The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 13, 2006 - 3B Topsy-turvy week in sports ends on a high note You know those weeks where it just feels like you're on a roller coast- er. One moment a bird poops on your shoulder, and the next, you find a $5 bill on a cold morning. Well, I had one of those weeks. Let's start on Sunday. Everything was going fairly normal. I was returning to school after a restful break and then boom, my friendM Larp instant messages me in the VEN middle of the afternoon. He told The Spor me Kirby Puckett had suffered a Col stroke, and it didn't look good for our favorite pudgy baseball player. I try not to get too wrapped up in athletes since they, inevitably, will let you down, and Puckett was the greatest reason why. He was revered like no other athlete in Minnesota's history. Puckett led the Twins to two World Series titles and participated in the community more than any sports - figure. Hell, he stayed in the Minneapolis area for the frigid winters. In short, he was the balls. AT EG ts !u But then things started to unravel. He got glaucoma, a condition only a pot smoker on the level of Cheech and Chong or Chris "the Birdman" Andersen could really want and appreciate. He had to retire since hitting a blazing fastball or seeing the spin on a curveball needs two working eyes. After that, he began to slip from the spotlight and only TT reappeared for all the wrong rea- 3ONI sons. His wife divorced him, claim- -Monday ing he had threatened to kill her mn while also maintaining various mis- tresses. This wasn't the lovable guy everyone cheered on for 12 great years. Then in 2001, he was arrested for dragging a woman into a restaurant bathroom and groping her. He got off, but his sparkling-clean image now had the bird poop on it. I wouldn't say I was devastated, but I was disappointed. I mean, I named the family dog after him. Granted this wasn't quite the same as Bob Costas naming his son after him, but still, it stings a bit. A Minneapolis radio per- sonality put it best in a 2003 article in Sports Illustrated: Puckett's reverence and subse- quent fall from grace in Minnesota "makes us (Minnesotans) look a little stupid." But when I heard the terrible news of his stroke and then his death, I didn't think about his trial or his cheating ways. No, I thought of Jack Buck pronouncing, "We'll see you tomorrow night" during game six of the 1991 World Series, a game Puck sin- glehandedly won. So even though he wasn't the nicest guy in the world, and at worst, a terrible husband, he was still Puck, and he still meant a lot to Minnesota. But the week got a little better with more sports news. Barry Bonds came to the rescue for me. Personally, I think this guy is quite an a-hole, but he provides great unintention- al humor. This week's saga revolved around excerpts from a book chronicling Bonds' delve into steroid usage. That isn't the funny part - everyone with two working eyes and a bit of common sense knows he had to be on the juice. But the best part was the actual quotes from Game of Shadows. As Bania on "Seinfeld" said, "Gold Jerry, gold!" Here's a quick sampling of the best I read. Number one, Bonds is evidently a rac- ist despite growing up in an affluent, mostly white suburb, having a white wife and white girlfriend and his best boyhood friend being white. The slugger's recurrent use of the phrase "Did I f----stutter?" is great to imagine since you know he thinks he's being incredibly clever. And finally, Bonds' side girlfriend claimed his "head itself seemed to be getting larger, and the plates of his skull bones stood out in bold relief" as he used the 'roids. That was obvious to everyone as he transformed into a human bobble head over the past five to six years. I want to get this book. It would be the first non-school book I've bought in three years. But that high was brought down by the events of the week for Michigan athletics. Evidently, basketball coach Tommy Amaker was and is trying to take the heat off football coach Lloyd Carr. You could've thrown hockey coach Red Berenson in with Amaker if his team hadn't swept Ferris State this weekend. One play summed up the whole season for Amaker's team. In the Indiana game, forward Graham Brown tried to heave a pass down the court. Instead, it hit a scoreboard speaker. Wow, just wow. That's embarrassing. Then the Wolverines choked in their opening round matchup against Minnesota, burying any chance at dancing in the tour- ney. Amaker's crew is destined for the NIT again, and a team with a decent amount of talent was wasted. I didn't need to watch the selection show to know I wasn't heading to the tourney with the team. I'm not trying to have a pity party for myself. But this was my senior year, and Michigan sports have officially let me down with the basketball team failing to make the field of 65. But sports redeemed the week for me like they usually do. On Saturday, my high school, the St. Thomas Academy Cadets won the boys state hockey tournament, allowing me to end the week on a high note despite the ups and downs. Sure, I'm not in high school anymore, but I have to take the wins and championships where I can if Michigan won't fill that void. ' -Matt can be reached at mvgoni@umich.edu. N WOMEN'S TENNIS Deuces wild: 'M' drops Marquette M MEN'S TENNIS Texas schools tack two losses on Blue By Jamie Josephson Daily Sports Writer By Eileen Hengel Daily Sports Writer Two hours. That's the average time of an average basketball game or swim meet. But a tennis match? No. In a contested match, the clock can run well into five hours. But two hours was all the No. 23 Michigan women's tennis team needed Sat- urday to shut down injury-riddled Marquette 7-0 in Milwaukee. In fact, two proved to be the magic number for the Wolverines. The squad stopped each opponent in two sets, with just one Golden Eagle winning more than two games fac- ing a Wolverine. The Michigan twosomes, finding much-needed success, provided the momentum early for the team by hit- ting their serves and working the line. They beat the Marquette doubles 2-0 and put the Wolverines up one early. In just their second win this sea- son as the No. 1 duo, junior Kara Delicata and senior Debra Streifler defeated the Golden Eagles' Lauren Little and Maria Calbeto 8-2. "We were up 2-1 early," Streifler said. "And we were in a game that was probably lasting upwards of 15 minutes. The score kept bouncing back and fourth between ad-one and deuce. Finally, we broke (Calbeto and Little) and basically didn't look back for the rest of the match." The ,win - when added to the 8-2 decision from sophomore Allie Shafner and freshmen Chisako Sugiyama - gave Michigan the first point. "We had been working on doubles all week," Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said. "And I was really proud NCAAS Continued from page 1B field, with a time of 16:24. Kohlmeier and Webster were both named All- Americans for their performances in the event. Webster, who at one point was 15th out of 17 runners, held her pace and continued to move up in the field. She took advan- tage of the fact that many runners did not pace themselves well. "I think had we gone out slower, the times would have been a little bit fast- er," Webster said. "(The pace) made the last kilometer more difficult. And instead of going faster at the end, we all went slower." Edwards was able to put together a sixth-place performance in the mile (4:42.67). With about three laps to go, she neither gained nor lost ground and held her sixth-place spot. The finish earned the Wolverines three points. "I was fairly tired during the race;' Edwards said. "I was ranked seventh (going into the race), so sixth place is moving up. I ran a decent time while I was tired, so I am satisfied." Erdman also picked up an All- American honor with her seventh-place finish in the 800-meter run. Her time of 2:08.21 earned Michigan two points for the meet. Senior Jennifer Williams set a new personal best with 4,028 points in the pentathlon. She was also named an All-American, finishing ninth among the field. Freshman Bettie Wade came up with 3,917 and placed 14th in the competition. After one season of hard work and the nntrinrr cncanrn righlt nrnnnrlA tha rnrrnr with the way (the squad) competed. Throughout the week, we had been focusing on our first-serve percent- age and our returns, and I think that showed in the doubles match, as well as the singles." The Wolverines proved too much for the Golden Eagles. They shut out every opponent in both the dou- bles and the singles. Coming off the doubles win, No. 1 single Delicata led the Wolverines to a fast start, beating Calbeto, 6-1, 6-1. Streifler and the rest of the squad followed suit to finish off Marquette. The match, was a much-needed relief for the Wolverines, who faced a number of tough squads earlier in the season. Opening the winter with three losses in five games - including ones against No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 24 South Carolina - Michigan saw itself looking at one of the toughest starts in pro- gram history. "I think those games early in the season were important," Streifler said. "It's always difficult to take a loss but, at the same time, we had to look at the end result.'These were going to be the teams that we would face in NCAAs, and this was the level we needed to learn to compete at in order to win. Now, I finally feel that we are at a point were we see that we have a good team, and there is that potential to be great if we just concentrate on each match when it comes." Ritt said she stressed throughout the week that the most important game of a college career is the next, and even though the Wolverines shut down the Golden Eagles, Michigan will not forget to prepare for its next opponent, Western Michigan. This weekend, the No. 28 Michigan men's ten- nis team learned the true meaning of the "Don't Mess with Texas" mantra, the hard way. After dropping a 5-2 contest to No. 10 Texas on Thursday, the Wolverines hoped to get back on the victory train against No. 60 Texas A&M in College Station on Saturday. But the Aggies upset Michigan in d6ja-vu fashion, 5-2. "We were hopeful we could've won one of the matches this weekend," Michigan coach Bruce Berque said. "Both (Texas and Texas A&M) are very good teams. There were definitely some positives. If nothing else, this tough schedule will be a huge learning opportunity for the team. The team was competitive in every match. Overall, the difference (between winning and losing) has not been that much." The Aggies took the lead against Michigan (6- 6) in the doubles competition and never looked back. A&M's duo of Marcus Lunt and Connor Pollock decisively handled the Wolverine tan- dem of freshman Scott Bruckmann and junior Steve Peretz, 8-3. But the No. 15 pairing of sophomore Matko Maravic and junior Brian Hung continued their doubles dominance at the No. 1 position on the Michigan roster. With an 8-4 romping, they improved their daunting doubles record to 9-3 this season. "Overall, they've been having a phenomenal year," Berque said. "It's been a little unfair that they have had to shoulder the burden of winning the doubles point for the team. But they played very well (on Saturday)." But the duo's victory was all for naught. At the No. 2 slot,junior Ryan Heller and fresh- man Andrew Mazlin were unable to fend off the Aggies' duo of Matt Bain and Jerry Makowski. Berque said the Wolverine pair failed to make adjustments early and soon found itself down in a deep hole, 7-3. But Heller and Mazlin fought back to tie the score at seven. Down 8-7 but ahead 30-0 in the game, Michi- gan had a chance to force the contest into a tie- breaker. But execution mistakes drained the Wolverines' hopes of a comeback victory. Heller and Mazlin were edged, 9-7 giving A&M a 1-0 lead coming into the singles competition. With the teams playing in 85-degree heat on outdoor courts, Berque said the conditions favored A&M. Michigan couldn't handle the Aggie onslaught that hardly skipped a beat on the singles end, winning four out of the six sin- gles matches. Maravic and Hung were unable to translate their doubles success onto the singles court at the No. 1 and 2 positions, respectively. The Michigan rookies also found trouble, with Maz- lin and Bruckmann both losing in straight sets. There were two bright spots for the Wolver- ines, including Heller's impressive performance at the No. 3 position. The co-captain, defeated A&M's John Nallon, 7-6 (6), 6-4. At No. 5 singles, Peretz also found success. After dropping his first set to Mohamed Dakki, the veteran bounced back in the second. The tight contest was decided in a third-set tiebreak- er, and Peretz found himself on the winning end of the match, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (8). With the win, Peretz improved his team-leading individual singles record to 8-4. "Ryan and Steve both competed well," Ber- que said. "Steve was physically struggling after being worn out from his long match on Thursday. But given that, he did a very good job mentally. Ryan played smart in that he adjusted well." Although the Wolverines have lost three con- secutive matches, Berque does not believe their record is an accurate ieflection of their develop- ment and progress. "I think we're becoming a very good com- petitive team that works hard, and it will pay off in Big Ten (competition)," Berque said. "What matters is not a great win-loss record. I want to learn from the competition. We're definitely getting better, and they're keeping their spirits up.... I think the guys will be ready to go." 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