12 - Friday, December 1, 2006 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 6 6 Top scorers, beware By CHRIS HERRING Daily Sports Writer If Toledo's Danielle Bishop, Detroit's Joyce Massey and Cen- tral Michigan's Angel Chan were tests for the Wolverine defense, then the Michigan women's bas- ketball team now looks like a straight-A student. That's because the Wolverines have always had an answer. All three players posed threats to what was thought to be a mis- take-prone Wolverine defense. But in the end, they were all left scratching their heads, puzzled at how solid Michigan's defense actually was. Meanwhile, the Wolverines walked away with three wins. Bishop, who was averaging 16 points a game, managed just five against the Wolverines. Massey came in scoring 20 per game, but that didn't matter either. She left Crisler Arena scoreless on 0-for-11shooting. And Chan, who lit the Wolver- ines (5-2) up last year with a 19- point performance, failed to get on the board against Michigan this year, too. In fact in seven games this sea- son, the team has allowed just one scorer to reach 20 points -and something that occurred 13 times during last year's tumultuous 6-23 campaign. The million-dollar question is, what's accounted for the differ- ence? The easy answer is freshman center Krista Phillips, who has wreaked havoc in the paint defen- sively. In Tuesday's game alone, she swatted seven shots, frustrat- ing the Chippewas and forcing them to shoot from the outside. "She's just a big house," Central Michigan guard Sharonda Hurd said after the game. "She made us think twice about going inside." Michigan coach Cheryl Bur- nett's personnel changes have forced teams to think more, too. After the team's loss to Ball State two weeks ago, she decided to shake things up by playing a taller lineup. That choice has yielded positive results. Not factoring in last Saturday's ugly loss against No. S Duke, the Wolverines have allowed just 45 points per game - 11 less than they were averaging before the change. The team's preparation before each game has also helped. Bur- nett has made sure her team knows exactly who the opposing team's offense goestthrough. "We were really well orepared for this team," starting point guard Jessica Minnfield said following Tuesday's victory. "We practiced all their plays, we worked together as a team and we rotated onto their shooters. We're doing really well as a defense." Preparation is needed for this weekend's matchups, as the Wol- verines will host Notre Dame and Miami (FL) at Crisler Arena tonight and Sunday, respectively. The Irish's Charel. Allen is scor- ing nearly 16 points a game, while Miami's Renee Taylor tallies 21 a contest. Although the Irish (4-2) and Hurricanes (6-1) enter Crisler Arena playing good basketball, Michigan has every reason to believe it can come away victori- ous. "We're trying to start a tradi- tion," sophomore forward Melinda Queen said. "We're finally trying to make a change from last year and show thatwe'veimproved this vear." a Senior Lindsey Smith spent her summer training and competing overseas. Summer work puts Smith in position to succeed $1.16 , per hour of 6 inetruwti Get Your MCAT Scores UP!! Stewart University Go to... www.stewartmed.orgi By ALEX PROSPERI Daily Sports Writer Five-time NCAA All-American. Six-time Big Ten Champion. Three-time All-Big Ten First Team. All of these accomplishments belong to senior Lindsey Smith of the women's swimming and diving team. And she is beginning to find out just how good she really is. This summer, Smith wanted to make big strides. With the goal of gaining recognition at the interna- tional level, there was no shortage of motivation. "After missing being on an inter- national team my sophomore year, it motivated me to try again one more time," Smith said. The then-junior spent her sum- mer doing three months of two- a-day workouts and competing overseas. After all that training, Smith has maximized her potential. "That summer has really done wonders, because mentally it has really made her more confident and reestablished what her long-term goals are," Michigan assistantcoach Stefanie Kerska said. As of Nov. 11, Smith swam in 14 events that the Wolverines finished first place in. Individually, she has already posted an NCAA 'A' time inthe 200- meter freestyle, at the Texas A&M Invitational. The best news came Nov. 22, when she was named Big Ten co-swimmer of the week. Smith, who describes herself as pretty quiet, is someone who "leads by example, and does the right thing day in and day out," Kerska said. "She has no huge emotional ups and downs," Kerska said, "She's just real steady." During Smith's first three years at Michigan, she never understood how much potential she possessed. "I was never expecting to be so decorated, but I wanted to be, and so that motivated me all along to work hard everyday," Smith said. Smith wasn't alone. Even Kerska wasn't sure of Smith's potential. "It was a really nice surprise throughout her freshman year," Kerska said. "We got inklings all through the season of how good she was going to do, but to be hon- est, I'm not sure we could have told you how good she really was going to be." And don't expect Smith to hang up the swim gear after this season. She will represent the United States in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of the World University Games from Aug. 8 to13,2007.Qualifyingforthisinterna- tional meet was the main focus of her strenuous summer training. Even though she gets along great with her teammates, Smith has some- times been very difficult to coach - butnotfor disciplinary reasons. "She's so low-maintenance and doesn't need a thing," Kerska said, "Those are sometimes the trickiest people to coach because you have a tendency to not coach her as much and give attentionto the people that really seek it out. But we have been trying to make sure we cover all the bases with her as well." Smith plans on going into teach- ing after graduating, but her sum- mer may bring even more success in swimming. "She started getting that confi- dence this summer," Kerska said, "But I think once she puts on the US National sweats and goes overseas and competes, she will get it even more." -< 9 r aah SHOWCASE CINEMAS ANN ARBOR (insert parent, relative, significant other, etc) d ALL I want(ov 5 a. i a.. - (insert holiday or special occasion of choice) LI 0I MacBook Pro Enjoy the power of a desktop computer in the one-inch-thin profile of MacBook Pro. With its up to 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo Processor and PCI Express architecture, you're bound to soar. Starting at $1,799. 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