2B - November17, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
Wolverines knock out in-state rival
in four sets in front of packed house
By MARK BURNS
Daily Sports Writer
Friday was "Rock the House
Night" when the No. 19 Michigan
volleyball team hosted the Michi-
gan State Spartans before a sellout
crowd at Cliff Keen Arena.
And the Michigan faithful
weren't disappointed as the Wol-
verines defeated their in-state rival
in four sets (26-28, 25-17, 25-22,
25-17).
"I'm proud of how we compet-
ed," Michigan coach Mark Rosen
said. "I don't think we played the
best match we can play and part of
that is on Michigan State. Some-
times you're not going to play well,
but you need to find ways to win
points, find ways to get the other
team off-balance, and we did that
tonight."
With the Wolverines down
22-20 in the third set and the
match tied at one set apiece, Mich-
igan seemed to be on the verge of
trailing2-1.
But after kills from freshman
right-side hitter Alex Hunt and
senior middle blocker Beth Kar-
piak, the Wolverines took the lead
from the Spartans and pulled out
the set, 25-22.
The opening frame made it look
like the Wolverines were going
to have a much easier time with
Michigan State.
Michigan jumped out to a quick
8-1 lead against the Spartans
(5-10 Big Ten, 13-13 overall), with
kills from Hunt and Karpiak. But
Michigan State quickly regrouped
and swung the momentum in their
direction.
"Once they started making that
comeback and showed that they
weren't just goingto go away, all of
a sudden we got tentative," Rosen
said. "We started thinking a lot
more and playing less."
Michigan State grabbed a 24-21
lead, only to see the Wolverines
(10-6, 22-6) come back to tie the
score at 24.
The Michigan comeback effort
proved to be futile as the Spartans
stole the first set, 28-26.
But the Wolverines bounced
back in the second and third sets,
thanks in large part to the play
Can a Spartan
fan really root
for Michigan?
JENNIFER KRoN/Daly
Freshman right-side hitter Alex Hunt led the Wolverines with 15 kills Saturday night in Michigan's 3-1 victory over
Michigan State.
don't envy Michigan State fans
this week.
Sure, their Spartans are 9-2
overall, have just
one loss in the
Big Ten and are
playing for a shot
at the Rose Bowl
on Saturday.l
But for Michi-
gan State to have
any chance of NATE
winning the con- SANDALS
ference title and
earning a ticket
to Pasadena, Michigan has to beat
Ohio State.
That's before the Spartans take
the field against Penn State at 3:30
that afternoon. Of course, if Michi-
gan State loses, Penn State will be in
the Rose Bowl and the result of The
Game won't have an impact.
So there will be a lot of fans
dressed in green and white this
week who have a tough decision to
make: is a possible trip to the Rose
Bowl enough to root for the Maize
and Blue, even for just three hours?
Most Michigan fans would have
no problem rooting for the Spartans
if it would help the Wolverines. But
the rivalry isn't the same for the two
fan bases. v
For Wolverine fans, the Spartans
are a second rival, after the Buck-
eyes. And for most a lot of fans, espe-
cially out-of-staters, the Spartans
are third behind Notre Dame.
But in East Lansing, matchups
don't get any bigger than Michigan.
It's possible to see this as a win-win
situation for Spartan fans. If Michi-
gan wins and Michigan State wins,
their team makes the Rose Bowl. If
Michigan loses and Michigan State
wins, sending Ohio State to Pasade-
na, well, at least Michigan lost.
But by similar logic, it's also a lose-
lose scenario.
For me, it's not so cut and dry. As
a life-long Eagles fan, I can't imagine
ever rooting for the Cowboys, Giants
or Redskins (in that order). When
any of those teams match up, I root
for the game to end in a tie.
From 1990 to 2002, the Cowboys
had aspecial teams coachnamed Joe
Avezzano. For some reason, my dad
and I always loved seeing him freak
out on the sidelines (a pretty regular
occurrence), no matter who Dallas
was playing. When you're rooting
against a special teams coach, you've
got a rivalry on your hands.
It really comes down to the inten-
sity of rivalry fandom. Do you hate
your rival because their loss is your
team's gain? Or do you hate your rival
because you actually despise players
and coaches so much that you wantto
see them lose no matter what?
Considering the vitriol that flies
southeast from East Lansing to Ann
Arbor, I get the feeling most Michi-
gan State fans fall into the second
category. (Or they're really good at
faking disdain)
AthreadonMichiganState'srivals.
com message board seems to support
my assumption. One poster suggested
everyone, "Grow a pair ... root for UM
on Saturday." The responses to that
ranged from, "Yuck!" to "NEVER!!!"
to "I feel dirty just thinking about it."
That last response drives at the
basic instinct of rivalries. A true rival
is a team you root against no mat-
ter what their record or who they're
playing. It would be tough for most
Spartan fans to flip that switch for
just one week, no matter what it
means for their team.
While those kids up in East Lan-
sing may have a better football team
to root for this year, and they'll be
watching their team play on New
Year's Day, their happiness won't be
complete.
If it's any solace, either the Wol-
verines will win at Ohio State, or
Michigan State won't have a shot at
the Rose Bowl. Win-win, right?
- Sandals can be reached at
nsandalsuumich.edu.
of Hunt and junior outside hitter
Juliana Paz. Both registered six
kills in the middle two sets.
The Wolverines' defense should
be credited for getting Michigan
back into the match, though.
"In sets two and three, we held
them to very low hitting percent-
ages," Rosen said. "A lot ofthatwas
our serving, but our blocking and
defense really affected them."
The Spartans were held to an
attack percentage (number of suc-
cessful kills) of -0.02 and 0.00 in
the second and third set.
After winning the second set,
the crowd, which included mem-
bers of the Michigan men's bas-
ketball team, erupted and sent
Michigan into the locker room rid-
ing high.
"We're a team that feeds off
emotion," sophomore setter Lexi
Zimmerman said. "Once we got
into the locker room, we knew we
needed to get some momentum
going and carry that out onto the
floor."
Zimmerman was the main
architect in the Wolverines'
offense, dishing out 20 assists in
the middle two sets.
"It was a tough match to set
because early in the match we
weren't passing and then she was
trying to force stuff," Rosen said.
"She really had to settle the match
down and find something that
worked, get her hitters going and
she did."
Michigan headed into the
fourth set with hopes of giving the
Spartans a little payback for what
happened on Sept. 27 - the night
when Michigan State defeated the
Wolverines to give them their first
loss of the season.
The Spartans weren't so fortu-
nate Friday night as Michigan won
the fourth frame, 25-17.
Hunt registered four kills in
the set. The Granger, Ind., native
led the Wolverines with 15 kills in
the match, while Paz and Karpiak
each had 12.
But the Wolverines still need to
concentrate on playing hard the
entire match.
"We tend to break the game up
into halves," Zimmerman said.
"We'll play really hard the first and
then get lax. When we have a lead,
we need to work on getting more
and not just sitting back."
For now, Michigan can bask in
the joy of getting a little revenge on
its in-state rival.
"After losing to Michigan State,
we wanted to get out of there
as soon as possible," Hunt said.
"Tonight, we got the victory we
deserved."
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