The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, September 10, 2007 - 3B
Blue finds stroke, wins
Wolverines take fourth
By ANDY REID Wolverines couldn't overcome their which was certainly not enough
Daily Sports Writer sub-par performance in round one, time to work fix everything in order
finishing fourth overall with a final to compete for a win.
The Michigan women's golf score of 916. The host Spartans fin- While more practice is neces
By MATT JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
At the end of last season, the
Michigan men's golf team almost
turned the corner. But a tie for
ninth at the Big Ten champion-
ships left it wanting more.
So the Wolverines hit the links
this summer and worked hard to
improve. Senior Tim Schaetzel,
junior Bill Rankin, sophomore
Billy McKay and freshman Lion
Kim all played in the prestigious
U.S. Amateur in late August.
Rankin won the Eastern Amateur
in July and Kim tied for third at
the FootJoy Boy's Invitational,
one of junior golf's major tourna-
ments. l
Michigan coach Andrew Sapp
said most of the players worked on
their own, with some trips to Ann
Arbor for an occasional lesson.
VOLLEYBALL
From page 1B
Game five was even more lopsid-
ed as Michigan won 15-6, securing
their eighth win of the season and
remaining the only unbeaten team
in the Big Ten.
"I'mjust really proud of how our
kids fought back," Rosen said. "If
you look at the numbers, our last
three game we got better every
game. So it wasn't like they kind of
went away, we just kept finding a
way to get better."
In a match that lasted nearly
three hours and featured count-
less wipe ups on the slippery floor,
Michigan persevered like a great
team does.
With their backs against the
"They had a lot of motivation
based on how we finished in the
spring," Sapp said. "The whole
team played well over the summer
and came back ready to go."
The preparation paid off last
weekend. The Wolverines took
first place out of 16 teams at the
Purdue Midwest Shootout, their
first tournament win since the
Wolverine Intercollegiate in Sept.
2005.
Schaetzel and Rankin tied for
first, shooting 1-under par for the
tournament. It was the first time
either one has taken home an
individual victory in their time at
Michigan.
"They played really good golf,"
Sapp said. "They didn't make
many mistakes on a golf course
that's very penal if you drive the
ball poorly."
Kim tied for10th and just missed
wall in game three, even Rosen
admitted to the team panicking
a little, but that's the advantage
of having a two-time All-Big Ten
team player in Bruzdzinski.
"I knew she was going to be on
fire," Rosen said. "Just the first
swing you were like 'Wow, Katie's
feeling it tonight', its special when
you get a kid like that who can do
that."
The same can't be said for Fri-
day's morning match against East-
ern Michigan. The Wolverines
prevailed in three sets but Bru-
zdzinski tallied just 13 kills and
committed five errors. Luckily for
Michigan, her game against Xavi-
er made up for it, as she tallied 32
kills, her second-best career tally
and the fourth highest single-
match kills in Michigan program
history.
an even-par round with bogeys on
the final two holes.
Poor conditions couldn't even
slow the Wolverines down. Rain
made the rough very thick, and
wet fairways didn't allow the ball
to roll. The tournament was sup-
posed to be 36 holes, but rain and
lightening delays shortened it to
18.
Even after a season-opening
victory, Michigan's first since 1987,
Sapp put things in perspective.
"It's something that helps the
guys believe they can continue to
have this kind of success," Sapp
said. "But everybody at dinner last
night said there's a lot of room to
improve. We need to keep getting
better."
The Wolverines will look to
build upon their success today at
the Inverness Intercollegiate in
Toledo, Ohio.
"Thefirstmatch (Friday) I didn't
think I had my best game," Bru-
zdzinski said, "I was kind of strug-
gling with having too many errors
in hitting. I was thinking about it,
and I was just said 'Whatever, I'm
just going to come out and hit the
ball, don't think about it, I know I
can do it', so that's what I did and I
guess it worked."
When asked what the team
will work on before Big Ten play
begins, both Bruzdzinski and
senior Stesha Selsky, who tallied
a career-best 41 digs, echoed the
same thought.
"Definitely becoming more con-
sistent," Selsky said. "Tonight we
were up and down. We were down
the first 2 games then we were
great the last three. We have a
tendency to be like that, so I think
that's our main goal."
r
team didn't let the first round of the
54-hole Mary Fossum Invitational
dictate the rest of its weekend.
Fortunately for the Wolver-
ines, they forgot a rough opening
round of 313 and stood to bounce
back and finish fourth out of 10
teams in the tournament, which
was held at Michigan State's For-
est Akers West Course.
Michigan stormed out in Satur-
day's second round, shedding 10
strokes from its first-round score
and notching the sixth slot in the
overall standings after two rounds.
The Wolverines bettered their
position in the final round, scor-
ing a 300. Junior co-captain Lydia
Benitez Colon paced Michigan with
an even-par 72, a career-best.
Even with Colon's inspired per-
formance in the third round, the
ished in first place with 896 strokes,
and Indiana and Kent State tied for
second, each with an even 900.
Colon finished as Michigan's
top individual performer with a
14-over par, while Michigan State's
Laura Kueny had the top individual
score, 2-under.
"It's disappointing from the
standpoint that we didn't get a
win, but it's still very early in the
season," Michigan coach Kathy
Teichert said. "I think this is a
good indication as to where our
team is and what we need to do
to get better as the season pro-
gresses."
It's very early in the season,
indeed.
The Wolverines had just two
days of course play and one prac-
tice to get ready for last weekend,
sary, Teichert was impressed by
what she saw over the weekend,
especially that the team's scores
improved every round.
"It was great to see the improve-
ment from round to round," Tei-
chert said. "After the first round,
some of team was disappointed,
but one of the things about continu-
ous play is that it's easy to turn it
around."
Even though Michigan's overall
play improved, Teichert still wants
to see the team improve shot-mak-
ing skills and take advantage of
opportunities on the course.
Luckily, the Wolverines will
have plenty of time to prepare for
its next task. Michigan's next tour-
nament, in two weeks, is the Lady
Northern Invitational at State Col-
lege.
M' sets sights on national title
By JOHN JUNCAJ
For the Daily
Junior Eddie Schehr knew he
made one of the best decisions of
his life the momenthe stepped onto
the pitch for the first time.
It was the season opener against
Bowling Green. Under the stadium
lights, the Wolverines and Falcons
tore each other apart for two halves.
After the dust settled and the game
was decided, the aches Schehr felt
were nothing compared to the
euphoria he relished throughout
that particular contest.
"It was unlike any high school
experience I've ever had," the
Downington, Penn., native said.
No, this wasn't football. Though
there was a sizeable turnout, it
wasn't played before 110,000
maize-clad students, alumni and
the clusters of middle-aged, Sun-
day-morning quarterbacks. This
was Schehr's college debut on
Michigan's Club Rugby team.
Armed with only a mouth guard
and a pair of cleats, he and 14 other
teammates simultaneously battled
for points, trading tackles with
Bowling Green for 80 minutes of
sport's ultimate war of attrition.
Fast forward to fall of 2007,
Schehr is now the forward and
club president of a team with high
expectations heading into the sea-
son. Coming off a 10-3 campaign
in 2006, senior captain Aaron
"Tex" Dodd has his sights set on a
return to California for a shot at the
national title where the Wolverines
wound up semi-finalists in 2005.
"No one's setting our goals any
lower than that," Dodd said.
Before a national title, the team
must make its way through the
Midwest playoffs, a place where
the Wolverines feel right at home.
They've gone to the tournament
each of the last three years, includ-
ing winning the Midwest title in
2004.
Dodd said this current group is
more than willing to face the daunt-
ing yet attainable task of maintain-
ing success at the highest level.
"We spend every weekend
together getting bloody, getting
muddy, getting in the dirt, so you
respect the guy next to you and
begin to trust them," Dodd said.
Senior assistant captain Jake
Leedekerken was a freshman on
the squad that earned the trip to
California, an event that christened
his arrival into the so-called "ruffi-
an's game."
"Definitely an eye-opener," Lee-
dekerken said. "And an amazing
one at that."
One of the biggest reasons for
the prolonged success of Wolver-
ine Rugby is the role the alumni
play in curating the program they
helped found years ago. Leede-
kerken said that aside from peeling
back the clock to relive their past
glories through an alumni game,
the grizzled old veterans who still
reside near campus make trips out
to practices to coach the players of
today.
Not only do the ex-rugby play-
ers of Wolverine Nation come back
to Ann Arbor to participate in the
"Old Boys' Game, " as Leedekerken
called it, but the men who exhaust-
ed their bodies and tested their lim-
its on the same pitches generations
ago seem to step out of their way
to take a personal interest into the
current team.
."They ask questions about you,"
Leedekerken said. "They give a
See RUGBY, Page 6B
SNOT E
Michigan masters Indiana meet
The Michigan women's cross ished in the top 17 of the field of Tauro, redshirt sophomore Geena
country team had seven of the 37. Gall, senior Lisa Uible, redshirt
top 10 finishers at the non-scoring Fifth-year senior Erin Webster sophomore Kelly Sampson and
Indiana open, its second event of won the 5,000-meter race and red- redshirt freshman Rachel Severin
the year. shirt junior Nicole Edwards fin- also finished in the top for Michi-
All 12 Wolverine runners fin- ished second. Freshman Danielle gan.
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