6B - The Michigan Daily - Sports Wednesday - October 15, 2003
Fronzoni leads Blue stickers
Women run to easy
w in after late arrival
By Waldemar Centeno
Daily Sports Writer
MOUNT PLEASANT - Michigan senior April
Fronzoni's career weekend helped the Michigan field
hockey team capture two victories en route to its sev-
enth straight win.
Fronzoni tallied the 141st point of her career and
passed the career points leader, Mary Callam (1976-
79), with two goals and an assist
against Indiana and CentralMHAN 4
Michigan this past weekend. .
"I am not focusing on individ -_cHGAN_ 4_
ual statistics,' Fronzoni said. "I NA UGN
had no idea. It is like one of those
things that one person gets but it is the whole team
that is contributing to it. I am ecstatic with the way I
am playing right now and really happy with the sup-
port of my team. So I credit all of that to my team-
mates."
Fronzoni is also just two behind Callam for the all-
time Michigan record for goals scored (64). But win-
ning and team unity remains the focus of the
Michigan forward.
"Right now our team is jelling and we are playing
great together," Fronzoni said. "We are playing
great team defense, and we are all stepping up on
offense. So, it is looking good, and we can only get
better from here."
Michigan's goaltenders made sure Fronzoni's points
didn't go to waste, shutting out both Indiana (0-3 Big
Ten, 7-4 overall) and Central Michigan (2-3 Mid-
American, 4-9). Freshman goalie Beth Riley started
both games with the relief of junior goaltender Molly
Maloney against the Hoosiers. On the season, Riley
improved her record to 8-0 with four shutouts.
But once again it was the Michigan defense that
was the stronghold for the Wolverines.
On the last scheduled Monday matchup for the
Wolverines, Michigan (3-0, 11-3) squared off with
Central Michigan. Michigan outshot the Chippewas
18-3, eventually winning the game 4-0.
Senior Stephanie Johnson's rocket off a corner
opened up the scoring with 20:05 left in the first half.
But the most exciting shot of the game came just a
few moments later when junior Adrienne Hortillosa
scored on a penalty strike.
"It was nerve racking," Hortillosa said of the penalty
shot. "The first one I took this year I missed, and so I
was hoping that coach would let me take another one."
Junior Katy Moyneur followed Hortillosa with her
first goal of the season, and Fronzoni also had a goal
late in the second half.
Michigan remained dominant this weekend by
adapting to its surroundings. With a wider and bounci-
er field at Central Michigan, the Wolverines' strategy
in Mount Pleasant had them digging the long ball.
"Well it was strategy just because of the turf,"
coach Marcia Pankratz said. "There's no doubt
because if you play a small game on a bouncy field,
you don't have the same control, which creates
turnovers and fast breaks. So on a bigger field,
there is more opportunity for fast breaking. It's just
a different tactic."
But Saturday, Michigan's short game controlled the
matchup in its 4-0 victory over Indiana.
Fronzoni, senior Kristi Gannon and juniors Anneke
Huntzicker and Jessica Blake scored all the Wolver-
ines' goals in the first half of the game.
The young and aggressive Indiana team was persist-
By Phil Kofahl
Daily Sports Writer
ALLENDALE - The Michigan
women's cross country team's tripto
the Michigan Intercollegiate in
Allendale turned into a journey last
Friday.
The trip from Ann Arbor
should've taken two hours, but last-
ed almost four and a half hours due
to heavy weekend traffic and con-
struction.
The team arrived with only 30
minutes to warm up before its race,
but the hurried start didn't seem to
phase the Wolverines. The Wolver-
ines easily took first place in the 4K
race, capturing seven of the top 10
places.
The team was led by the 1-2-3
finish of Rebecca Walter, Jessie
Allen-Young and Lindsey Gallo.
Natalie Ewing and Andrea Parker
rounded out the scoring, placing
fifth and sixth, respectively.
The Wolverines were able to run
together for the first two kilometers,
and then the front runners began to
pull away. Walters and Allen-Young
were stride for stride the entire race,
with Walters winning by only a few
thousanths of a second.
Coach Mike McGuire was happy
with his team's performance.
"We were solid all the way
through," McGuire said. "Walter
and Allen(-Young) ran like they
have all season."
Walters was also happy with the
way the team ran.
"Our goal was to run together as a
team," Walters said. "It was a good
race for team cohesion."
The Wolverines used the fall
break to catch up on some sleep
and to prepare for Saturday, when
the team will travel to Cedar Falls,
Iowa, for the NCAA Pre-National
meet.
They'll use the race to not only
gauge themselves against the rest of
the nation, but to also get some
redemption.
"We'd like to catch those teams
that beat us at the Roy Griak Invita-
tional (10th-place finish)," McGuire
said. "But we can only take seven
runners, and we have nine to 10
girls who can be our top seven, so
we have some choices to make (as
to our lineup).
Senior April Fronzoni became Michigan's all-time points
leader with two goals and an assist this weekend.
ent throughout the game and kept the Wolverines away
from the goal, despite Michigan outshooting the
Hoosiers 29-4.
"You can call (Indiana) an expansion team because
that's sort of what they are," Pankratz said. "Every
year, they exponentially get better and better. They are
a really young team, so we knew it wouldn't be an
easy game and it wasn't."
With the victory over Indiana, Michigan is tied atop
the Big Ten standings with Michigan State. The match
on Oct. 17 between the intra-state rivals will decide
who will remain undefeated in the Big Ten.
'M' volleyball 'sweet' in five-set comeback win
Ellerton's top finish
sparks Michigan men
By Eric Ambinder
Daily Sports Writer
Sometimes, sweet isn't as sweet
without the sour. For the Michigan
volleyball team, sour is losing two
consecutive fifth-set matches at
home against Big Ten opponents the
past two Saturdays; sweet is sweep-
ing Indiana, 3-0 on Friday and final-
ly winning a fifth set against confer-
ence powerhouse Purdue, 3-2 on
Saturday.
"We did come up short twice but
did play pretty well," said coach
Mark Rosen about the two previous
fifth-set losses at
home against cGA
Penn State and 1111:E131i®
Wisconsin. "You
want to get rid of
that negative con-Q AA
notation of fifth
games."
Michigan (4-2 Big Ten, 12-5 over-
all) has won 11 of its past 14 match-
es, and the victories marked the first
time since the 1997 season the
Wolverines have won two road Big
Ten matches on the same weekend.
"I thought it was a really signifi-
cant weekend," Rosen said. "We kind
of knew this might be a chance for us
to push away a little and build
momentum."
After breaking a little sweat against
Indiana (2-3, 9-7) on Friday night, the
Wolverines faced a tougher Big Ten
road test Saturday against Purdue (4-
2, 11-5). It would take a career match
from senior Erin Moore and veteran-
like play from Michigan's two start-
ing freshmen, Megan Bowman and
Danielle Pflum if the Wolverines
hoped to defeat the Boilermakers in
front of a sellout crowd at the Inter-
collegiate Athletic Facility.
All three happened.
Michigan capitalized on Purdue's
errors and its sloppy .065 attack per-
centage in the first game to take a
comfortable 1-0 match lead.
With Michigan leading 24-21 in
game two, the momentum began to
swing in favor of the Boilermakers as
they won nine of the final 12 points,
evening the match at 1-1.
"We were going constantly back
and forth," Rosen said about the
match swings. "We just need to be
ready to handle that. I thought our
girls did a nice job."
Purdue continued its solid play
behind Kim Cappa, whose late game
kills shut the door on the Wolverines
and allowed Purdue to take a 2-1
lead.
Last weekend, Michigan faced a
similar situation against Wisconsin,
holding a 2-1 match lead. Senior Erin
Moore struggled down the stretch and
it proved to be the difference-maker
for the Badgers, as Michigan dropped
the final two sets.
After the third set, Rosen once
again decided to place the match in
the hands of team-leader Moore.
"She was phenomenal," Rosen
said. "That was probably the best
match I've ever seen her play as far
as taking over for the team and will-
ing us to win."
Moore was flawless the entire
match, recording a career-high 28
kills and had a .467 attack percent-
age, playing her best in the fourth set
and leading the Wolverines to an easy
30-22 victory to even the match 2-2.
Once again, the Wolverines found
themselves in a familiar situation,
playing their third fifth set in as many
weeks.
Purdue led by three early in the
final set before the Wolverines battled
back to take an 11-10 lead. Freshman
Danielle Pflum shook off an earlier
attack error, scoring on two consecu-
tive plays to give the Wolverines a 13-
10 lead.
Moore capped off a career night
with the game-winning kill as the
Wolverines took the third set 15-12.
For a team picked to finish seventh
in the Big Ten this season by the con-
ference coaches, Michigan's current
second-place standing and an unde-
feated road Big Ten record must feel
pretty sweet.
By Phil Kofahl
Daily Sports Writer
ALLENDALE - The Michigan
men's cross country team dominated
last Friday's Michigan Intercolle-
giate as expected, but not with the
expected cast. Coach Ron Warhurst
let his top seven runners rest, and
gave the remainder of the Wolver-
ines a chance to shine. Michigan,
led by sophomore Andrew Ellerton,
won by 49 points. Rival Michigan
State placed second and host Grand
Valley State finished third.
"The course was a little tougher
than I expected," said Ellerton, who
finished second. "I just went out
relaxed and stayed with the group."
Following Ellerton were fifth-
year senior Ryan Hesselink, sopho-
more Andrew Bauer and juniors
Rondell Ruff and Sean Moore. The
top five were side by side until the
last kilometer, when the Wolverines
began to separate, finishing within
20 seconds of each other. Warhurst
was very pleased with his team's
performance.
"The group ran very well togeth-
er," Warhurst said. "It was great to
have the entire team here, support-
ing everyone. It was a good time."
The top five runners at Allendale
will make up the "B" squad for
Michigan at the NCAA Pre-Nation-
al meet this Saturday in Cedar Falls,
Iowa. Pre-Nationals will feature the
top teams in the country, who will
preview the NCAA Championship
course and get a chance to see how
they're developing.
"This will be the first time to Pre-
Nationals for a lot of our guys,"
Hesselink said. "It should be a fun
race, with over 70 teams with 1,200
runners among the divisions."
Warhurst wanted to take the five
runners who "wanted to compete."
He'll definitely be getting that in
Ellerton.
"At the beginning of the year, he
was talking about Pre-Nationals,
and I was a little skeptical,"
Warhurst said. "But it was just a
matter of time. He just kept getting
better a little bit at a time, and he
got what he wanted."
Warhurst's "A" squad will consist
of his top seven runners. He's hop-
ing they will capture a top-six finish
this weekend at Pre-Nationals.
SHUBRA OIR/Daily
Senior Erin Moore played a key role in
Michigan's 3-2 win over Purdue.
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