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Fomer icer
Van Ryn
moves on
By Chris Grandstaff
Daily Sports Writer
PLYMOUTH - Things should be pretty interesting this
season. for would-be Michigan junior Mike Van Ryn if
Saturday's exhibition game against the Windsor Spitfires is
any indication of things to come.
;The former Wolverine and his Sarnia Sting teammates had
Saturday's game delayed one hour by a fire in the press box.
The fire appeared to have been started intentionally by a cou-
of local delinquents, a representative of the host Plymouth
Whalers said.
Van Ryn brought a little bit of his own fire to the ice on
Saturday in his hockey return to the state of Michigan, assist-
ing on the Sting's game-tying goal with under a minute to play
in the third period. His play this weekend should be a sign of
good things to come for the Sting, who have already named
him one of their assistant captains and expect him one of the
team's leaders
"Mike is a high-caliber player." Sarnia General Manager
and head coach Mark Hunter said. "He's still just getting used
t he. guys, he's only been here three days, it's going to take
a little time to get used to the way we want him to play.
He's a winner, he's been a winner everywhere he's gone. He
was a winner at Michigan, he was a winner at the under 18
level, and at the National Junior level. I also expect him to be
a leader to some of the younger players, and he's going to play
a lot of minutes for us. We're excited that he's here and we
know that he's going to make us a better hockey club."
Van Ryn's status had been a hot topic in Ann Arbor and the
rest of the college hockey world all summer. Van Ryn's deci-
sion to play for the Sting of the Ontario Hockey League was
made official until last Thursday, Hunter said. Prior to that,
n' Ryn was expected to play for the Canadian National Team.
"I didn't decide to come to Sarnia until a couple days ago
when I was at the Canadian National Camp," Van Ryn said.
See VAN RYN, Page 9B
Volleyball
downgradesL
F oes
By Jon Zemke
Daily Sports Writer
Not even Hurricane Floyd could stop the Michigan volley-
team from winning the Carolina Classic this weekend. The
!lverines overcame host South Carolina, Virginia and the
ominous Floyd, which prevented Connecticut from playing, to
win their second tournament championship in three tries this
season.
"None us of actually thought we were going to make the
tournament:' said middle hitter Annie Maxwell. "We pretty
much thought we were going to be stuck in Atlanta for a cou-
ple of hours and sent home.
"When we got to South Carolina there wasn't a cloud in the
sky and we thought, 'OK, so much for the hurricane.''
Floyd was the least of Michigan's worries early in the tour-
Sent as the Wolverines dropped the first two games of the
st match to host South Carolina, 15-11 and 15-10. Michigan
trailed early in the first game, 7-1, and the Wolverines could-
n't compose themselves to make a comeback.
And even though they were able to keep the second game
close, they couldn't pull it out. Ahead 12-10, the Gamecocks
rattled off the next three points to take a commanding two
game to nothing lead.
Surrounded by an unfriendly crowd, two games down and
on the verge of elimination, the Wolverines blocked everything
else out and looked to themselves.
Wt was our first game in a hostile environment," Michigan
volleyball coach Mark Rosen said. "It was really tight. The
bleachers were eight feet from the sideline. They had guys with
megaphones on the sidelines just screaming at you."
See CAROLINA, Page 9B
Tec
nical knockout
}I
Defense
holds for
third win
DDyk And ack
SYRACUSE. N.Y. -The crowd in
the Carrier Dome didn't shut up all
game. Even when Syracuse needed
them to,
No. 5 Michigan battled the raucous
crowd and a stingy Syracuse defese
Saturday night escaping with a 18 0
win over the Orangemen. Aod
although the noisy fans made thmgs~
difficult for the Wolverines all gan
they ended up making things pretty
hard on the home team as well.
On a crucial third-and-eight, with
Syracuse threatening to take the lead
with just over two minutes remaining
the Orangemen motioned for the
crowd to be quiet so they could hear
quarterback Madei Williams' signal.
But the crowd cheered on. Before
the snap, left tackle Mark BaniewicZ
moved early. The penalty moved
Syracuse back to third-and- 13, and -:
their next play netted nine yards
Rather than having a first-and-goal,
the Orangemen were faced with *
fourth-and-four at the nine. The
failed to convert, ending their chances'
of beating Michigan for the second"
straight year.l
As much as penalties hurt the x
Orangemen - they committed 12 for
94 yards - it was a flag not thrown
that had them upset as much as any-
thing.
On Syracuse's final play of the
game - the fourth-and-four that never
should have been - quarterback
Madei Williams threw a pass intended
for receiver Pat Woodcock in the left
corner of the end zone. The pass was
overthrown, but there was contact
between Woodcock and Michigan cor-
nerback James Whitley as the ball
sailed by. No penalty was called, and
the Orangemen were out of chances.
"1 thought there should have been a
flag at the end," Williams said. " I
thought the ref would throw the flag
Even without the penalties, it was a
sloppy game marked by offensive inef-
ficiency on both sides. Michigan (3-
0). after gaining 232 yards in the first
half, managed just 64 yards of offense
in the game's final two quarters.
For the third straight game,
Michigan coach Lloyd Carr played
senior Tomn Brady for the first quarter
and sophomore Drew Henson in the
second.
But, unlike Michigan's first two
games, Henson 's second-quarter per-
formance impressed Carr enough to
earn him the start in the second half.
As brilliantly as Henson played in
the second quarter - completing
nine-of- 14 passes for 1 17 yards and a
touchdown - the Michigan offense
sputtered for most of the second
See ORANGEMEN, Page 45
LOUIS BRUWN/ Ual
Michigan cornerback Todd Howard lunges at Troy Nunes during Michigan's 1813 victory. The Wolverines won despite just 66 yards of total
offense in the second half, largely because of a defense that stopped the Orangemen and produced a third-quarter safety.
Poor strategies doom Orangemen
YRACUSE. N.Y. - Usually when
a coach makes a decision, he is
given the benefit of the doubt.
Theoretically, the head
coach should have
more knowledge of his T.J.
team and the game sit- Berka
uations that it encoun-
ters than anyone else.
Theoretically.
I really don't think
Syracuse coach Paul
Pasqualoni had any
clue what was going on
at any point of
Michigan's 18-13 vic- T G
tory over the OFF
Orangemen Saturday
night at the Carrier
Dome.
Maybe Pasqualoni was bothered by the
noise caused by the 49,249 fans that packed
the Carrier Dome. Maybe he was distracted
by the Syracuse cheerleaders and dance
team that were prancing around the perime-
ter of the field.
And maybe he was just perturbed by his
own mascot, the Syracuse 'orange'. In trying
to figure out what the heck it was.
Pasqualoni might have just taxed his brain to
the point at which he didn't really care what
was going on with his football team.
Keep in mind, these are all theories and
will be difficult to prove. And of course,
Pasqualoni won't squeal and tell us what he
was thinking Saturday night in the Carrier
Dome.
But I think the public should get a chance
to find out what the heck that Pasqualoni
was thinking.
First of all, why did Pasqualoni feel the
need to keep inserting quarterback Troy
Nunes in the game? The redshirt freshman
platooned with sophomore Madei Williams
throughout the game, and his performance
can be best described as awful.
And I'm being nice.
In the first half. Nunes completed as
many passes - two - to Michigan defen-
sive backs as he did to Syracuse wide
receivers.
Nunes continued his masterful play in the
second half, running 30 yards backwards
into the end zone and throwing the ball out
of bounds to draw an intentional grounding
penalty. Michigan got a safety on the play,
which turned out to provide the game-win-
ning points.
And when Nunes did do something well,
like lead Syracuse 80 yards downfield for
the game-tying touchdown on the first drive
in the third quarter. Pasqualoni responded by
pulling him on the next drive for Williams.
But don't worry, Pasqualoni was an equal-
opportunity offender. When Williams led
Syracuse on a scoring drive to put the
Orangemen up, 7-6, in the second quarter,
Pasqualoni rewarded him by putting him on
the bench in favor of Nunes.
The Syracuse team didn't quite have a
clue as to when to call timeouts either. The
Orangemen called all three of their first half
timeouts with 7:48 to go in the second quar-
ter.
And on the fateful game-ending drive in
which the Orangemen threw the ball incom-
plete in the end zone? Syracuse didn't have
the option to kick a field goal and stop
Michigan because they had used two of their
three second half timeouts prior to the drive.
See BERKA, Page 48
Sosa writing history.again: 61
CHICAGO (AP)- Sammy Sosa has used
his home-run hop 61 times so far, bouncing
out of the batter's box, following the flight
of another ball as it sails over a fence and
then stutter-stepping his way around the
bases.
The style is all his. And now he has a
record all to himself as well - the first
man to reach 60 homers twice.
f "I'm sure he's not done for the year,"
Milwaukee pitcher Jason Bere said
Saturday after surrendering No. 60.
And Bere was prophetic. Sosa came back
Sunday and hit a prodigious homer in his
first at-bat for No. 61 off Hideo Nomo.
With a 16 mile-per-hour wind blowing
toward the fences, Sosa's homer went way
out of Wrigley Field, bounced, hit the wind-
shield of a parked car and then rolled
halfway down a side street as frenzied sou-
four in baseball's epic home run derby, Sosa
hasn't let up.
"We knew he'd strike out a lot, but he had
such potential," said Jim Lefebvre, who was
Sosa's first Cubs manager in 1992 and is
now managing the Brewers the rest of the
season.
"He's one of the real treasures we have in
the game now. People ask me if I saw great-
ness in Sammy. I saw a five-tool guy with
three outstanding traits - a great body
type, he is absolutely fearless and he want-
ed to be great. He worked hard at it.
"But to think he'd hit 60 - and twice -
I couldn't have predicted that." .
Who could have? When Sosa reached 60,
he ended a seven-game homerless streak in
which he was obviously pressing to make
history.
And now with 13 games left after yester-
58.
"Basically, the name of the game now is
home runs," Sosa said. "All the people
come to the park to see us hit them. That
was one of the reasons why Mark and I
brought baseball back last year."
Beginning today, Sosa and McGwire will
go head-to-head in the first of six meetings
between the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals
in the season's final two weeks.
"Nobody was thinking Mark and I had
the opportunity to do it again. You just
never know in this game," Sosa said.
"Everything is possible. I have faith in
my ability and my talent and all the work I
put into it. That has made me come back
and have another great year."
Cubs manager Jim Riggleman said his
team will pitch to McGwire and expects
that the Cardinals will do the same with
,, ,.