The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Monday, September 8, 2008 3B
After two straight
overtime thrillers,
'M' still undefeated
By NICOLE AUERBACH
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's soccer
team wanted to make the most of
its West Coast tour.
In fact, it stayed on the field as
long as possible.
The Wolverines played two
matches tq overtime finishes this
weekend, defeating San Diego
State 3-2 in overtime and tying
San Diego 1-1 (20T) with a total of
24 extra minutes of play between
the two games.
These games were not for the
faint of heart.
Deadlocked at two after 90
minutes on Friday night, Michi-
gan (3-0-1) and San Diego State
headed into overtime. Just four
minutes into the extra period,
Michigan junior Mauro Fuzetti
drove the ball from 10 yards out
into the upper left corner of the
Aztecs' goal for the game-winner.
Redshirt sophomore Adam Keller
had the assist, his first career
point.
"It was probably the best goal
I've ever seen scored in my entire
coaching career by a guy wearing
a Michigan uniform," Michigan
coach Steve Burns said. "At the
last minute, Mauro decided to try
a side volley, which is similar to a
bicycle kick.'
Fuzetti jumped off his right leg,
threw his left leg up in the air over
his head, twisted his hip and came
across with his right foot to hit the
shot. It's one of the most difficult
moves in soccer.
The ball hit the inside of the
net and dropped down. After a
moment of stunned silence, sev-
eral Wolverines ran to Fuzetti
to celebrate and San Diego State
players collapsed on the ground.
"It was an amazing goal,"
Fuzetti said. "It was just the best
feeling in the world - to score in
overtime and get that goal for your
team. It was just a dream goal."
Burns said it took the team a
few hours to come back to reality
after a goal he said was worthy of
ESPN's Top 10 plays. Eventually,
Michigan refocused on its main
objective: playing soccer.
Learning how to play and win
close games early in the season
could be invaluable for the Wol-
verines when they enter confer-
ence play in a few weeks.
"I think it's really good for us,
keeping us sharp," redshirt soph-
omore Matt Schmitt said. "We're
going to have games when we blow
people out and we're goingto have
games that are close. Getting that
experience early in the season is
definitely going to help when we
start playing tougher opponents
later on."
On Sunday, Michigan- jumped
out to an early lead with a rare goal
from Schmitt in the 26th minute
of the contest. The defender's goal
was just the fourth of his career.
San Diego tied the game eight
minutes after halftime to knot the
scgre, which held through two
overtime periods. Michigan out-
shot the Toreros 12-5 in the game,
but San Diego goalkeeper Tommy
McClain made seven smooth saves
to keep the game tight.
After two 10-minute periods of
overtime, the game ended in a tie.
The extra time on the field
wasn't a problem for Michigan.
After a new, rigorous preseason
conditioning regimen, the Wol-
verines feel that their fitness level
is much higher than in the past.
"As far as fitness goes, we're
starting to see it pay off in these
close games," Schmitt said. "It
definitely prepared us for Califor-
nia, 85-degree weather, overtime
games."
FILE PHOTO
Junior Mauro Fuzetti's game-winning goal against San Diego State was called "ESPN Top 10 worthy" by his teanmmates.
Wolverines recognize need to
improve after Invitational win
By RUTH LINCOLN
Daily Sports Writer
NORTHVILLE - The Michi-
gan women's cross country team
won Detroit Mercy's Titan Invi-
tational this weekend at Cass
Benton Park, but the celebration
didn't last long.
Little time passed before the
Wolverines recognized they
were far from where they want
to be.
"We need to get tougher, fast-
er, stronger - all things need to
improve," fifth-year senior Nicole
Edwards said. "I'm not saying
we're terrible, but we have a lot of
work to do."
Michigan won with 27 points,
followed by Bucknell (47) and
Findlay (99).
In her first race this season,
Edwards finished the 5,000-me-
ter course fastest for the Wolver-
ines and set a new course record
by nine seconds (17:19).
Edwards and Findlay's Hilary
Esselstein traded leads for most
of the race before Edwards took
control for good after the halfway
mark. 1
"For her first time out, I
thought that was really good,"
Michigan coach Mike McGuire
said. "It takes a while to kick the
rust back out."
Junior Geena Gall and sopho-
more Danielle Tauro stayed
near the front for most of the
race, though the hilly course
" presented challenges for some
of the Wolverines. Gall and
Tauro dropped back around the
2,500-meter mark, but regained
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From Page 1B
"We are still lacking in putting
the goals away," Ryan said. "We
don't have quite enough determi-
nation in the attacking players. If
we had really gone after it, we could
have won by a few points instead of
stealing it late in the game."
In addition to not capitaliz-
ing on offense, Michigan also
stumbled on defense. With 18:20
left in the game, the Wolver-
ine defense failed to collapse
on Bronco forward Stephanie
Skowneski, and she snuck a shot
past senior goalie Madison Gates
to tie the game.
But Bowery's open netter took
back the lead, and the Wolverines
hung on. If the Wolverines win
against Oakland on Thursday, they
willmatchthe total number ofwins
the earned all last season -three.
Butit will still be awhile before
Ryan's young team stops making
some basic mistakes, he said.
"It's only as you train over and
over until it becomes a habit, and
that can take a long time," Ryan
said. "It's going to take until
whenever it happens, and I don't
know when that's going to be."
Senior Nicole Edwards won the Titan Invitational this weekend.
their positions for fourth (17:50)
and fifth-place (17:57) finishes,
respectively.
Michigan had five runners in
the top 10, but there was a gap
of more than a minute between
Edwards and junior Kelly Samp-
son, who finished ninth overall
and fifth for the Wolverines. But
Michigan it will be more difficult
for Michigan to dominate the top
ten in the larger races with deep-
er fields.
"We definitely need to pack
it up more," Edwards said. "We
need people to be closer together
for longer of the race.... It was just
too spread out."
Michigan's appearance at the
Titan Invitational Saturday was
its first since 2002. The same
weekend last season, the Wolver-
ines traveled over five hours to
Bloomington. McGuire said Ann
Arbor's proximity to Northville
was one reason the coaches added
it to the schedule.
"A little bit of it is taking inven-
tory of what we have with our
team, and then focusing a little bit
more on the training right now,"
McGuire said. "We've only been
in school four days now. We don't
need to be traveling too far the
first weekend of school."
The Wolverines now have
almost a month to improve for
their next meet at the Notre Dame
Invitational on Oct. 3.
"We're goingto be working
hard," Gall said. "It'll be a lot bet-
ter next time."
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