The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 11, 2004 - 7B Tuura terrific in weekend sweep s Illini need five sets to beat Blue By Matt Singer Daily Sports Writer The referee places the ball just 12 yards away from the goal line. Team- mates and opponents have cleared the goal area - just the goalkeeper stands between the ball and the net. In a game where good scoring opportunities are a rarity, the penalty kick is a gift from the soccer gods - a point blank shot at glory. So when Michigan sophomore Judy Coffman was taken down inside the 18-yard box in the first half against Purdue on Friday, women's soccer coach Debbie Rademacher knew whom to turn to. "It's not often you get a (penalty kick) dall," Rademacher said. "You always want someone who's confident. You don't make someone take it. You want someone who wants to take it." Senior captain Laura Tanchon fit the bill. The midfielder already takes the Wolverines' corner and free kicks, and she's no stranger to pressure situations. So it was no surprise when she booted the ball past Purdue keeper Lauren Mason, scoring the game's lone goal in Michigan's 1-0 victory. For Rich1 No. 15 Michigan (6-1-1 Big Ten, 9-3- 2 overall) needed to come out strong to start a five-game road swing. But Pur- due (3-4,7-6) gave Michigan all it could handle, matching the Wolverines' physi- cal brand of play at every opportunity. The two teams combined for 34 fouls - a rate of more than one every hEethree minutes. "The referee was calling a pretty tight game," Rademacher said. True to her usual form, sophomore goalkeeper Megan Tuura was a brick wall, stopping five Boilermaker shots. The Michigan defense kept the pressure off for most of the game, but Purdue broke through with an offensive spurt in the last ten minutes. Tuura was able to keep the net clear and seal the Michigan victory. "Megan played great in goal," Radem- acher said. "She made some key saves." After taking out the Boilermakers, the Wolverines headed to Blooming- ton yesterday to take on Indiana (3- 2-1, 8-4-1). In a game that played out much like the previous one, the Wol- Michigan's Therese Heaton scored the only goal in Michigan's 1-0 over Indiana just 1:46 in to the match. The junior leads the Wolverines with eight goals in 14 games. verines jumped out to an early lead and fought tooth-and-nail to hang on to a 1-0 victory. "They were two really physical games - two teams that play pretty direct," Rademacher said. Junior Therese Heaton, who scored in six consecutive games earlier in the season, got back in the groove when she took on a couple of defenders and blast- ed the ball into the left corner of the net. The goal would be all Michigan needed. Its rock-solid defense would hold Indi- ana to just eight shots. "You want to go into halftime up," Rademacher said. "You know the teams in the second half come out hard, it's hard to recover when you've dug your- self a hole" Tuura once again came up huge, mak- ing four saves and keeping Indiana's nine corner kicks out of the net. Tuura has given up just two goals in her last seven games. "Our defense is playing well," Rademacher said. "We're not getting beat behind because we're covering for each other." By Stephanie Wright Daily Sports Writer Despite bouncing back from a 30-16 game three defeat to force a decisive game live, the Michigan volleyball team ultimately couldn't hold off No. 24 Illinois, losing 3-2. Illinois played well on both offense and defense throughout the match. The Illini out-hit M ichigan .303 to .4 ,a dGAf u .240, and had four LNis3 players finish with double-digit digs. But Michigan coach Mark Rosen attributed the loss more to what Michigan didn't do than to any- thing Illinois did. "Illinois played really well defensively, and followed every swing we took with a really good dig." Rosen said. "But we had a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes in ball control, errors and passing, particularly in the third game. We needed to execute at a higher level." With the match tied at 1-1, Illinois (3-2 Big Ten, 11-3 overall) was in con- trol of game three from the start, but strong Michigan hitting kept it close early. Then a string of Wolverine attack errors propelled the Illini to a 22-11 lead. Illinois held Michigan to a .022 hitting percentage and forced 10 attack errors on its way to a 30-16 win and a 2-1 lead in the match. Michigan's 16 points in game three was its lowest total of the season. Game four was back and forth throughout, with 10 ties and four lead changes, until Michigan pulled ahead to take a 26-25 lead. Freshman Katie Bruzdzinski - who had 10 kills in the game - and Lyndsay Miller had two kills apiece to lead the Wolverines on a 4-1 run to win the fourth game, 30-26, and tie the match 2-2. Michigan (4-2. 14-3) carried this momentum into game five, keeping it close despite Illinois hitting .526. But with the game tied at 10, a kill by Illinois soph- omore Meghan Macdonald and a Wol- verine attack error gave Illinois a 12-10 advantage that it would not give up. The Fighting Illini won game five, 15-12. "We competed well to get back into game five." Rosen said. "We were right there, the game was going back and forth, and then the next thing you know, (Illinois) is up by two, and that's all you need." Bruzdzinski led the Wolverines in kills for the fourth straight match, finishing with a career-high 20, while adding nine digs. Senior Jennifer Gan- dolph rebounded from an off match against Michigan State last week to fin- ish with I kills and 12 digs, recording her sixth double-double of the season. Two other Wolverines - Miller and sophomore Erin Cobler - finished with double-digit kills for the match. Although Michigan hit well and out-blocked Illinois eight to five, it struggled in its service game and was outplayed on defense. The Wolverines had just one service ace and 11 service errors. In contrast, the Illini recorded eight aces, while committing just seven errors. "Illinois served really tough," Bru- zdzinski said. "They got us out of our system, but it's our own fault. We need to be more consistent so that doesn't happen again." Illinois was also more aggressive on defense throughout the match, finish- ing with 81 digs to Michigan's 70. "Illinois came out with a higher level of defense at the start of game two," Rosen said. "It really put us back on our heels and made us scattered. We have to be stronger." ardson, timing is everything By Ben Voss For the Daily In the world of swimming, timing is everything. Elaborate electronic timing sys- tems allow swimmers to win races by mere hundredths of a second. Women's swimming and diving coach Jim Richardson knows the importance of timing in events, but he also makes it a priority to know the value of timing in long-term training as well. "We develop freshmen in a timely fashion," Richardson said. "We don't give them too much (work) too soon, so that we don't bury the kids and get them too fatigued." The team held an intrasquad meet on Saturday before the football homecoming festivities began. Rich- ardson said the scrimmage served as a preview for the season ahead and as a way for new members of the team to get used to the format of a col- lege swim meet. After the meet took place, the coaching staff felt confi- dent in its team for this season. "I am more comfortable with this team and its potential than I have been in a long time," Richardson said. He's so comfortable, in fact, that he believes the team could ultimately win a Big Ten championship. Rich- ardson's confidence comes from his success with a new training program he started last year. Richardson began a training regi- men that focused on knowing how hard to push the athletes at differ- ent times of their careers. Genadijas Sokolovas from USA Swimming and Sergei Beliaev, took data compiled from sports schools in the former Soviet Union and created "algo- rithms that pin-point the key ele- ments of training" over a given year. Richardson worked closely with the physicians to apply their knowledge to training the team. He developed a hybrid training format that involved swimming and dry-land conditioning. The dry- land training has helped to combat tendonitis and shoulder injuries, problems that plague the swim- ming community on a regular basis. According to Richardson, his team did not have a single serious shoul- der injury because of the program all last season. After last year, two-time All- American swimmer Susan Gilliam made it to the Olympic trials over the summer. She believes she found success through the new training format. "The main reason I got faster last year was because of the dry-land program," Gilliam said. This year, the team's three most important meets are the Big Ten Championships in Febru- ary, the NCAA Championships in March and the USA Swimming National Championships in April. Richardson will try to have his top swimmers peak in the USA Nationals, which, if they qualify, will place them into international competition. Richardson feels it's important to represent Michigan swimming across the world. "It's good to represent Michi- gan day in and day out," Richard- son said. "But if you can represent Michigan and your country at the same time on a broader scale, that's even better." TONY DING/Daily Sophomore Ellen Van Cleve benefits from the training of coach Jim Richardson. Freshman Lyndsay Miller had 15 kills on 35 attempts in a 3-2 loss to Illinois on Friday. &4 VOTED ANN ARBOR'S BEST BURRITO 2005 - ARMAGEDDON OPEN UNTIL 4AM i I 810 S. STATE ST. I 1 ' r A- _______________I__________ 1 1 I I e LII I ib I u oven 1 I 1Lit t - -saA -1sii1 1