BELL: ENJOYIG F The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com October 1, 2007 ~7 'D'-TERMINED Late charge e ough for'M By KEVIN WRIGHT Daily Sports Editor EVANSTON - Michigan coach Lloyd Carr walked into the pressroom and, in a hoarse voice, put it simply. "That was not the same Northwestern team that I watched (last) Saturday," Carr said. True, the Wildcats brought more inten- sity than the team that took a 58-7 beating at Ohio State. But maybe more surprising than North- western's play was Michigan's first-half performance. The Wolverines trailed by nine head- ing into halftime, and needed four fourth- quarter Wildcat turnovers and the return of senior quarterback Chad Henne to steal a 28-16 road win Saturday. "We came out flat in the first half," defen- sive tackle Terrance Taylor. "We really weren't worried about the game. We went in the locker room and we all talked about it and knew we needed to pick it up and knew we weren't play- ing Michigan football." The Michigan defense, which had given up just nine points in the last two games combined, surrendered 16 in the first half against Northwestern's spread offense. But in the second half, the Wolverines (2- o Big Ten, 3-2 overall) came with the heat. "We started playing at a faster tempo, which put a little bit more pressure on them," safety Jamar Adams said. And when Michigan turned up the inten- sity, Northwestern quarterback C.J. Bacher lost his rhythm - along with the ball. Bacher fumbled twice and threw two Henne's return crucialfor success EVANSTON - or many Michigan football fans, the decision boiled down to two statistics. Chad Henne: 0-2. Ryan Mallett: 2-0. Ergo, true, freshman Ryan Mallett - he of the cannon arm and quick feet F - should start at DANIEL quarterback for BROMWICH the rest of the ----- season, especially Broms after the Wolver- Away ines' two early losses eliminated them from National Championship contention. But there's still this year's Big Ten championship to play for (along with a trip to the Rose Bowl), and Saturday, Henne showed why he's still the quar- terback Michigan needs. For the Michigan players and coaches, there was never a doubt about the identity of this team's leader. "It's Chad's team," Mallett said, and then repeated, after the Penn State game. And the response after Henne's return Saturday after a two-week hia- tus echoed Mallett's sentiments. "I was happy," senior captain Jake Long said. "He's a great leader. He's a leader for our offense when he gets out there, and he took control and did great for us. I was excited." Henne's orchestrated an 11-play, 65- yard drive that he capped with an 11- yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Mario Manningham on the first series of the game. Mallett failed to lead Michigan to a score for the rest of the half, telegraphing passes and missing open receivers. So when Henne indi- See HENNE, Page 4B ,_ - Sophomores Brandon Graham and Adam Patterson sandwich quarterback CJ. Beacher in the defense's dominant second-half showing. The Wolverines have surrendered just 25 points in the past three games. interceptions in the span of seven min- back. utes. The first fumble gave the offense the Cornerback Brandon Harrison hit Bach- chance it needed. Henne, who saw his first er on a blitz and the bad throw landed in game action since injuring his knee against defensive end Tim Jamison's hands. The Oregon, hit wide receiver Adrian Arrington redshirt junior rumbled into Northwestern with a 16-yard touchdown strike to give territory to further deflate the already-tired Michigan a 21-16 advantage. Wildcat team. Once the Wolverines jumped ahead for Then, with 5:20 left in the game, Bacher the first time since the 2:52 mark in the first forced a throw over the middle. Michigan quarter, the Michigan defense made sure middle linebacker Obi Ezeh, starting in Northwestern (0-2, 2-3) wouldn't come See DEFENSE, Page 4B -"E RODRIGO GAYA/Daily Senior Chad Henne returned Saturday after missing two games with a knee injury. He threw for three touchdown passes and was a force behind Michigan's comeback victory. In deja vu game, Wolverines come up short on pitch Blue's slide continues By COLT ROSENSWEIG Daily Sports Writer For the second weekend in a row, the No. 10 Michigan men's soccer team came away from a Big Ten contest disappointed. The 3-2 overtime loss to No. 19 Indiana was eerily similar to last weekend's conference opener against Wisconsin. Michigan wore all maize, its opponents all red, a replay of last Sunday's game. A new referee con- tinued whipping out numerous cards of the same colors. Michigan again fought back from deficits of 1- 0 and 2-1. And a goalscorer - this time freshman defender Jeff Qui- jano - was sent off with a red card on a questionable call, forcing the Wolverines to play one man down. But there was one important dif- ference. This time, the Wolverines couldn't hold off their foes in over- time. With 3:30 remaining in the first overtime period, Indiana's Kevin Noschang headed the win- ning goal past junior goalkeeper Patrick Sperry, handing Michigan its first loss of the season. "It's a devastating loss for our team," senior defender Ben Carter said. "We worked so hard ... I real- ly feel like with 11 men, we would have beaten that team." The Wolverines had trouble con- tainingtherelentlessHoosier attack for much of the first half, but Sperry and his defenders fought off most of See HOOSIERS, Page 3B Senior Ben Carter and his teammates couldn't hold off the Hoosiers in overtime. WOMET eSeCCEend Michigan struggles in Big Ten opening weekend By ALEX PROSPERI Daily Sports Writer After a month of unde- feated play, the No. 11 Michigan volleyball team has had recent trouble closing out games. "I thought we played really well (this week- end)," Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. "But we didn't compete as well as we need to when it was on the line." Michigan arrived at the Sports Pavilion in Minne- apolis on Sunday looking to avoid falling to 1-3 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines (1-3 Big Ten, 13-3 overall) took a quick lead in the first game before the 12th-ranked Gophers (4-0,11-3) wont on a 10-0 run. Michigan tied the score at 11 and briefly held a 29-28 lead, but the Wolverines couldn't stay ahead as Minnesota came back to take the game, 31- 29. Game two featured 16 ties, and Michigan held the lead at 26-22 before Minnesota cut the deficit to 28-27. The Gophers survived two game points and won by another 31-29 margin. In game three, Minnesota went on a 15-4 run, coun- tered by a 7-1 run by Mich- igan. But the Gophers' defense was too strong and closed the game out, 30-26, to seal the match. Sophomore Veronica Rood had a rough day, com- mitting nine attack errors while connecting on just five kills, and junior Beth Karpiak had a season-low three kills. To make mat- ters worse, both Karpiak and Rood had negative attack percentages. "That's what really hurt," Rosen said. "To beat a teamlike Minnesota or to beat Wisconsin, we've got to be balanced, and we've got to have offense coming from our entire team. We didn't have that tonight and that hurt us." Friday was the begin- ning of what would be the Wolverines' worst week- end of the season. Michigan went into Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City looking to recover from last week's loss to Wisconsin, its first of the year, by taking out Iowa (1-3, 9-6). But the Wolverines fell short and lost their first five-game match of the season. Michigan struggled all game and never recorded an attack percentage high- er than 24 percent. The Wolverines squeaked by in a first stanza (30-28) that featured 23 ties and nine lead changes. Game two was just as close, with the Maize and Blue winning, See VOLLEYBALL, Page 3B By CHRIS MESZAROS Daily Sports Writer The contest at Iowa yesterday blew the Michigan women's soccer team off course in the opening weekend of Big Ten play. Literally. In a blustery day at Iowa City, the Wolverines fell victim to mother nature - and a strong Hawkeye team, losing 2- 1. And Michigan didn't fare any better in its conference opener at Minnesota, where it fell 2-1. Michigan (0-2-0 Big Ten, 2-6-1 over- all) struggled from the onset against the Hawkeyes, with the brisk breeze blowing into their faces and thwart- ing any offensive production. The Iowa defense added to Michigan's problems, turning askew Michigan's quality scor- ing chances. "With the wind against us inthe first half, it was hard to get much offense," Michigan coach Debbie Rademacher said. "Many of our passes and shots were affected by the wind." Iowa capitalized on Michigan's struggles with a goal at the 13 min- ute mark, forcing the Wolverines to turn up their offensive play. And Michigan did just that in the sec- ond half with the wind behind it. Out- shootingthe Hawkeyes after Kaeding's goal, the Wolverines came back to tie the game on a Sarah Banco goal. "We haven't (come back to tie) yet all year," Rademacher said. "That was a big hurdle to get over." But just as luck began to side with the Wolverines, it turned just as quick- ly. A questionable foul called by the referee gave Iowa a free kick deep in Michigan's zone. And, like the Hawk- eyes have all year, they converted on their opportunity, crashing the net and scoring off the foot of Stephanie Hyink at the 83rd minute mark. Despite the late goal, Michigan had a great opportunity on a last-second corner kick. Freshman Jackie Carron headed the ball into the crossbar, but the Wolverines couldn't net the tying score. The game highlighted Michigan's recent struggles in the second half The Wolverines have given up nine of their 12 goals allowed in the final stanza. "We're disappointed with the result, but we know we've got to make our own luck." Rademacher said. The game against Minnesota, while having a similar score, was won by two Minnesota goals scored just four min- utes apart. After taking an early 1-0 lead, the Wolverines allowed the Gophers to take the game with the two second half goals in the 2-1 loss. Michigan hopes to rebound next weekend with home games against Big Ten foes Indiana and Purdue. A I