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." . PRINTING . LOWESTPRICES' HIGHEST QUALITY! ® FASTEST SERVICE! . 1002 PONTIAC TR. ® 994136 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 ........... ...... atomiclc Your classes. Your money. Your tin atomicU.com---the ultimate University of Michigan students. ia a bone rS..' r ornn re. Your friends. Your life. navigation resource for .27 He doesn't know about e-business. What are ou going to do about it. i bili... a .:;