The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 20, 2003 - 7B
Chance for Big Ten lead slips
through if
By Brad Johnson
Daily Sports Writer
It was the best of times and the worst
of times for the Michigan volleyball
team this weekend. The team earned a
tough split at home by defeating North-
western and falling to Illinois, and with
the loss, squandered an opportunity to
take over first place in the Big Ten.
The Wolverines turned in a workman-
like performance at Cliff Keen Arena on
Friday against
Northwestern, _
beating the Wild-
cats easily in three
games. Michigan
did not fare so wellMCAN
the following night, though, falling to
Illinois in four games after winning the
opening stanza.
"I don't think we had all cylinders fir-
ie fingers
ing tonight," coach Mark Rosen said.
"We didn't have everyone filling their
role."
The Wolverines (5-3 Big Ten, 13-6
overall) certainly came out of the gates
firing on all cylinders against the Fight-
ing Illini, taking the first game by a
score of 30-25. But the next three games
Michigan simply could not stop Illinois'
potent offensive attack, which features
6-foot-5 middle blocker Lisa
Argabright, who notched 17 kills.
"You have to go into a match like this
knowing that Argabright is going to get
her kills," senior Erin Moore said. "I
jumped as high as I could and didn't'
even touch the ball."
Michigan had difficulty dealing with
Illinois' height at the net throughout the
evening. The Illini (6-2, 15-3) boast an
unusually tall lineup, featuring five
players who are 6-foot-3 or taller.
of spikers
Michigan's tallest player, by compari-
son, is 6-foot-2 senior Nicole Poquette.
Despite the team's inability to match
up with Illinois' height, one positive for
the Wolverines was the play of sopho-
more Candace Gay. Gay replaced fresh-
man Megan Bowman in the second
game, turning in a strong performance
with a career-high eight kills.
"Candace came in and gave us a lit-
tle more offense and did a great job
blocking-wise," Rosen said. "(But)
Illinois did a better job of controlling
the ball after game one, and we just
weren't as consistent."
Consistency was definitely not a
problem for the Wolverines on Friday
night in the win over Northwestern (2-5,
11-8). In fact, the team seemed to
improve its play with each passing game
and refused to suffer a letdown after
winning the first two games in quick
fashion.
"What I really liked was that the
girls kept their focus and kept their
level of play consistent throughout the
match and didn't fall down to (North-
western's) level," Rosen said. "Statisti-
cally and emotionally, we got better
with each game. Sometimes that's
hard to do when you win the first two
convincingly."
Rosen was also impressed with how
the team responded to the unusually
small crowd at Cliff Keen Arena. The
Wolverines have typically been the bene-
ficiaries of large and energetic crowds at
home this year, but refused to let Friday's
small audience become a letdown.
"We've gotten kind of spoiled
because our crowds have been so big
and so energetic," Rosen said. "I
thought at the beginning of the game
that the crowd was a little bit slow.
Even though there wasn't a lot of
energy in the building, the girls still
came out and worked really hard, and
then we noticed that the crowd started
to get more involved."
Pro-Nationals
Waterloo, Iowa
Irv Warren Golf Course
MEN WOMEN
1. Stanford - 25 pts. 1. Brigham Young
2.Icna-95 -86 ps.
3. Michigan -- 148 2. North Carolina
4, Air Force - 196 -99
5. Vi lanova -204 3. Notre Dane
6. Brigham iYoung -127
3 4 Michigan _135
7. Cal Poly-San 5.rNorthern Arizona
-177
Leis Obispo - 243 6. Princeton - 179
8. Indiana - 296 7.Georgeown-214
9. Florida State 8. Nebraska - 305
-318 9. UC-Santa Barbara
9. Central Michigan - 327
- 318 10. Baylor - 332
TONY DING/Daily
Nick
Stanko
p
TONY DING/Daily
Rebecca
Walter
Personal-bests fire up Michigan
By Robert Herrera
For the Daily
The Michigan men's cross country squad had five runners
post personal-best times on Saturday, resulting in a third-place
finish at the NCAA Pre-Nationals race in Waterloo, Iowa.
The race featured 24 of the top 30 teams in the country.
Teams were divided into two races, purple and gold, with No.
13-ranked Michigan competing in the purple race. Among
Michigan's opponents were four teams ranked in the top 10.
The Wolverines fell behind first- and second-place finishers
No. I Stanford and No. 10 Iona.
Sophomore Nick Willis earned his third top-10 finish of
the season with a team-high seventh-place finish and a career-
best time of 23:37.
Seniors Tom Greenless (16th overall, 23:54.9), captain
Nick Stanko (45th, 24:21.4), and Alex L'Heureux (60th,
24:32.8) also enjoyed career-best times, along with junior
Nate Brannen (20th, 23.58.2).
Meanwhile, the B team competed in a men's open race at
the same course, in which sophomore Andrew Ellerton and
juniors Sean Moore and Rondell Ruff propelled Michigan to
a win.
"All in all, this was a great weekend," coach Ron Warhurst
said. "The team did real well, we moved through really good
and there was no problem with the course."
The team will be headed to the Big Ten Championships in
two weeks. "Ohio State and Wisconsin (ranked No. 11 and
No. 2, respectively) pose a challenge in the Big Ten," coach
Warhurst stated. "The Big Ten is very well-represented. We
will have to battle Ohio State for second place"
After the Big Ten Championships, Michigan still needs to
qualify in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional to earn a return to
trip to Waterloo.
"It will be tough to get back to this course for Nationals,"
Warhurst said.
The Wolverines last race of the regular season is the East-
ern Michigan Open on Friday at 4 p.m., in Ypsilanti.
DAVID TUMAN/Daily
in Michigan's 3-1Voss to Illinois, freshman middle blocker Megan Bowman
recorded three points. Her attack percentage was minus-.111though.
McGuire chooses right siX in Iowa
He's no Coach 'K': Duke coach
fired seven games into season
By Mustafizur Choudhury
Daily Sports Writer
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Duke
fired coach Carl Franks yesterday and
appointed defensive coordinator Ted
Roof as his replacement for the rest of
the season.
The firing comes a day after the Blue
Devils (2-5) fell behind Wake Forest
42-0 at halftime, and lost 42-13 for their
29th-straight Atlantic Coast Conference
loss.
"H lftine of the game yesterday was
the straw that broke the camel's back for
me" athletic director Joe Alleva said.
Franks is the third Division I-A head
coach to be fired so far this season,
joining John Mackovic at Arizona and
Todd Berry at Army. Mississippi State's
Jackie Sherrill announced last week that
he would retire at the end of the season.
Franks, a former Duke tight end, was
7-45 in four-and-a-half seasons.
He had signed a contract extension
through 2006 after going 2-10 last year,
but it's unclear how much of his salary
was guaranteed. Alleva declined to dis-
cuss any details of the contract at a
news conference yesterday.
Franks did not immediately return a
call to his home seeking comment. He
issued a statement through the school
which read: "I am disappointed that we
didn't have more success. I certainly
wish I could have finished out the sea-
son, but Joe Alleva decided that a
change needed to be made"
Early this season, Alleva said Franks
would have to win at least one ACC
game and the team would have to show
significant progress to keep his job.
However, Alleva pulled the plug on
Franks after just four conference games.
The Blue Devils have four ACC games
remaining and a nonconference meet-
ing at No. 22 Tennessee on Nov. 1.
Alleva said he kept Franks around for
this year because the Blue Devils last
year were showing improvement. Duke
returned a league-high 20 starters from
last year's team, but were averaging an
ACC-worst 15 points a game.
Alleva indirectly pointed to the prob-
lem when asked what Roof could do to
right the ship in Durham.
"I think Ted's very passionate and
very enthusiastic, some of the things
that I think our team hasn't shown this
year," Alleva said.
Alleva said a search for a replace-
ment will begin immediately, and that
Roof would be considered.
"I'm looking for a coach that can
recruit, that can motivate the team and
that can lead this organization - be a
leader," Alleva said. "I think it's a great
coaching job. We have nowhere to go
but up."
Last weekend, Michigan women's
cross country coach Mike McGuire
was struggling with the idea of hav-
ing to choose only seven runners for
the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Water-
loo, Iowa. Heading into this meet,
there was so much competition
between his top runners, he wasn't
sure who to choose.
Apparently, he made the right
decision. Six of his runners had
career-best performances as the
Wolverines finished fourth out of
32 teams in the Purple division of
the race.
Sophomore Rebecca Walter - who
had played second fiddle to graduate
student Jessie Allen-Young earlier this
season - led Michigan across the fin-
ish line for the second consecutive
week, this time clocking in at 20:42.
"I was very happy with the results,"
Walter said. "It shows that I'm in good
shape, and I expect we'll do well in the
upcoming races."
Allen-Young and senior Lindsey
Gallo finished shortly thereafter with
times of 20:49 and 20:58, respectively.
"This was our best team meet of the
year," McGuire said. "It's a good step-
ping stone going into the Big Ten
Championship meet."
McGuire was especially impressed
with Michigan's strategic running. The
team split into two packs, with the top
three runners in the first pack and the
other four in the second pack. This
helped to keep the Wolverines from
being slowed down by the blizzard of
210 runners and resulted in the record-
breaking weekend for the top six
Michigan finishers.
"I wasn't surprised at all," McGuire
said of the team's performance. "It was
a flat course, there was great competi-
tion and our kids (tried) really hard."
What was most impressive was that
Michigan finished just behind some of
the best teams in the country. Defend-
ing national champion Brigham Young,
North Carolina and Notre Dame
rounded out the top three teams. With
such a strong performance, the 22nd-
ranked Wolverines are expected to take
a leap in the standings.
Michigan's top runners will take a
week off from competition to train for
the upcoming Big Ten Championships,
where they hope to defend their 2002
title against rivals Wisconsin and
Michigan State. Meanwhile, the red-
shirts will try to prove themselves Fri-
day at the Eastern Michigan Classic.
I
311 and Alien Ant Farm
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Doors open at 7 p.m.
EMU Convocation Center
A lPHOO/Daily
Despite a 2-1 start to the season, Duke coach Carl Franks was fired after losing
his next four games. Franks is the third coach to be fired this season.
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Please join
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Next Meeting will be
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