigan Da
ily - SportsMonday - April 3, 2000- 7B
injury-riddled Blue
splits weekend meets
Healing erformance
brings 'M' home again
By Benjamin Singer
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's tennis team
oked like it went from rags to riches
this weekend.
Standing next to South Florida on
Friday, the Wolverines were under-
manned due to their plague of injuries
and illness. Two days later, even with no
players returning, their depleted roster
was as deep as the Grand Canyon com-
pared to that of Marquette.
After losing to South Florida, 6-3,
Michigan breezed through its meet with
e Golden Eagles, defeating them 8-I
Marquette was only five women
deep.
Suspensions prevented Marquette's
No. I and 2 singles players Sara
Fernandez and Elisa Penalvo from play-
ing. Marquette was also forced to forfeit
No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles.
"It was a lot easier than it should be
against them regularly," senior co-cap-
in Brooke Hart said. "But you know,
' have people hurt and injured too and
we're not playing at our full strength
either so I think that it's a significant
win."
But the Wolverines were less con-
cerned with how they won than' that
they won.
"The bottom line is it's Michigan ver-
sus Marquette," Michigan's coach Bitsy
Ritt said. "In the end when they're look-
ing at ranked wins for the NCAA tour-
ment, that's all that matters."
Making the situation even worse for
Marquette was during the No. I singles
match when Laura Garcia injured her-
Connecticut
self early in the second set - retiring
with Hart ahead 6-1, 4-1, so as not to
risk further injury.
Garcia was then unavailable to partic-
ipate in doubles play. With Michigan
already having clinched the meet and
Marquette's lineup being switched
around yet again, Michigan took advan-
tage to practice for the future.
Juniors Maya Canfield and Marya
Farah "needed to get the matches under
their belt because they're probably
going to be playing more for us," Hart
said.
With all the players missing from
Michigan's lineup, the Wolverines need
to evaluate its other players.
"I don't know that we'll ever put our
best team out on the court this year,"
Ritt said. "We're not even thinking in
those terms, we're just really thinking
who's available."
The players available for Friday's
match with South Florida weren't
enough. After Hart and senior co-cap-
tain Danielle Lund won their matches in
singles play, Michigan needed all three
doubles matches to win. But Michigan
fell short of such a task winning only
one.
"If you took our regular lineup with
out everyone being sick, I would go
through and look at every person and
say definitely Michigan could win at
every single spot," Hart said. "Not
could win, they should win."
Hart's win against Marquette pushed
her into a tie for 10th on the all-time win
list for Michigan and Lund's victories
this weekend put her alone in fifth place
on the list.
rolls over
By Jeff Phillips
Daily Sports Writer
After three straight losses, the
Michigan men's tennis team stopped
the bleeding by defeating
Northwestern, 4-3. The win also marks
the end of six consecutive road match-
es for the Wolverines.
"It is really nice to get back on the.
winning side of things," Michigan
coach Mark Mees said.
The Wolverines took advantage of a
young Northwestern team, which has
only two players with more than two
years of college experience.
The key to the victory was the dou-
bles point. The Wolverines finally won
the point after dropping it in each of
their three losses.
The Wolverines got the two doubles
victories at the No. I and No. 2 spots.
Matt Wright and Danny McCain
defeated the Wildcats' Joost Hol and
Brad Erickson, and John Long and
Zach Held defeated Northwestern's
Josh Axler and Jamie Sahara.
"Our No. 2 doubles has been up and
down all year," Mees said. "Zach
stepped it up and played very well."
At No. 3 doubles, Henry Bean and
Ron Nano fell to the Wildcats' Russell
Bennett and Jackie Jenkins.
The Wolverines split the singles
matches with Northwestern. 13eam,
McCain and Ben Cox were victorious
at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles for
Michigan. The remaining singles play-
ers, Wright, Long, and Nano, each lost.
On Saturday, the Wolverines fell to
No. 6 Illinois 6-1. The match'was the
last of three tough losses for Michigan.
"Nobody likes to lose, but (playing
Illinois) was a positive experience,"
Mees said. "We really felt that we could
play with anyone on their team."
The lone victory for the Wolverines
came at No. 4 singles, where Danny
McCain pummeled Illinois' Jamal
Parker, 6-1, 6-2.
At No. I and No. 2 singles, the
Wolverines nearly pulled off two
upsets. Matt Wright fell to tenth ranked
Cary Franklin in three sets, 'andJ ohn
Long lost the closest match 0' thr day
to No. 38 Jeff Laski.
No. 3 singles Henry BeamnJo. 5
Ben Cox, and No. 6 Ron Nano each lost
to the Fighting Illini in straight sets.
After dropping the first set 1-6, Long
stormed back to take the second set 6-
1. In the third and final set ,the two
players fought to a tie-breaker, 'where
Laski finally pulled away frotm Long
just enough to win 9-7.
In doubles, the Wolverines Iost all
three matches, by the score of 8-4. At
No. 1, the tandem of Wright and
McCain lost the No. 15-ranked Laski
and Parker. At No. 2, Long and fresh-
man Zach Held lost to the" duo of
Franklin and Graydon Oliver..-Tie No.
3 doubles team of Beam and Nano fell
to the Illini's Matt Snyder andd awn
Brooke.
The Wolverines return this
Wednesday to take on Michi nState
at 6 p.m. at the Varsity Tennis er.
DAVID KATZ/JDa ly
Michigan junior Sandra Fuzesi defeated Marquette's Anna Pavlovic, 64, 6-1 at the No.
3 singles spot. In No.1 doubles, FuzesI and partner Danielle Lund were victorious, 8-6.
I
I
Tennessee in title game
FULBRIGHT PROGRAM FOR
STUDY & RESEARCH ABROAD
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - With its
top perimeter threat sidelined by * an
injury, Tennessee struggled early and
never recovered against Connecticut.
The Lady Vols missed 12 of their first
13 shots and 19-of-21 as Connecticut
won the NCAA championship with a
71-52 victory Sunday night.
Tennessee sorely missed Kristen
aClement's perimeter shooting. She
#rained her right ankle during a
ootaround Sunday morning and spent
most of the night rooting for her team-
mates along Tennessee's bench.
"Ace is a starter, and to lose a starter
on game day hurts," teammate Kara
Lawson said of Clement. "We kept our
focus. We thought we can win the game
without her. I don't think we responded.
very well."
In Friday's semifinal victory over
*tgers, Clement scored eight ohe
team's first 10 points - including a pair
of3-pointers - in the first six minutes.
It took the Lady Vols 12 1/2 minutes to
get their eighth point against the
MIuskies.
"When you play a team as aggressive
and physical as Connecticut, you have to
have great guard play," Tennessee coach
Pat Summitt said. "We took some quick
shots. We played in a panic and didn't
have our composure."
lement, a Philadelphia-area native
and the team's emotional leader, started
every game for Tennessee this season
before Sunday night. .
_ "You would think when you're play-
iYg for a national championship, you
would come out fired up," Clement said.
"They outhustled us and we played
young. Coach turned to me and asked
what could we do. I said, 'Coach, you
*n't teach heart.' We played scared, with
emotion. Hopefully, they'll learn
from this.4
Tennessee's starting guards combined
for 14 points on 6-of-18 shooting,
including Lawson who was 3-of-13 for
six points. Senior Kyra Elzy started in
place of Clement and held Sue Bird to
four points.
The All-American tandem of Tamika
Catchings and Semeka Randall also had
a difficult time against a tenacious
onnecticut defense. Catchings, the AP
yer of the year, did not score her first
SCOREKEEPERS
75 ALLB
T E
DRINKS
C4: wCO 111s
basket until 3:55 remained in the first
half. By that time, the Lady Vols trailed
25-12.
Catchings finished with 16 points,
including 11 in the second half when the
outcome had been decided.
Tennessee committed 26 turnovers, a
championship game record. Kelly
Schumacher had nine blocks, also a
tournament record.
Randall, who scored six points on 1-
of-1l shooting, made her first shot 6:51
into the second half. The Lady Vols
trailed by 21 at that point.
Tennessee shot just 5-of-27 (19 per-
cent) in the first half and 16-of-5I over-
all (31 percent). The Lady Vols trailed
32-19 at halftime, Connecticut opened
with the second half with an 8-0 run and
led by double digits the rest of the way.
"They were too deep," Summitt said.
"They rotated a lot of bodies on
Catchings and had a lot of fouls to use
on her. Our guards were not strong
enough to handle the pressure the
defense applied."
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The Fulbright programs support study abroad in over 100
countries, providing grants for research, study and travel for
selected countries, and various other opportunities such
as teaching assistantships. Competition for the 2001-2002
academic year will open in May 2000.
The competition is open to US students at all graduate levels and to
seniors who will have graduated by the time the award is taken up.
Students need not have international experience to be considered.
Recent graduates and graduating seniors are not at a disadvantage.
SPRING INFORMATION SESSIONS FOR STUDENTS
Information sessions will be held on April 3 at 3pm, and
April 4 at 5pm in room 2609 of the International Institute. To
register for a session contact the U-M Fulbright Program Advisor,
Kirsten Willis, at 763-3297 or kbakke@umich.edu.
.5
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