Friday September 24, 2004 sports.michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily.com PORTS 8 . . . ...... ...... 0 Iowa defense ready to face 'M'wide outs By Gennaro F!lice Daily Sports Editor Iowa's defense under Kirk Ferentz has never played overly aggressive. Although the Hawkeyes have fielded one of the Big Ten's most dominant defenses in the past few years, they hardly ever tried to force the issue by bringing an extra man to apply pressure. "I wouldn't hold your breath if you're waiting on us to blitz," senior First Team All-Big Ten defensive end Matt Roth said. Against the Wolverines - who feature true freshmen quarterback Chad Henne - the conven- tional thinking would be to apply extra pressure and try to rattle the young signal caller. But Ferentz thinks differently. "We realize they do have a young quarterback, but I also realize they have the best receivers in the country - that might include NFL teams," Ferentz said. Ferentz is not alone in giving the Wolverine ball-catchers his utmost respect. "I think, by far, it's going to be one of our biggest challenges of the year as a secondary because, out of all three of their receivers, prob- ably all three of them will be drafted to the NFL," junior cornerback Jovon Johnson said. "It's not only a challenge for my team, it's a challenge for me individually to get recognized by playing well." So far this season, Michigan's vaunted trio of Braylon Edwards, Jason Avant and Steve Breaston has been pretty Edwards-heavy. The senior, who set Michigan's career-receptions record - he now has 181 grabs - against San Diego State, has 26 catches for 350 yards and four touchdowns in 2004. Breaston has been moderately effective with 12 catches for 94 yards and a touchdown, but Avant has hauled in just five passes for 57 yards. "Obviously, the more people that you can involve, the better you are," Carr said. The Michigan receiving corps could have a field day against Iowa, as the Hawkeyes struggled mightily against Arizona State's passing attack in a 44-7 loss last weekend. Heisman Trophy candidate Andrew Walter torched the Iowa secondary, going 31-for-43 for 428 yards and five touchdowns. Tonight begins tough weekend for spikers By Stephanie Wright Daily Sports Writer Michigan volleyball senior Lisa Gamalski has gotten off to a fast start this season, earning MVP awards in all three Michigan tournaments. After recording her first triple-double in the win against No. 22 Tennessee last week- end, Gamalski is just one kill shy of 400 career kills. Gamalski is proud of her individual success, but is ready to do whatever it takes to help her team. "For me, in my position, I have to be focused on the team," Gamalski said. "Personal success will come with team success. I just want to win." Like Gamalski, Michigan has been on a roll throughout its nonconference schedule. In addition to defeating seven of its first eight opponents in straight games on its way to a 9-1 record, Michi- gan has out-hit its opponents in every match and leads the Big Ten in oppo- nent-hitting percentage. But as the Wolverines open their con- ference season on the road against Iowa and Minnesota this weekend, they real- ize their competition is about to get a lot tougher. "The stakes go up," Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. "The Big Ten is known as one of the best conferences for volleyball in the nation. There are no more kind of easy, warm-up matches. Any team could beat any other team." Michigan plans to keep this attitude in mind as it takes on Iowa tonight. The Hawkeyes are coming off a disappoint- ing 2003 season in which they struggled to a 6-24 record, and the Wolverines have won their last two matches in Iowa City. But energized by new coach Cindy Fredrick, Iowa has gotten off to an 8-3 start this season. "Every match is important," Gamal- ski said. "More or less, they're a team we know we need to beat. We can't look past them and focus too much on Min- nesota. We've got to respect everyone in the Big Ten." One team that has definitely earned Michigan's respect is Minnesota. With a 1-9 record against the Golden Gophers in the last five seasons, the Wolverines under- stand how difficult it will be to win on the road. But Rosen remains confident that his team's tournament victories - especially its 3-1 win over Tennessee - have pre- pared them to take on Minnesota. "Minnesota is very steady and consis- tent, but we can compete," Rosen said. "They play a different, more physical style than Iowa, and we have to be ready for it. There will be no charity points in this match." While Minnesota is playing to main- tain its No. I ranking, Michigan sits just outside the top-25. The Wolverines believe they can only help themselves by turning in, their best performance Saturday night. "It's exciting because it's rare that we have a no-lose situation," Rosen said. "We have nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain." Gamalski echoes the attitude of her coach, enjoying her team's unusual sta- tus as underdog. "We've known all along that Min- nesota is a good team," Gamalski said. "We just need to play hard and have a good time. But no game do we walk into thinking we can't win." 0 Iowa running back Jermelle Lewis filled in for Fred Russell when Iowa beat Michigan 34-9 and rushed for over 100 yards. He is currently a senior on the Hawkeyes. "Our entire football team - and it starts with coaching - for whatever reason, we were not ready to play at the level you have to play at to be competitive," Ferentz said. "They thoroughly outplayed us." The performance was uncharacteristic of a Hawkeye defense that gave up just 184 yards to the Sun Devils last year and was thought to be lowa's strongest unit in 2004. "Everybody can make excuses, but there's no excuse for the way we played last week," Johnson said. "As a defense, we just came out flat." The offense didn't fare much better in Tempe. The youthful Iowa unit was held to just 100 yards of total offense and six first downs. "There's a lot of miscommunication up front, we missed a lot of assignments, we missed a lot of reads - we just weren't clicking as an offense," senior running back Jermelle Lewis said. "A lot of the inexperience played a role in this because we really couldn't find a rhythm and you need the experience to find the rhythm during the game." The Hawkeyes' youth starts with sophomore quarterback Drew Tate, who has had an incon- sistent start to the season, completing 37-of-63 passes for 400 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Iowa enters the game as a 13-point underdog. "We really don't pay attention to what the point spreads are, what the rankings are," Lewis said. "In the Big Ten, you really never know what's going to happen in the week." The last time Iowa visited the Big House, it stomped the Wolverines 34-9. Hawkeye players indicated that the Michigan game is one of their biggest contests of the year. "If you're going to win the (conference) title, you've usually got to go through them," Johnson said. ALEXANDER DZIADOSZ/DaIIy Usa Gamaiski and the Michigan volleyball team face a reenergized Iowa tonight. PROCRASTINATION STATION IOWA 24 MICHIGAN 35 " Before every football game this season, two of the Daily foot- ball writers will take the weekend's matchup to the PlayStation 2. " Play of the game - After trailing 17-0, Michigan pulled to within 24-21 at halftime thanks to a 73-yard touchdown catch by WR #1 as time expired. PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES: Iowa coach Gennaro Filce: "Blowing a 17-0 lead in the first half is embarrassing. Like playing a college football video game for six hours straight." "Coach Burke's 'Throw-it-up' offense shows his his true coaching prowess, or lack thereof." "Do you know if there's a coaching vacancy at Indiana? I heard Bob Hunt and Sharad Mattu have already applied for the prospective job." Michigan coach Chris Burke: "Well QB #12 set a team record with five touchdowns - if only I had started him." "We had three TD passes of 72 yards or more, so that was pretty good." "No, no one expected it to be snowing.: It dropped 60 degrees in one day - I thought the world was ending." "CB #3 had eight pass breakups and onebinterception - coach Filice should be ashamed of throwing at him that much." ,ter, _ threat? The Dally footbau writers break down each Big Ten squad. r - TheFerent-cies-ow coach Kr eet has replaced a legend and becomne one o the hattest commodites in all af r .coaching. Through i all, hers sparked some gret relationships. MEN'S SUCCER Soccer takes progy.ram--best ranking out East I By Jamie Josephson Daily Sports Writer weekend. Currently ranked No. 3 in the NSCAA/Adidas Top-25 poll, Michigan has "target" written all over it heading into a six-game away stretch, which starts at Rutgers last Friday. '11' I,, . ' .111 ujkllwl 11 1 The Michigan men's soccer team might as well trade in its maize and blue uniforms for big, red bullseyes this PA ! ! "A BLAST OF FRIGHT AND FUN! KEEPS THE BLOOD AND THE LAUGHS GUSHING!" e . r Let the Office of International Programs show you the AAY-644 *Over 80 programs in 3% countries * Courses in most fields * Spend a summer, semester, or full year " Earn U-M degree credit * Use financial aid, scholarships available * For sophomores, juniors, & seniorsr "I told the players that, when we were playing the underdog role and trying to break into the national powers, we would look at the polls and see where we were and would always want more," Michigan coach Steve Burns said. "Now we are playing with a target on our chest, and I think that's one of the most difficult chal- lenges that we have to overcome." The Scarlet Knights are no strang- ers to the rankings. Despite being cur- rently excluded from the top-25, Rutgers hasn't had a losing record in the past 20 years, according to coach Bob Reasso, who has been coaching the Piscataway, N.J., squad for the past 24 years. He says his team is not that intimidated to play the ranked Wolverines. "We're excited to play Michigan," Reasso said. "It's pretty standard for us (to play ranked teams). All of the good teams look forward to playing good competition." Rutgers lost its most recent game to No. 21 Villanova 1-0. It will look to improve its 2-3-2 record against Michi- gan (6-0) by relying on senior Andrew Herman and freshman Tommy Gray, who have tallied four and three points, respectively. Reasso said that this year's team is very young, being freshman and sophomore dominated. And while the Rutgers defense haskent the num- "I like playing the Big East schools," Burns said. "We have a lot of recruiting battles for the same athletes. They play the same style of soccer. (Playing Rut- gers) will help us prepare for the Big Ten season because they are a similar team." For Bruh. - a New York native - there are several perks of playing Rut- gers in New Jersey. "It's certainly exciting," Bruh said. "It's good for me to go home and have family and friends at the game who don't (often) get to see me play. But it means even more for our program to play out on the East Coast, or anywhere not in the Midwest, because it helps us gain exposure." Burns said that this is a game a lot of fans mark down on their calendars, as Rutgers has a history of making Final Four appearances and having its players move on to higher levels of the sport. Yurcak Field, Rutgers' home stadium, seats more than 5,000 people, and the game will be regionally broad- cast by Comcast. "We are excited to have a big game under the lights in front of a hostile crowd," Burns said. "We're trying to emulate them as a program, and the only way to do that is if you can com- pete on the same level as them." Rurns nredictsa tight game against W - - I I~ E U it . .1 I .... I ' I - 1 .1.. T . -, gh