2B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 24, 2005

CLUBSPORTSWEEKLY
Womens hockey looks to improve

Athlete of the Week

By Eileen Hengel
Daily Sports Writer
. Often sandwiched in between men's varsity hock-
ey practice and intramural broomball games at Yost
Ice Arena, the women's club hockey team has little
time to pencil in practice. But the women consis-
tently finish the season as one of the top club teams
in the nation.
After finishing 11th at women's Club Hockey
Nationals last season, the Wolverines are now look-
ing forward to not only making it back to the tour-
nament in St. Louis, Mo., but also improving on
their placement.
"We had a great showing at women's Club Nation-
als last year," junior captain Cheryl Mervich said.
"But we still hope to improve for next year."
Losing just two seniors from last year, the goal
seems realistic. The team has added four new names
to the roster, including goalie Maggie Wagner. In
addition to Wagner, senior goalie Jennifer Barnhart
and sophomore Casey Caskey give the Wolverines

many choices at goalie.
"We actually have three goalies this season," Mer-
vich said. "So far, we have played just three games
and (the goalies) are just rotating, but eventually
(Michigan) will get down to one starting goalie."
Beginning the season in Ann Arbor with a win
against Ohio State, the Wolverines followed the
game with two losses to the Buckeyes and Michi-
gan State. In the win against Ohio State, sophomore
Megan Lobeck scored in the first and third period
with assists from sophomore Hillary Eagan. Barn-
hard had 18 saves on 19 shots.
"The (first game against Ohio State) was big for
us because we proved to ourselves that we were able
to win," Eagen said. "It's always hard to come back
from a successful season and win the first game,
and we did."
Still, the two losses are of little significance after
the season opening win, according to Mervich.
"As a team, we are still trying to figure out how to
win together," Mervick said. "With all the talent and
commitment we put into hockey, the wins will come."

That talent speaks to the skill of the 13 returning
players that the Wolverines will dress this season.
"We only lost two players to graduation this year,"
coach Adam Winters said. "Both were contributing
players, but last season we also had five freshmen
that added to the team. This year we are going to
see a lot from them."
According to Winters, the new sophomores have
a greater drive to beat the teams Michigan lost to,
including Western Michigan, which beat the Wol-
verines in the division finals last season.
"One of our No. 1 goals, outside of Club Nation-
als, is to get back to (the division finals) and win,"
Winters said. "We just have to keep our goals in
mind throughout the season and stay motivated."
But according to assistant coach Andrea Shear
and the rest of the team, motivation is no problem.
"Everyone on the team is a dedicated athlete,"
Shear said. "And they have proved that every morn-
ing when they wake up at six to come to practice and
then again in the afternoon practice. We are a talent-
ed club, and hopefully the season will reflect that."

Name: Kyle Schroeder Team: Men's swimming and diving
Hometown: Milan Class: Freshman
Why: In his first NCAA event, Schroeder surpassed the NCAA
zone diving qualifying mark. The Milan native scored a 320.90
in the one-meter spring-board event.


'M' SCHEDULE
Date Event
10/24 M Tennis at Wilson/ITA
Regional Championships
10/24 M Golf at 49er Collegiate Classic
10/25 M Tennis at Wilson/ITA
Regional Championships
10/27 W Swimming/Diving vs. California
10/28 Field Hockey vs. Iowa
10/28 W Swimming/Diving vs.
Michigan State
10/28 Volleyball at Purdue
10/28 W Soccer vs. Michigan State
10/28 Ice Hockey at Alaska-Fairbanks
10/28 M Soccer at Akron
10/28 W Golf at The Landfall Tradition
10/29 M Basketball vs. Maize and Blue
Scrimmage
10/29 Football at Northwestern
10/29 Volleyball at Illinois
10/28 Ice Hockey at Alaska-Fairbanks

Location
Ann Arbor
Concord
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
West Lafayette
Ann Arbor
Fairbanks
Akron
Wilmington
Ann Arbor
Evanston
Champaign
Fairbanks

Time
9 a.m.
4 p.m.
TBA
5 p.m.
3 p.m.
6 p.m.
5 p.m.
7 p.m.
7 p.m.
7:05 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
TBA
6 p.m.
7 p.m.
7 p.m.
7:05 p.m.

Tourney
struggles
for 'M'
By Robert Kaitz
For the Daily
The old clich6 about the glass being
half full can be applied to sports. For
the Michigan women's tennis team,
this saying could be related to their
performance at the Wilson/ITA Mid-
west Regional Championship in East
Lansing. Though the results were not
completely there, the effort and progress
certainly were.
In the singles draw, senior Debra Stei-
fltr advanced the furthest, losing in the
Round of 16 to Minnesota's Nischella
Reddy yesterday. On Saturday, Steifler
won both her matches in straight sets. She
was down 3-5 in the first set of her first
match against Notre Dame's Brook Buck
but kept her head in the game and came
back to win the set 7-5. She took the sec-
ond set 6-1. In her second match, Steifler
easily dispatched Indiana's Brianna Wil-
liams 6-1, 6-4.
Another player who shined in the sin-
gles draw was sophomore Allie Shafner.
With a strong all-around game - includ-
ing a hard serve, great groundstrokes
and smooth volleying - Shafner really
caught fire in the tournament: After win-


'M' NOTE
Maravic the lone 'M'
netter to advance to
today's quarterfinals
Michigan's sophomore Matko
Maravic advanced to the quarter-
finals of the Wilson/ITA Regional
Championships after a straight-set
victory over his Ohio State counter-
part yesterday.
Maravic defeated Brian Koniecko
- the tournament's No. 13 seed - by
an impressive 6-3, 6-4 margin. The
third-seeded Maravic now faces Notre
Dame's fourth-seeded Sheeva Parbhu
today in action at the Varsity Tennis
Center at 9 a.m.
Maravic's early-round action
wasn't as easy. He managed to
squeak out a pair of three-set battles
on Saturday. He defeated Minneso-
ta's Osario Andres, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4,
just hours after winning another
marathon match.
His first-round match against
unranked Dmytro Ishtuganov was
another strong test. Maravic dropped
the first set against Ishtuganov, 3-6,
before regaining his composure and
securing the match by taking the next
two sets, 6-1, 6-3.
Maravic is the lone Michigan
player left in the main draw. Three

other Wolverines -

juniors Ryan

Heller and Steve Peretz and fresh-
man Andrew Mazlin - also quali-
fied for the division championship,
with all five of their matches going
into three sets.
Mazlin won an exciting three-set
contest in his first-round match,
defeating Robert Rotaru by a 7-6(1),
5-7, 6-3 score. Hung was also suc-
cessful, besting Johnny Berrido of
Louisville, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
Heller, the tournament's No. 17
seed, dropped a tough 4-6, 6-4, 4-
6 battle in his opening round match,
while his two other teammates
dropped their second round match-
es - Hung lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 while
Mazlin lost a tightly-contested 6-
7(15), 6-4, 6-3 match.
All three of the qualifying dou-
bles teams for Michigan are also out
of the tournament.
Two teams reached the third
round. The No. 2-seeded duo of
junior Brian Hung and Maravic put
together two 8-3 wins before being
upset by the Illinois duo of Pramod
Dabir and Brandon Davis, 8-6.
Another Illini duo proved to be
the roadblock for the other Michigan
team in the third round. Illinois's
team of Marc Spicijaric and Monte
Tucker beat Michigan's Heller and
Mazlin by an 8-3 margin. The team
won its first two matches, 8-6 and
9-8(5).
SCo'tt Bell

MIKE HULSEBUS/Daily
Sophomore Allie Shafner went 41 during the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships. Her record was best during the weekend.

ning three matches in the qualifying
round to make it to the main draw of
64, she beat Michigan State's Stephanie
Kebler in three sets. But Shafner lost a
hard fought match to Illinois's Momei Qu
in a third-set tiebreak.
"Allie really performed well and pro-
gressed throughout the tournament,"
Michigan tennis coach Bitsy Ritt said. "A
huge part of her game is heart and fight."
Freshman Chisako Sugiyamo, senior
Nina Yaftali and junior Elizabeth Exon

also advanced past the first round in
the singles draw. Sugiyamo easily beat
Ohio State's Julie Blackmore before los-
ing to Northwestern's Georgia Rose in
straight sets. Yaftali followed a similar
path. She beat another Buckeye, Caitlin
O'Keefe, in straight sets, but could not
get past Northwestern's Alexis Prousis in
the second round. Exon fell to Purdue's
Randi Schuler in a close three-set match
after defeating Toledo's Eunice Parvinci
in straight sets. Ritt was pleased with the

effort that all three put forth.
In the doubles draw, the tandem of
Yaftali and Sugiyamo was the only
team to make it through the round
of 32. They won their first two eight-
game pro-sets on Friday over teams
from Bradley and Illinois. In the
round of 16, they lost a to a North-
western squad, 8-4.
The Wolverines' next tournament
-the Thunderbird Invitational - begins
on Nov. 4 at Arizona State.



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