6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 20, 2006 Injury stalls meet, slows 'M' finish By Katie Niemeyer Daily Sports Writer Just like two young fans who participated in a mid- meet contest, it looked like the Michigan women's gymnastics team might be putting all the pieces of the puzzle together Friday night. The Wolverines started the night on vault, an event they've been struggling with. But Friday night, Michigan started things off right. By hitting four vaults with a 9.800 or higher, the Wolverines posted their first score above 49.000 on vault this season. "We went back to the gym last week, and we just said hey, 'We've got to get better here,' " Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "And we put a lot of effort into that, and it showed. I was just really pleased with that. Everybody (did well) on vault. Katie Lieberman did a great vault." The sophomore Lieberman won the event with a 9.875. This win was just the first of many for the Wolverines, who defeated New Hampshire 195.600-190.850 at the Coaches Care Challenge at Crisler Arena. But despite the strong start, the night turned into an anticlimactic one. As the Wolverines continued to their best event, bars, the Wildcats moved to vault. And in the final sec- onds of the touch warm-ups, New Hampshire junior Jaime de Mello suffered a neck injury and could not be moved until an ambulance arrived. While everyone else in the arena fearfully waited, Michigan completed its bar rotation. "Bars went okay," Plocki said. "It wasn't our very best performance, but bars went okay. And, I think it's just unfortunate because when you have an injury like that, you have to take every precau- tion. You just have to. It took the ambulance forever to get here." With their second rotation complete, Michigan could do nothing but wait until de Mello was taken out on a stretcher, and the Wildcats had completed vaulting. When the Wolverines resumed competition it was obvious the interruption had affected everyone. "It just deflated the energy, it just sucked it right out of the arena," Plocki said. "And the fans and every- thing else, it was just really hard. For our kids to fin- ish bars and then have that long a break before beam, I think was hard. It obviously had an effect on New Hampshire's team and their performance. 0 EUGENE ROBERTSON/Daily Senior Luke Bottke hit both his floor exercise routine and vault, but the championship-like performances couldn't save the Wolverines' meet. Season-low point total doo-ms Blue in Iowa t-meet TREVOR CAMPBELL/Daily Freshman Tatjana Thuener-Rego tied teammate Lindsey Bruck for the balance beam title in Michigan's win. "It just really ended up being a disappointing eve- ning all the way around. Not because we didn't have some high points in our performances, but overall, this was not how I thought the meet was going to finish after the start that we had." Junior Lindsey Bruck stole the show, winning both bars and floor with two scores of 9.900, tying freshman Tatjana Thuener-Rego for the balance beam title with a 9.850 Bruck (39.425) won the all-around, followed closely by Thuener-Rego (39.300) and senior Jenny Deiley (38.900). "We've improved some things and built our con- fidence a little more," Bruck said. "And that's what we need to do, just keep improving. We were work- ing on landings, working on technique. Each week, we're just going to keep improving, and, hopefully, it'll pay off." Despite the length of the meet due to injury, many fans stayed until the end. The event raised more than $6,000 for the Coach Carr Cancer fund. "I was thankful to the people who did come out and stay until the end," Plocki said. "The most important thing about tonight wasn't as much the gymnastics meet, as it was the fundraiser that we did for the Coach Carr fund." By Colt Rosensweig Daily Sports Writer One week after posting its high- est team score of the season, the No. 5 Michigan men's gymnastics team posted its lowest, 196.10, and dropped a tri-meet against No. 3 Illinois and No. 6 Iowa. The Wolverines began the night on the still rings, which is typically one of their stronger events. But the team struggled, and three consecutive gym- nasts made major mistakes. Despite that, after a solid performance on the floor exercise, Michigan led the meet. "We got off to a rough start, and we didn't have our strongest lineup in (because this wasn't a target meet)," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "So it would be reasonable to expect that we wouldn't have the highest team score. It just seemed like a lot of times, if something could go wrong, it would and did." The pommel horse was also a weak point, in contrast to the team's 6-for- 6 performance against Minnesota on Feb. 11. But, there were several bright points to build on. Senior Luke Bottke performed as if he was in a championship meet, hitting both his floor routine and vault. With a 9.45 score on floor, Bottke won the event, beating out both national team member Justin Spring of Illinois and U. S. floor exercise champion Michael Reavis of the home-team Hawkeyes. "A guy like Luke is above (meet classifications)," Golder said. "He nailed his vault, and he nailed his floor routine. You call it a target meet or an opportunity meet - no matter what you call it, he gets out there and per- forms. He's a championship performer nearly all the time, and that's what everybody has to learn how to do." Michigan also got a got strong floor routine from freshman Scott Bregman, but he received only an 8.8. "I thought (after Bottke's routine), '(Bregman is) set up perfectly, he just has to nail his set,' " Golder said. "Which he did, and then he got an 8.8. I just thought, 'What the heck? What's going on here?' Sometimes in football or basketball, the official's standing right in front of the player and still makes a bad call. And you just won- der, 'How could he not see that?' But it happens repeatedly, so I guess it's just an unfortunate part of sport and human judgment." Golder said that With repeated high- deduction routines, judges can get into the rhythm of taking off a lot of points, hurting gymnasts down the line. The chaotic environment of the meet may have affected the team's perfor- mance as well. Three men's teams competed against each other instead of the usual two, and two women's teams were locked in their own competition. "If anything, I think they were just holding back too much," Golder said. "They looked like they were a little ten- tative in their effort to be perfect, and it doesn't work when you go that way. It's like a 40-meter race - it's pedal to the metal. That's what I think some of them (still) need to learn how to do." Next Saturday, Michigan will look to avenge itself against Iowa and Illinois, along with four other teams, at the Pacific Coast Classic in Oakland, Calif. In contrast'to the tri-meet, the team's top lineup will be in place for this important com- petition, just as it was for the meet against Minnesota. "I've never coached a team that didn't have a bad meet during the sea- son - it's a matter of how you rebound from it," Golder said. "Every team that I've ever coached since I've been at Michigan has always put it together at Big Tens and NCAAs ... I think we'll put it together. We'll get a lot of incen- tive from this." After quick start, Netters can't close,, By Jamie Josephson Daily Sports Writer Halfway through Saturday evening, things looked good for the No. 42 Michigan men's tennis team at their home meet. The Wolverines were up 2-0 against No. 31 Notre Dame and needed just two more singles wins to seal the victory. But looks can be deceiving. The Fighting Irish turned up their intensity to roll over the Wolverines with five straight singles victories, defeating Michigan 5-2. "On each individual court, I think we still have a few holes in our game that we need to plug up," Michi- gan coach Bruce Berque said. "But we're getting there. We're capable of beating a team like (Notre Dame), but today, we didn't quite play well enough. They are a good team. I think they're even better than what they're ranked." Michigan (5-3) certainly looked like it was up to Notre Dame's challenge at the beginning of the con- test. The Wolverines sealed the doubles point with two solid victories. Michigan's No. I duo of sophomore Matko Maravic and junior Brian Hung relied on quick hands at the net and exploited the angles of the court to defeat the Fighting Irish tandem of Ryan Keckly and Barry King, 8-6. "We've been playing solid throughout the whole year" Maravic said. "We're not doing anything spe- cial. We're just sticking to the basics." At the No. 3 position, the pairing of junior Steve Peretz and freshman Scott Bruckmann held off Notre Dame's Brett Helgeson and Andrew Roth in similar fashion, 8-6. But in the singles competition, Michigan ran into trouble. The only bright spot for the Wolverines was a statement performance by No.58 Maravic at the No. 2 slot against No. 14 Sheeva Parbhu. Last November, Maravic suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Parbhu in the quarterfinals of the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships. Maravic couldn't secure the win despite having three match points. But on Saturday, the Wolverines' emotional leader replaced that bitter taste of defeat with the sweet fla- vor of revenge. Maravic redeemed himself in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, taking out Parbhu with a combination of short-game and baseline weaponry. "It was a good win for him," Berque said. "He was pretty determined. As soon as I announced the lineup and who each guy would be playing, Matko pumped his fist. He's been playing very well. He's just been los- ing close matches to a lot of good players. So, it was nice to see him get back on the board:" Maravic, who usually competes at the No. I singles position for Michigan, hardly skipped a beat at No.2. "I was very pleased with howI played today," Mara- vic said. "I was really aggressive with my returns. I was serving pretty well throughout the whole match too." But the rest of the Wolverine contingent came up short on the singles end. Hung - playing at the No. 1 position for the first time this season - made some uncharacteristic unforced errors at the net and fell to No.8 Stephen Bass, 7-5,6-2. In the remaining four singles matches, Michigan found itself gridlocked in three-set contests. And in all four, Michigan bit the dust. At the No. 3 position, freshman Andrew Mazlin appeared to be on his way to yet another win in his typical "comeback kid" fashion. After dropping the first set to Helgeson, Mazlin turned up his service game to steal the second set. But unforced errors plagued the rookie in the third set, leading to a tough 6-4,3-6,6-2 defeat. The usually reliable Peretz also found himself in a nail-biter at No. 5 singles. After losing a close first set, Peretz trailed 2-4 in the second but battled back to win the frame in a tiebreaker. The match went to a third-set, 10-point tiebreaker, but Peretz couldn't bury Notre Dame's Eric Lagenkamp and suffered just his second singles loss of the season, 6-4,6-7(4), 1-0(2). Peretz's visible frustration on the court seemed to represent the Michigan squad's tenor. Despite the dis- appointing defeat, Berque recognizes his team's grow- e JUSTIN BASS/Daily The No. 1 duo of sophomore Matko Maravic (pictured) and junior Brian Hung won another match. ing potential. "I definitely do feel like our team is improv- ing," Berque said. "We're closer to beating a team like (Notre Dame) than we were before. Making the schedule intentionally tough was done by design to push us to get better. And we are getting better." Dashers pace Blue in home meet 0 WOMEN'STENNI Exon stumbles, but recovers By Eileen Hengel Daily Sports Writer By John Geise Daily Sports Writer Morgan Trent knew the race was over as soon as he got out of the blocks. Running his first 60-meter race since high school, the redshirt freshman didn't get the start he was looking for and trailed fresh- man teammate Adam Harris the entire race. "My start was pretty slow," Trent said. "I never really thought I had (Adam) after that. He got out good, and I tried to run with him instead of running my race." Trent's fears proved well founded, and he ended the race many of the top runners sat out in preparation for next week's Big Ten Championships, the two freshmen stood out, finishing first and second in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash. Trent won the 200 with a time of 21.92, 0.21 seconds ahead of Harris. The two raced in different heats. " I wasn't trying to match Mor- gan's time," Harris said. "Honest- ly, I was just trying to get through the finish line." Harris and Trent were the Wol- verines' most noteworthy perform- ers, but their performances were not the only highlights for Michigan. "Adam and Morgan obvi- ously showed up," coach Ron The Michigan Varsity Tennis Center erupted with sound Sunday afternoon, but not from the fans. Elizabeth Exon grunted and heaved her way to a three-set win (6-4, 4-6, 6-4) over Tennes- see senior Melissa Schaub. The junior came back from a two-game deficit to close out the first set of the best-of-three match. After falling in the sec- ond set, Exon garnered the attention of the entire crowd during Michigan's 5-2 victory over No. 22 Tennessee. "After the second set, I was really frustrated that I lost because I really felt like I should have closed out (the match)," Exon said. "But I knew that I needed to just forget that second set and focus on what I needed to do to win." Still, frustration lingered on Exon's face, and the grunts became louder and more poignant with each missed shot. She didn't take command of the match streak: the losing kind. After dropping the best-of-three doubles point, the Wolverines went on to claim 5-of-6 singles matches - three of which went to a third set. Before Exon's dramatic finish, junior Kara Delicata outlast- ed Tennessee junior Victoria Jones (6-4, 3-6, 7-5) at No. 1 singles, stifling the Volunteers' attempt at a comeback. The win ended Delicata's four-game losing skid, and marked her first career win at No. 1 singles. "Even though doubles didn't go our way, we start- ed off with a lot of energy," Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said. "I think that really carried through into to the singles matches." Senior Nina Yaftali and freshmen Lindsey How- ard got the Wolverines off to a quick start with straight-set wins at No. 2 and No. 6 singles, respec- tively. Yaftali's victory was her first singles win of 2006, ending a six-game losing streak. Samantha Orlin defeated freshmen Chisako Sugi- yama at No. 5 singles, providing the Volunteers with 0 4 ,;. x.