The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Sweep evens Bluie 's record By ANDY REID Daily Sports Writer In a weekend sandwiched between four games against top-to teams, the No. 15 Michi- gan women's field hockey needed to build con- fidence, gain momentum and win some games, especially with the rigors of conference play looming just around the corner. And the Wolverines did just that. With a 5-0 blanking of Vermont on Satur- day and a 3-2 victory over No.16 Louisville the previous night, Michigan (4-4),pulled itself up from the dregs of a sub-.500 start, led by senior Lucia Belassi's five points (two goals and three assists). Belassi came out of the gates swinging Fri- day night, netting two goals in the game's first stanza to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead over the Cardinals (3-4). Just two minutes into the game, Belassi took advantage of Michigan's first penalty corner and snuck it behind goalkeeper Marie- Claire Heller. The goal marked the first time that the Wolverines notched the first point in any match this season. "(Michigan) coach Nancy Cox and I have been working on my shot," said Belassi, who had a hand in every point scored against Lou- isville (two goals and an assist). "I tend to pass a lot to get assists. She told me that if I'm in the zone, I should just take the shot, and it worked for me this weekend." Belassi's newfound aggressiveness worked for her again late in the first period when she fielded a pass from sophomore Paige Laytos at the top of the circle and fired it past Heller for her second consecutive goal. Michigan held off the Cardinals fierce comeback attempt long enough to record.its second victory over a ranked opponent in as many weekends. And according to Cox, this could be the most important non-conference win of the year for the Wolverines. "It was just a huge win for us," Cox said. "Louisville's in our region, so if we don't go out and win the Big Ten championship, the selection committee will look at games like this when they're giving out at-large bids." Michigan continued its weekend domi- nance against Vermont on Saturday, posting five goals from five different players while shutting out the Catamounts. Monday, September 17, 2007 - 3B VOLLYBALL From page lB things were, the defense was slow to react to Georgia Tech's efficient game plan. "We just rallied around each. other, nothing more to it," junior Beth Karpiak said. "We knew what we had to do, instead of looking outside, instead of looking inside ourselves, we looked to each other and really fed off each others' energy and what everyone else was doing." In game four, it was Karpiak's five kills and Bruzdzinski's eight that put Michigan into its third five-game match of the season. Even though it was nearing 10 p.m., about 30 Michigan fans in "The Zone" kept Cliff Keen Arena jumping. The Wolverines needed it, as there were nine ties and six lead changes in the first-to-fifteen final game. Knotted at 11, Michigan came up empty on two kills to take the lead, but on the third try, sopho- more Veronica Rood, who had struggled mightily earlier in the evening, recorded her ninth kill of WANT TO WRITE FOR THE DAILY? the match, giving the Wolverines momentum to wrap up the match. Karpiak, who recorded 15 kills with a .481 attack percentage in the match, blocked a Georgia Tech termination to put the Wolver- ines up two. Another Rood kill and a textbook bump-set-spike from Bruzdzinski, freshman Lexi Zimmerman and Karpiak secured Michigan's twelfth win of the year. Senior libero Stesha Selsky, who now sits in fifth place on the Big Ten all-time digs list with 1,705, recorded 38 digs, the fourth-high- est single-match tally in Michigan history, while playing, as Rosen put it, "really, really under the weath- er." Rosen, who is now 27 victories behind Sandy Vong's record for career wins at Michigan, recorded his 150th victory as Michigan head coach. "We aren't as good as we need to be out there," Rosen said. "Lots of times we learn those things in a loss, and I'm kind of thankful that tonight that we could learn those things, at the same time not have to take the loss." MASS MEETING 420 MAYNARD ST. Tuesday at 8 p.m. EMMA NOLAN-ABRAHAMIAN/ Senior Lucia Beiassi tallied two goals and three assists in a weekend sweep of Vermont and Louisville. Freshman Meredith Way reaped the ben- efits of the Wolverines' scoring party, record- ing her first collegiate goal at the 13:38 mark of the first half. While Michigan struggled to cap off scor- ing opportunities in prior games, that was not the case this weekend. "We had great distribution of the ball," Cox said. "Our forward line and our midline had great productivity, so we weren't relying on Belassi and (fifth-year senior Kristen) Tiner. Our productivity is really progressing." Added Belassi of Michigan's improved offensive output: "It's just what we needed. This weekend was a huge confidence booster for us, especially after not being able to finish the last few weekends." That added confidence will come in handy next weekend as the Wolverines continue their brutal schedule with home games against fifth-ranked Iowa and seventh-ranked Penn State in the first weekend of conference play. . StudentUniverse.com -- Analyst Presentation Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Time: 7:00 pm Location:-Michigan League Here's a great opportunity to talk to us about the career opportunities at Credit Suisse: you can hear about our business and ask us anything you want to know. If you're interested in global finance, we need to talk. Find out more at www.credit-suisse.com/careers Thinking New Perspectives. CREDIT SUISSE Investmentrankingseces in the United Statsa pov dedbyCred t Suisse S-ties (USA) LLC an affl a of C dit Su s up. 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