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Sports desk: 647-3336
sportsdesk@umich.edu

SECTION B

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salvages split in Columbus

By Jon Schwartz
Daily Sports Writer
COLUMBUS - This weekend, the
Michigan hockey team played four periods
of excellent hockey..
But a sweep of the two-game series
would have required six.
On Saturday night, the Wolverines (10-
4-1 CCHA, 16-6-3 overall) skated all over
Ohio State with a 6-2 victory, showing the
skill that manifested itself at the start of the
season.
But Friday night's 3-1 loss to the Buck-
eyes (8-7-1, 11-10-1) was another of the
all-too-frequent flashes of mediocrity that
have plagued the Michigan season to date.
"We were upset about the game last
night and probably our opponent wasn't as
upset," Michigan coach Red Berenson said
after rebounding on Saturday night. "I
don't think we played a lot better. But we
played enough better to make a differ-
ence."
In the first two periods on Friday night,

THE RACE HEATS UP
Team W L T PTS
Michigan State 111 3 25
Michigan 104 1 21
Western Michigan 9 3 3 21
Nebraska-Omaha 8 7 1 17
Miami 8 5 1 17
Ohio State 8 7 1 17
Up next:
Fri.: Michigan vs. Western Michigan 7:30 p.m.
Sat.: Michigan at Western Michigan 7 p.m.
'M' seniors back on track?
0 Ortmeyer's physical play powers Blue.
Big Michigan line checks out.
More hockey coverage, Page 4B.
Michigan looked like a group of high
schoolers facing an NHL team. Ohio
State's impressive backchecking along
with its players' fiery first steps were too
much for the flat-footed Wolverines to
match.
"I think that's one of the best games
our defense has played together as a core
See BUCKEYES, Page 4B

ALYSSA WOOD/Daily
Michigan forward Mike Cammallei gets checked into the boards by
Ohio State defenseman Pete Broccoli. Cammalleri struggled Friday,
but rebounded for a three-point night Saturday.

I

After completing two fantastic seasons only to falter in the NCAA Championships,
Lhe Wolverines enter the season with high expectations yet again.
is year, they prepare to ...

MARJORIE MARSHALL/Daily
Michigan's LaVell Blanchard looked sorrowful after another road loss.
Sti l s ftl ped over:
Blue hits low again
Wolverines fall by 29; winless on road

By Michael Kern
Daily Sports Writer

CHAMPAIGN - After last Tues-
day's 70-64 victory over Indiana, the
Michigan men's basketball team said
it had learned from its mistakes. The
Wolverines were ready to escape
many of the trappings that had led to
their failure in their previous five road
losses.
But Saturday night at No. 7 Illinois,
Michigan (1-2 Big Ten, 7-7 overall)
looked like the same team that had
not played within a single-digit mar-
gin of a


MICHIGAN
ILLINOIS

51 quality
opponent
80 outside of
Criser

Oise Ray, Calil Ryals, Janessa Grieco and Kristin Rosella are leading the women's gymnastics team Into a season with national championship aspirations.

0Ris

ti

e challenge
No. 3 Michigan hopes new
season brings happier ending
By Chris Burke ment, but also having to do so without three
Daily Sports Writer big pieces of last year's puzzle - All-
American Sarah Cain, Kate Nellans and
In collegiate gymnastics, it only takes Sarah-Elizabeth Langford.
one day to end a team's national champi- "The loss of Sarah Cain hurts our pro-
onship dreams. gram because you could always count on
The Michigan women's gymnastics team her all-around performance," Michigan
learned this painful lesson all too well last coach Bev Plocki said. "Add to that losing
season. After rolling relatively unscathed Sarah Langford and Katie, and that's a lot."
through the regular season, the Wolverines But one of the most highly publicized
entered the NCAA Championships ranked recruiting classes in women's gymnastics
No. 1 in the country. history is expected to help offset those loss-
Just hours later, everything had come to es.
a screeching halt. The team struggled all "A program that's grown to the level of
day at the "Super Six" competition. Michi- ours though, you strive to grow upon and
gan came in sixth, finishing a full 1.575 improve on lost people," Plocki said. "I
points out of first place. think we've more than filled spots from
"Everyone sort of forgot about all the what we've lost"
good things that we did because of the dis- Leading the way in the attempt to fill
appointing way that we finished," senior those spots will be recent U.S. Olympian
Karina Senior said. "Last year we had a Elise Ray. She makes her much-anticipated
great season." Michigan debut on Jan. 19th against Min-
This year's team is now faced with nesota and Iowa, and her talent and experi-
the task of not only trying to erase ence should greatly help the team.
- ,the memory of last year's disappoint- "Besides Elise being a great athlete, she's
a great individual," Plocki said. "She's
poised and mature beyond her years. I'm
hoping adding her to our team will help a
great deal."
Freshman Calli Ryals is expected to
compete in all four events - vault, uneven
bars, beam and floor. Fellow newcomers
Christine Mantilia and Alison Rudisi will
also see action.
"It's easier to deal with the pressure of
being here when you have three other fresh-
man with you competing," Ryals said.
"We're all really supportive of each other
and that helps."
However, the strength of this year's team
still lies with the experienced veterans.

Arena, falling to the Fighting Illini,
80-51.
After the opening tip, it looked as
though Illinois (3-1, 13-4) was still
reeling from its 78-62 loss to Iowa ear-
lier in the week, as it turned the ball
over twice in the first 20 seconds of the
game. But as would be the case
throughout the game, the Wolverines
failed to capitalize, turning the ball
over twice themselves en route to 21
turnovers for the game.
"The bottom line is that we can't
turn the ball over like that," associate
head coach Scott Trost said. "And if
we're not going to score, we've got to
be able to stop the other team."
Much like previous road games in
which the Wolverines have averaged
just 43 percent from the field, Michi-
gan was plagued by shooting woes.
The Wolverines shot a season-low 28
percent from the field, making just 13
field goals for the game.
Michigan's 51 points also matched
a season-low against Maryland from
earlier in the season. Sophomore
LaVell Blanchard was the only
Wolverine to score in double digits.
He finished the game with 15 points
on 4-of-11 shooting.
"They had a great defense, but we've
seen better," sophomore Gavin
Groninger said. "This was really a mat-
ter of us shooting ourselves in the
foot."
At the halfway point of the season,
the Wolverines already have been held
to 60 or fewer points four times. Last
year, they only met that dubious
achievement three times all season.
Michigan finished the game with 27
personal fouls. All three centers -
Josh Moore, Josh Asselin and Chris
Young - fouled out, forcing the
Wolverines to play the last four min-
utes of the game with the 6-foot-7
Blanchard as the tallest remaining
player in the lineup.
Illinois didn't fair much better. The
Fighting Illini had 24 personal fouls,
allowing Michigan to score 21 of its 51
points from the charity stripe.
"The officials got to a point where
there were some hard fouls and they

MARJORIE MARSHALL/Daily
Josh Asselin, helpless in loss to Illinois.
Bigchantes
moelosses ahead
CHAMPAIGN - Brian
Ellerbe's team is suffering -
the obvious.
From the coach to his players to
Crisler's pre-teen sweat moppers,
everyone is aware that Michigan can't
continue to get pulverized so routinely
without hearing the swelling discon-
tent from the University community.
__ _The losses -
-- 29 points to Illi-
nois, 20 to Pur-
due, 43 to Duke
and 31 to Mary-
land. There's
trouble a-
brewin' for this
program on a
DAN number of lev-
WILLIAMS els if Michigan
The can't change its
Outsider pattern of
behavior.
Arriving at
this realization is simple. Enabling this
team to play better basketball and
spinning the season into a moral victo-
ry will be Ellerbe's staunch task.
Michigan's composition logically
places them in the "a year away" cate-
gory, with four contributing freshmen,
one senior and another good recruiting
class on the horizon. But with three
years of mostly black eyes, the team
has exhausted its leeway.
Ellerbe said last week that the
answer wasn't alterations in basketball
strategy and that a young team will
make young mistakes. It would be
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