I
2B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 6, 2003
4
Pass-happy
icers prevail
5-3 i opener
By Gennaro Filice
Daily Sports Writer
There's no "I" in team, there never has been and,
barring colossal change in the English language,
there never will be. "I" is the MERCYH_RST 3
forbidden pronoun of sports.' CA
But in reviewing the Wolver-
ines 5-3 victory over Mercyhurst on Saturday,
Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson thought that
his squad should have become more familiar with
the infamously selfish vowel.
"I thought tonight we over-passed the puck in a lot
of situations where we were trying to make that pretty
play instead of just getting the puck on the net,"
Berenson said. "It's never a bad play to shoot the
puck."
Regardless of the Wolverines' overly selfless play,
they kicked off the new campaign with a win and
extended the Michigan season-opener unbeaten streak
to 12 games.
Michigan (1-0-0) outshot the Lakers (0-1-0) 43-26
and took advantage of the powerplay, notching three
goals with a one-man advantage.
With 11:10 left in the first period, Mercyhurst
defenseman Mike Kirby earned a two-minute stay in
the sin bin for obstruction-hooking. Seventy-nine sec-
onds into the powerplay, freshman defenseman Matt
Hunwick found junior forward Dwight Helminen at
the front of the right faceoff circle. Helminen flipped a
wrister to the top-left shelf, and Michigan was on the
board first.
But two minutes later, after a scrum in front of
the Michigan net, Mercyhurst forward Erik John-
son evened the score, flipping the puck over the
outstretched body of Michigan goaltender Al
Montoya.
Andrew Ebbett put the Wolverines back on top
with just over five minutes left in the first period.
The sophomore streaked toward the left side of the
goal, took a cross-ice pass from junior Milan
Gajic and - with a defender draped over his back
- chipped a backhand past Lakers goaltender
Andy Franck.
CLUBSPORTSWEEKLY
Chemistry runs deep
on club frisbee team
DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily
Senior captain Andy Burnes fires a slapshot at the Mercyhurst defense. Burnes, a defenseman, helped slow
down the the Lakers' offense, which was held to 26 shots on goals.
Although Michigan held a 2-1 lead after the first
period, Berenson wasn't satisfied with his team's early
performance.
"I didn't like our first period," Berenson said. "I
thought we played with a lot more emotion in the sec-
ond and third period when the game seemed to take on
another level. They really had us on our heels in the
first period."
The Wolverines scored their second powerplay goal
with just over five minutes left in the second period,
making the score 3-1. Freshman T.J. Hensick took the
puck on the left faceoff circle and found junior David
Moss behind the net. Moss quickly advanced the puck
to junior Eric Nystrom, who torched Franck with a
one-timer from point-blank range.
"If you tic-tac the puck around and put it on the
tape, it's pretty easy to pick apart a penalty kill," Nys-
trom said.
The defense played tough in the second period,
allowing Mercyhurst just four shots on goal.
Eric Werner increased Michigan's lead to 4-1 early
in the third period with an extremely graceful goal -
especially considering that the junior defenseman
spends most of his time on the blueline. Werner, the
game's first star, took the puck on the right faceoff cir-
cle, deked his way behind the net and beat Franck
stick-side with a lightning quick wraparound.
"(Eric's) a player who can create offense," Berenson
said. "(With defensemen) we're not preaching offense,
necessarily, but there's a time when your defense has
to be able to add to the offense, and that was a good
example there where he cycled the puck down low.
You can't teach that."
Hensick added the Wolverines' third powerplay goal
- the first score of his young career - beating
Franck top-right shelf with a heavy wrister. The How-
ell native earned the game's second star for his two-
point effort.
Mercyhurst fought back with two late goals, but
Michigan's four-goal lead proved insurmountable.
"(This game) is something to build off of," senior
captain Andy Burnes said. "We've got a lot of things
to work on, and we did a lot of things good tonight -
some good individual efforts. It's a starting point, and
we're going to come back to the rink Monday, regroup
and get ready to go"
By Matt Venegoni
For the Daily
In a room filled with many
strangers, an icebreaker is often
used to get conversation going. For
the women's club ultimate frisbee
team, the icebreaker was successful
in getting people to let their guards
down and interact as friends. At the
same time, it showed the comedic
sides of many people with responses
to the question of what is the one
job that you would hate or couldn't
do.
Junior Sarah Hews lightened the
mood with her answer of being a
nun. From that, the ball was rolling
for the interaction of the new team
members. With the season begin-
ning next weekend, the most impor-
tant part is getting comfortable with
each other.
Contrary to what many might
believe about ultimate frisbee and
many other club sports, they are not
social drinking clubs. If the Michigan
women's ultimate frisbee club was a
drinking club, it would not have won
the regional championship last year
by a combined score of 15-2.
With that momentum of last year
and the return of key players, such
as Hews and junior Stephanie Bai-
ley, there are high expectations this
season. The key to their success is
the incredible bond that they devel-
op year-round.
A great example of that bonding
was last Friday when the team held
a potluck dinner, the scene for the
aforementioned icebreaker, at the
house of one of the players.
Although they hold a few of these
each year, this one was of particular
importance. It was the first time
that all of the players, rookies and
veterans, were together at the same
time. The team needs to start gelling
as a group, because it's first tourna-
ment is in a week. Nevertheless, on
this night, the most important thing
was to get to know each other a lit-
tle more outside of the competitive
circle.
Getting to know each other in the
competitive circle starts with the
incredible sacrifice the team has to
make just to be able to practice.
During the winter, the team often
gets to use the indoor football facil-
ity, but the practice usually starts at
midnight.
"Pain is a great unifier for the
team," Rackham student Jess
Roberts said.
This pain includes practicing four
times a week during the winter
term. These practices often are in
unpleasant weather, which acts as a
character builder for the team.
Club ultimate frisbee is not the
same as the frisbee seen in the Diag
on a daily basis.
"A lot of people have played ulti-
mate like a lot of people have
played softball," Roberts said.
The amount of aerobic strength
and perseverance is as much as any-
thing many of the players have ever
done, and most have played a
plethora of sports. Many members
of the team said that any "freshman
15" gained is quickly lost once
practices and tournaments begin.
Unlike varsity sports, which
receive funding from the University,
the women's ultimate team and
other club sports are completely
funded through donations and
fundraisers. This also serves as a
unifier for the team, as spending 12
hours in a van allows the teammates
to get know each other on many dif-
ferent levels. They are always
squeezed for space, often having to
put unusual numbers of people in
motel rooms if they can even afford
a room. It is common for them to
stay at the home of the parents of a
team member.
"Funding is limited so we have to
get creative," coach Miriam Allers-
ma said.
One might say that if it is so hard
to play, then why do it? Most of the
women cited the love of the game,
but also the special friendships.
Even though they might not always
have great practice times or nice
weather to play in, it is worth to be
able to play with such close friends.
"It's pushups and potlucks for
us," said Allersma.
M football can't top Iowa, but stickers can
By Megan Kolodgy
Daily Sports Writer
Replace the helmets with skirts,
the pads with sticks, and the loss
with a win, and
you've summed -
up the primary
differences between the Michigan
football and field hockey teams'
games. against Iowa on Saturday
afternoon.
The sixth-ranked Wolverines
matched up with No. 7 Iowa for a
showdown between the Big Ten's
best field hockey squads at Michi-
gan's Ocker Field. The home team
came out on top with a 1-0 victory
over the Hawkeyes.
"Our goals were to focus and to
play like champions," Michigan
coach Marcia Pankratz said. "This
was a very important game, and it's
easy to see why. It was incredibly
tough. We just had to play our
match. I think we did that really
well today."
In the scoreless first half, the
teams appeared evenly matched, as
Iowa took four shots and Michigan
managed six. Although the Wolver-
ines earned three consecutive cor-
ners, they were unable to capitalize
on their opportunities.
"We had an awful lot of corners,"
Pankratz said. "It would have been
nice to convert more of those."
The first half was not productive
in terms of scoring, but the absence
of goals created a strong sense of
urgency that boosted the Wolver-
ines' performance in the second
half.
"At halftime, I told them to stay
patient - relentless, but patient,"
Pankratz said.
Michigan outshot Iowa 15-1 in
the second half, with the only goal
coming from Wolverine senior April
Fronzoni.
This shot was significant not only
because it put Michigan on top in
the game and in the Big Ten, but
also because it placed Fronzoni one
point behind the University's career
point record of 136. Mary Callam
set this record between the 1976 and
1979 seasons.
Fronzoni, however, chose to focus
on the immediate effect of her goal,
rather than being poised to go down
in Michigan athletic history.
"Luckily, though my skills
weren't on today, I was able to fin-
ish for -the team," Fronzoni said.
One area in which the Wolverines
were not lacking was defense.
Michigan freshman goalkeeper
Beth Riley needed to stop just three
shots, while Iowa's Barb Weinberg
kept a remarkable nine shots out of
the net.
"Weinberg was outstanding,"
Pankratz said. "I'd attribute our lack
of goals to her goalkeeping more
than anything else."
The game also marked Riley's
third shutout and sixth win in the
six games she has played in goal.
This win afforded Michigan a lit-
tle extra confidence going into the
rest of the season and in preparing
to complete the remainder of Big
Ten play.
"It's great to be able to come out
and win against Iowa," Fronzoni
said. "It's always a battle, and we
came in knowing that it would be a
fight to the end. This game set our
sights pretty high."
The Wolverines' next challenge
comes today in Louisville at 3 p.m.
1
I
By Anne Ulbie
Daily Sports Writer
rMc ennyUneon
I and Campus Life present .....
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Thursday, October 2, 2003
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As the wind ripped across the water
on Belleville Lake this weekend, it
only made the Michigan women's
crew team pull harder to inch past the
other boats.
On Saturday, in its second scrim-
mage of the season, the Wolverines
faced off against Big Ten rival Ohio
State. The races were non-scoring.
Michigan raced four eight-woman
boats and Ohio State had three. Each
boat raced five times. The sprints were
planned to be five-minute long pieces,
but due to heavy winds, they were
shortened to only three minutes.
"It was really windy out on the
water," junior coxswain Tara Medina
said. "But we ended up having great
races, and the boat felt really strong."
Although the finishes of the races
were not kept or recorded, the com-
Blue rowers battle
wind. and Buckeyes
Jason Mraz
Sunday, October 12, 2003
Doors open at 7 p.m.
EMU Convocation Center
petition between the boats was still
high. The rivalry is in part due to
Michigan's win of the 2003 Big Ten
championship after defeating the
2002 Big Ten champions, the Buck-
eyes.
"There's always an intense competi-
tion when we race," senior Heather
Mandoli said. "But it's even bigger
when we row against Ohio State. You
feel compelled to pull a lot harder."
Head coach Mark Rothstein did not
feel the pressure of the Big Ten title
weighing on the races. He looked at
the competition as a chance to make
improvements and adjustments for
future races.
"Our main goal for the race was to
apply the techniques we've been
working on during the past couple of
weeks' practices," Rothstein said.
"And overall, I was very happy with
the progress of the boats. They
showed quite a bit of improvement
from our last race."
After a few tough races lost to
Michigan State in their last scrim-
mage two weeks ago, Rothstein
changed the emphasis of practice to
spend less time dealing with improv-
ing fitness and more time working on
the fine details of each stroke taken
by boat members.
"We have stressed the importance of
getting better application from every
pull on the oar," Rothstein said. "By
getting a solid grasp on the water,
there is more power behind the boat,
which is what we ultimately want."
Both Medina and Mandoli agreed
that each of their boats was actively
improving on the techniques that
Rothstein has been highlighting over
the past weeks.
"Everyone was pulling harder and
smarter in the races," Mandoli said.
"We applied all of the skills and found
that it made the boat much better."
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