8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 15, 2004 Down and out 'M'I By Anne Uible Daily Sports Writer gets shut out by Wildcats - Five for five. That's the number of shots on goal Northwestern had, and made, on the Michigan men's soccer team in the semifinal game of the Big Ten Tourna- ment on Friday. "When I look at the stats and look at the number of chances, they were about even, but the quality of chances sure fell on their M0 1 AN side," Michigan coach Steve Burns said. "They are a team that gets a lot of players back quickly defensively and chokes away spaces. If you're not playing the ball quickly through those spaces with few touches and a lotMc GN of movement through it, I think it's to their advantage, No E and we didn't address that." The seventh-seeded Wolverines (1-4-1 Big Ten, 10-7-4 overall) entered the game against the third-seeded Wildcats (3-2-1, 14-4-2) confident they would be evenly matched against their competition. The decisive 5-0 loss shocked the Wolverines, and left them upset by the possible conclusion of their season. "I'm a little speechless," senior captain Knox Cameron said. "They just came out and surprised us, to be honest." The Wolverines started off the game echoing the same intensity from the night before in their 1-0 win over Ohio State. The team dominated corner kicks and second balls, making several aggressive attacks on the Northwest- ern net. While they were unable to convert any shots into open kicks on net, the Wolverines outshot the Wildcats 10-6 by the end of the first half. In the midst of Michigan's dominance for the first 45 minutes, Northwestern scored its first goal in the 14th minute during a scrum in front of the Wolverines' net. Brad North was able to get the ball past junior goalie Peter Dzubay to open the scoring. "We were pretty optimistic going into halftime," senior captain Knox Cameron said. "We thought we had just given them a goal and we were going to get it right back." But, the second half was a one-sided game in favor of Northwestern. The Wildcats scored back-to-back goals in the 47th and 48th minute, stunning the Wolverines into submission. "After the second goal it was like, 'OK, we're down two, let's get after them,' " Cameron said. "Before we knew what had hit us, we were three goals down. They came out and took it to us." Northwestern's third goal was highly disputed by the Michigan bench. As Wildcats' forward David Roth tore down the midfield toward the goal, he ran into senior captain Matt Neimeyer and knocked him to the ground, unable to stop Roth from getting to the net. Neimeyer was removed from the field with a hurt foot, and didn't return for the remainder of the game. The Michigan bench got so heated about the goal being scored while they were down a man that the referee flashed the team a red card. Northwestern continued to dominate the game and scored two more goals by the conclusion of the 90 minutes. "It's tough to leave the field knowing that this could possibly be my last game," Cameron said. "It's tough, but we can't hang our heads too low. We played a good team. They finished their chances. We had chances, too, but we just couldn't put them away." Today at 4:30 p.m. on ESPNews, the NCAA will announce the 48 teams chosen to compete in the NCAA Tournament that begins on Friday. Burns is optimistic about Michigan earning an at-large bid. "We are very close," Burns said. " I think the strength of our schedule really helps us. When you look at the significant wins we've had and we've haven't had any bad losses to teams we shouldn't have lost to, we're right there." Senior Mychal Turpin defends the ball in Michigan's win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament last Thursday. The team's success stopped there - it lost 5-0 to Northwestern in the second round. Last-minute surge can't save Blue By Matt Singer Daily Sports Writer COLUMBUS - Trailing 3-0 to Detroit in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Michigan women's soccer team needed breaks to get back in the game. Down 3-1 with six minutes left, the Wolverines needed a miracle. They almost got it. With 5:53 to go in the second half, freshman Melissa Dobbyn boomed a shot to the top-left corner of the net past Detroit goalkeeper Alisson Dube and cut the Detroit lead to 3-2. Down by just one goal, the E IT Wolverines smelled blood, and furiously attacked the net. But time simply ran out on Michigan. As the final minute ticked away, sophomore Emily Kalmbach sent a cross into a pile of bodies in front of the Titans net. The ball went through the box untouched, and the Titans cleared it, allowing them to celebrate their first-ever NCAA Tour- nament victory. "Obviously, we're extremely dis- appointed," Michigan coach Debbie Rademacher said. "To get down three goals in the first half and have to try to get out of that hole was tough. We gave it everything we had, and we were chip- ping away at it, but it was just a little bit too late." Dropping five of its previous seven games, Michigan hoped for a fresh start after receiving a berth to the NCAA Tournament. But on Friday, taking full advantage of a stiff tail- wind, the Titans jumped all over Michigan early on. "Definitely, (the wind) affected the game," senior tri-captain Rachel Rothenbach said. "But it's nothing that a team shouldn't overcome. It's part of the game to deal with the weather. We've played in those conditions before." Detroit scored its first goal in the 14th minute after sophomore Brenna Mulholland took down Titan forward Judith Atwood inside the box. Despite Mulholland's protest, the referees awarded Detroit a penalty kick. Junior Allison Epple beat Michigan sopho- more goalkeeper Megan Tuura, and the Titans jumped out to an early 1-0 advantage. Michigan missed out on a golden opportunity less than five minutes later. Freshman Jamie Artsis was taken down from behind on her way to the net, giving Michigan its own penalty kick chance. But Dube scooped up senior tri-captain Laura Tanchon's attempt and preserved Detroit's lead. Soon after, Detroit sophomore Kathy Banjavcic worked her way behind the Michigan defense, finding herself alone with Tuura. Banjavcic popped the ball over the charging goalkeeper, giving the Titans a 2-0 lead. Following Detroit's second goal, Michigan reasserted itself offensively, earning a few offensive opportunities of its own. But with less than two min- utes to go in the half, the Titans netted the backbreaker. Senior Judith Atwood streaked down the right side of the field, and Tuura once again came out of the net to challenge. This time, Tuura made a spectacular diving stop, but Banja- vcic collected the rebound in front of an empty net. She tapped it in, giving Detroit an enormous 3-0 halftime lead. Going into halftime, Michigan knew it had a daunting task ahead. But the Wolverines weren't packing it in. "We went into halftime, we had the wind (in the second half), that is an advantage," Rademacher said. "We've seen teams come back from those kind of deficits, and we certainly thought we had a chance to do it." The combination of the wind and Detroit's ultraconservative play set up a wild second half in which.Michigan outshot Detroit 13-1. The Titans made no serious effort to move the ball down the field, hoping that packing the box would make their 3-0 lead stick. The strategy almost backfired. After failing to convert a few good scoring opportunities early in the half, Michigan finally got on the board in the 62nd minute. Sophomore Judy Coffman used the wind to her advantage, hooking a corner kick into the net to score her first career goal. The Wolverines continued to apply pressure, but Dube came through in the clutch, making seven second-half saves. Despite Dobbyn's late goal, the monu- mental task proved to be too much for Michigan. In the end, all the Wolver- ines could do was reflect on their earli- est NCAA Tournament exit since 1997. Especially for the seniors, it was a bit- tersweet finale. "It's been a great few years," Tanchon said. "I've grown not only as a player but as a person, and Michigan's got a great program." The early exit was disappointing for a program that came into the season with much higher expectations, but the Wol- verines' future still looks bright. Wheth- er it was Dobbyn booming shots, Artsis hustling past her opponents or freshman Carrie LaCroix weaving through the Titan defense, the Wolverines' youngest players played major roles in the attempt at a comeback. "I think we had a lot of young players out there that haven't been in this situa- tion before," Rachemacher said. "Every year makes a huge difference. Where (the seniors) are today, as opposed to four years ago, is light years different. I think if you can take a young core and bring them up, they're going to learn. You know you're going to have to have games like this in a four-year career. You hope it isn't in the first round of the NCAA's, but you know you're going to have your ups and downs. This (loss) is what we're going to feed off of to pre- pare for the future." - I JEFF LEHNERT/Daily Melissa Dobbyn's goal in the last minutes of Michigan's game against Detroit brought the Wolverines within one, but goal could not manage another before time ran out. - . .. ..-.sT~too~ .a. YL. rxrv . rr -nv L sbiy er n I I HErldlik