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 * BRONCOS 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." a. .. IA