The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 11A Blue faces challenge in Demon Deacons FILE PHOTO Senior Kim Piaushines and her teammates look to knock off No. 21 Notre Dame. Netters hope to buck whammy of te s By Gabriela D'Jaen Daily Sports Writer Winning matches may be the ulti- mate goal for some programs, but the Michigan men's tennis team is mark- ing its progress in a different form this year. After starting the season with three solid wins, the buzz- SAIX word on the court and in the locker room is:ae "improvement." "One thing we need to Tie: No make sure we do is to y keep improving," said coach Mark Mees after defeating the Butler Bulldog's 7-0 last weekend. Instead of focusing on the team's accomplishments, Mees insists that each player continues to step up his game as the season progresses. "Each guy has got to make sure he keeps getting better," Mees said. "We'll get back to the practice court and spend a lot of time with each guy. We've defined it pretty clearly what each player has to do to improve." This Saturday's meet against Wake Forest will be a challenge for Michi- ~ " " w yy l} 'it'Cf3 ..W gan. Last year, Wake Forest blanked the Wolverines 7-0, and the Demon Deacons are currently ranked 30th nationally. Considering that Wake For- est has dropped in the rankings (they were ranked 22nd in their last encounter with the Wolverines), and that Michigan will have a home-court advantage, the DAY Wolverines are optimistic that they'll have better rest at results this year. "This is a big test," sen- Saturday ior Anthony Jackson said. "Hopefully, we can con- tinue our success, but it is going to be a really com- petitive match. As a whole, they have a pretty tough team." Mees would like his No. 1 player, Michael Rubin, to be less tentative and play to his potential. As Rubin faces more talented players, Mees said he needs to realize that he will not win games off the mistakes of his opponents, as he did last weekend with Butler. "What happens is that the match ended up 7-6, 6-3," Mees said. "If Mike plays the way he's capable of playing it might be a 6-3, 6-1 match." BRETT MOUNTAIN/Daily Michigan coach Mark Mees would like his No. 1singles player, Junior Michael Rubin, to play 'the way he's capable of playing." By Waldemar Centeno Daily Sports Writer The Michigan women's tennis team's annual matchup against longtime foe Notre Dame takes place early this year. Today, the 34th-ranked Wolver- ines (1-0) will welcome the Fight- ing Irish into town. It will be the second of five straight home matches for Michigan and the first Salas, who recently jumped 49 spots to the No. 14 national singles ranking. "She's a very good player, but we have nine very good players too," Propstra said. "We're not scared of her and the Irish." Rubin plays an all-court game and believes his improvement depends on him "sharpening up and dialing in." Rubin hopes a good week of prac- tice will prepare him for the com- petitive match. The junior expects all of his teammates to play to the best of their ability in order to secure a win. Mees is excited for a competitive weekend. "We are going up against a team that is pretty talented," Mees said. "This. is a good measuring stick for us to see where we stand and to see what we need to do to keep getting better." The Wolverines hope to showcase their continual improvement Saturday. match of the sea- son for Notre Dame. "It 's definitely an advan- tage," Michigan assistant M.n v Ntte ..ni a V k coach Katy Propstra said of the home stand. "Its good for the fresh- men and also the veterans on the team to play at home. You always want to play at home, especially with the competitiveness of Notre Dame." The Wolverines have dropped nine straight matches to the Irish and hold a 7-14 all-time record against them. Michigan's last victo- ry against the Notre Dame was a 5- 4 'W' in Ann Arbor at the end of the 1993-94 regular season. But this year, the Wolverines are optimistic. "There is a lot of potential, but it is also a very competitive sched- ule," Propstra said. "We are look- ing forward to getting the season underway, and we had a good win over DePaul. Now we have Notre Dame, so we are getting some action." Michigan's recent success gives the Wolverines reason to believe that this year will be different against No. 21 Notre Dame. In late December, the Intercolle- giate Tennis Association named freshman Elizabeth Exon and jun- ior Michelle DaCosta as two of the top collegiate tennis players in the Midwest Region. Exon holds the No. 6 singles ranking, while DaCosta is No. 10. Freshman Kara Delicata and sen- ior Kavitha Tipirneni also look strong, coming off an impressive doubles victory and singles wins against DePaul in Michigan's first dual match of the season. Senior Chrissie Nolan and junior Leanne Rutherford, who are also coming off convincing singles wins, are both geared up for the upcoming matchup against the Irish. "We haven't really faired well in the past, but I think our singles and doubles lineup is much stronger than it was in the last couple years," Rutherford said. "We've been psyched since our last match. We're ready to go." Michigan hopes to stop Notre Dame's senior co-captain Alicia BURKE Continued from Page 8A Said Horton: "Lately, we've been shooting the ball a lot better. We've gotten away from trying to do everything off the dribble - it's tough to do things off the dribble in this conference. We've just tried to screen and get guys open for good shots." Lets not forget, however, that Iowa also was able to find some cracks in the Michigan defense. Iowa shot a ridiculous 58 percent, and the 84 points the Hawkeyes put up was by far the highest total the Wolverines have allowed an oppo- nent this year. Fine, there's work to do on the .lts mutual-.