16A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 2005 After slow start, Spikers have a lot of work to do By Sara Livingston Daily Sports Writer Everyone needs to start somewhere. And after opening its season with three consecu- tive losses, "somewhere" happens to be at the bottom of the pack for the Michigan volley- ball team. But where you start is not always an indication of where you are going. After losing three key seniors to gradua- tion, coach Mark Rosen and his team are not surprised to be in their current position. They believe that it is just a matter of time before this new group of Wolverines is able to find their rhythm. "We have a lot of freshnen and returning sophomores," senior Candace Gay said. "So we are a pretty young team, and we are still adjusting and gelling as a team. Everyone just has to learn to play with each other, and every year it's a different team. So now we just have to learn how each other plays and adjust to everyone's playing style and personality." The team's new setter, redshirt freshman Mara Martin, is still getting used to playing with the starting rotation and being in the spotlight. Every offensive play is run through her, and in just a matter of time, Martin and the rest of the front court will get in sync and be able to put together consistent offensive attacks. Rosen is hoping to speed up Martin's learning curve by working on sets in practice and making sure the team has their timing come game day. "It's hard when she hasn't set before and she has to connect with the hitters right away," freshman Kerry Hance said. "She is doing so well, and everyone just has to get to know each other on the court. In practice, we are just practicing passing and serving and everything and all of the techniques that will get us better and ready for games." Both Mastin and Hance are looked upon to contribute on a daily basis, despite their unfa- miliarity with the speed of college volleyball. Having two freshmen in the limelight creates a large problem for the Wolverines - the team's immaturity and lack of experience has been a little too noticeable during their early season matchups. The Wolverines have often found themselves struggling and allowing teams to close them out in the final points of a game. "I think our areas of deficiency right now have been consistency in both offense and defense but probably more offensively," Rosen said. "Our ball control hasn't been consistent, and we have had real breakdowns here and there with out passing, and those are areas we're going to focus a lot on and try to get bet- ter. I think, as we increase our offensive effi- ciency, we will be better." Another difficulty the Wolverines encoun- tered in their match against Nebraska was their inability to break the Cornhuskers' rhythm. Michigan allowed them to go on early runs in all three games, giving Nebraska a large enough lead that the Wolverines couldn't overcome. In addition, Michigan was unable to break a 12-4 run by the Cornhuskers that closed out the first game of the series. "We are a young team, and I think that really showed in the matches," sophomore Katie Bru- zdzinski said. "We would let teams get runs. I think that as we get more experienced together, it will help us eliminate teams from getting on those runs and closing us out of games." Sophomore Katie Bruzdzinski was named one of Michigan's three captains for this season. Brannen will join Blue coaching staff By Mark Giannotto Daily Sports Writer Semi-finalist at the 2005 World Track and Field Championships. Eleven-time All-American in track and cross country. Four-time Nation- al Champion in both indoor and out- door track. That is how Nate Brannen's resume reads. So it's safe to say that Michi- gan men's cross country coach Ron Warhurst had no trouble deciding whether to extend Brannen an invita- tion to join his coaching staff when the track star graduated last year. Luckily for the Wolverines, Brannen accepted Warhurst's invite. "Coaching has always been some- thing that I wanted to do," Brannen said. "I want to try and climb up the ranks in the coaching world once I'm done competing." Losing arguably the most prolific runner in school history would seem to precipitate a drop-off in the team's performance. But Michigan is hop- ing the addition of Brannen the coach will help offset the loss of Brannen the runner. "I think he has an interest (in coaching)," Warhurst said. "He's got the respect, and he's got-the creden- tials as an international runner. He can help the younger guys through tough times, like when they get injured, because he's been through it all." Not only was Brannen the Wolver- ines' best runner last year, but he was also the captain of the team. Now he is helping in the search for this year's leaders. "Last year, I talked to (senior Andrew Bauer) and kind of put the idea in his head that he is the best runner that we have," Brannen said. "I talked to (sophomore Mike Woods) over the summer and sent him a few e-mails and put it out there that he is one of the leaders on this team." Even though the team has only been practicing for a week, a new dynamic appears to have developed. "(Brannen) was usually the leader in the workouts, but now everybody takes a turn up frpnt, and we've been really working together well," Bauer said. "He's still there to motivate us even though he isn't participating in al the workouts Because Brannen is just one year removed from being a member on the cross country team, he is still close to many of the returning runners and can better address their needs throughout the season. "He's been going into Ron's office and sitting down with him and really planning out workouts for the sea- son," Bauer said. "(He's) been really focusing on how to help us in the long term, rather than just being our best now." Brannen will also continue to com- pete internationally. "He's always been a good leader, and, being an assistant coach (now), he's really going to be able to contrib- ute that much more in terms of lead- ership and training," Woods said. Brannen's impact as a coach will not be clear until the NCAA Cham- pionships in November where the Michigan cross country team will look to improve on its 26th place showing last season. FILE PHOTO Nate Brannen hung up his Michigan running shoes but will stay as an assistant coach. Ii U r ,m Soccer Officials Needed! ,t Why officiate Soccer??? .e Very Felxible scheduling , We provide all training - first time officials welcome , Uniforms provided and yours to keep! ; Earn $7.15 an hour . Meet new friends .4?. Training clinics at 7:00PM on Thursday September 8th and Monday, September 12th at the Intramural Sports Building Please contact Nicole Green at 764-0515 for further information. 0' TA c EX LUSve % "t" irn nor UUI E