10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 12, 2000 Blue hits Big Ten road with weekend stops Red Raiders look to halt 'Huskers at home By Kristen Fidh Daily Sports wXriter After an impressive turnout this past weekend for its annual "Rock the House" event, the Michigan volleyball team (2-4 Big Ten, 11-5 overall) looks to the road for its next two matchups. Tomorrow, the Wolverines will head down to Evanston for a game against Northwestern. Saturday, the team will travel to Madison to battle the Badgers. Defeating Indiana, 3-2, this past Friday and narrowly losing to Penn State, 3-2, on Saturday gave the Wolverines something to build upon and the motivation to perform well. Currently seventh in the Big Ten, Michigan has racked up 1,003 kills, 1,004 digs and 127 total blocks. But its most impressive quality comes in the form of strong leadership. Senior Sarah Behnke - who regis- tered 38 kills this weekend - recently moved into eighth place on Michigan's all-time kills list. Junior Nicole Kacor leads the conference in digs, thanks to a personal-best 75 in the last four matches. To top it off, senior Joanna Fielder posted a career-best hitting average of .382 against Penn State, despite the defeat. Looking toward this weekend's opponents, Nothwestern's only big win has come against Penn State. Beating the defending national champions was quite an accomplishment, considering that the Wildcats' record is just 1-5 in the Big Ten and 4-12 overall. Interestingly enough, Michigan has not lost a match against the Wildcats since 1994. This 11-game winning streak began in 1995 and is the longest in Big Ten history. The key to maintaining Northwestern's humiliation for one more season may lie within Michigan's younger players. During matches against Toledo, Indiana and Penn State, game substitu- tions allowed for inexperienced play- ers to rack up court time. "Every team in the Big Ten is dan- gerous," Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. "Putting in the younger players just depends on how the match devel- ops, although I do have a real confi- dence in Chantel (Reedus), Cobey BRANDON SEDLOFF/Daily Sarah Behnke and the Wolverines will travel to Evanston and Madison this week- end after sliding past Indiana and losing to Penn State this past week. (Shoji) and Erin (Moore)." Michigan's Saturday opponent, Wisconsin, is well-equipped and will provide a stern test. The Badgers are second in the Big Ten and boast Big Ten's player of the week this week, Sherisa Livingston. "Wisconsin is an extremely physi- cally-talented team," Rosen said. "Their star athlete, Livingston, is one of the best, not only in the confer- ence, but also in the country." The Badgers' record of 5-1 in the THIS WEEKENIC IN MICHIGAN ATHLETICS conference and 15-2 overall is impres- sive, but Wisconsin's recent perfor- mance at home is even more notewor- thy. Wisconsin has won 12 of its last 13 matches at home, but Michigan is an experienced team ready to handle the challenge. "All Big Ten .teams are not only impressive, but extremely impressive at home with their own crowds," Rosen said. "Our team is pretty used to that, and it just comes down to who plays better." FIELD HCE Continued from Page 8A race," Pankratz said with a sense of urgency. Along with the Penn State game, "it'll be the most significant." Though conference matchups are at the forefront of the team's mind, the ACC foes this weekend serve as a means of gearing up for the postsea- son. The Big Ten "changed this year to get some outside games in for region- al polls," Pankratz said. "It's also going to get us ready for Penn State." Preparation for this weekend gets tricky with back-to-back juggernauts, but it's foreshadowing Michigan's near future. "It's tough not only tactically to pre- pare, but actually to play the games," Pankratz said. "But that's what you have to do in the Big Ten champi- onships." By Nathan Unsley For the Daily Trying to find exciting matchups out- side of the Big Ten this week is as diffi- cult as staying awake in chemistry class. But even in this era of ridiculous non- conference games (Kansas State and Clemson fans, this means you), every now and again a game pops up worth paying attention to. And now, on to the highlights and low- lights of the top 25. No. 1 N EBRASKA (5-0) AT TEXAS TECH (5-1): It is worthy to note that in the "oth- ers receiving votes" category of the AP poll, Texas Tech is tied with Wisconsin at one vote each. The Red Raiders have a powerful offense led by "the other" Ricky Williams and quarterback Kliff Kingsbury, who has completed 63 per- cent of his passes for 1,727 yards. Across the This could cause trouble for a sus- TOP 25 pect Nebraska defense that gave up over 400 yards to lowly Missouri in its previous game a 49-27 victory. Key stat: Texas Tech has won nine in a row at home and Nebraska has won I1 in a row overall. Something has got to give. The Cornhuskers enjoyed a bye week to cure their defensive woes, and no team in the nation has the depth on defense to stop Nebraska's parade of I-backs. Texas Tech will put up a fight only to fade in the second half like Nebraska's other opponents this season. Nebraska 31, Texas Tech 17 No. 8 OKLAHOMA (5-0) AT No. 2 KANSAS STATE (6-0): All right sports fans, get off your polls-reward-weak- schedules soapboxes and watch Kansas State play a team with a winning record (combined record of the Wildcats' previ- ous six opponents: 7-25). Oklahoma has actual football experi- ence this season, courtesy of their 63-14 trouncing of Texas last week. Oklahoma quarterback Josh Heupel lit up the -Longhorns for 275 yards and Quentin Griffin scored six touchdowns - all the more impressive considering he splits time at tailback with Renaldo Works. Key stat: One, as in the number of school days Oklahoma president David AP TOP 25 (first-place votes in parentheses) TEAM PTS PVS 1. Nebrask~a (67) 50 1,771 2 4 2. Kansas State (3) 60 1,640 4 3. Virginia Tech (1) 50 1,627 3 4. Miami (Fla.) 41 1,507 7 5. Clemson 60o 1,491 5 6. Ohio St 5-0 1,377 8 7. Florida State 5-1 1,357 1 8. Olahoma 5,0 1,336 10 9. Oregon 41 1,140 9 10: Florida 5-1 1,068 12 11. Washington 44 1,035 13 12. TCU 5.0 982 14 13. UCLA 4-1 862 16 14. Georgia 441 785 19 15. Miss. State 41 776 20 16. Southern Miss. 41 725 17 17. Northwestern 5-1 632 22 18. lMicgi4~2 614 6 19. Auburn 5.1 457 15 20. Notre Dame 3-2 322 25 21. Purduie 4-2 315 NR 22. Arizona 441 267 NR 23. Oregon State 41 261 23 24. South Carolina 5-1 239 NR , 25. Texas 3-2 124 11 r Presented by: \N. . t , '; c a o + Y .; . FREE T-SHIRTS TO FIRST 150 FANS J 2000 SOCCER SLAM ' ;' C R MEN'S SOCCER Sunday, Oct. 15th vs. Michigan State 3:30pm (All soccergames played at Michigan Soccer Field this weekend.) WOMENS SOCCER Frida Oct 13th vs. Penn State 4pm -Win a month's supply of Pepsi - A trip for two to Schuss Mt. Resort * Surprise Drawing??? - - Free Samples of Pepsi Products Sat. Oct. 15th vs. Ohio State 1pm L. Boren canceled to celebrate the win over Texas. Note to President Bollinger: Michigan plays Ohio State on Nov. 18. Oklahoma may have the momentum after its big win over Texas, but expect the Wildcats to use the home-field advantage and their talented offense - averaging over 51 points per game - to hold off the Sooners. Kansas State 31, Oklahoma 28 MARYLAND (2-3) AT No. 5 CLEMSON (6-0): Sooner or later, Clemson will have to play a game against a ranked team, but it will probably only happen once an@ definitely not this week. The Tigers have scored 272 points this season, while holding their opponents to a paltry 75. Maryland attempted to bounce back from a 59-7 thrashing by Florida State on Sept. 28 only to find themselves trailing by 21 in the first quarter against unranked Virginia this past weekend. Key stat: Clemson quarterback Woodrow Dantzler has accounted for1Y touchdowns this season, while Maryland' as a team has only reached the end zone 14 times. Maybe Clemson will forget that the game starts at 7 p.m. and not be ready for kickoff. Then again, probably not. Clemson 49, Maryland 13 No. 19 AUBURN (5-1) AT No. 10 FLORIDA (5-1): Steve Spurrier said his Florida team was not very good. Be that as it may, it is still 5-1 with a legitimate shot to win the SEC. After a decisive per formance against Louisiana State, th Gators are primed to move back up the polls towards the all-too-familiar top five. Auburn's ranking is the product of a weak schedule - they scraped by an overrated Mississippi team and beat~ Louisiana State before losing to Mississippi State in their only games against qualified opponents. Key stat: For all their supposed offen- sive woes, the Gators still have two regl. lar running backs averaging over five yards per carry and their quarterbacks have thrown for an average of 334 yards per game. Florida may not be very good, but neither is Auburn and the game is at the Swamp. Florida 38, Auburn 24 WHY HAS THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FAILED ITS STUDENTS? For some answers see: www.universitysecrets.com -Autographs and Free Clinic with the team following the game . I I FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ON MICHIGAN ATHLETICS VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT MGOBLUE.COM i I VENTURES itu.com university entrepreneurs Contact your ITU Campus Partner at Michigan Corey Harris (UMBS '01) corey@itu.com a I F Isovia, inc. $375,000 Sourced at: MIT-May, 2000 4 t4 Technologies, Inc. $350,000 Sourced at: UC Berkeley-May, 2000 rn ai . $500,000 Sourced at: UC Berkeley-May, 2000 I I II 1 ... ................................................................. ....... ..... ..... ... .......................... ...: ::.-:::.z...s ......v ..::....; ......, ......... r.: f.':: i:4i:viiG:i=iiii i'.::ii.i':i4: {"}r::: ii:t^iYi{9i:::.iSY.:.i: ii: