10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 22, 1999

LEHMAN'S

TERMS

BY RAPHAEL GOODSTEIN * DAILY SPORTS WRITER

Redshirt fresh-
man Katrina
Lehman's move
to middle bocker
has transformed
the position from
a possible weak-
ness to a
strength.
JEREMY MENCHIK/Daity

D uring the Michigan volleyball
team's loss to Michigan State,
Spartans coach Chuck Erbe
spent the second game wondering,
'Who is this?" She wasn't in his
scouting report, yet she had an
unheard of .833 attacking percent-
age. By the time the match was over,
Erbe knew who Katrina Lehman
was.
"I was not aware of her," Erbe
said. "I didn't know what to expect.
She has a nice, good arm and a good
jump. She's an exceptional athlete.
She was the real bright spot for
them."

there. Then again, he's usually there,
and when he's not, Lehman's mother
Michelle is.
Her parents take turns making the
drive from Bloomfield Hills to
wherever Lehman is to watch their
daughter and her team play.
"Between my husband and me,
we've made it to all of their games,"
Michelle Lehman, wearing a
Michigan volleyball sweatshirt, said.
"We have a couple of children at
home so we divide our time up."
So far, Katrina has not disappoint-

ly getting noticed:
"She really was our bright spot,"
Rosen said after the Michigan State
loss. "In the spring (last season) and
the fall she wasn't quite ready. In
high school and club she was an out-
side hitter and Greg (Giovanazzi)
moved her to the middle and I think
she's a good middle.
"She's done a really nice job. We
didn't have a lot of depth there and
we saw her future being really bright
there and she's proving that now.
"She's been developing really well
in practice and the last couple of
weeks we felt like she deserved an
opportunity," Rosen said. "She did a
great job against Notre Dame, Iowa
and Michigan State so she's really
taking advantage of the opportuni-
ties. The thing that she gives us is
that she's a great athlete. She's fast
and she's very dynamic, she hits the
ball very quickly so that's the type of
tempo we want to run."
Lehman is still learning how to
play middle blocker. At Marian high
school in Birmingham, Lehman
played outside hitter. But when she
arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan

needed a middle blocker and with
her athleticism, the change made
sense.
Now, opponents would never
know that Lehman made the switch.@
"She's only a freshman?'
Northwestern coach Kevin Renshler
said. "She's very quick and athletic.
She's going to be a good player for
them for a long time."
Endorsements like that couldn't
make Mark Rosen happier. At the
beginning of the season, his worst
nightmare involved starting middle
blocker Joanna Fielder getting
injured and opponents routinely
exposing the Wolverines' inexperi-
enced middle blockers.
Now the Wolverines' middle
blockers are routinely exposing their
opponents.
"Katrina has worked very hard in


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