8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 12, 2001

FINAL FOUR
Continued from Page 1B
Madison said.
The Wolverines got into Saturday's second round match by
upsetting North Carolina, a squad that had made the Final
Four 12 of the last 15 years.
Both teams struggled to create anything offensively in the
first half. But early in the second April Fronzoni stole a North
Carolina clearing attempt leaving her with an open net to put
the ball in giving the Wolverines the lead. Minutes later, Fron-
zoni got a breakaway by beating two defenders before faking
out Tar Heel keeper Amy Tran to score again.
North Carolina's Kerry Falgowski scored with 20 minutes
remaining to put the Tar Heels within one but goals by Hor-
tillosa, Molly Powers and Fronzoni put the game away.
"We just went out there (on Saturday) and we.were all on

fire," Fronzoni said after her hat trick.
There was some controversy, however, over the fact that
this was a match in which the higher seeded team had to trav-
el. Traditionally the nation's top four teams get to host a
regional, meaning that this weekend's events should have
taken place in Chapel Hill. But because the NCAA needed to
have one of the regional sites in the Midwest (both Ohio State
and Michigan State were unable to host), the Tar Heels had to
play the Wolverines on their home field.
"We didn't care who we were playing or where we were
playing," North Carolina coach Karen Shelton said. "(We
tried to) understand why the NCAA made the decision that
they did."
Michigan will now play Princeton, who upset defending
national champion Old Dominion, on Friday at 4:30 in Kent,
Ohio for the right to play for the national title, against either
Wake Forest or Maryland this Sunday afternoon.

Voileyball snap three game skid
Freshman Ritchie makes key contribution in leads 'M' past Wildcats

By Eric Chan
Daily Sports Writer

It was fitting on Saturday that
Michigan freshman outside hitter Car-
rie Ritchie scored the final point in a
3-0 rout of Northwestern (4-12 Big
Ten, 8-15 overall), 30-17, 30-20 and
30-21.
"I think one of the girls' goals was
for me not to call a timeout tonight,


and they accomplished it," Michigan
coach Mark Rosen said. "I just thought
the intensity level was phenomenal."
Ritchie holds two Ohio state high
school volleyball records - one for
most kills in a match (37), and the
other for most kills in a single season
(404). For much of the season, Ritchie
has been a utility player - put into
games to spark the team with one of
her huge, spiraling jump serves. In the
past couple weeks though, Ritchie's
impressive and consistent play has
earned her much more playing time.
Many have doubted that Ritchie could
play front row because she is consid-
ered short as volleyball players go -
at 5-foot-10.
"I just want to prove that I can play
in the front row despite my size, which
is what everyone said would keep me
from being able to," Ritchie said. "It
took me a while to get comfortable and
get into it, but I felt good once I did."
On Friday, in Michigan's 3-2 loss to
No. 6 Wisconsin, Ritchie had five kills
on eight attacks, and a team-leading 17
digs. Against Northwestern, Ritchie
added nine kills and 10 digs. Even
more impressive was the fact that on
the weekend, Ritchie only had a com-
bined two errors.I
Ritchie didn't beat the Wildcats sin-

gle-handedly though. Freshman Jen-
nifer Gandolph, sophomore Erin
Moore and junior Katrina Lehman also
had impressive performances. Gan-
dolph, Moore and Lehman added 14,
nine and eight kills respectively. Gan-
dolph also contributed 14 digs on
defense.
The win over Northwestern ended a
three game skid for Michigan.
Friday's loss against the Badgers
was the most upsetting all season. The
Wolverines were up two games to none
in a best of five match, and it looked as
though an upset was brewing in Ann
Arbor. It wasn't to be though as Wis-
consin would take the next three games
to steal the win. In Friday's action,
Gandolph posted a career-high 22
kills.
"We played well today, but we need
to finish it out," Moore said.
Michigan (8-8, 12-11) needs at least
two of their final four games to make
the NCAA Tournament. Wins won't
come easy either as they will be facing
some of the nation's best teams in No.
9 Ohio State, No. 13 Penn State and
No. 24 Illinois.
"We have four matches left, and we
really need to take care of some busi-
ness to push into the postseason,"
Rosen said.

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DEBBIE MIZEL/Daily
Carrie Ritchie delivers one of her many huge Jump serves against Northwestern on
Saturday night.


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