SThursday
March 16, 2006
sports.michigandaily.com
sports@michigandaily.com
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PORTFS
11A
. U WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING
Tankers set
for NCAA
title meet
By Jessica Asbill
For the Daily
The Michigan women's swimming and diving team,
fresh off finishing third at the Big Ten Championships in
Columbus on Feb. 18, now looks for success in the NCAA
Championships, hosted by Georgia. The 22nd-ranked Wol-
verines will send one diver and nine swimmers to compete
and look to improve upon last season's 14th-place finish.
The Wolverines will compete in all but one of the meet's 18
events (800-yard freestyle relay).
Two seniors, Abby Seskevics and Carolina Sierra, hope
to lead the swimming contingent by example in their final
collegiate meet. With that in mind, the duo is mentally pre-
paring to swim the best times of their careers. Each will
compete in four events.
Seskevics, who won two All-American honors at NCAA
Championships last season, will swim the 200-yard free-
style relay, the 200-yard medley relay, the 400-yard free-
style and the 50-yard freestyle.
Sierra will compete in the 200-yard medley relay, the
200-yard backstroke, the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-
yard backstroke. In this season's Big Ten Championships,
Sierra finished sixth in the 100-yard backstroke, 12th in
the 200-yard backstroke, 14th in the 100-yard butterfly and
was a member of the second-place 200-yard medley relay
team.
As the Wolverines prepare for the competition, they hope
the thousands of training laps, early mornings and late
nights will translate into success.
The swimmer participating in the most events is 2006
*1 Big Ten Conference Swimmer of the Year junior Kaitlyn
Brady. She will compete in seven events, hoping to con-
tinue a 20-race winning streak in the 50-yard freestyle.
Junior captain Lindsey Smith, who won three Big Ten
Championships, enters the meet as one of the most decorated
swimmers at Michigan. Smith, with four career All-Ameri-
can honors - the most for any current Wolverine - will
look to add to that total in her six events.
The powerhouse combination of Smith and Brady, who
together share eight Big Ten Championships, looks to carry
the team's momentum heading into this weekend.
Sophomore Elyse Lee is the only Michigan diver com-
peting this week.
"I don't really have any expectations for this meet since
this is my first year (qualifying)," Lee said in an e-mail.
See NCAAS, page 12A
Bombs rain in
loss for Blue
By Nate Sandals
Daily Sports Writer
It was d6ja vu all over again.
Almost.
Sophomore Samantha Findlay's two-run home run in the top of the
seventh inning appeared to seal a 4-3 victory for No. 9 Michigan over
No. 3 UCLA. As the ball soared over the fence in left-centerfield,
the image was remarkably similar to the first baseman's dinger in the
third and final game of the 2005 Women's College World Series that
clinched Michigan's first national championship and sent the Bruins
home disappointed.
Perhaps it was too poetic.
The Wolverines had all the momentum following Findlay's bomb.
But when senior pitcher Jennie Ritter gave up a solo home run to
UCLA designated player Whitney Holum with one out in the bottom
of the last frame, the game was tied at four, and the momentum flowed
back to the home team.
Three innings later, Krista Colburn's walk-off, two-run homer in
the bottom of the 10th inning ended the game with UCLA victorious,
6-4.
All of UCLA's runs came via the long ball, blemishing an otherwise
solid outing for Ritter (6-2) that featured 13 strikeouts, including the
850th of her career.
Unlike UCLA (27-1), the Wolverines' runs came from both small
. .....ball and the long ball.
of ,.ag .". In addition to Findlay's final-inning dramatics, senior catcher Becky
MINKE HULSEBUS/Daily Marx ripped a line drive down the leftfield line for her sixth home run
Sophomore first baseman Samantha Findlay's seventh-inning home run was her third of the season.
Findlay also walked two times in the loss to UCLA last night. See BRUINS, page 12A
ICE HOCKEY
Hunwick's- ame maturlngor cers
By Mark Giannotto
Daily Sports Writer
Junior defenseman Matt Hunwick thought
he was done playing in the shadows of his
teammates.
With the graduation of senior defensemen
Nick Martens, Eric Werner and Brandon
Rogers following the 2004-05 season, Hun-
wick became the de facto leader of the Michi-
gan back line. He entered this year as the
most experienced and most talented returning
defenseman for the Wolverines.
The coaching staff even named Hunwick
an alternate captain prior to the season.
But last Saturday, it wasn't Hunwick the
Yost Ice Arena crowd chanted for; it was his
defensive counterpart, freshman Jack John-
son.
It's a good thing that staying in the back-
ground suits the Sterling Heights native just
fine.
Playing alongside Johnson for much of the
season, Hunwick has collected quite a stat
line. He leads the team with a plus-17 rat-
ing, is tied for fourth in the CCHA in points
amongst defensemen, and has started to show
a penchant for big hits.
"Hunwick has been tremendous all year,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "He had
a good summer, and you could just see the
improvement in him. Of late, as the games
become more important, you can just see him
rising up. He's playing the best hockey of his
career."
It's been hard to miss the evolution of
Hunwick's game. In just the second contest of
the season, against Quinnipiac on Oct. 8, the
junior had a five-point game that included the
second hat trick of his career.
"The first game he stepped on the ice, you
could just see the growth in him as a player
from a year ago," Berenson said. "I think part
of that was the graduation of Rogers, Wer-
ner and Martens. Now, Hunwick is the most
senior defenseman."
Recently, Hunwick has added a new
dimension to his game. He never shied away
from contact in the past, but now he seems to
have embraced it. He can be counted on for
two or three huge hits throughout the course
See ICERS, page '12A
Procrastination Station
UTEP 68, Michigan 67
" Play of the game - With his team trailing
by one point and eight seconds on the clock, Michigan's SG #5 took
the ball to the right side of the perimeter. He drew the defense over and
lobbed up an alley-oop pass to C #44 who, not surprisingly, missed the
dunk, giving the win to UTEP.
" Player of the game - UTEP C #44: He was simply unstoppable, scor-
ing 24 of his 33 points in the second half, and, at one point, he hit six
consecutive lay-ups.
4 Press
conference quotes:
Michigan coach Scott Bell:
"Certainly, our 19 turnovers
didn't help us any, but UTEP was
an excellent team tonight. It's no
surprise that they qualified for
the Big Dance, and I wish them
luck in the next round."
"You mean this wasn't the Big Dance?
Wow, what a disappointing season."
"Well, PG #4 didn't end his career
on a high note, limping away with
that injury late in the game. I wish I
would have played PG #22 more in
the regular season to prepare him for
crunch time."
UTEP coach Matt Singer: "There's no
doubt they had the talent advantage.
But it's almost impossible to lose when
your opponent refuses to play defense.
Coach Bell might want to tell his players
that defense wins championships - or
at least NIT games."
"I never knew that C #31 played small
forward. Coach Bell must have been
desperate to win this game."
"I have no idea why PG #24 dribbled
out of bounds with 10 seconds to go.
Good thing for us C #44 can't make a
simple dunk in the clutch."
Keys
to the
gam e
The University of
Texas-El Paso will face
off against Michigan
(8-8 Big Ten, 18-10
overall) tonight at
7:30 p.m. at Crisler
Arena. The Miners
come in with a 21-9
record, 11-3 in Confer-
ence USA play. The
game is a second-
round match-up in the
NIT.
Three Keys for a Michigan victory
KEEP TURNOVERS DOWN:
The Wolverines have struggled to take care of the ball
in their last few games. In their first-round tournament
loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten, three consecutive
turnovers in the second half ultimately did Michigan in.
The Wolverines have committed 45 turnovers in the past
two games. All year, the team has recognized turnovers
as a major weakness, but Michigan has yet to correct the problem.
MAINTAIN DEFENSIVE INTENSITY:
Michigan has swayed from a dominating defensive
performance against Minnesota on Feb. 15 to the
porous defense that allowed Iowa, Michigan State,
Ohio State and Purdue to score more than 80 points.
In order for the Wolverines to defeat UTEP, they will
need to play the aggressive, pressure man-to-man defense that helped
them to a 16-3 record.
Three Keys for a UTEP victory
TAKE DANIEL HORTON OUT OF THE GAME:
Horton has been the spark behind the Michigan
offense. In the Big Ten Tournament first-round contest
against Minnesota, the Gophers hounded Horton with
Vincent Grier and make someone else have to win
the game for the Wolverines. Many times this season,
other Wolverine players have stood and waited to see
what Horton would do.
KEEP THE MOMENTUM ROLLING:
The Miners already have the benefit of playing this
week. They defeated Lipscomb 85-66 in the first
round of the NIT on Tuesday. After winning their
first postseason game in five years, they can play
without any pressure. Meanwhile, the Wolverines
will have the tough task of refocusing after failing to receive an
NCAA Tournament bid.
GIVE THE BALL TO JASON WILLIAMS:
Williams registered the first triple-double in UTEP
history against Lipscomb with 17 points, 11 rebounds
. and 10 assists on Tuesday. After star senior John Tofi
tore his ACL against Memphis on Feb. 22, Williams
has been the go-to guy for the Miners. The senior will
need to carry his team to give the Miners a chance to defeat a deeper
Wolverine team at Crisler Arena.
$4%
GET COURTNEY SIMS INVOLVED EARLY:
Sims is a player that needs to get touches early on
to keep his confidence up. Recently, Michigan
opponents have employed a double team to take
"' F the 6-foot-11 center out of the game offensively.
And his stat line has suffered from it. Sims has
scored five total points in the Wolverines' last two games.
Michigan's record in those games is 0-2.
r,...
r
uffalo Wild Wings
Patty's Day Fling!
at Dance Gallery Studio, 815 Wildt Street, Ann Arbor, MI
Busch Gardens of Tampa. Florida is now hiring performers of many
talents for a variety of live show productions including an all new
show to open in May of 2006. We are particularly interested in:
comedic actors that can sing and/or sing and dance: Billy Crystal/
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drummers and keyboard players. You should have an outgoing
personality, singing ability is a plus. No appointment necessary.
Bring prepared audition and a current non-returnable resume and
We open early at
7am...hopefully we
will see you then!
Celebrate Irish style
with green goodies
galore,
so much that you'll
be beggin' for more!
There are t-shirts to
buy, for low prices,
not high.
Don't forget, we
have green wings
and beer,
: so tloinsforSt
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