6B - Monday, October 30, 2006

BUMdcUNtobe 3The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tournament hopes fading away

By H. JOSE BOSCH to stop the bleeding. Michigan
Daily Sports Editor stopped the onslaught momentarily,
tying the game at 11. But the Wild-
For the first time in this shaky cats notched three straight points
Big Ten season, Michigan volleyball to defeat Michigan (4-8 Big Ten,
coach Mark Rosen sounded frus- 17-8 overall). The loss rounded out
trated. a weekend split for the Wolverines,
"We MICHIGAN 2 in which they defeated Illinois in a
didn't NOR THW EST RN 3 three-game sweep on Friday.
compete Following the loss, Rosen seemed
well when the match was in the bal- disheartened. But he was quick to
ance," Rosen said of the Wolverines' point out where his team needed to
3-2 loss to Northwestern on Satur- improve on.
day night. "Right in game five, when "Our offense broke down, but a
we were in position to win it, we lot of it had to do with we couldn't
didn't take care of things on our side get four or five players to be consis-
of the court. I don't think North- tent. We had three players consis-
western did anything phenomenal. tent," Rosen said. "But we needed a
They did enough to put us in a posi- couple more positions to step up and
tion to have to make plays, and then be more involved, and we couldn't
we didn't make them." do that."
Michigan held a 9-5 lead in the Three players - junior captains
fifth and deciding match at Welsh- Lyndsay Miller and Katie Bruzdz-
Ryan Arena. But the Wolverines inski and sophomore Beth Karpiak
couldn't break out of a bad habit that - carried the Wolverines' offense.
has plagued them since they started Miller led the. team with 18 kills
the year 13-0 - not finishing. - including four during the team's
Northwestern rallied to take the 9-5 run to start the fifth game - and
lead 11-10, putting Michigan on its garnered a career-high four service
heels and forcing the Wolverines aces. Bruzdzinski added 17 kills, five
to burn two timeouts in an attempt service aces, 16 digs and three blocks

of her own. Karpiak rounded out the
trio with 15 kills and six blocks.
Rosen praised the three Wolver-
ines and also gave credit to junior
Stesha Selsky and freshman Megan
Bower for helping out the team in
ways that don't show up on the stat
sheet.
"Those kids are doing a pretty
good job," Rosen said. "But the
problem is, that's five kids and we
have seven positions."
The injury to senior Megan Bow-
man hasn't helped matters, but this
weekend, despite being less than
100 percent, Bowman was a major
contributor to Michigan's game
four win against Northwestern (5-7,
11-10).
"At best she's probably 75 per-
cent, and the unfortunate thing
is we had to put her in tonight in
order to give ourselves a chance to
compete," Rosen said. "We wouldn't
have been in game five if we hadn't
won game four. And we wouldn't
have won game four if Megan Bow-
man doesn't step out on the floor
and make us better."
That still leaves the Wolverines
playing with, at best, five-and-a-half

ANGELACESERE/Daly
Lyndsay Miller hit a team-high 18 kills and a career-high four service aces Saturday.

I

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consistent players for seven posi-
tions. With just eight games left,
Michigan doesn't have a lot of time
to improve its play.
On Friday night, the team got
off on the right foot with a three
game sweep of Illinois in Cham-
paign. Bruzdzinski led the team in
kills this time, recording 17 of them
against the Illini (4-8,13-9).
In game one, Bruzdzinski took
control by hitting eight kills, one
service ace and three digs. Her
teammate, Miller, ended an exciting
game with back-to-back kills to give
the Wolverines a 34-32 win. Michi-
gan never looked back.
The Wolverines are currently
tied with Illinois for eighth place in
the conference. Since 1997, the Big
Ten conference has sent at least six
teams to the NCAA tournament.
"We can't particularly protect
our team from the reality of pres-
sure," said Rosen of whether or
not the team is pressing too much
to reach the postseason. "Pressure
comes with competing at this level.
You have to be able to handle the
moments that come atahighlevel of
competition."
HARRIERS
From page 1B
to finish second, and we finally
achieved that goal."
Wisconsin dominated the
race. Although Minnesota's
Chris Rombough beat the pack,
the Badgers placed five runners
in the top 10 for the win.
Both Williams and Woods
came up big for the Wolverines.
They improved upon their dis-
appointing finishes last year.
The duo ran together during
much of the race, allowing the
pair to team together to advance
during the race.
"Both (Woods) and myself
really helped each other out
in the middle parts of the race
which allowed us to both finish
near the top." Williams said.
Williams has had an
extremely productive season,
leading the Wolverines with
a 23rd-place finish two weeks
ago at the NCAA Pre-Nationals
to compliment his stellar per-
formance on Sunday.
"Lex is an example of a guy
on the team who works really
hard and is reaping the benefits
of his hard work," Woods said.
The last few seconds of the
meet added some drama, as
Wisconsin's Chris Solinsky
stumbled and fell when he
looked to claim first place. He
was only able to watch from the
sidelines, as a slew of runners,
including Williams, finished
ahead of him.
The youth and talent on the
Wolverines' roster indicates
that better results are on the
horizon.
"This current group will be
with us for two more years,"
Warhurst said. "I look forward
to seeing the future of this cur-
rent team."
Michigan looks to keep up
its current momentum in the
Great Lakes Invitational next
week. They then move onto
Terre Haute, Ind. the following
week to compete in the NCAA
Championships.
ICERS
From page 1B
With just more than one min-
ute remaining, Michigan pre-
pared to pull Sauer for an extra
attacker, but a hooking penalty

to sophomore Travis Turnbull
put the final nail in the Wolver-
ines' coffin.
Led by junior T.J. Hensick,
who assisted on both Michigan
goals, and Forter, the Wolver-
ines tried to make a last ditch,
five-on-five effort with an
empty net, but couldn't muster
more than two shots that Thies-
sen easily turned aside.
"Obviously, that hurts,"
Berenson said. "We're trying
to get our goalie out, trying to
outnumber them and here we
are killing a penalty."
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