6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - September 30, 2002 Defensive lapses hurt Blue against Gophers By Megan Kolodgy Rademacher said. For the Daily The second half only brought more challenges for Michigan, as Despite a boost in confidence Minnesota forward Roth registered a from a significant victory over Wis- hat trick. consin on Friday, the Michigan "We knew that she was their women's soccer team could not strongest forward," Rademacher muster up the power to beat Min- said. "We knew what to expect, but nesota yesterday afternoon. Fueled had poor defensive execution. We by forward Rachael Roth's tremen- made mistakes that shouldn't have dous firepower and Michigan's criti- happened." cal defensive mistakes, the Golden About 15 minutes into the action, Gophers came out on top, by the Roth rocketed her first goal past score of 4-0. Grech. Then just 19 minutes later, "It was extremely disappointing to she scored again, bringing the score come off our big Wisconsin win to to 3-0. lose to Minnesota," Michigan coach "We knew we had the chance to Debbie Rademacher said. come back when the score was 1-0, The loss came as a surprise to the and even when it was 2-0," Wolverines, who arrived in St. Paul Rademacher said. "But when you with an outstanding 3-0 record in the start getting down by three or four Big Ten. Minnesota, on the other goals, it gets tough to maintain that hand, was 0-3 in conference play. mentality." Both teams came out strong in The Wolverines struggled to the first half: the Wolverines still score, and came close several times enthused about the Wisconsin win, in the second half. They pulled off Minnesota hungry for its first Big 15 shots, many of which slid just Ten win. The game remained score- wide. Senior Amy Sullivant took 11 less for the majority of the first of the 26 total shots, tying team- half, until Minnesota midfielder mate Abby Crumpton's record for Kelly Dinse fired the ball past most shots in a game. goalie Susie Grech. Another setback for Michigan Michigan outshot the Gophers 11- came in the second half, when 3 in the first half, but did not man- Crumpton, who scored her second age to put a single shot in the goal. career hat trick against Wisconsin, Though Minnesota had relatively had to-be pulled from the game due few chances to score, it did not have td a knee injury. a problem capitalizing. By the time Roth scored her third "They played hard, and took and final goal of the afternoon, advantage of their opportunities," Michigan still had not been able to Loss of Glinski leads By Kevin Maratea Michigan's psychological For the Daily Mhigan (3-4-1) had a sl Inexperienced 'M' can't compete with top teams By Chris Amos For the Daily The Michigan men's golf team improved upon its last-place finish in its previous outing, but not by much, placing 13th out of 16 teams at this weekend's Northern Intercol- legiate Golf Tournament held at the Indiana University Golf Course in Bloomington. The Wolverines shot a two-day team total of 881 at the 54-hole tournament. They fared particularly poorly in the third round with four of five players finishing at least five strokes above par. First-year Michigan coach Andrew Sapp cited his teams appar- ent lack of experience and confi- dence in attempting to explain the teams uneven performance. "Nobody played spectacularly," Sapp said. "Overall, I was disap- pointed in our inconsistency. We finished the second round strong with several players shooting birdies. I am trying to figure out the reason why we couldn't sustain this in the third round. I think it's a mat- ter of gaining experience and confi- dence and building on that." Sapp cited the tournament's two top finishers, Illinois and Minnesota, as teams that played with the consis- tency and confidence that the Wolver- ines lacked. He explained that much of their confidence came from their players' greater experience. "Both of these teams played in the NCAA tournament last year," Sapp said. "Illinois sophomore James Lepp, the tournament's indi- vidual winner, was NCAA freshman of the year last year. Both teams shot a lot of birdies and played aggressively and finished strong." Lepp shot an 11-under par 202. He was followed by Penn State's Jim Fuller, who shot an 8-under 205 and Iowa's Mike Tapper, who shot a 7-under 206. Although Sapp was disappointed in the team's consistency, he was impressed by the fact that each team member played well at times during the tournament. He was also pleased with the individual play of redshirt freshman Mark McIntosh, who shot rounds of 74, 76 and 70, to finish in 43rd place with a team- leading score of 220. "Mark McIntosh played well, drove well, and consistently hit greens, something other players failed to do," Sapp said. Sophomore Rob Tighe tied for second among the Wolverines, shooting 75, 74 and 72 to finish in 50th place at 221. Christian Vozza also shot 221 with rounds of 72, 73 and 76. Sapp said that each player had shown the ability to play excellent golf this weekend, and that he hoped to use this as a building block toward more consistent play in the coming season. *I DAVID KATZ/Daily Senior captain Abby Crumpton left in the second half of yesteday's game against Minnesota due to a knee injury. slip one past Minnesota keeper Karli "Right now we're 8-2, Kopietz, who had 13 saves, while Rademacher. said. "This was just; Grech finished with three. setback. We've played well so fax Though the loss was a difficult and our game strategy won't change one for the Wolverines to swallow, We'll just work on our defense thi they are taking it in stride. week." to Dayton explosion a r, e. is blunders in the first half . ow start and was not share Losing a top recruit to another school that has recruited him is one thing. Losing a top recruit because of neglecting to contact him is another. Many teams are finding that out about Dayton sophomore Chris Rolfe. Rolfe, the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week, exploited a depleted Michigan men's soccer defense yesterday for the only strikes of the match.,.The Wolverines traveled to Dayton yesterday afternoon and lost a hard fought match 2-0. They now have a 1- 2 lifetime record against their southern-Ohio foes. In front of more than 500 fans, the teams dueled on a dry and torn-up Baujan Field, as Dayton (4-3-1) earned its fourth straight win. Michigan, which was without injured defensive force Chris Glinski (turf- toe), was unable to contain the Flyers' leading scorer. "Schools looked past Rolfe, and now he's playing with a chip on his shoulder," Michigan coach Steve Burns said. "He's a smart player. The guy scores goals!" Even though Burns said the poor playing surface was "not an excuse," both teams made good adjust- ments. But Dayton was able to take advantage of mentally in the first half. "We are looking to get more leadership from our captains (Joey Iding, Robert Turpin and Mike White)," Burns said. "The team needs to be better prepared mentally, as we are developing into a big game (target) of our opponents ... and it starts with the little things, like not being late to team meetings." Michigan was a big game for Dayton, as the win gave the Flyers national exposure and helped their chances of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. "We're one of the only considerable games on their schedule," Burns said. This trend is not going to stop, as teams look for Michigan's prestigious name, despite the program's youth, to boost their resumes. "Teams look forward to playing us, it's a big game for all our opponents," Burns said. "Even the more prominent teams (notice us), wanting to keep our program down." Despite the loss, Kevin Taylor and Iding produced strong performances defensively and motivationally. Iding even tried to inspire his teammates in the 36th minute, when he received a yellow card for a surpris- ingly hard tackle. At halftime, with a sense of confi- dence (despite the two-goal deficit), Iding and Taylor spoke to the team about creating better scoring chances against Dayton's effective defense. Those chances came in the second half, but were not as threatening as the opposing defense, which allowed just five shots on goal in the second half. "We need to take advantage of our long-range opportunities and not always dribble into the box," Burns said. As a possible result of not taking these shots and thus losing the ball, the Wolverines got countered which caused nine of Dayton's 13 shots on goal. Michigan netminder Joe Zawacki turned away seven shots for the game. The psychological problems were not apparent Friday, when the Wolverines feasted on the Purple Aces of Evansville in a 6-2 pasting. During his first start of the year, junior import .Juergen Schmieder from Regensburg, led the Wolverines, as he collected his second hat trick of the year on assists from Adam Bruh, Kevin Taylor and Trai Blanks. In .an aggressive match, which featured 33 fouls and four yellow cards, Michigan continued its scor- ing assault with goals by Mychal Turpin, Knox Cameron and White. 0 Comeback too late: U.S. loses Ryder Cup SUTTON COLDFIELD, England (AP) - Underdog Europe sent out its best players to bring home the Ryder Cup and got even more help from its unknowns for a shocking victory over the Americans. In a stunning conclusion to a match delayed one year by the terrorist attacks, the Europeans beat the United States at its best game --singles - and reclaimed the Ryder Cup yesterday when Paul McGinley made an eight- foot par putt. McGinley earned a halve against Jim Furyk, assuring Europe the 14.5 points it needed to win the precious gold trophy. The European players stormed across the green when it was over. Most of them already did their part by winning early and winning big, giving Europe the lead and momentum that it never surrendered on a thrilling afternoon at The Belfry. Colin Montgomerie led it off by remaining unbeaten in all five matches, a spectacular performance in which he never trailed in any of the 82 holes he played this week. McGinley, the ninth of 12 singles matches, won the clinching point by ral- lying from two-down with six holes to play to tie Jim Furyk. Tiger Woods was useless at the end, the Ryder Cup already decided as he was playing the 17th hole against Jesper Parnevik-. The final score was 15.5 to 12.5, the largest margin since Europe scored 16.5 points at The Belfry in 1985, the start of its domination in a competition that never looks close on paper. European captain Sam Torrance bowed his head and smiled. He was the hero in 1985 when he holed the clinch- ing putt, but he called this victory the greatest moment of his life. "They have alldone a great job,"Tor- rance said. "This had nothing to do with me. I led them to the water, and they drank copiously." U.S. captain Curtis Strange will be second-guessed for his decision to keep his best two players at the bottom of the lineup, when it was too late for them to stop the onslaught of European victories. Not that it would have mattered. Phil Mickelson, the No. 2 player in the world and second-to-last in the line- up, missed an 18-inch putt early in his match and was blown away by Phillip Price of Wales, ranked 119th. Woods, suffering from a high fever, never had a chance to contribute. He conceded a par putt to Parnevik for a halve of his match. Torrance played a huge role for Europe. He put the precious trophy on the line by sending out his best seven play- ers - the only Europeans who had won matches over the first two days - just as the Americans did three years ago at Brookline when they staged their great comeback. The Europeans didn't win them all, but they won enough. With the matches tied at eight going into the final day, Europe won four of the first five matches and got a halve in another. The real surprise came at the end. Paul Azinger added anot!-1- ter to his 18th-hole heroics at The Belfry by holing a bunker shot for birdie that gave him a halve against Ryder Cup rookie Niclas Fasth and left-the Americans clinging to the slimmest of hopes. All that ended after Furyk nearly holed a shot from the same bunker moments later, and McGinley got the final half-point needed. "ANN'Y OIVU'OU l y Sophomore sensation, Laura Olin aided the Wolverines' in their fourth-place finish at the Lady Northern Invitational when she finished 12th overall. Fourth-place finish an improvement forBlue By Nazeema AIII For the Daily After finishing sixth at the Fossum Invitational last week, the Michigan women's golf team's performance this past weekend at the Lady Northern Invitational in Iowa City seemed to be pointing them in the right direction. The Wolverines finished fourth out of 12 teams with 910, 15 shots behind first-place Kent State (895), and 12 shots behind Penn State and Indiana (898 apiece). "I am satisfied with our scores this weekend," Michigan coach Kathy Teichert said. "I'm pleased with our progress. We are always striving to get better." Kim Benedict shot 74-74-75, fin- ishing at 223 to tie for fifth place over- all, which was a great improvement from her 21st-place finish after shoot- ing 235 last week in East Lansing. "It's great to see some players step up," Teichert said. "Sarah Kruer and Laura Olin came through." Kruer shot 79-74-70, which was. good enough to tie for 15th place, as well as a great improvement from her 36th place finish in the previous week. Sophomore Laura Olin fin- ished tied for 12th, stabilizing the team with her consistency. She also led the Wolverines with her 11th place finish at the Fossum Invitation- al last week. Amy Schmucker fin- ished tied for 37th at 236. "Amy hit a lot of greens. Our main focus is to keep working with her to improve," Teichert said. Other finishers included Stephanie Stascik, who shot 238 to tie for 41st, and Courtney Goebel, who totaled 253 to finish 61st. Pleased with the tourna- ment results, Teichert and the team realize that there is still work to do. "A couple of our players thought they could have done better. When we have three or four or five of our girls in the top 20, then we are in good shape," Teichert said. "Our goal is to finish in the top three (overall) for every tournament." The Wolverines will see if this pro- gressive trend will continue at the Women's Collegiate Shootout in Franklin, Ind. next Monday. As for Teichert's outlook for next week, she said "I am still trying to enjoy the outcome of this past weekend." 01 Take a break & join us for an evening of fun at -YPSI AI" Lanes 2985 Washtenaw Corner of Golfside 734-434-1110 Colleg U rl