The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - September 23, 2002 - 7B

Inexperienced
netters trying
to set lineup
By Sharad Mattu
For the Daily
The Michigan men's tennis team began its fall
season this weekend with the Tom Fallon Invita-
tional in South Bend, Ind. The team is young and
the lineup is wide open, which will make the fall
interesting for everyone.
"The fall season gives us'a chance to mix and
match the players in both singles and doubles,"
said assistant coach Dan Goldberg said, who went
to South Bend with the team while Mees stayed
in Ann Arbor to meet with recruits. "This is a
young, relatively inexperienced team and we will
use the fall to find a lineup that works."
The weekend began with doubles matches on
Friday, and the Wolverines met stiff competition,
losing four matches to Harvard and two of three
against Brown before winning two of three
against Purdue.
Michigan recovered and played better in singles
on Saturday, winning all eight matches against
Maryland and splitting eight with host Notre
Dame. The Wolverines also lost three doubles
matches to Williams and Mary on Saturday.
"It had been a while since some of the guys last
played, and on Friday rustiness showed on the big
points, which is why we lost some close doubles
matches," Goldberg said. "I was pleased, howev-
er, by the improvement I saw in singles on Satur-
day when we won three of four third set

Golfers not playing
to full potential yet

By Dave Stuart, Jr.
For the Daily

The Michigan women's golf team
finished in sixth place this past
weekend at the Mary Fossum Invi-
tational in East Lansing, despite
cold temperatures and tough
greens.
The Wolverines stood at fifth
place after Saturday, but Kansas
State managed to squeeze under the
Wolverines' 934 team total by three
strokes.
Sophomore Laura Olin once
again led Michigan, finishing with
a three-round total of 229. This
was Olin's 11 th straight round
shooting 78 or better, making her a
LDKAMP/Daily major factor in the team's success
thus far in their season.
rs played Despite her strong finish, Olin
lieve our knows that there is room for
"1 improvement, especially when on
me play- the greens.
a singles, "My mistakes today and most of
Scott of the weekend were putting," Olin
phomore said. "(Forest Akers Golf Course) is
all went long and the greens are hard, but
everyone had to play in the same
in Chat- conditions."
nis team Michigan coach Kathy Teichert
igan will was not upset with her team's fin-
ish, but she is still not convinced

that her team has met its potential.
"We had aspirations of finishing
in the top three," Teichert said,
"That didn't happen, but we were
only a few strokes away from being
right in there."
Senior Stephanie Stasik also
played well throughout the tourna-
ment, coming in with a career-best
233-stroke total. Stasik earned her
coach's approval by playing consis-
tently throughout the tournament's
entirety.
Like Olin, getting to the greens
was not a problem for Stasik. But
once the ball got near the pin,
Stasik's only weakness showed.
"I. was playing really consistently,
but I just need to work on my put-
ting, which is something I am going
to do as soon as we get back,"
Stasik said.
Olin, along with the rest of her
team, is determined to better her
game in the days to come.
"I know that I can do better than I
have been," said Olin. "I am really
close."
Next weekend the Wolverines
find themselves in Iowa City, where
they will be defending their title at
the Lady Northern Invitational.
"We know what we need to work
on, and we will do so," Stasik said.

The Michigan men's tennis team is young, but coach Mark Mees sees promise in his squad's depth.

tiebreakers."
Michigan was scheduled to play singles against
Purdue yesterday morning but rain cut short the
weekend as there was not enough time for all 11
teams to play on the available indoor courts.
Team records are not recorded during the fall
season. The Michigan coaches' goals are for the
players to get practice and experience and for the
team to find a lineup to use beginning in January,
when the new season begins. Michigan lost four
of its top six players from last year, so this task is
more important this year than in previous years.
"This year our depth will be a strength," Gold-

berg said. "Our Nos. 6, 7 and 8 player
well this weekend, which leads me to be
doubles play will be better than last year.
Junior Anthony Jackson, who spent ti
ing No. 4 singles last year, went 2-0 ina
including a win over No. 85 Matthew
Notre Dame. Senior Chris Shaya, sop
David Anving and freshman Carey Rubin
2-0 in singles as well.
The ITA All-American Championships
tanooga, Tenn. are up next for the ten
starting Oct. 4. Three players from Mich
participate in the singles tournament.

Harriers take third consecutive
invitational with help from Gallo

By Mustafizur Choudhury
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's cross
country team has done it again. For
the third straight week, the Wolver-
ines came home with a first-place
finish, making Michigan an impres-
sive 3-0 on the 2002 season.
The Wolverines topped the field
of nine teams at the Sundodger Invi-
tational in Seattle, which included
Washington and No. 22 Texas A&M.
Michigan scored 45 points, defeat-
ing host Washington by 27. Wash-
ington managed to come in second
despite the absence of two of their
top runners.
Idaho finished third in the race,
and Texas A&M rounded out the top
four, with -senior Al1-American
Melissa Gulli finishing first overall.
"It was a good win," Michigan
coach Mike McGuire said. "It was

definitely our best race to date."
For the second consecutive week,
the Wolverines were led by junior
Lindsey Gallo, who finished sixth
overall with a career-best time of
17:20.
"I ran pretty well, but I think I
could've run a little stronger at the
end," Gallo said. "I think that every-
one working together is what makes
our team strong and intimidating."
Gallo, an All-Big Ten selection
last season as a sophomore, was also
the top runner for the Wolverines at
their second race, the Mel Brodt
Invitational in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Other top performers were sopho-
more Andrea Parker (8th place,
17:25), senior Jane Martineau (11th
place, 17:38), sophomore Ana Gjes-.
dal (12th place, 17:40) and freshman
Rebecca Walter (13th place, 17:40).
Parker led the team in the season
opener at the Detroit.

"I felt like 10 of the 12 (runners)
had really good races," McGuire
said. "Lindsey had a good race, but
she can work on her finish."
Luckily, Gallo will have this week
to train, rest up and strengthen her
finishing stride, as the Wolverines
will head to Terre Haute, Ind. on
Oct. 5 for the Indiana State Invita-
tional. Once again, Gallo will be
looking to push her team to a strong
finish.
"The level of competition will be
higher," McGuire said of the upcom-
ing race. "We're training well as a
group and getting better from week
to week, but there's still plenty of
work to do."
McGuire added that improvement
will require more training at prac-
tice and.a greater overall, effort, as
the Wolverines will face much
tougher competition in the weeks to
come.

LESLIE WARD/Daily

Michigan junior Lindsey Gallo has led the Wolverines to three consecutive first-place finishes.


Webb-less men begin quest
for respect in East Lansing

By Daniel Bremmer
Daily Sports Writer
The only way to gain the respect
of others is to earn it.
The Michigan men's cross coun-
try team took its first step towards
earning national respect on Friday at
the Spartan Invitational, placing
four runners in the top 10.
The top finisher for the Wolver-
ines was freshman Nick Willis, who

finished his collegiate debut in third
place with a time of 24:55.
Junior Ryan Turner finished in
sixth place for -Michigan in 25:16,
while seniors Ryan Hesselink
(25:20) and Nick Stenko (25:26)
finished in eighth and ninth,
respectively.
Michigan coach Ron Warhurst
described his team's performance as
"very promising," and he thinks that
it is an early indication of the direc-

tion in which his team is traveling.
"To run this well against Michi-
gan State, especially on their home
course, is very impressive,"
Warhurst said.
"Everyone did a tremendous job."
The competition on Friday was
fierce, as the Wolverines squared
off against a field that included No.
12 Eastern Michigan and No. 14
Michigan State.
The Wolverines, currently ranked
28th in the nation, set out to prove
themselves to the rest of the coun-
try.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines,
the Spartan Invitational did not fea-
ture team scoring, which made it
hard to predict whether Michigan
would have defeated or lost to the
opposing teams.
But based on Michigan's impres-
sive showing, it appears that the
Wolverines would have gone down
to the wire with Eastern Michigan
and would have defeated Michigan
State.
"I think it sends the message to
the kids on the team that we're bet-
ter than 30th (in the nation) and we
can run with some pretty decent
teams," Warhurst said.
One reason for the team's success
was its steady improvement
throughout this young season. From
the time the team began training
until now, everyone has made
tremendous progress, and it has
been infectious from one runner to
another.
"It's catching," Warhurst said.
"Some guys run well together, and
everyone else picks up their pace to
stay with them."
While the team's performance
may have surprised outsiders, the
same cannot be said about the
Wolverines.
"We all knew we had the poten-

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