The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 7, 2005 - 5B
Hustling Helvey key in 'M' win

By Daniel Bromwich
Daily Sports Writer
At the end of the game, the ball ended up where it had spent most of
the day - in the hands of junior Kelly Helvey.
On Sunday, the Michigan women's basketball LG"
team defeated the Ohio Legends in Crisler Arena
to win their second exhibition game of the season
71-63.
While sophomore Ta'Shia Walker scored 24 points to lead the team
in scoring for the second straight game, the most dominant all-around
performance came from the hands of the most experienced player on
the team.
Helvey appeared to be everywhere, leading the team with five assists
and nine rebounds - including four on the offensive glass. She also
contributed three steals, drew three offensive fouls and altered several
shots even though she was credited with only one block.
"She plays her rear end off doesn't she?" Michigan coach Cheryl Bur-
nett said.
Burnett refers to Helvey as the backbone of her defense, and on
Sunday she was exactly that. Without playing overly aggressive -
she recorded her first foul with only 2:20 left in the first half and fin-
ished with just two - she locked down the passing lanes, repeatedly
deflecting the ball and creating fast breaks for the Wolverines.
"That's what I'm here for - my defense," Helvey said. "I'm not much of a
scorer. I don't really care to score at all. I just love to play defense."
Helvey scored just four points, but, as the energetic leader of the team,
she is not expected to provide the scoring punch. Based on Michigan's
exhibition results, that role appears to belong to Walker.
After leading the team with 20 points in the exhibition opener, Walker
added 24 on 10-for-16 shooting Sunday. Known for scoring most of her
points in transition and down low under the basket, Walker showed off
a rangy jump-shot as well yesterday, hitting two baseline jumpers from
17 feet away. She added a 15-foot bank shot to extend Michigan's lead to
67-63 with 1:27 left in the second half. And after six turnovers appeared

on the stat sheet next to her 12 first-half points, Walker adjusted and
committed no turnovers in the second half, with no adverse effects on
her offensive production.
"At halftime, coach Burnett was like "Shia, you have six. Don't get
anymore,"' Walker said. "I do whatever my team needs me to do. If they
need me to dive on the floor 50 times, I'll do that. If they need me to
score, then I'll do that too."
The team also needs Walker to rebound, and she contributed eight to
the team effort Sunday. After an opener in which the Wolverines were
beaten 34-29 on the boards and no player finished with more than five
rebounds, Michigan showed marked improvement. They out-rebounded
the Ohio Legends 35-25.
After Helvey and Walker, freshmen Stephany Skrba and Carly Ben-
son contributed four rebounds each, and Skrba added 10 points on 5-for-
7 shooting in just 20 minutes of action. Standing 6-foot-3, Skrba showed
off a slashing ability and quickness uncommon for a player her size. She
scored most of her points on aggressive cuts toward the basket, and her
four rebounds were the reward of her hanging around the rim.
In one stretch late in the first half, Skrba grabbed a defensive rebound,
deflected a loose ball off an Ohio Legends player to send the ball back
to the Wolverines, scored off an assist from Helvey and then beat her
defender into the lane and converted a pass from sophomore Krista
Clement into a bucket.
"Stephany Skrba did a great job of making an impact in rebounding,"
Burnett said. "We've known Stephany Skrba will be there for us. Her
progress will be accelerated from here on out."
Michigan held a lead of anywhere from three to seven points for most
of the game, but could not pull away. The Legends went on an 8-0 run
to finish the first half on top, 34-33. But the Wolverines came back and
held the lead for most of the second half. After the Legends cut the lead
to 65-63 on a three-point play by Quamesha McDowell with 1:40 left,
Michigan stepped up defensively.
The Wolverines did not allow the Legends to score again and pulled
away thanks to the bank shot from Walker and four successful free throws
from sophomore Janelle Cooper and freshman Jessica Minnfield.

Junior Kelly Helvey "plays her rear end off," according to Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett.

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Rowers close fall with last meet at Belleville

By Eileen Hengel
Daily Sports Writer

BELLEVILLE - Slicing through the thin fog
blanketing Belleville Lake, Michigan's novice row-
ing squad out-raced Eastern Michigan in all five
races Saturday.
For the races, three Michigan boats and one East-
ern Michigan boat lined up at the starting line and
raced a five-minute set to the opposite end of the
lake. The boats then turned around and repeated the
process four times.
Michigan's first and second boats led in each race
and, in the fourth sprint, all Michigan boats finished
ahead of the Eagles.
Coming off a tough race against Notre Dame last
weekend, the Wolverine novices were looking to
boost their confidence in preparation for the winter
training season.
"(The regatta gave) us something really good to

build off of," freshman novice Michale Musto said.
"Because otherwise we have no idea what we are
actually training for. It just gives the girls (that have
no rowing experience) a taste of competition."
In rowing, the season is split between winter races
- usually four to five kilometers - and spring races,
which are 2 kilometers.
Between the two racing seasons, the team focuses heav-
ily on strength and endurance training. Saturday's race,
according to freshmen Hannah Darnton, gave the squad a
taste of competition while putting the early morning train-
ing sessions into perspective.
Coming from a variety of athletic backgrounds,
the staple of the novice team is their athleticism.
And, according to second year coach Vita Scaglino,
the varying concentrations help the team in that
each girl brings different skills to the table. In turn,
each member learns from one another.
For novice rowing, all recruiting is on campus. In
late summer, Scaglino sends out thousands of let-

ters to young women enrolled at the University. She
then shifts through the responses, looking for those
that, on paper, fit the profile of a rower. Scaglino
noted though that, this season, the team got lucky in
that some women signed up for the program that had
prior rowing experience.
Freshmen Darnton, Liz McCannell and Musto rowed
throughout high school for club teams and high school
squads. The three expressed that the experience gave them
an opportunity to teach their skills to the novices, in turn,
making themselves better.
Still, rowing offers women the unique opportunity to
participate in a varsity sport without any prior experience.
Many young women on the squad played two to three
sports in high school and were not accustomed to the new
freedoms that college offers. Sophomore Ashley Hinton
joined the team in the fall.
"I missed competition, and crew offers that," Hin-
ton said. "Crew also brings with it a great communi-
ty of commitment to exercise and self-discipline."

FILE PHOTO
The rowers squared off against crosstown rival Eastern Michigan at Belleville
Lake on Saturday.


dbie Aidigutt 130tj
STAFF PICKS
Predictions against the
spread for 11/5/05
No. 1 Southern Cal (-33) at Stanford
Baylor (+28) at No. 2 Texas
No. 6Miai (6.5) at No. 3Virginia Tech
No. 4 Alabama (-16) at Mississippi State
N~o.7 UCLA (-9) at Arizona
Tennessee (+9) at No. 8 Notre Dame

Gabe
Edelson
Stanford
Texas
Virginia Tech
Alabama
UCLA
Notre Dame

Ian Matt
Herbert Venegoni

Stanford
Texas
Virginia Tech
Alabama
UCLA
Tennessee
Florida State
Wisconsin
Ohio State
Florida
California

North Carolina State (+13) at No. 9 Florida State Florida State
No. 14 Wisconsin (+11) at No. 10 Penn State Wisconsin
(lfinois (+34) at No.12 Ohio State Illinois
Vanderbilt (+19) at No. 13 Florida Florida
No. 23 California (+2) at No. 15 Oregon Oregon

Southern Cal
Texas
Virginia Tech
Mississippi State
UCLA
Notre Dame
Florida State
Wisconsin
Illinois
Florida
Oregon
Texas A&M
Auburn
Boston College
TCU
Fresno State
Colorado
Southern Cal

Stephanie
Wright
Stanford
Texas
Virginia Tech
Alabama
UCLA
Notre Dame
Florida State
Wisconsin
Illinois
Florida
Oregon
Texas Tech
Auburn
Boston College
TCU
San Jose State
Colorado
Boston College
8-9 (41)
77693(54)

George
Washington
Southern Cal
Texas
Virginia Tech
Mississippi State
UCLA
Notre Dame

Wright takes back lead
as Venegonifolds
Pathetic.
Apparently, the football
beat used the bye to take a
week off from their picks.
In six games, not one
prognosticator managed to
pick the winner. Stephanie and
Gabe both managed to turn
in below-.500 performances
and back into the lead.
Ian was too busy thinking
about hitting the open road
to double check his picks as
he becomes the first writer to
fall below .500 this season.
Venegoni evidently spent
too much time this weekend
playing with his sister's
dog Gus and not enough
researching his picks. Maybe
he would have been better
off using the bye week to
enjoy a relaxing cruise
on Lake Minnetonka.

Texas A&M (+16) at No. 16 Texas Tech
x,.17 Ariun ( 22.5) at Kentucky
No. 19 Boston College (-4.5) at North Carolina
Colorado State (+7) at No. 20 Texas Christian
San Jose State (+34) at No. 21.Fresno State
Missouri (+11.5) at No. 25 Colorado
Best Bet

Texas Tech
Auburn
Boston College
TCu
Fresno State
Missouri
Oregon
8.9(140)
7793 (45)

Texas Tech
Auburn
Boston College
TCU
San Jose State

Florida State
Wisconsin
Ohio State
Florida
Oregon
Texas A&M
Auburn
Boston College
Colorado State
Fresno State
Colorado
Florida State
6-11(#-:1)
69-77.3 (2.6)

Record
Record this week:

TCU
7-10(:1-0)
72-74-3(45)

6-1104(1)
76-70-3(4-5)


CAGERS
Continued from page 1B
of easy slam dunks.
With 13:20 left, Lakers center Dan Redder couldn't corral an errant
pass, and sophomore Ron Coleman scooped up the ball near the side-
line and finished the play with a strong dunk.
In their first action of the season against another school, the Wolver-
ines displayed both stellar and sloppy play.
On offense, Michigan didn't adjust well to Grand Valley State's
speed and committed 25 turnovers.
Defensively, the Wolverines' intensity forced 22 turnovers. Michi-
gan used a full-court press and half-court traps on and off throughout
the game to keep the Lakers off balance. But the Wolverines lost focus
in their half-court defense, failing to pressure the ball consistently and
properly rotate into help position. Michigan's lapses allowed Grand
Valley State to continually score from backdoor cuts leading to open
lay-ups.
"Our full court press was fine," Horton said. "We have to get better in
the half-court. We allowed a lot of easy baskets. These are all things that
we can correct so I think that we're headed in the right direction."

BADG ERS
Continued from page 1B
after Wisconsin's second goal. "We've got to get it done."
But the Wolverines couldn't get the offense
going, notching just six total shots compared to
Wisconsin's 25.
Michigan started the game with the wind at its
back, but it couldn't contain the Badgers.
Wisconsin took the lead in the middle of the first
half when midfielder Kara Kabellis passed it in to
Brown, who found Vermeulen breaking in behind the
Michigan defense. Vermeulen scored to give the Bad-
gers the lead 1-0.
The Wolverines didn't let up and answered at 43:06.
Sophomore forward Melissa Dobbyn worked her
way across the middle of the field, fighting her defender

for every inch. She broke through but got pulled down
from behind, drawing the foul. Freshman Danelle
Underwood sent the free kick flying to the right side
of the box where senior defender Whitney Kjar waited
to head the ball into the bottom-left corner of the net,
tying the game at one.
The 3-1 loss capped off a well-played tournament
for the Wolverines. Tough play earned junior Kate-
lin Spencer and Dobbyn spots on the all-tournament
team. But the entire Michigan team accomplished a
lot, despite missing out on the tournament win.
"We fought until the very end and played an awe-
some tournament," Boyles said. "I haven't seen us play
with so much heart and such passion. We needed to
pull out the wins we did earlier this week, and we did
and we did that with heart. And, today, you know, it
just wasn't our day. Everybody gave all they've got,
and that's all that we can ask for."

(7 ;

NOTES

Yaftali beats heat on way to
fourth-place finish
The heat was on, literally. The Michigan women's
tennis team ventured out to the desert for the Thun-
derbird Invitational at Arizona State and put forth a
valiant effort in its last event of the fall season.
In the main event, senior Nina Yaftali made it all the
way to the semifinals of the 32-player tournament. The
Westlake Village, Calif., native lost to Arizona State's
Rebecca Rankin, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, before falling in the con-
solation match for third place.
The doubles matches proved more successful for
Michigan, producing a combined six wins on Friday
and Saturday. The duo of Yaftali and sophomore
Monica Sly won a 9-8 nail-bitter against a pair from
California, and added a sound defeat of a squad
from Northern Arizona.

IL*a19rl^lzlTrl&

State (6-0 Big Ten, 17-3 overall).

actually gave the Wolverines an