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Sports desk: 763-2459
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FRIDAY: fI .i MICHIGAN 2;
Blue can't
roll over
any longer
By Seth Klempner
Daily Sports Writer

SATURDAY: Th u .V: '§ 3IR'a 2, MICHIGAN 3

Michigan wrestler Otto Olson was the only Wolverine to
defeat a ranked opponent on Saturday against Minnesota.
Blue grapp lers
rebound with
Purdue victory
By Rohit Bhave
Daily Sports Writer
Recovering from the letdown of last Friday's pasting at the
hands of No. 1 Minnesota, the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines
(10-3 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) started slow, then dominated the
overmatched No. 24 Purdue Boilermakers (9-2, 2-1), 27-9,
yesterday at Cliff Keen.
Although its first two wrestlers, heavyweight Matt Brink
and 125-pounder No. 8 A.J. Grant, both lost to ranked oppo-
nents, Michigan began to assert control by the middle of the
meet.
After No. 8 Foley Dowd beat Purdue's Rene Hernandez
11-8 in the 133-pound match, Michigan's 141-pounder Clark
Forward put on his best recent performance by beating Pur-
due's Randy Pursley 15-6, earning a major decision.
Forward's aggressiveness seemed to rub off on the rest of
the team. No. 7 Mike Kulcycki, No. 5 Ryan Bertin, No. 1
Otto Olson and No. 4 Andy Hrovat each handily defeated
their opponents. Only Olson defeated a ranked opponent
(No. 8 Ryan Lange), but every win was marked by a charac-
teristic the Michigan staff constantly preaches - relentless-
ness.
After Friday's loss to Minnesota, "We talked about con-
stantly pushing yourself," Michigan coach Joe McFarland
said. "I want an exciting product that puts out high intensity,
high pressure."
Although the victory over Purdue provided a pleasant fin-
ish to the weekend, Friday's prime-time meet against Min-
nesota was the main event.
Heading into the showdown, McFarland wanted victories
in the first few matches. Unfortunately for Michigan, the
meet started at the 125-pound weight class, with underdog
Grant falling to Minnesota's No. 2 Leroy Vega.
Minnesota had favored wrestlers competing in each of the
first five matches. With a win unlikely-in injured heavyweight
Brink's match against Minnesota's No. 6 Garrett Lowney,
Michigan needed one or two upsets before intermission.
Its best chance came in the second match, when 133-
. pounder Dowd wrestled No.1 Ryan Lewis with Michigan
down 3-0. Dowd had control throughout, but he could not
See BOILERMAKERS, Page 6B
Three plaers
PP
suspended pnior
to shellacking
By Charles Paradis
Daily Sports Writer
CHAMPAIGN -- Three of the Wolverines abandoned
their team yesterday in Michigan's 92-78 loss to Illinois.
The letdown was not because they missed a shot, or did
not rotate defensively. Instead, the players violated
unspecified team rules, which
led to a one-game suspension. , MICHIGAN 78
Offensive threats Tabitha Pool
and Stephanie Gandy were ILLINOIS 92
benched along with post pres-
ence Katrina Mason for the game against the Fighting
Illini. Despite this lack of firepower, the Wolverines
were able to generate offense throughout the game. The
plan was simple, as Michigan stuck to what it has done
all season.
"We were trying to get the ball inside," Michigan
coach Sue Guevara said. "When you have someone like
(LeeAnn) Bies and someone like (Jennifer Smith), you
know our bread and better is the high-low."
With its roster depleted due to injury and suspension,
Michigan's upperclassmen responded in star fashion. In
one of her best outings of the year, Bies notched 17
points and four rebounds in the first half alone. Bies and
Alayne Ingram accounted for 30 of the Wolverines 41
points in the first half and combined for 58 points over-

all.
Bies dominated, the game in the way Michigan fans
Am ht, rnrn to e-nte io nnir center nroed once

Michigan's 3-1 loss to Alaska-Fairbanks
two Saturday's ago appeared to be a wake-up
call.
The team had tossed the Nanooks around
like a rag doll the night before, beating them
7-0, only to be frustrated the
very'next night. The game HOCKEY
was supposed to serve as an
alarm to a team that had just COmmentary
gotten all of its roster back
and was starting to get healthy.
Instead, it appears that the Wolverines
merely rolled over and hit the snooze button.
But unlike other students, they cannot afford
to sleep through class and simply get the
notes for the exam.
Michigan would not have to wait long for
the alarm to sound again.
Friday night, Michigan appeared lethargic
and unfocused against 11th-place Bowling
Green - a slower, weaker and less-skilled
opponent. Having surrendered numerous
odd-man rushes and even a shot that hit the
inside post, the Wolverines were lucky to
head into the lockerroom down 1-0 after the
first period.
"The first period was probably one of the
worst periods we played all year. We had our
chances and our moments, but overall we
just got outworked and outplayed," defense-
man Andy Burnes said. "As a team we
See LETDOWN, Page 4B

TOM FELDKAMP/Daily
Michigan didn't come to Yost Ice Arena prepared Friday night and was driven to the ice by 11th-place Bowling Green.

Falcons hand 'M' huge setback in CCHA

v

By Chris Burke
Daily Sports Writer
Two points behind Michigan State in
the CCHA standings heading into this
past weekend, the No. 9 Michigan
hockey team seemed to have served
notice that it would be a major thorn in
the Spartans' side in the race for the
conference title after dominating its
arch-rivals in a 1-1 tie on Jan. 19.
With four consecutive games on the
schedule against Bowling Green and
Lake Superior State -j the 11th and
12th-place teams in the CCHA - the
Wolverines were ready to lock up four
easy wins.
But Bowling Green (5-11-2 CCHA,
7-16-5 overall) decided to make things
a lot more difficult for Michigan (11-5-
4, 14-8-5).
On Saturday night at Yost.Ice Arena,
defenseman Mike Komisarek scored his
second goal of the night with 3:28 left
to play in the third period, giving
Michigan a 3-2 win to salvage a split

with the Falcons on the weekend.
The rescue mission for Saturday
night was necessary because by the
time the complacent Wolverines real-
ized what was happening on Friday, the
Falcons had stolen a 4-2 upset win.
"(Friday) was a huge let up," said
Michigan forward Michael Woodford.
"It was embarrassing. You look at the
guys in our lockerroom, and they didn't
know what to do; they didn't what to
say."
Said Michigan coach Red Berenson:
"I can't tell you we're healthy, but
there's not a lot of positives when you
lose at home to the 11th-place team."
Fresh off of Friday's stunning win,
Bowling Green continued to outplay
Michigan early in Saturday's game. Just
6:43 into the first period on Saturday,
forward Ryan Wetterberg redirected a
pass past Michigan goalie Josh Black-
burn for a 1-0 lead.
Komisarek scored his first goal seven
minutes later, when he deposited a
rebound off his own shot past Bowling

Green goalie Tyler Masters. Michigan
took its first lead of the weekend with
14:50 remaining in the second period
on an Eric Nystrom goal during a 5-on-
3 Michigan man-advantage.
The Wolverines held the lead for less
than two minutes though, as D'Arcy
McConvery one-timed a shot over
Blackburn to send the game into the
third period tied at two.
After the teams battled through 16
minutes of scoreless play in the final
period, Komisarek took the puck at cen-
ter ice, crossed into the Bowling Green
slot and snapped a shot past Masters to
give Michigan - playing without for-
ward Mike Cammalleri and captain Jed
Ortmeyer - the 3-2 win.
"He made a nice play, cut to the mid-
dle, got me going one way as he was
going the other way and basically put
the puck in'perfect position," Masters
said. "It's a nice play and I almost had
it but, unfortunately, that's how it goes."
The goal by Komisarek allowed
Michigan to avoid an embarrassing

two-game sweep at home by a Bowling
Green team that entered this weekend
with just six wins on the year.
Friday night's game featured a lethar-
gic Michigan team that permitted a
smaller, slower Bowling Green team to
run-and-gun like an all-star team.
"We made poor decisions," Berenson
said. "Our defense wasn't playing
defense, our forwards weren't giving
them any support, and it was just a poor
hockey game in terms of how we like to
play and how we played (Friday)."
Early in Friday's game, Bowling
Green killed off a Michigan powerplay
and promptly went on the attack.
Defenseman Grady Moore came out of
the penalty box and broke in alone on
Blackburn, only to fire the puck wide.
Marc Barlow recovered the rebound and
rang a shot off the goal post. Bowling
Green forward Steve Brudzewski
missed another breakaway opportunity
just seconds later, but the tone had been
set for the game.
See FALCONS, Page 4B

Cagers make sap out of Vermont

By Steve Jackson
Daily Sports Writer

With 2:22 left in the first half,
Ve r m o n t
guard T.J VERMONT 62
Sorrentine
hit an open K MICHIGAN 75
3-pointer
to bring his team within two
points, then Michigan coach
Tommy Amaker called timeout and
let loose with a rare on-court
tirade.
The Wolverines responded with a
20-0 run over the next six minutes
of play, en route to a 75-62 win Sat-
urday.
Freshman Dommanic Ingerson
led a balanced Michigan attack
with 13 points, but it was Inger-
son's defensive lapse following his
NBA-length 3-pointer that prompt-
ed Amaker to raise his volume.
"He made a great shot and a
great offensive play, but the game
doesn't stop," Amaker said. "He's
gotten better, but I think we are
oitnu to continue to see some of

who I was guarding. I have to stay
focused."
Once Amaker made his point,
Ingerson and the rest of the
Wolverines took charge on defense,
forcing the Catamounts to miss 10
straight shots. Sorrentine's layup
finally ended the drought with
16:11 left in regulation.
"I thought at the start of the sec-
ond half it was men against the
boys," Vermont coach Tom Bren-
nan said. "Michigan was just awe-
some. I was very impressed. with
Michigan because I was so
impressed with how we played."
But Michigan was not going to
simply ride into the sunset with an
easy victory. Vermont came to life
midway through the second half,
using an 11-2 run to cut the lead to
nine points with 8:29 to play.
"We might have lost focus, let up
a little bit," Michigan's Bernard
Robinson said.
But the Wolverines' starting
backcourt of Avery Queen and
Leon Jones responded with back-
to-back 3-nointers to extend the

overall) would never get closer than
nine points.
Michigan (3-4 Big Ten, 8-9 over-
all) finished with six players
(LaVell Blanchard, Chris Young,
Ingerson, Robinson, Jones and
Queen) in double figures for the
first time this season.
Despite Ingerson's very public
defensive letdown, the Wolverines'
freshmen had one of their best
games of the year. Ingerson com-
bined with Chuck Bailey for 21
points on 9-of-11 shooting.
Blanchard, the Wolverines' lead-
ing scorer this season, was limited
to just 19 minutes by foul trouble,
but still scored 12 points and pulled
down five rebounds
Trevor Gaines, who hails from
nearby Farmington Hills, led Ver-
mont with 23 points (including six
put-backs) and 10 boards.
"I was so happy for Trevor to be
able to come home and play well,"
Brennan said. "I love him to death,
and he's the reason we came out
here."
Sorrentine added 18 points,

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