The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 18, 2002 - 7B Chapman's sixth place is Blue's best at El Diablo Masters preview? Woods turns back Mickelson by four By Jacob Loonhardt For the Daily After practicing in Oosterban Field House for almost five months, the Michigan men's golf team finally had a chance to compete on a real course at the El Diablo Intercollegiate in Citrus Springs, Fl., tying Witchita State University for 10th place out of 20 teams. The Wolverines posted rounds of 298, 300 and 299, totaling 895 - 31 over par. "We played reasonably well, but not well enough to break away from the pack," Michi- gan coach Jim Carras said. The Wolverines fused a balanced attack led by senior Andrew Chapman, who shot a 218 and tied a season-best with a sixth-place finish. "I am extremely happy with Andrew's play," Carras said. "He played absolutely spectacular. Andrew's even-par scores could have been even better if he had avoided a few penalties, like misplayed balls." Another senior, Andy Matthews, played consistent throughout the tournament, tying for 16th with a 222. "Matthews played solid golf for us, but not spectacular,", Carras said, "We need Andy to play better at the upcoming Kentucky meet so we can place higher as a team." Senior Kyle Kilcherman posted a 237, shooting 74 in the second round, to place 83rd. "I was somewhat disappointed in Kyle's play. He's our No. 3 player," Carras said. "He needs to play better for us to be competitive in this short spring season." Sophomore Dave Nichols competed well in the meet (75-78-75-228), placing 48th. Scott Carlton was the fifth Wolverine com- peting (79-77-75-231), tying for 60th. "With such a short season ending in mid March, we need as much practice as we can get to do well at the next meet in Kentucky" Carras said. For their next meet, the Wolverines will travel to Lexington, Ky. to compete in the Johnny Owens Invitational at Kearny Hills Golf Club on March 30-31. It will be their first appearance at the Johnny Owens meet since 1998, when they finished 12th out of 20 teams. The Wolverines haven't finished higher than fifth all season. DANNY MOLOtOKaily Senior Andrew Chapman led all Wolverines with a score of 218 this past weekend - a score that tied for season-best. Conference win doesn't escape netters By Brian Schick Daily Sports Writer The Michigan women's tennis team saw a reversal of fortune this weekend at the Varsity Tennis Cen- ter, as it dropped a match to Wis- consin 6-1 on Saturday, then rebounded to win against Minnesota 6-1 yesterday. The Wolverines (1-3 Big Ten, 5-6 overall) wasted little time in defeat- ing Minnesota, completing their quickest match of the season in less than two and a half hours. The Gophers (0-4, 4-10) won just two sets - their lone victory at No. 1 singles - on their way to remaining the only winless team in Big Ten plav. Michigan's No. 1 doubles turned out to be the tandem that stole the show. The team of freshmen Michelle DaCosta and Leanne Rutherford dug itself a large hole, allowing Minnesota to create a 6-1 lead. But rather than accept defeat, the freshmen rallied to take back the match. The Wolverines won the next four games to close the gap to 5-6. In the 12th game, Minnesota attempted a comeback of its own. As a result, the game went back and forth - lasting more than seven minutes - as both teams exchanged advantages. In the end, Rutherford and DaCosta proved to be too strong and eventually won. The Gopher duo of Valerie Vladea and Michaela Havelkova had given all it had in that game, but quickly dropped the next two to give the Wolverines the 8-6 victory. "I really think they picked up their energy level and really fought," Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said. DaCosta and Rutherford "came out flat, but the key was once they picked up their energy level, and in the end they were fairly aggressive." Yesterday was also the fourth match for DaCosta at No. 2 singles this season, the first since the open- ing match against Western Michi- gan. Despite facing significantly tougher opponents, DaCosta is com- fortable taking on more difficult players. "I like to compete and wherever I play, I like a challenge," DaCosta said. Michigan was faced with a difficult challenge against Wisconsin the day before. Wisconsin (5-0, 10-3) holds a 16-8 all-time record against the Wolverines under Ritt, a former Bad- ger herself. Michigan won just four sets in singles competition, and just one of the three doubles matches. "(Wisconsin) was a real disap- pointing performance," Ritt said of the Wolverines falling to 0-3 in the conference. One of the few bright spots for Michigan in Saturday's loss was junior Jen Duprez, who has now become the leader in dual match victories this season with seven. Paired with sophomore Kim Plaushines in their No. 2 doubles victory, Duprez was the lone Wolverine to win her singles match, quickly defeating Wisconsin's Katie Dougherty 6-2, 6-1. "I definitely played better (this weekend), and I've been feeling bet- ter about my game this past week," Duprez said. The combination of Plaushines and Duprez won its fourth consecu- tive doubles match, a commendable streak considering the team has faced three of the top teams in the conference. "No. 2 doubles is really improv- ing," Ritt said. "I'm awfully happy that they're improving after strug- gling earlier this season." After winning its first Big Ten contest of the season at home, Michigan goes back on the road again to Milwaukee, where the Wolverines face nonconference opponents Marquette and Tulane this weekend. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Tiger Woods began his march to The Masters with his first victory of the year, a four-shot win at the Bay Hill Invitational that was secured by Phil Mickelson's blunders on the closing holes. Trailing Mickelson by one stroke at the turn, Woods played mistake- free when the pressure was at its peak and closed with a three-under 69 to become the first player to win Arnold Palmer's tournament three years in a row. Woods finished at 275 and won for the 30th time in his career. At age 26, he is the youngest player in PGA Tour history to reach that benchmark. He also became the first player to make it three in a row at three PGA Tour events, having already com- pleted the hat trick at Firestone and the Memorial Tournament. A year ago, Woods ended talk about a slump by firing a five-iron into 15 feet for birdie on the final hole to defeat Mickelson by one stroke at Bay Hill. ,This time, Mickelson didn't make him work quite as hard. Mickelson was one stroke behind when he pulled his driver into the trees on the par-5 16th hole. Instead of pitching out to the fairway, Mickelson felt his best option was to hit a thin 4-iron under the branches, over the water and toward a brick-hard green with a pin at the front left, where any miscue goes into the water. It never had a chance, landing in the middle of the pond. Mickelson missed a 4-foot par putt on the 17th, and hit into the rough on No. 18 for a third straight bogey. "I would have loved to pitch out, but I didn't have a shot to the fair- way," Mickelson said. "The only shot was to go at the green. I don't feel like the play was bad, I just didn't execute it. It was- n't very easy, but it wasn't impossi- ble." Leading by two strokes at one point, Mickelson finished in a tie for third, five strokes behind. Michael Campbell holed a 45- foot chip on the 18th for birdie to close with a 71 and finish second at 279, his best finish ever on the PGA Tour. Len Mattiace, who played in the final group with Woods, had a 73 and tied for third with Rocco Medi- ate (70), John Huston (72) and Mickelson. A year ago, Woods rode the momentum of his first victory of the year into The Players Champi- onship the following week, then his second victory into The Masters to become the first player to sweep the four professional majors. There is still plenty of kinks to work out. Woods struggled again early on, and nearly fell into a hole until he made a 10-foot putt on No. 8 to save par and stay two strokes behind. He blistered his drive on No. 9 and made birdie, then made another birdie at No. 10 to stay right behind Mickelson. The turning point was No. 14. Mickelson hit at the flag, which was at the front of the green, and the ball hopped hard and wound up behind the green. He flubbed his chip to 20 feet and made bogey, about the time Woods got up-and- down for birdie on the par-5 12th. It was a two-shot swing that gave Woods the lead, and he refused to surrender it. After four days of blistering heat, the greens were like concrete and tough pin placements led to some high numbers. "It was ridiculous," said Charles Howell III, who had a quadruple- bogey 9 by hitting two balls into the water on No. 6, and a triple-bogey on the 18th hole by hitting off the rocks. David Duval suffered a fate far more cruel. He was 4-under par for the day and three off the lead when he laid up on the par-5 16th. His third shot found the water. He took a drop and hit a perfect approach - too per- fect, it turned out. The ball hit the pin and ricocheted back into the water, leading to a 9. Butch Harmon, Woods' swing coach, was in the locker room at Bay Hill before the round and sized up a day that could have belonged to just about anybody. Fourteen players were within three shots of Woods, but Mickelson was the one he had his eye on. "He's got no pressure starting from behind," Harmon said. Mickelson, indeed, seized the momentum, if not control of the tournament. Consecutive birdies starting on No. 3 put him within one-stroke of Woods, who was struggling with his control in the early going. Woods hit into the water from a fairway bunker on No. 6, and the enormous cheer ahead of him was Mickelson holding a 25-foot down- hill birdie putt on No. 8. That turned out to be a two-stroke swing when Woods made bogey, and Mickelson continued to apply pressure with a 10-foot birdie on No. 10. Woods is now 22-2 on the PGA Tour when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead. One of those loss- es was to Mickelson. It looked like Lefty would bring him down again early on, but it simply wasn't meant to be. l Second serve Michigan waited until its fourth conference game before it won its first Big Ten dual meet. It took the reversal of fortunes of four players for this to hap- pen though. Player (Singles) Kavitha Tipirneni (No. 1) Michelle DaCosta (No. 2) Chrissie Nolan (No. 3) Leanne Rutherford (No. 4) Jen Duprez (No. 5) Joanne Musgrove (No. 6) Wisconsin Loss 6-3, 6-4 Loss 6-0, 1-6, 6-0 Loss 6-2, 6-4 Loss 6-2, 6-1 Win 6-2, 6-1 Loss 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3) Minnesota Loss 6-2, 6-2 Win 6-2, 6-2 Win 6-3, 6-2 Win 6-4, 6-4 Win 6-2, 6-0 Win 6-0, 6-0 LELIEAMD/Dily Junior Joanne Musgrove, seen here hitting a backhand, lost her match at No. 6 singles against Wisconsin, but fared better against Minnesota with a 6-0, 6-0 win. First-place eludes 'M' for third straight meet New At Bell's: Milkshakes $3.25 Vanilla, Straw be r ry, Chocolate, Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Coffee, Peanut Butter, Mint, Raspberry, Pineapple, and Banana :Everyday special of' Two Medium Cheese Pizzas $11.49 Extra Items $1.25 each per Pizza Only $8.49 Monday thru Thursday Special One Large Pizza with Cheese & 1 Item Extra Items $1 .40 Each By Gennwo Felice For The Daily After finishing Saturday's first round of the Hatter Spring Fling tournament tied for first, the Michigan women's golf team sputtered yesterday and couldn't keep up with Florida Southern, the defending Division II champions. The Wolverines finished second out of 16 teams. On day two, the Wolverines almost looked like a different team than the group that had torn through the first round. The Wolverines finished yester- day with a total score of 310, a 12-stroke disparity from their first-round total of 298. "We played pretty well Saturday. I felt like we were going through the motions today and we just can't do that," coach Kathy Teichert said. "I think we might. have even been trying a little too hard. We just didn't get the low numbers that we needed, and you need to get those if you expect to win." The Wolverines finished nine stokes behind the Mocs. Michigan senior Misia Lemanski carded a team-best 76 on day two, which was a two-stroke improve- ment from her first round, and was the only Wolverine to improve her day one total. After a very impressive first round, senior LeAnna Wicks could only pro- duce a 77 yesterday. Junior Kim Bene- dict and senior Cortney Reno also struggled yesterday, shooting 77 and 81, respectively. The Wolverines continued to have problems with their short game, which has plagued them all spring. "I am disappointed with the way that we finished. We just didn't play well. I don't know if it was the weather or the course, but we need to carry through," Teichert said. "We were off to a good start through the front nine, but we just didn't make the up and downs we needed to down the stretch. The greens just got harder and harder as the round went on." At the end of day one, the Wolverines found themselves atop the leader board, tied with Florida Southern at 298. After a practice round on Friday, Michigan's top three performers fared well in their first recorded crack at the course. Wicks lead the Michigan attack, recording a steady round of 73 that included 17 pars and left her in sole possession of second place. Benedict and Reno finished the. day tied for third place, each chalking up a solid 74. Unfortunately for Michigan, in col- lege golf a team's score is comprised of a team's top four scores. The success of Michigan's top three golfers was dimin- ished because of freshman Laura Olin, whose 77 was the fourth score tallied in the team standings. The runner-up finish keeps the Wolverines in search of their first tour- nament win since their undefeated fall season. "Some might look at our second-out- of-16 team finish and be really happy with it. I am happy with the finish, but I think we are expecting more from our- selves;' Teichert said. "Looking at our team and the players that we have, I think everyone here was expecting a lit- tle more. We can't take anything lightly. We need to make our shots and then convert. We just need to keep our heads in each and every round." STUDENTS WITH CROH N'S PISEASE OR ULCERATIVE COLITIS Please join Dr. Ellen Zimmermann Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, U of M for an informal discussion of topics including: eNutrition *New Therapies *Latest Research Purchaser must pay sales tax for both specials OPEN UNTIL 4 A.M . Minimum Delivery $6.00 Price subject-to change Corner of State and Packard Coupon expires 4/20/02 995-0232 Fall-ing into Spring By earning second place at the Hatter Spring Fling, the Wolverines posted their highest finish since the first four fall tournaments. Tournament Lady Northern Winner Michigan 000n1012)00 - 527 Highest Michigan Individual Kim Benedict (2nd) 7&757A ') - 7 IA ww,-zI I' .ama.?.t.::.mo. Y.'.S ,'