The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, March 12, 2007 - 3B
Blue can't seal the deal,
loses to Nittany Lions

By ANTHONY OLIVEIRA team," s
Daily Sports Writer said. "It'
The w
The door was there. Michiga
The No. 21 Michigan men's swept B
tennis team just forgot how to before. C
close it. matches
Up two breaks in the final set, veriness
sophomore Scott Bruckmann was secutive
on his way to his fifth-consecu- time ina
tive singles win. But as Penn State Michi
junior James Dwyer's backhand against t
slice calmed Bruckmann's fore- 2) in the
hand, the dual match rested on a and sop
tiebreak. earned
With No. 54 Penn State lead- freshme
ing 3-2, boisterous fans and a and Geo
controversial call fired up the clutch to
Sarasota, Fla., native. But Dwyer the right
would silence the crowd to a 6-2 But tl
advantage. Although Bruckmann highligh
battled back to 6-4, a passing fore- "I wa
hand by Bruckmann fell wide on disappoi
the final point, giving Penn State there's n
the win, 4-3. our best
The once-energetic Varsity Bruce B
Tennis Center turned eerie. With Jump
the crowd exiting in silence and a captain
lengthy team meeting, everyone captain
knew this wasn't supposed to hap- doubles
pen. after mi
"It hurts because we're at duo gav
home, we're in the Big Ten and for their
we know we're better than that season.

enior captain Ryan Heller
s just hard."
weekend wasn't all hard as
n (1-1 Big Ten, 9-4 overall)
all State (4-6) the night
laiming five of six singles
in straight sets, the Wol-
seemed ready to win con-
dual matches for the first
onoth.
igan came out strong
the Nittany Lions (2-1, 9-
doubles matches. Heller
homore Andrew Mazlin
a quick victory and the
o pair of Mike Sroczynski
rge Navas executed in the
o start the Wolverines on
t foot.
hat's where most of the
ts end.
s disappointed for sure -
nted with the result, and
ao question we didn't play
tennis," Michigan coach
erque said.
ing to a 7-4 lead, senior
Brian Hung and junior
Matko Maravic had the
match wrapped up. But
issing volleys, the No. 2
e up five straight games
second loss of the dual

"We didn't close the door,"
Hung said. "Usually, Matko and I
do a good job in that respect. Once
we're up, we usually don't let any-
body back in the game. But today,
we just let it slip."
Despite leaving the door open,
Michigan still had numerous
opportunities to slamit shut. With
the dual knotted at two, Hung,
Mazlin and Bruckmann were all
up at least a break in their third
set. But all three gave up those
leads, and Mazlin was the only
one to pull out the victory, which
proved costly to the Wolverines.
Michigan continued to fightfor
every point, but the concentration
from previous matches had dissa-
peared.
"The side of competitiveness
that relates to discipline and
playing smart when you have a
lead was not there," Berque said.
"Energy and intensity is a big part
of it, but I also think that intelli-
gent and disciplined play is a part
of it, too."
While Mazlin improved to 9-
2 with a three-match winning
streak, Hung has dropped three
straight singles matches and five
consecutive overall.

have come to similar- and higher-
ranked opponents. Suffering their
first major upset of the season, the
Wolverines have finally received
their wake-up call.
£'When you lose to a team like
Texas A&M, you can be like,
'Well, they're around the same
ranking as us; they're just as good
as us,' " Heller said. "But when you
play a team like Penn State, you
know you're better than them.
Today, they might have played
better than us, but that all comes
with preparing for each and every
match."
Unable to make any excuses,
Michigan knew it was far from
where it should be. During the
teammeetingfollowingthematch,
the Wolverines felt they needed to
run practice a little differently.
"If we see anybody on the day
not really working as hard as
they can be, as teammates we
have to point it out," Hung said.
"Right now, we're all leaving it
to (coach) Bruce and (assistant
coach) Sean (Maymi) to moti-
vate us, and it's tough (for them).
And it's kind of tiring to listen to
Bruce and Sean. So we agreed
as teammates. we have to do the

CLIF REEDER/Da
Sophomore Scott Bruckmann lost the lead in the final set and Penn State stunned Michigan, 4-3.

Michigan's previous losses same thing."


Ninth iS
By DAVID RUSSELL
Daily Sports Writer
In some college sports athletes
are named All-Americans, but in
collegiate swimming and diving
they have to earn that distinction by
competing at the biggest meet of the
season.
Senior Lindsey Smith, sophomore
Emily Brunemann and freshman
Emily Hanson earned individual
All-American honors as Michigan
finished ninth this weekend at the
NCAA Championships in Minne-
apolis.
Smith ended her Wolverine career
by finishing sixth in the 100-yard
freestyle and seventh in the 200-
yard freestyle. She also anchored the
Wolverines to All-American finishes
in 200-yard medley and freestyle

fitting result' for M

relays, and the 400-yard free style
relay, where they finished eighth,
third- and fifth respectively.
"I'm so happy to have done what I
could for the team," said Smith, who
will finish her career with 10 All-
American honors.
Smith's teammates in the relays
were rewarded with All-American
status - three for senior Kaitlyn
Brady and freshman Margaret Kelly,
two for her sister Hannah Smith and
one for junior Valeria Silva.
The 1,650 meter freestyle race led
Michigan to discover it has a potent
long distance duo for the future
in sophomore Emily Brunemann
and freshman Emily Hanson. The
Emilys both scored for Michigan
as Brunemann finished fourth and
Hansonmade her NCAA Champion-
ship debut with a sixth place finish.

"I was extremely happy with that.
I did not expect that," Brunemann
said of her place and time.
"I dropped another 10 seconds
(from last weekend), and 29 seconds
this season," she added when talk-
ing about her career-bestl6:00.89
time, but she deflected some of the
credit to Hanson, saying "she's really
pushed me all season long."
There were some disappoint-
ments: Brady had wanted tobe in the
top eight in the 50-freestyle finished
12th, and Brunemann's goal was
to be in the top 16 for the 400-yard
individual medley, but she finished
20th.
Diver Elyse Lee wanted top-16
finishes in both the 1- and 3-met-
ter diving competitions. She earned
12th and All-American honors in
the 3-meter but finished 19th in the

1-meter.
"I missed one, and you can't miss
one at a meet like this," Lee said of
her 1-meter dive, but on her perfor-
mance as a whole, "I dove better
than last year."
Brunemannhadanotherapproach
to her near-miss.
"I can't be disappointed about
that," said Brunemann, who was
much more excited about the team's
finish and her and Hanson's future
at Michigan.
The final summation of the meet
though belongs to Michigan swim-
ming head coach Jim Richardson.
"People were digging deep and
everybody did a great job," Richard-
son said.
The coach went on to say ninth
place, "is a very fitting result for this
group."

PORTER
From page 1B
weights came crashingontohishead,
knocking out the hurdler. Porter suf-
fered a concussion and couldn't train
for a month, significantly delaying
the start of his season.
And then in November, three
weeks after his return, Porter had
a seizure.
"At that point, we weren't even
sure if he'd be allowed to run this
season - or ever," Michigan associ-
ate head coach Fred LaPlante said.
Porter recovered, but it was at
emotionally taxing experience.
"After those two episodes, every-
one was wondering if I was ever
going to race," Porter said. "At that
point in time, I was just saying,
'Forget this.' I was considering red-
shirting a year. ... It was a struggle
fighting back."
But fight back he did, training
extremely hard over winter break.
Though Porter suffered a quad-
riceps pull on his second return,
the Wolverine still fit six weeks
of intense preparation in before
NCAAs and didn't taper his train-
ing until last week.
"I still don't think he's been in
his best shape," LaPlante said. "He
ran faster toward the end (of the
season) just because he's getting in
better shape."
And at race's start, there was one

final delay. Although it was just
five minutes long (not including
the false start that also occurred),
Porter's nerves started to get to him
with his family in the crowd and his
teammates' increasingly intense
'Let's Go Blue' chants in the back-
ground.
LaPlante sensed a unique calm-
ness in Porter in the warm-up area,
but the delay completely messed up
his rhythm.
"I'm (out there) trying to keep
myself calm," Porter said. "Think-
ing about anything to keep myself
calm. I was thinking about how I
was hungry (and) what's on TV.... I
was just like, 'Can we go?"'
And oh, did he go.
Porter started strong off the
blocks, holding the lead after the
first hurdle. At that point, LaPlante
felt the senior was going to win, but
it took Porter a few more hurdles to
realize it himself
"At the fourth hurdle, my eyes
got real big, and I realized I could
win this whole thing," Porter said.
"I said to myself, 'I'm in the lead
right now, I can win this thing if I
keep going.'
"I just didn't look back."
Yet, ironically, this is the one
thing Porter can look back on with
good memories from the long and
toiling indoor season.
"You're just like 'Holy God' that
he's won," Michigan coach Ron
Warhurst said. "It was like;'Wow."'

christian's cycle salvages weekend

ByANDY REID
Daily Sports Writer
With four swings of the bat, soph-
omore Jason Christian not only led
the Michigan baseball team to an
8-5 win over Oklahoma yesterday,
but also set a place for himself in the
record books.
:Those four swings added up to a
cycle for Christian. The last time a
Wolverine hit a single, double, triple
and home run on the road was in
1976 when Tad Mahas accomplished
that feat. No one wearing the maize
and blue has hit for the cycle since
1993.
"It's a phenomenal feat," Michi-
gan coach Rich Maloney said. "He'll
be in the archives of the history of
Michigan baseball forever. It's some-

thing that only happens once every
15 years."
With the score knotted at four in
the fourth, Christian stepped up to
the plate. The Loveland, Ohio, native
blastedhis firstcareerhomerun. His
triple in the ninth, which was also a
career first, capped off the cycle.
In the first game of the tourna-
ment, Michigan (6-4) held a com-
fortable two-run lead going into
the bottom of the ninth against San
Diego. Junior Ben Jenzen took the
mound in the final inning to close
out the game, but the Toreros (14-8)
quickly took advantage of the new
pitcher, scoring on senior Jordan
Abruzzo's single to center and a
throwing error by Jenzen.
By the time sophomore Adam
Abraham relieved Jenzen, all San

Diego needed was a single to the left
to steal the game from the Wolver-
ines, 7-6.
"We felt like we let it slip away on
Friday," Maloney said. "I think we
played abettergamethanSanDiego,
but we just let it get away from us at
the end."
Following the heartbreaking loss,
Michigan faced the tournament host
San Diego State. The Aztecs (12-9)
topped a sluggish Wolverine squad
4-1.
But the victory over Oklahoma
more than made up for an otherwise
downtrodden weekend for Michi-
gan.
"We had our backs against the
wall," Maloney said. "To beat (Okla-
homa) when they're red hot says a
lot about our team. If you had to pick

one game to win (this weekend), this
would've been it, because it's one of
the signature wins."
In the midst of the toughest part
of its non-conference schedule,
Michigan has picked up plenty of
those signature wins.
Maloney was excited about wins
against Mississippi State, Oklahoma
and Troy, a team that won 47 games
last season. And this weekend, the
Wolverines have a chance to put
themselves in the midst of any early
season NCAA Tournament talk.
"We have a chance to go down
to East Carolina and play in front of
3,000 energetic fans," Maloney said.
"If we can pick up a win in East Car-
olina, with the three quality wins we
already have, I think we'd prove to
ourselves that we really belong."

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