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. 0 on~ Nee e_~ 4 All clinics are held at the Intramural Sports IMLZ WMWWMWW' i .., .. Rilcdinn I E I 11