Wednesday, September 8, 1999 - The Michigan Daily - 21A Volleyball exceeds own expectations in Outback By Jon Zemke Daily Sports Writer With aspirations of a 2-1 record and a good fight against the top teams, Michigan went above and beyond, winning the Outback Steakhouse Tournament in Athens, Ga. The Wolverines won every match, including a sweep of No.7 Brigham Young in their first match, 15-13, 15-10, 15-13. The win was the first for Mark Rosen as Michigan coach. "It was really good for us," Rosen said. "We saw the potential for our team." The highlight of the match came with Michigan down 7-1 in the third game against Brigham Young. The Wolverines showed their resilience with a solid sideout game brought about by tremendous setting from sophomore Shannon Melka. "It took 20-30 minutes to come back," Rosen said. "It was really a hard run until we got the lead at 9-8." Sophomore Annie Maxwell led the attack in the third game, hitting an impressive .350. After taking the lead, Michigan never let go, winning the third and final game 15-13 for one of the biggest comeback wins in the pro- gram's history. Junior outside hitter Alija Pittenger kept the Wolverines in the lead for the first game mak- ing some athletic digs including the one that led to the game one winner. Pittenger led Michigan with 14 digs for the game and played very well Rosen said. In the second game, sophomore outside hit- ter Nicole Kacor led the attack. She had a career high 15 kills for the match to lead Michigan. Junior middle blocker Joanna Fielder, the tournament MVP, had a .310 attacking percentage. Fielder also teamed up with Maxwell for five blocks apiece as the Wolverines outblocked the Cougars. 1-6. Toledo was the next team on the docket for Michigan. The Rockets didn't pose much of a threat to the Wolverines. Rosen admitted a few days before the match that the Rockets should- n't be that much of a problem f or his team. They weren't, as the Wolverines put them away in a three-game sweep, 15-5, 15-2, 15-5. The win, Michigan's second, came about from contributions of several players. Fielder led the way with 10 kills and three blocks. Again, Kacor stepped up with nine digs and three aces, and Pittenger also had nine kills and seven digs. To finish off the first tournament champi- onship in Rosen's Michigan career, the Wolverines handled host Georgia in quick fashion, once again sweeping all three games of the match. Kacor took control of the match this time notching 19 kills, her second career high of the tournament. She hit .366 for the match. As they had in the previous three games, Michigan out-blocked the Bulldogs at the net 11-4. Blocking, which had been a problem for Michigan last season, was led by Maxwell with six blocks to lead both teams. It was also a career high for the sophomore. S'hannon Melka also solidified herself as Michigan's first string setter with a match- high 42 assists. She also had a career-high four block assists against Georgia. Michigan will host the All-Sport Volleyball Challenge at Cliff Keen Arena Sept. 10-11. No. 12 Pepperdine, No. 20 Arkansas and unranked Syracuse will be trying to deal the Wolverines their first loss of the season September 10th and I11th. DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily While tournament MVP Junior middle blocker Joanna Fielder led Michigan in blocks, her teammates weren't too shabby either. The Michigan volley- ball team, under first-year coach Mark Rosen, went 3-0 in the Outback Steakhouse Tournament last weekend in Athens, Ga. Rosen wants to take' 'back to glory 0 BJon Zemke Sports Writer There is a reason they call them the last lazy days of summer. They are the last few days of August, when the heat of the day isn't all day. It's the students last chance to sleep until noon and not Waory about the fall. Well maybe not all students. The women of the Michigan volleyball team don't have that luxury. Early Monday morning at 9 a.m:.- early by late ust standards - these women are p and working while most us are hit- ing the snooze button. Inside Cliff Keen Arena, first-year oach Mark Rosen and his wife Leisa re presiding over a team meeting in the an Arbor room. It's a small cubicle- ke room next to the refreshment stand n Keen. There are pictures of past ichigan greats in action - such as arfn Chase - dotting the walls. Oder these photos are the players of his year's team sitting in a half-circle. hey're scrunched close together, try- tito get as much space as possible on tie tables to take notes as their coach oes through the team meeting. They /awn, stretch and look like they just olled out of bed, dressed in sweats or oirts with their hair tied back. "As Mark finishes his briefing, he eaves his chair and gives the floor to .isa - who doubles an his assistant 7 h - before the team starts to atch tape. Stepping outside of the 'o'om, Rosen explains that he and Leisa hink it might not be in the best interests f the players to have non-team person- ie' at a film session. Mark explained that his players ight be embarrassed to be critiqued in ront of an outsider. He didn't want to t the team in a position that compro- Sd before the season. m sorry to drag you all the way own here but we didn't have your Shone number," Mark Rosen explains o the reporter. But Mark Rosen doesn't drag his layers anywhere. They're willing fol- ,vfrs in his goal to rebuild Michigan's rogram into one of the best. The hard ork is a shared task. The Rosen philosophy is a laid back version of helping his players achieve their potential. Practices aren't focused on practicing as hard as possible but on being as perfect as possible. It's not how hard you try, but how fundamentally well you do the drill. Rosen will pace around his players as they perform their drills, pulling them aside one at a time to point out what isn't being done right and showing how it should be done. Then he'll pace around some more before he puts a ball in front of his face to talk to Leisa about their team. Often Mark will divide his team into groups in order to have more one-on- one coaching. He'll work on a player's position when receiving a serve and finish the drill when his players have done it correctly the specified number of times. Meanwhile, Leisa will have her middle blockers shredding toilet paper - arms raised and hands flailing quickly to improve their wrist speed. But when Mark picks his blue plan- ner with the indented block M' on the front, his players know the drill is about to change. Before he can open it, he is already saying what the next drill is and throwing his practice planner on the floor again. He paces away from it, ana- lyzing every move of the closest player. But when the three hours of practice are over, nothing negative has been said. Practice might not have been as intense as in the past, but individual improvement and fundamentals have been stressed more. While his players sit on Cliff Keen's stands - accidentally knocking over their lime green water bottles - Mark is still coaching. Behnke, who is still recovering from illness, makes running leaps at a pole, knocking white prongs back to measure how high she's jumped. She's lost several inches in her leap, which means a lot to an attacker like her, so Rosen spends the extra five minutes pointing out how to improve her technique. The Rosens still make team speech- es, but the individual attention that each player gets to improve their skills is the first priority in practice. Judging by Michigan's perfect 3-0 record, it might be what the team needed. 800) 864-2345 www.affordablecomputers.com I ,'.-1 7! / Discount Priced Systems, Notebooks, Parts and More! 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