8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 27, 2005 Helvey's improved offense increases Blue's chances WOMENS TENNIS Netters dominated b rival Notre Dame By Stephanie Wright Daily Sports Writer At the end of a practice this week, Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett instructed her players to take five free throws - and make at least four of them. Forwards Tabitha Pool and Kelly Helvey quickly paired up and began trading shots. That Pool went 5-for-5 was no sur- TON prise - she has attempted and made more free throws than any other Wolver- Michi ine this season. But Helvey has struggled lo from the line this year, shooting just .511. 8:00 So when Helvey drained all five shots, Carver-I she flashed a happy, but slightly shocked Ar smile and joked that she just has to work on not missing her layups now. Helvey's shooting touch is back - and along with it has come a more positive attitude about her early season struggles. At the beginning of the season, Helvey was in a dis- tinctive position as the only sophomore or junior on the team. She didn't have Pool's experience as a go-to player or the leadership skills that senior BreAnne McPhilamy had developed in her three years at Michigan. But Helvey had spent a full season in Burnett's program, which gave her more experience than her seven freshmen teammates. "I knew last year that I was definitely not the first option, with (Jennifer Smith, Stephanie Gandy and Pool)," Helvey said. "This year, I guess I just didn't really know what I could or could not do within our offense." That uncertainty caused Helvey to be more tentative on the offensive end than she had been in the past. For the first 16 games of the season, Helvey averaged just 5.1 points per game. She felt lost within the offense. That is, until Helvey decided to discuss her struggles with associate head coach Karen Rapier over the past couple weeks. Rapier told Helvey that the problem wasn't IGHT igan at wa 'p.m. Hawkeye ena that she was taking too many shots but that she was making poor choices about when to shoot. "As long as I play my game within our offensive game, then I can pretty much take any shot I want if it's a good shot," Helvey said. "If my team's going to get me open, now, I'm going to take the shot." In the past two games, Helvey has applied Rapier's advice to put together two of her best offensive performances of the season. In Michigan's lopsided loss at No. 10 Minnesota last Thursday, Helvey scored 11 points, her highest total since notching 16 points against Washington in November. She followed that game with an eight-point output in the Wol- verines' 63-61 win over Indiana on Sunday. While Helvey's confidence on offense has returned, her defense has rarely wavered. Against the Golden Gophers, Helvey held Shannon Schonrock to just six points, more than four under her average. But Helvey's best defensive performance may have come against the Hoosiers, when she limited guard Cyndi Valentin - who had been aver- aging almost 17 points per game coming in - to seven points on 3-for-12 shooting. And more than just stopping the opposing team's top shooter, Helvey continues to get what Burnett calls "effort ALEX LDZIADOSZ/Dly Kelly Helvey's offense has improved recently, but her defense has always been smothering. points" by swatting away balls and forcing turnovers. Pool refers to it as a "fire coming from her." "Once we see it from her - see her diving and stuff - it gets the whole team going," Pool said. "She's our best defender." Tonight, for the third straight game, Helvey will have to defend one of the Big Ten's top scoring guards, this time in Hawkeye junior Crystal Smith. Smith currently ranks fifth in the conference with 16.9 points per game and shoots .521 from the field. For the Wolverines to beat Iowa - a team just outside the top-25 in the nation - they will probably need Helvey to shut down Smith in the same way she contained Schon- rock and Valentin. By Daniel Levy Daily Sports Writer Generally, people are taught to be polite and courteous hosts. But in the sports world, the opposite applies. Teams use home courts to their advantage, leaving their guests miserable. The No. 21 Notre Dame women's tennis team followed this backward rule of etiquette yesterday, domi- nating No. 20 Michigan, 7-0. The Wol- verines' record dropped to 1-2 in the early season. The one-sided affair started with doubles play and, specifically Notre Dame's talent- ed duo of Catrina and Christian Thomp- son. The sisters - ranked No. 2 nationally in doubles - took out Michigan's No. 15 pairing of Michelle DaCosta and Kara Delicata, 8-5. AtNo. 2 doubles, BrookBuck and Lauren Connelly overpowered Michigan's Leanne Rutherford and Debra Streifler, 8-2. The two doubles victories gave Notre Dame the team point, but, just for good measure, its third doubles team of Sarah Jane Connelly and Kristina Stastny edged Michigan's Elizabeth Exon and Nina Yaftali, 8-5, completing the doubles sweep. Things didn't get any better for the Wolverines as the match shifted to singles play. With the exception of Exon - who was playing No. 2 singles - no Wolverine stayed close in more than one set. Despite Exon's gritty effort, Michigan failed to win a single set yesterday. Exon lost to Buck, 6-4,7-6(2). "Notre Dame played a great match," coach Bitsy Ritt said. "They are very solid at every position throughout both the sin- gles and doubles lineups." The rest of the singles just continued to show Notre Dame's depth. Michigan's No. 1 singles player, senior co-captain DaCosta, fell to Catrina Thompson, 6-2, 6-3. At No. 3 singles, Delicata fought hard in the first set before bowing out to Thompson's sister, Christian, 7-5, 6-2. Rutherford fell to Con- nelly, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 4 singles, and Yaftali gave Stastny a battle in the first set at the No. 5 spot before running out of gas in the second set. She lost, 7-5, 6-0. Rounding out the singles play was a 6-1, 6-2, loss by Streifler at the hands of Notre Dame's Liz Donohue. Despite its lopsided loss, Michigan is kept in mind the fact that this was its first road match of the season. "It's difficult to play on the road," Ritt said. "But you have to learn how to do it if you want to be good. The good teams are able to win on the road." 01 BURKE Continued from page 5A good people. Yes, the Horton situation is unfortu- nate and a black eye for a program just pulling itself together. But what we've seen from Amaker and from these play- ers is that one setback - or one setback on top of several injuries on top of a couple of disappointing losses - will not completely destroy the foundation that is being laid. It might not come as expediently or smoothly as people might hope, but it will come. And with Ed Martin and the Fab Five vanishing into the background, it's important to not let this latest incident overshadow all of the good things that have been happening in Amaker's four seasons. For all the work Amaker and the Wolverines have put in trying to rebuild Michigan basketball, they deserve from the public - at the very least - the faith in knowing that those efforts aren't going to stop. Where will those efforts lead from here? Nobody knows. But we're about to find out. And I'm thinking we're going to find out some- thing good. ICERS Continued from page 5A normally plays defense, but he might have to fill in at forward this weekend, Berenson said. He played on a line with Woodford and Henderson yesterday at practice. Berenson said that the defensive-ori- ented Wildcats put more pressure on the Wolverines' defense than their offense. "There's always the pressure on our offensive output, but I think that, if we're playing well defensively, then the offense will take care of itself," Hensick said. "It's not something that we put too much pres- sure on. But in a game that is going to be a defensive style of play all weekend, the goals are going to be important." Since last week, the Michigan defense has practiced blocking shots. This season, the coaching staff has used pucks instead of tennis balls to help their players become less fearful of getting in front of the puck. At the end of practice yesterday, Berenson - who used to be an all-star center in the NHL - took the forwards aside to talk about the intricacies of faceoffs. Losing faceoffs in the defensive zone has been a problem for the Wolverines recently, and Berenson doesn't want to give Northern Michigan any easy chances. "You can't give up much because it's so hard to get it back," Berenson said. "So that's the state that you're in. But that's a little emphasis on things that are important anyway." 'M' faces 'greatest team ever' By James V. Dowd Daily Sports Writer No one can accuse the No. 9 Michigan water polo team of taking it easy at the start of the season. Instead of adding weak opponents to pad their record, the Wolver- ines found strong opposition to prepare for the grind of the upcoming season. Michigan will open its season against archrival No. 11 Indiana and No. I UCLA, widely considered one of colle- giate water polo's best teams ever. Michigan will also face Colorado State and Slippery Rock, all at Canham Natato- rium this weekend. "It's one of those where I want my players ready to go out of the gate" Michigan coach Matt Anderson said. "I don't want a few warmup races before the Kentucky Derby, I want to hit it hard right away. That's why we schedule Indi- ana one of the first two games of the season. In addition, we have the greatest team ever assembled coming out here to play, and that's UCLA." The Wolverines open the weekend against Colorado State on Saturday morning, but the focus will be on Mich- igan's game against Indiana at 5 p.m. Since becoming a varsity program five years ago, Michigan has amassed a 16-game unbeaten streak against the Hoosiers, but the rivalry has not cooled. "We take the challenge," Anderson said. "Where a lot of teams don't in sports, we open our season with a rivalry game. In the last 16 meetings as a varsity sport, we have never lost to (Indiana), but (the games) are still blood baths." Less than 17 hours later, Michigan will be back in the water to face UCLA. Anderson hopes that playing the strongest competition might give the Wolverines an idea of what they need to do in order to compete for a national championship. "(UCLA is) the consensus No. 1 pick to go wire-to- wire," Anderson said. "It's to the point where they are hav- ing trouble finding teams willing to play them. I want the challenge of seeing where we are at and where we need to be at so that, hopefully, our final game of the year will be against them as well when we host the NCAA Champion- ships here at Michigan in May." Anderson can take comfort in the fact that he has senior All-America goalkeeper Betsey Armstrong anchoring the defense. Armstrong is a preseason favorite for the Peter J. Cutino award - collegiate water polo's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. "Armstrong is hands down the best goalie in the nation," Anderson said. "When she is on, there is no one you would rather have in front of your goal." Beyond Armstrong, the Wolverines have a strong, vet- eran core returning. Senior Sheetal Narsai holds Michi- gan records for points and steals, and senior Erin Brown holds the school record for assists. The duo has three years of playing experience under its belt, and Anderson is confident that Narsai and Brown can fine tune their abilities this season. "These are players that will continue to improve even though they are playing at a high level," Anderson said. "When you have players like (Narsai and Brown), what you are looking for (is a decline in) the number of times they don't play as well when they become sophomores, juniors and seniors. There were only a handful of times last year that they didn't play to their potential, and I expect - because they are veterans - that to be even smaller." FILL rn i./ Daily According to her coach, Betsey Armstrong is the best goalie in the nation. This weekend marks one of only two times that Michigan will play at home during the regular sea- son. Anderson hopes that the Wolverines draw a good crowd, helping to push his team to victory. While it's likely that many fans will not have seen water polo before this weekend's games, Anderson believes it's a game that the public can relate to. "You will see the physicalness of the game like hockey, the ball movement of basketball or soccer, and you'll see the things you can do in a pool without looking down at the black line," Anderson said. "Everyone has played Marco Polo or keep away when they were younger, and this is just an advanced version of those games." Chris Burke can be reached at chrisbur@umich.edu I- r F as se-.t,"-i"s ",sr }A h k rr- r d a, ".i" f ," : b:: 3". ; t is ti E:'er f' "4." n