The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 24, 2003 - 7B

No. 1 Wake
ends Blue's
season, 1-0
By Megan Kolodgy
Daily Sports Writer
By now, they were getting used to it. The
Wolverines spent the first two games of the
NCAA field hockey tournament defying rankings,
stepping over teams that were statistically superi-
or. Then, it finally happened. In the semifinal
round, the Wolverines were forced to take on the
ultimate challenge: They were to butt heads with
top-ranked Wake Forest.
According to coach Marcia Pankratz, Michigan
entered the match with the M____GAN___
confidence that comes with'WAKEFRT
repeatedly beating the odds.
Repeating this feat, however,
was not in the cards, and the Wolverines were
edged out by the Demon Deacons, 1-0.
"We had a difficult (tournament) draw,"
Pankratz said. "We played the number-4 team,
then the number-5 team, and beat them back-to-
back. Then, to keep the number-1 team at bay for
so long is quite an accomplishment."
Although the game did not end in Michigan's
favor, the performance showed just how far the
team had come from the first weeks of the season.
In the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Wake Forest had a
slightly more lopsided victory, by the score of 4-
2.
"We've just had lots more game experience
since then," Pankratz said. "It's tournament time,
and we played as well as we could play."
The play was somewhat tentative throughout
the scoreless first half. Each team managed to
pull off only one shot on goal, and though the
Wolverines had two breakaway chances, they
were unable to capitalize.
The teams emerged from their halftime talks
driven by the dream of a bid to the national cham-
pionship, which hung in the balance over the next
35 minutes.
The Demon Deacons received multiple corner
opportunities, giving them multiple chances to
take control of the game. And indeed, these shots
led to the Wolverines' demise.
Just over 10 minutes into the half, Wake Forest
was awarded its first corner of the game. Three
consecutive corners later, it was finally able to put
a shot past Michigan goalkeeper Beth Riley.
The Wolverines fought back for the remaining
minutes, but to no avail. Their only hope for a trip
to the championship came with less than a minute

'M' takes second place
with surprising speed
Weilbacher sets pool record

By Anne Ulble
Daily Sports Writer
This meet wasn't the NCAA
Championships, but the times at the
Nike Cup this weekend were surpris-
ingly comparable for a midseason
swimming competition. Four mem-
bers of the Michigan women's swim-
ming and diving team finished with
times fast enough to make them eli-
gible for NCAA consideration.
"We are a much stronger team
than we were a year ago," coach Jim
Richardson said. "I'd have to credit
the strength program we imple-
mented this year and the new train-
ing format. These new programs are
demanding but have had a positive
effect on the endurance, strength
and athleticism of the swimmers."
Michigan finished in second
place out of 10 teams this weekend
at the three day long meet at the
Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill,
N.C. The meet consisted mainly of
teams from the ACC and the SEC,
as 16th-ranked Michigan was the
sole Big Ten competitor. The
Wolverines totaled 748 points
which placed them second behind
the host Tar Heels, who finished
with 884 points.
"To be honest, I wasn't con-
cerned with our team's second-
place finish," Richardson said.
"The girls swam incredibly well
and I was extremely pleased with
their performances. Many of them
had the best meet of their swim-
ming careers."
In perhaps the best race of the
weekend, senior captain Anne Weil-
bacher swam the 100-yard butterfly
in a time of 53.56 to secure a win.

It was a North Carolina pool
record, a NCAA consideration time
and a Michigan school record.
"Weilbacher had an incredible
race," Richardson said. "She wasn't
rested or tapered and she still man-
aged to swim faster than she did
last year at Big Ten Championships
and NCAA Championships."
Along with having phenomenal
individual races, Michigan also
managed to win four of the five
relay events this weekend, counting
for the majority of the team's
points.
Sophomore Abby Seskevics
swam on three of the four winning
relays and managed to win the indi-
vidual 100-yard freestyle in NCAA
consideration time.
"Abby probably had one of the
best meets of her life," Richardson
said. "She not only played a crucial
role in the relays, her swim in
the 100-yard freestyle was faster
than I'd ever seen."
Along with Seskevics and Weil-
bacher, Richardson commended
freshmen Susan Gilliam and Lind-
sey Smith for adding to the team's
success this weekend.
"Gilliam had a exceptional per-
formance in the 500-yard
freestyle," Richardson said. "I've
been very happy with how she's
swam over the past few weeks in
competition."
The Wolverines have two weeks
until their next meets. Some of the
team will swim at the Eastern
Michigan Invitational Dec. 5-6.
While other members of team will
take part in the U.S. Open that
same weekend in Federal Way,
Wash.

TONY DING/Daily
Michigan junior Katy Moyneur was named to the All-Tournament team. She was praised by coach Marcia
Pankratz for shutting down Wake Forest's Kelly Dostal in the loss.

left, when defender Stephanie Johnson slipped the
ball in for what would have been a game-tying
goal. The shot was ruled too high though, sealing
Michigan's fate, and assuring them a spot in the
stands instead of on the field in the finals.
Pankratz felt that her team had a great deal to
be proud of. Junior Katy Moyneur was named to
the All-Tournament team.
"One of their best players, Kelly Dostal, was
not a factor at all, thanks to Katy's defense,"
Pankratz said. "She will definitely be a leader of
the defense next year."
There will be quite a bit of turnover for the
Wolverines next year. They are losing seven sen-
iors, including tri-captain stars Kristi Gannon,
Stephanie Johnson and April Fronzoni.

"The three captains are some of the best players
we've ever had," Pankratz said. "It's a big gradua-
tiong class, but the juniors will step up and be
great seniors, and we'll be right back here, bat-
tling for the championship."
The Wolverines finished the season with a 17-6
overall record.
While this speaks to the team's ability on the
field, Pankratz maintains that it is their copious
talents in other realms that make this team stand
out from those in years past.
"They are all fantastic students," Pankratz said.
"They are selfless, take care of ea'ch other, train
hard, are responsible ... really, they do everything
right. They epitomize exactly what you want in a
student-athlete. I am very proud of them."



Huskies bounce soccer team from tourney

By Jake Rosenwasser
Daily Sports Writer

After turning its season around
with numerous one-goal victories
against top teams,
the Michigan
women's soccer
team succumbed
to No. 18 Connecticut 5-0 yesterday

in the third round of the NCAA
Tournament.
The loss in Storrs, Conn., ended
No. 24 Michigan's unpredictable
season. Connecticut moves on to the
round of eight where it will play
Brigham Young.
Connecticut (13-5-3) did not
waste any time on offense. With less
than five minutes elapsed in the

game, Connecticut's Jessica Gjer-
sten sent a cross to teammate Brit-
tany Barakat who settled and placed
the ball to the right of Michigan
goalie Megan Tuura. This was the
first goal Michigan (11-8-6)
allowed in its three games in the
NCAA tournament.
"I think after they scored that
quick goal we lost our composure a
little," coach Debbie Rademacher
said. "They put a lot of pressure on
us from the start and that goal rat-
tled us."
The pressure did not stop. Con-
necticut made the score 2-0 on a
goal with 19:04 remaining in the
first half. Nikki Cross received a
pass from Kristen Graczyk and
headed for the net on a breakaway.
Cross drew Tuura out of the goal
and put a shot into the empty net.
Michigan was outshot 9-2 in the
first half.
Michigan did play better right
after the halftime break. Katie
Kramer took the opening kick of the
second half and was fouled at the
top of Connecticut's 18-yard box.
Robyn Vince took the ensuing kick
and placed the ball into face of the
goal, but Connecticut goalie Erin
Rice caught the ball and kept the

Wolverines off the scoreboard. Just
seconds later Judy Coffman took a
ball up the left side, but she was
thwarted by Rice again.
With only 20 minutes remaining,
Connecticut put the game out of
reach with its third goal. Graczyk
found Jennifer Sullivan, who put a
shot from the left side into the far
corner of the net.
"We actually played a strong sec-
ond-half," Rademacher said. "But
once they scored that third goal we
had to push more players up, and
when we did that, they got their
final two goals."
This was the seventh straight year
that Michigan made the NCAA
Tournament, and this sweet-16 run
was Michigan's second-best per-
formance in the tournament.
Only last year did Michigan fair
better, when it reached the round of
eight.
Michigan has a lot to look for-
ward to next year as most of its reg-
ulars will be returning.
"We were young this year,"
Rademacher said. "We're in good
shape coming into next year. We're
still looking for a Big Ten champi-
onship and were hoping to make
another run at the Final Four.

PHOTOG/ Daily
Michigan senior Keill Stein took third place in the 200-yard backstroke race. The
Wolverines were the only Big Ten team at the meet.
Presidents Cup ends
in tie after tense duel
Els and Woods go to extra holes

SETH LOWERDaily
Forward Katie Kramer earned Michigan its main scoring chance by drawing a foul
at the top of the 18-yard box to start the second half.

Bertin battles sinus infection to win two

By Eric Chan
Daily Sports Writer
Last season, NCAA champion Ryan
Bertin proved he could wrestle with the
best. Yesterday at Cliff Keen Arena,
Bertin proved he could wrestle with the
best ... while sick. Against No. 7
Lehigh and No. 18 Central Michigan,
the 157-pounder, battling a sinus infec-
tion, downed two top-15 opponents.
No. 5 Michigan split the two matches
in its dual meet opener, beating Central
Michigan, 27-16, and then falling to
Lehigh, 18-12.
"I didn't feel so great," Bertin said.
"I've been sick all week, and I felt a lit-
tle under the weather. It was tough get-
ting down to weight. A win is a win,
but I would liked to have wrestled a lit-
tle better."
The top-ranked Bertin had a grudge
with his first opponent, Ty Morgan.

Central Michigan's Morgan, ranked
No. 11 by Amateur Wrestling News,
defeated Bertin in the finals of the
Ohio state high school wrestling
championships. The two have not
wrestled since.
In the first period, it was clear that
Bertin was not his usual dominating
self. The normally impossible-to-take-
down Wolverine was almost taken
down by a high single leg from Morgan
early in the first period. Bertin coun-
tered, and the referee stopped the action
because of a potentially dangerous situ-
ation. In the second period, Bertin
scored an escape point and then imme-
diately took Morgan down with a sin-
gle leg. Another takedown in the
second and a final one in the third gave
Bertin a 9-4 victory - along with
some revenge.
"It was definitely a heartbreaker
back in high school, but it definitely

motivated me," Bertin said. "It's funny
how things worked out, and it feels
good to beat him."
In his second match of the day,
Bertin squared off against All-Ameri-
can Derek Zinck of Lehigh. Eighth-
ranked Zinck scored the match's first
takedown early in the first period, but it
was all Bertin after that, scoring two
takedowns to win, 7-4.
"(Bertin's) been fighting something
that past two or three days, but he
stayed focused and wrestled hard,"
Michigan coach Joe McFarland said. "I
thought he did a nice job against Zinck.
Zinck is obviously one of the top
wrestlers at his weight class and
(Bertin) fought through everything and
came out with a nice win. That's what
champions do - sometimes you aren't
going to feel your best and you're not
going to feel 100 percent, but you just
have to push through it and Ryan did a

nice job of that today."
Michigan's four freshmen - Mark
Moos (125 pounds), Chase Metcalf
(133), Joshua Weitzel (184) and Chase
Verdoorn (197) - all went 1-1 in their
first appearances at Cliff Keen Arena.
Moos was tested in a big way, wrestling
a pair of top 20 opponents in his first
dual meets. The freshman standout beat
No. 19 Kyle Stoffer in a close 6-4
match, but dropped a 9-7 decision to
Lehigh's seasoned veteran Mario Stuart
on a last-second takedown.
"I think we need to continue to get
better," McFarland said. "This gives us
a good idea where certain individuals
are and who needs to work on what.
We got a few guys that need to work on
their conditioning a bit - there's no
question about that. We've got to work
on our intensity a lot too. Against Cen-
tral Michigan, I really didn't like our
intensity from match to match"

GEORGE, South Africa (AP) -
After 34 matches between the best
two teams in the world, and three
exhilarating playoff holes between
the best two players in the world, the
Presidents Cup was declared a tie
yesterday.
Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, play-
ing against each other with 11 guys
counting on them, parred all three
playoff holes before darkness fell on
the Links Course at Fancourt.
After much debate, captains Jack
Nicklaus and Gary Player agreed to
share the cup.
The United States is the defend-
ing champion, but that doesn't mean
they retain the cup, which happens
in all other international cup compe-
titions.
"We'll have to make another one,"
PGA Tour commissioner Tim
Finchem said.
In the end, there were no losers.
The Presidents Cup, which began
only nine years ago, doesn't have
the tradition and will never have the
history of the Ryder Cup.
But it at least gained credibility,
thanks to a dramatic afternoon
beneath the majestic Outeniqua
Mountains.
It was a breathtaking conclusion,
unlike anything ever before in the
game. And the golf leading up to the

and Davis Love III was poised to
make the playoff a moot point.
Instead, he muffed a chip on the
par-5 and wound up making bogey,
allowing Robert Allenby to earn the
half-point needed for the playoff.
Both captains put the name of one
player into an envelope during the
day. No one was surprised which
two names they scribbled on a piece
of paper.
And no one could have imagined the
excitement or pressure that followed.
Players, caddies and wives
perched on the knolls in the fair-
ways and the edges of the greens.
Some 10,000 fans followed along,
racing ahead to see the next shot.
Woods and Els both missed the
green on the par-5 18th and settled
for pars.
They headed to the second hole,
the pressure mounting. From the
fairway, Els' wedge just carried the
green, while Woods hit from the
rough to about 40 feet, facing a
steep climb up the ridge.
Woods lagged to four feet, while
Els' chip stopped 12 feet short. Miss
it, and the International team goes
home a loser.
It was good all the way, and
Woods studied his short putt long
and hard before making it to go to
the par-3 second.

U.S. women lose Fed Cup bid to French

t MOSCOW. Russia (AP) - The United States

Cup record to 39-0, teaming with Lisa Raymond

mond 6-4, 6-3, and Mary Pierce struggled past