TheqMichigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 10, 2005 - 7B " Michigan's late surge not enough for victory By Daniel Bromwich Daily Sports Writer For two minutes and 30 seconds yesterday afternoon at the U-M Soccer Field, everything appeared to be going right for the Michigan women's soccer team. At the 73:46 mark, sophomore Melissa Dobbyn thread- ed a pass to senior Therese Heaton, standing at the top of the 18-yard box on the right side. Heaton sent a bouncing shot across sNN the field and into the lower left corner CG t of the net to tie the Wisconsin Bad- gers at one. The Wolverines (2-3-0 N HEE Big Ten, 6-5-2 overall) had all the momentum and energy in the world. But less than three minutes later, the Badgers (1-4-1, 6-6-2) struck back when junior Allison Preiss headed in a cross from senior Amy Vermeulen for what would turn out to be the game-winning goal. The Wolverines had a final opportunity with 1:30 left in the game, but junior Judy Coffman's corner kick was headed out of the box by a Wisconsin defender to close out the match and go home with a 2-1 victory over Michigan. "You are really vulnerable five minutes after you score a goal," coach Debbie Rademacher said. "Unfortunately, * we just didn't tighten up enough defensively." The loss was Michigan's first at home this year, and it gave the Badgers their first Big Ten win of the year. The Wolverines expected physical play and a competitive match from a team winless in the conference. Junior defender Brenna Mulholland was one of the few players able to match the intensity of the Badgers from start to finish. She repeatedly knocked balls out of Bad- ger possession with well-timed slide tackles and physical play. But not all the Wolverines were up to the challenge at the start of the game. "We went out there in the first half, and we were getting shoved off the ball," Mulholland said. "That is such a good indication of who's going to win the game - who's win- ning the physical battles - and for some reason, which I don't know, we weren't able to go in there and have that confidence and that attitude." The problem with physical play might be a recurring one for the Wolverines. "The one thing that we emphasized this week in prac- tice was that every single consistent scout on us is that we can't handle physical play," Mulholland said. "People think that we get beat physically, and in the first part of the first half, we did." Wisconsin scored its first goal at the 20:30 mark, when senior Katy Lindenmuth received a cross from freshman Sandy Jorgensen and put her shot in the upper right corner of the net. But after the goal, the Wolver- ines began to wake up. They applied consistent pressure for the rest of the half, repeatedly taking free kicks and corner kicks, but they could not convert. Their best opportunity came with 15 minutes left in the half. Coffman sent a free kick to the far side of the net, but sophomore Jamie Artsis was just wide with her header. In the second half, the Wolverines stayed on the attack, with multiple opportunities to score. When Heaton put in her goal, Michigan looked to be in con- trol of the game. But three minutes later, the Badgers had the lead again. According to Mulholland, it was the small things that made for the deciding factors in the game. "The details are what decide the game," Mulholland said. "Not paying attention to simple details, not marking up when they have a throw-in, and then it gets crossed in and they get a goal. Those tiny details can lose you a game, and it's frustrating that that's what it came down to. You forget to do one small thing, and that can totally change the game." The loss changed the tone of the weekend for the soccer team. On Friday night, Michigan pulled out a thrilling 3-2 win over Northwestern when Judy Coffman juked a Wild- cat defender and blasted a shot into the lower left corner of the net from the 18-yard mark with only three and a half minutes left in the game. But the Wolverines left the U-M Soccer Field on Sun- day afternoon with a completely different state of mind. ALEXANDER DZIADOSZ/Daily Junior Brenna Mullholland's physical play was not enough to keep the Wolverines from falling to Wisconsin 2-1 yesterday afternoon at U-M Soccer Field. . 'M' shows special teams improvement HOOSIERS Continued from page 113 By James V. Dowd Daily Sports Writer The simple idea of starting in goal for the No. 8 Michigan hockey team has kept freshman Billy Sauer awake at night. One can only imagine the extra stress that came from spending more than 25 minutes on the penalty kill during this weekend's series with Quinnipiac. But Sauer was relieved when his team- mates shut down 14 of the Bobcats' 16 power plays. "I'm definitely pleased with our penalty kill" Sauer said. "I don't think our defense could block more shots. We're definitely doing great in the department and our hit- ting is great." After the Wolverines' power play went 1-for-10 in last weekend's exhibi- tion game against Toronto, coach Red Berenson had his team working on spe- cial teams - both power play and pen- alty kill - all week long. Senior captain Andrew Ebbett said the key to the pen- alty kill success was keeping attackers out of the high-percentage scoring zone between the faceoff circles. "We just try to make them work around the boards all they want," Ebbett said. "As long as they don't get any shots from good angles. If they get the puck in the middle, we want to block the shots. I think we did a good job not letting them get any shots from the slot or at the back door." During the early parts of this season, a strong penalty kill will be essential for Michigan as the team's 11 freshmen adjust to college hockey's strict officiating. Dur- ing Saturday night's game, freshmen accounted for 18 of Michigan's 22 penalty minutes. BOBCATS Continued from page 1B The lead did not last for long, as Quin- nipiac forward Brian Leitch banged the puck past Michigan goalie Billy Sauer, tying the game at one. Quinnipiac defenseman Dan Hen- ningson added a power-play goal with less than two minutes left in the game, capping off the scoring in the 5-3 Wol- verine win. Hunwick added two assists to his three goals, making him the first Wol- verine to tally five points in a game since Mike Comrie scored a goal and notched four assists on Nov. 5, 1999 against Ohio State. Johnson added three assists, giving him four points on the night. "Our first job is to keep pucks out of the net," Johnson said. "Chipping in offensively is just a bonus for us, and we had a fortunate night." On Friday night, Quinnipiac put up a tougher fight period, but the result was the same - a Michigan win. After a scoreless first, the Wolverines scored twice in the second. Center Danny Far- "I think it's just a matter of getting used to the refs right now," Ebbett said. "Obvi- ously they are cracking down in the first couple of weeks. For the first month there will probably be penalties like you saw this weekend. Freshmen are just getting used to playing at this level, it's a little quicker than juniors." Sauer also got help in earning his vic- tory at the other end of the ice. When Michigan was on the power play, it was significantly more successful than it was during last weekend's meager performance against Toronto. During the Toronto game, Michigan took 27 shots with a man advan- tage, but managed to put just one in, when sophomore Chad Kolarik knocked the puck home from the back door. After working on establishing a power play in practice this week, the Wolverines took just 19 shots on their 17 power plays during the Quinnipiac series. But this time around, the shots were more carefully selected and resulted in three goals. "We're getting there slowly," alternate captain T.J. Hensick said. "I think the more we work on it in practice and the more we get the chemistry down, things will get better. It was definitely improved from last week to this week but we still have a lot to do." Hensick and his power play linemates clicked into top form this weekend, notch- ing all three of the Wolverines' power-play scores. All three of the skaters on Hen- sick's line - himself, Kolarik and sopho- more Kevin Porter - earned a point on the power play during the series. Defense- man Matt Hunwick, a defenseman, scored two of his three Saturday goals with a man advantage. Even though defenseman Jack John- dig beat Bobcat goalie Bud Fisher for Michigan's first score of the year. Then, the Wolverines capitalized on a two- man advantage, with left wing Kevin Porter making the score 2-0. Things became interesting in the third when Quinnipiac forward Joe Dumais beat Sauer, cutting the Michi- gan lead to one with less than three "You always get chances (to score) against a good team, and the differ- ence is that they were finishing their chances at a much higher rate than we were," Burns said. "Regardless of how they scored their first goal, (they had) chances before that to get on the board. That's something we're waiting to see our team put together." Indiana's first goal against Michigan was scored by Nguyen 53 minutes into the game. A scrum in front of the net and a foul against the Wolverines allowed for a penalty kick. Nguyen's shot went to the lower right corner past a diving Dzubay. "I think (the penalty kick) was a weak call," Dzubay said. "But you have to deal with it and play on. I thought we did a pretty good job of that." After the goal, Dzubay tried to get his team pumped up by yelling at them to 'step up' and 'not give up.' Despite losing ground on the game, the Wolverines managed to play at an elevated level of play. "There wasn't any panic on our side, " Burns said. "We don't like going down a goal, but there wasn't any panic. And after that goal a lot of the energy came out of the game, and we started to call on the bench players to see if we could get it back. That was really the overall tactic that we thought Indiana couldn't last through." To the Wolverines' dismay the Hoosiers continued to make consistent breaks to the goal, but Dzubay turned away six shots in second half. "You've got to give a lot of credit to Dzubay," Burns said. "He is such a strong goalkeeper. He keeps us in games long enough to figure out how to win them, but today we couldn't do that." Indiana was able to convert its second goal at 79:56 when junior defender Julian Dieterle found sophomore Josh Tudela at the top of the goal box and Tudela connected with the ball, sending it through the Michigan defense and past Dzubay. The ball sank into the right corner and ended any hope of a comeback for the Wolverines. When the game concluded, the Michigan players looked defeated and frustrated with the loss, but Burns found solace in the fact that his team is developing its form and making it work in game situations. "We had a great work ethic in the game against a team that is as strong as they are because they work hard," Burns said. "Indiana is a bunch of guys that all buy into the theme that, if they don't step up, they can be replaced by the (guys on the) bench. I think our team is beginning to work towards this theme now that we have so much depth. Our next-game may have a dif- ferent ending." JOIN DAILY SPORTs. WE MAY NOT MAKE MUCH, BUT IT'S MORE THAN WE'D BANK IN THE NHL. RODRIGO GAYA/Daily T.J. Hensick's power play line notched three goals against Quinnipiac this weekend. son and Hunwick combined for five power-play points in the series, they could have notched several more. Many times the pair, as well as Michigan's other defensive pairings, tended to look for an extra pass rather than a shot, per- haps limiting their chances to score. minutes left. But Porter put the game away 44 seconds later as he tipped in a pass from assistant captain T.J. Hen- sick, giving the Wolverines a 3-1 win. Sauer made 25 saves in the game. With the weekend sweep, Michigan is off to its first 2-0-0 start since the 1999-2000 season. The Wolverines will look to stay unbeaten in the early "Sometimes we are too patient," Hen- sick said. "Sometimes we just need to get shots on net from the point to create things. It forces them to come out and play our defenders so we can get low. 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