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20A - The Michigan Daily - SportsTuesday - September 2, 2003

Stickers come out flat against ACC

By Michael Nissan
Daily Sports Writer
Sometimes sports teams just have a
bad weekend. When that occurs
against two national powers, including
the defending national champions, it
can be a rather rude awakening, as the
Michigan fieldN. CAROL
hockey team
found out thisM
past weekend. WAKE FORET4
ThedWolverines McHGAN___
opened their sea-
son by dropping both of their games
in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Yester-
day, Michigan squared off against
defending national champion Wake
Forest, falling 4-2 in a hard-fought
battle. On Sunday, North Carolina put
on an offensive show, shutting out the
Wolverines while also scoring four
goals of their own.
The opening loss hurt for more rea-
sons than one. First of all, it snapped a
12-game home winning streak that the
team held going back to last season.
Secondly, The Tar Heels exploited
Michigan's defense, which is usually
the Wolverines' biggest strength.
The Tar Heels got started quickly,
scoring their first goal three minutes
and 25 seconds into game when junior

Katy Potter tipped the ball over Michi-
gan goalie Molly Maloney. Then, at
the 13:13 mark in the first half, Michi-
gan made a rather uncharacteristic
blunder, letting the ball bounce around
in its own defensive zone too long.
North Carolina junior Kerry Falgows-
ki slammed the ball into the net.
Michigan got its best chance of the
half with 3:41 to play when a North
Carolina mistake led to a breakaway,
but that shot was put wide of the net,
and the Wolverines did not get a better
scoring chance the rest of the game.
The Tar Heels added two second-half
scores that were merely insurance
goals.
Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz
stated the Wolverines woes rather sim-
ply.
They weren't ready to play,"
Pankratz said. "We just didn't play
well at all. We didn't play with a lot of
heart today, and I think we were afraid
to lose, so we sat back and weren't
very aggressive and didn't perform at
the level we want to."
Despite the mishaps that abundant-
ly dotted Ocker Field on Sunday, the
Wolverines did make a more concen-
trated effort yesterday and looked
better for much of the game.
"It definitely was a whole different

team (the second day)," senior forward
April Fronzoni said. "We had a nice
talk after the game yesterday and
knew that we would never come out
on our home turf and look like that
ever again."
Michigan started the game at a fre-
netic pace. In the first 10 minutes,
the Wolverines had several good
scoring chances, including a blister-
ing shot from the back of the circle
by Fronzoni that just missed, hitting
the post with the force of a machine-
gun bullet.
The hard work eventually paid off.
Senior Kristi Gannon connected with
freshman Jill Civic off a penalty cor-
ner and Civic tipped the ball over
Wake Forest goalie Katie Ridd. That
put the Wolverines up 1-0 with 2:37
left to play in the first half, topping off
an excellent half.
"Definitely the first 35 minutes we
came out and played the best hockey
that we ever played," Fronzoni said.
"If we stick to that game plan that we
played with the first half, no one can
touch us."
As positive as the first half was,
the second half was equally bad.
Michigan started the first few min-
utes out like it had just ended the first
half, but a Kelley Dostal goal for the

Deamon Deacons with 29:25 remain-
ing took some of the jump out of the
Wolverines' step. After gaining
momentum, Wake Forest went on to
score three more goals (including two
more from Dostal) in the next 20
minutes, leaving Michigan stupefied.
Fronzoni did add a goal in the 61st
minute, but it was too little, too late.
"We weren't getting the bounces
yesterday, and we got some today, but
I hit the post ... and then the (Wake
Forest) goalie made an exceptional
save. We have to finish on those if we
want to be the top team in the coun-
try," Fronzoni said.
Pankratz was not pleased with
either performance, but did feel better
about the game yesterday than the first
game.
"We played much better (against
Wake Forest)," Pankratz said. "I was1
very pleased with the first half. We
did exactly what we wanted to do. So
I was really happy with the effort and
how we were playing tactically. We
had about a 15-minute lapse in men-
tality where we did not follow the
game plan in the second half, and
you can't do that against a great team
like Wake or they're going to score
four times like they did."

COUGARS
Continued from Page 17A
of lightning. The four-hour contest was
a defensive battle that ended in a 0-0
tie after two overtimes. Although
Brigham Young is.ranked ten spots
lower than Michigan, it has a solid rep-
utation at home. The Cougars have an
overall home record of 78-13 since
1995, and have won 9 of their last
home games. The 2,191-person crowd
set a record for the largest attendance
in the history of South Stadium.
"Holding them scoreless and com-
ing out with the tie was okay,"
Rademacher said. "Physically is was
very tough, and we played well
defensively."
Although Michigan didn't come
home with a win last weekend, the
young team gained important experi-
ence against good competition. With
six seniors graduating last year, there
are many spots to be filled in the start-
ing roster, and some of them are being
filled by this years entering class.
"I'm starting freshmen because
they've earned it," Rademacher said.
"We're still figuring things out. We're
trying to find out who's going to be
that starting eleven."
Part of the starting eleven could
include Katelin Spencer, Judy Coff-
man, Lindsey Cottrell, and Megan
Tuura, all freshmen who got a chance
to start last weekend. Spencer notched
her first collegiate point with an assist

in the Utah game, and Megan Tuura
made four saves against BYU before
she suffered a concussion and had to
sit out the overtime.
Kleinholz praised her freshmen
teammates, citing Tuura as a "boost" in
the backfield and Coffman's ability to
cross with her left foot.
"We've got a good group and they're
just going to get better throughout the
season," Rademacher said.
Improvement over last weekend's
play will be key for the Wolverines in
the upcoming months, as their sched-
ule seems to only get harder and hard-
er. They will face USC and Oakland at
home in the upcoming Nike Chal-
lenge, and then start Big Ten play two
weeks after that.
After their remarkable run to the
2002 NCAA quarterfinals, when they
began the season unranked, Michigan
expects nothing less this year. A No.
17 ranking at the beginning of the sea-
son is promising, but Rademacher says
that her players aren't worrying about
it too much.
"The team knows that you're only as
good as your last game," she said.
"Right now it doesn't really matter. We
just need to focus on getting better and
playing better as a team. We have some
individuals that aren't playing at the
top of their game."
That will hopefully change soon as
the Wolverines enter the brunt of the
fall season with hopes of repeating the
successes of last year.

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her first collegiate point with an assist