USbe £kbu& NB Sports desk: 647-3336 sportsdesk@umich.edu SECTIO I ----- --- - - -- - - - I ] Women's soccer drops WOLVERINE INTERREGIONAL WOMEN - SECOND PLACE MEN - FIFTH PLACE fom Big By Rohit Bhave Daily Sports Writer Ten chase Even though the Michigan women's soccer team (6-3 Big Ten, 8-6 over- all) defeated Ohio State OHIO STATE 1 (1-7, 7-9) yesterday 3-1, M the victory was anticli- MICHIGAN 3 mactic. The Wolverines played the game with heavy hearts, having lost their most important game of the year and their Big Ten hopes just two days prior. Friday's 2-1 loss to No. 6 Penn State (7-0, 13-2- 1) effectively knocked Michigan out of the Big Ten race. Coming in two games behind the unbeaten Nittany Lions, the Wolverines needed to beat Penn State and hope for them to stumble once more. Trailing 2-1, the Wolverines came painfully close with eight minutes left. Michigan outside midfielder Amy Sullivant tore through the Penn State defense and fired a threatening shot towards the top of the goal. It was harmlessly punched away by Penn State goalkeeper Emily Oleksiuk, and Michigan's best chance had gone awry. In a game dominated by Penn State for 75 min- utes, Michigan found itself down by a seemingly steep deficit of 2-0 with 15 minutes left. Sensing See HOPES, Page 3B ALYSSA WOOD/ Daiy Despite beating Ohio State yesterday, Michigan tripped hard against Penn State on Friday. ® i ® Start to Michigan 58, Indiana 0 Blunders give 'M' lift in bounce-back victory finis By David Den Herder Daily Sports Editor On a homecoming afternoon marked with legacy and tradition, No. 17 Michigan was engaged in a most nontraditional game of football. One week removed from an all-too- familiar fourth-quarter defeat, the Wolverines obliteratedunranked Indi- ana Saturday, 58-0. At its outset, the contest had all the makings of a typical Big House mati- nee. But a Todd Howard interception on Indiana's second possession sparked a hard-to-believe spiral of events that left Michigan (3-1 Big Ten, 5-2 overall) with its most commanding victory in 61 years. "Every one's been saying how explosive our offense can be," Michi- gan quarterback Drew Henson said. "But we still haven't proven anything." After the Wolverines made good on Howard's interception with a 71-yard touchdown drive, Indiana (1-2, 2-4) fell apart at the seams. While Michigan could do little to stop Indiana quarterback Antwaan Randle El from completing passes early, the Hoosiers' first drive of the second quarter went from a clicking two-minute offense to what looked like a condensed bloopers reel. A high snap over Randle El in the shotgun put Indiana in a third-and- 45 position. Randle El's ensuing attempt at a quick kick hit the back of an Indi- ana lineman, costing the Hoosiers four more yards. That set up a fourth-and-49 punt, ripe for the blocking. Michigan's Mar- quise Walker obliged and returned the block for another Michigan touch- down. "I knew there was going to be a lit- tle seam there," said Walker, whose up-the-middle play looked like it was drawn out the whole time. "It was just a matter of slipping through." Two plays later, another Randle El gaffe - this time a fumble - gave Michigan the ball again. And in famil- iar style after recovering a turnover, the Wolverines went for the jugular. One play - Henson to Terrell - meant one more touchdown for Michigan. See HOOSIERS, Page 4B Indiana was more than a step behind the Wolver- ines on Sat- urday. DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily BRANDON SEDLOFF/Daily Mark Pija continued his torrid pace by winning the Wolverine Interregonal. Pilja conquers Interregional By Shawn Kemp Daily Sports Writer Mark Pilja is on fire. It was evident that Michigan's top men's cross country runner would win his third consecutive invitational title after the second mile of yesterday's Wolverine Interregional. He already had a commanding 10-second lead over the rest of the field going into the second half of the race. Unfortunately, the rest of the team was too far back to see it. Michigan finished fifth in its only home meet of the sea- son with 121 points, behind Texas (77), St. Francis (92), Washington (94) and UCLA (115). Granted, the Wolverines had to deal with some adversity - their third runner, freshman Dave Sage, dropped out of the middle of the race because of the flu. The runners also expressed some concern over the past week of training, which they said was the hardest week they have had this season. Pilja, who ran 24:42 for the eight-kilometer course, said the past week of practice was a "big, long toothache. Aero- bically I felt fine, but my legs were just tired." Coach Ron Warhurst kneWv the training would be rough on the young Wolverines. "We're training hard, and they're not used to this kind of training," Warhurst said. "After next week we're not making any excuses - they should be used to it." The Wolverines have just two weeks before the Big Ten championships, and they used the Interregional as a tune- up. Pilja said the site of the Big Ten meet, Madison, and the national meet, Ames, Iowa, will be difficult, and Michigan's hilly home course was a good simulation for those races. "I wanted to test going out hard on a hilly course, and I was happy just to get the win," Pilja said. See PIUA, Page 2B Women fiish secondin fel By Rhonda Gilmer Daily Sports Writer Running on its home turf put the women's cross country team in a league of its own this past weekend. With one other highly ranked team, Washington, and two smaller teams competing, James Madison and LaSalle, the Wolverines just had to run a race fitting of their No. 13 ranking to be successful. The Wolverine Interregional, which took place yesterday on the Michigan Golf Course, gave the Wolverines quite a challenge and an opportunity to gauge their abilities against the Huskies. Currently ranked fourth in the nation, Washington won the meet with 27 points. The Wolverines were not far behind with a 35-point total. From the opening stretch senior Katie Jazwinski was in the lead. At the mile point she was still leading. By the second lap of the race Washington's Gillian Palmer had stepped up. Jazwinski stayed close behind to finish second to Palmer and run her best time yet, a 17:33. Other Michigan runners in the top 10 were senior Katy Radkewich (fifth) and senior Lisa Ouellet, who turned in a stellar sixth-place performance. "1 was very happy with the amount of training I've been doing, for getting over this injury, and I think I had a really good race," Ouellet said. Tough week at practce teaches Mlesson about scoring 6 4Tt was hell." Following Saturday's 58-0 thrash- ing of Indi- _ ana, offensive- lineman Jake Frysinger admitted that last week's prac- tices took a toll on the entire team.4 After suffering a last-second upset at S Purdue on Oct. 7, the STEPHANIE Wolverines were OFFEN emotional. Michigan Off the couldn't hold on to Record the 18-point lead it took into the second half; the Wolverines could manage just three points in the sec- ond half against the Boilermakers. Lloyd Carr had no choice but to do what- ever it took to make sure that never hap- pened again. This past week an extra 20 minutes were spent each day in practice, with players dealing out hard hits and fights breaking out. And maybe just a few extra minutes were spent learning how to score. Although Carr nor his team will never admit it, one has to believe that after losing an 18-point lead, a team wants to cream its next opponent. This was unfortunate for the Hoosiers. Before Saturday's victory, the Wolverines were being outscored by their opponents in the second half, 80-72. What makes that statistic more amazing is that Michigan was outscoring opponents 107-30 in the first half. Carr is conservative. He seems to dislike scoring more than 30 points a game. But in Michigan's last four games his conservative style of play has hurt the team. The Wolverines lost to UCLA after tak- ing a 13-3 lead. Michigan recorded the first touchdown in the victory over Illinois only to be down 24-14 going into the fourth quarter. And Michigan lost a 6-3 lead before coming back to defeat Wisconsin in a game too close for comfort. The Wolverines weren't outmatched in any of these games, they just couldn't seem to put the points on the board when it counted, making all these games closer than they needed to be. Michigan could have easily been 2-4 going into this past week- end. But something changed against Indiana. The team finally realized that in order to assure a victory for itself, it needed to score a lot of points early on. No first-half score would be big enough to ensure victory for this year's team. After blowing 18 points, the Wolverines could as easily have blown 28 or 35. Hence the 45-0 score going into the sec- ond half. The score tied the second most points ever in a half by a Michigan team. The last time the Wolverines scored more than that? Fifty-five points against Chicago in 1939. See OFFEN, Page 4B en fall to riva rtans By Naweed Sikora For the Daily The Michigan men's ccer team fought MICHIGAN STATE 2 riously yesterday, but fell to Michigan State MICHIGAN (20T) 1 2-1 in a double-over- time thriller. The final goal, scored with 13 min- utes remaining in the second overtime period, was accidentally deflected in by a Michigan defenseman. Finally, with two minutes elapsed in the second overtime period, the Spartans broke the tie. Michigan State forward Steve Williford brought the ball down the sideline and attempted to center it. The ball deflected off a Michigan defense- man's leg and found the goal. Although it was a tough loss, Michigan coach Steve Burns was proud of his players. Yesterday's game was the first between the two schools since the Michigan program was resurrected. "It was very disappointing to lose to our rivals, but our players gave 100 percent of what they x