The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com U yDecember 8, 2008 - 3B With sweep, Blue finds fun again SAID ALSALAH/Daly Senior Payton Johnson helped the 200-yard freestyle relay team win its event. Wolverines dominate at EMU Invitational By AMY SCARANO Daily Sports Writer YPSILANTI - Inside the humid Jones Natatorium on East- ern Michigan's campus Satur- day the air smelled of chlorine. Swimmers were cheering for their teammates in bathing suits as the snow fell outside the building. The crowd cheered intermittently. The No. 18 Michigan women's swimming and diving team won the two-day Eastern Michigan Invitational with five career best times and three meet records. After day one, the Wolverines were in first place ahead of East- ern Michigan University by just four points, but several successful races Saturday propelled the Wol- verines to a 185-point win. "We take this one day at a time," Michigan assistant coach Stefanie Kerska said. "All we think about is being better than we were yester- day, and I think we can safely say that today." Saturday brought five more career bests when senior Hannah Smith and junior Margaret Kelly both broke meet records - Smith in the 200-individual medley and Kelly in the 500-yard freestyle. Kelly, Smith, sophomore Natasha Moodie and senior Payton John- son set meet and pool records garnering consideration for .the NCAA championships in the 200- yard freestyle relay. Friday night, Smith and Kelly both posted career bests, propel- ling the team to first place early in the meet. Smith raced the 100- yard freestyle in 50 seconds flat and Kelly finished the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:19.16. The Wolverines also dominated in diving, winning the one- and three-meter springboard events. Freshman Amanda Lohman had a career best 291.90 in the three- meter event. "I think we were off to a slow start but we continued to focus as the sessions went on," Kerska said. "(Saturday) was by far our best ses- sion. I think the girls worked hard and earned the performances that they had tonight." EAST LANSING - There was something miss- ing from many recent Michigan hockey press conferences - a smile. But after Friday's 6-1 win over archrival Michigan State, the play- ers couldn't help but display them often. Junior defenseman Chris Sum- mers laughed off questions about his history of scoring success against the NICOLE Spartans. UERACH Sophomore ....CE forwardAaron Hod; Palushaj grinned after admitting he didn't notice that Michigan State goalie Jeff Lerg had been pulled. And freshman forward David Wohlberg set off a chain of laughter through the room when he com- pared facing the Spartans to play- ing against Russia. The atmosphere was relaxed. It was fun. And it was, well, confident. After a huge blowout win, the Wol- verines had no reason to be nervous for the second game of the series. Except, they most certainly did. For a team that has hovered around .500 for much of the season, a sweep means so much more than a split. Forget that an unranked Michi- gan State rode a nine-game winless streak into the matchup. Throw out records in a huge rivalry game. "We've been an up-and-down team in the first half Friday or Saturday, Saturday or Friday," Michigan coach Red Berenson said late Saturday night outside of the visiting locker room. "It's been a long time since we've put together a complete weekend. It feels good right now." His team had just scored three goals in the final 2:29 of the third period to beat Michigan State, 5-3, and stun the raucous green-and- white crowd. When the Wolverines punctu- ated Saturday's come-from-behind effort with an empty-netter, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Trailing for most of the third frame, Michigan seemed destined for another weekend split and another loss at Munn Ice Arena. But for the first time since beat- ing Ohio State twice on Halloween weekend, the Wolverines did what they were supposed to - sweep the weaker team. Michigan knows it can't be a .500 team forever, and this week- end was a step in the right direc- tion. The two victories mean as much as - maybe more than - the win over then-top-ranked Minne- sota in the College Hockey Show- case. . There was no major let-up. The Wolverines played two complete games, from start to finish. An inconsistent team showed some consistency. The Wolverinesbroke an 0-for- 17 stretch on their power play. They found a starting goalie. They again halted the Friday loss-Saturday win pattern. And, of course, they picked up two conference wins, which boosts them up to a tie for fifth in the standings. Saturday's press conference at Munn was more serious, business as usual. But the carefree, confident attitude from the day before wasn't completely gone. It had shown up on the ice, where Michigan came from a goal down twice to claw back into the contest. The Wolverines said the final six games of the first half of the season would tell them where they stand in the conference. Berenson said last week the series against Michi- gan State would be a chance for both teams to prove they're not as bad as their records indicate. And finally, fans can believe that the Wolverines are better than a .500 team. Maybe it took playing the Spar- tans, whom they absolutely hate. Or perhaps, it was simply about time all the parts of Michigan's game would come together. No matter what caused it, the end results were smiles. And that confidence must stay if the Wolver- ines want to continue high-quality hockey going in the second half of the season. And as Summers said Friday, "It feels pretty damn good." Come celebrate the festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe with evening Spanish Mass and reception to follow. Bring food to share. Be part of a beautiful Mexican tradition! Los invitamos a venir para celebrar la misa de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. Despues de la ceremonia tenemos una recepci6n. Los invitamos tambien a que traigan comida para compartir y sean parte de una bonita tradicion mexicana. ZACHARY MEISNER/Daily Freshman David Wohlberg is restrained by an official after a fight in Friday night's game against Michigan State. Wohlberg earns State fans' ire By CHRIS MESZAROS Daily Sports Writer EAST LANSING - David Wohl- berg knew exactly what it took to tick off Michigan State this week- end. The freshman got under the Spartans' skin by frustrating goalie Jeff Lerg, the Spartan defense and perhaps unintentionally, the Mich- igan State fans. In the third period of Michigan's 5-3 win in East Lansing on Satur- day, the Spartan student section found a new enemy in the 6-foot-1 South Lyon native. - After Wohlberg took a rough- ing after the whistle penalty in the third period, the Michigan State students were antsy to pummel Wohlberg with their version of the "see-ya" chant. But at Munn Ice Arena, the chant begins as soon as a player sits down in the penalty box. Wohlberg would have none of that, standing up through the entire penalty. Eight minutes later, Wohlberg had another penalty for cross- checking after the whistle. Once again he stood during the entire penalty. Later, instead of sitting down on the Michigan bench, when the State fans were going to burst into the "see-ya" cheer, he decided to lean over the boards, standing for the rest of the game. Many of the Spartan faith- ful chanted "giant douchebag" to BILLIKENS From Page 1B seemed Karpiak and Michigan's season was coming to a close in Lexington, Ky. But the Wolverines are used to these situations. Down 2-1 in the match against Kentucky, Michigan rallied to win in five sets. The teamplayed in five- set matches a handful of times dur- ing the Big Ten season and practiced all week simulated matches so there was no need to pull the curtain on the Wolverines season just yet. They needed to keep their poise and have their big hitters rise to the occasion. Everyone in the gym Wohlberg after he refused to sit down. What did he do to repay the Spartan fans for their hospitality? He assisted sophomore center Louie Caporusso on Saturday's game-winning goal. With the game tied late in the third period the newly formed top line of Wohlberg, Caporusso and sophomore Aaron Palushaj con- nected on a goal with fewer than two minutes remaining in the peri- od. Palushaj passed the puck up to Wohlberg, who then relayed it across the crease to a wide open Caporusso. Caporusso finished off the goal with a chip in past the Spartan netminder. "I saw the puck on the top of the blue line, and I kind of cheated by staying in the zone," Caporusso said. "(Palushaj) sent it to Wohl- berg and I just tried my hardest to stay open and made sure to put it in the open cage." The assist was probably Wohl- berg's most important play in a weekend that featured two goals, three assists and a slew of fights. Wohlberg scored the eventual game-winner against the Spar- tans on Fridaynight. Nine minutes into the second period, Caporusso passed the puck in front of the net, where Wohlberg nearly whiffed on a one-timer. But Lerg was so far out of position that the puck dribbled into the net, giving the Wolverines a 2-1lead. knew the stakes. Lose and go home. Win and have a shot at facing No. 4-seed Nebras- ka next weekend. "We just needed to regroup," Bower said. "We all told each other we were goingto win this match." After kills from Karpiak and Bower knotted the score at 11, the Wolverines were back in conten- tion. With Michigan ahead 13-12 in the final stanza, Karpiak delivered yet another kill to put the Wolver- ines ahead by two. A St. Louis attack error clinched the victory. Karpiak and Bower combined for 37 of 69 Michigan kills, and Zimmerman dished out 52 assists He added another goal in the third period to give Michigan a 4-1 lead and put the game out of reach. "He fit in good tonight," Michi- gan coach Red Berenson said. "I think he'll add something to that line. He's a good player. He's like (sophomore forward) Carl Hage- lin. They both add something to any line they play on." On Friday, Wohlberg irritated the Spartans once again. He was involved in nearly all of the scrums in the first period. He received slashing and roughing penalties in the period and even had his face mask ripped off by a Spartan player. The Wolverine bench had a dif- ficult time keeping the game under control in the period. Players fought almost every time the Wol- verines got close to Lerg's net. "We want them to play with emotion, but you want the con- trolled emotion, and you want dis- cipline," Berenson said Friday. "Everything happened down around their goalie, and we were definitely not a team that tries to run the other team's goalie," he said. "But when the goalie is out- side of the crease, and he's playing the puck, and the players are play- ing the puck there's going to be contact." Wohlberg was involved in each of those scuffles, but most impor- tantly, Wohlberg added to the rivalry in his first year as a Wol- verine. to lead the Michigan offense. "Lexi did a great job of reading their defense tonight and then find- ing the open hitter," Karpiak said. The way the tandem of Karpiak and Bower stepped up their game against St. Louis was evidence of a solid, well-rounded team. If the Wolverines are going to advance further into the NCAA Tournament, they need even more stellar performances from both players. The scouting report on Michi- gan might now read: "Commit to Karpiak, Bower, and Paz." If Nebraska makes the same mis- take of committing its blockers too early like St. Louis, look for another Wolverine to step up. El 12 de diciembre a las 7:00 p.m. December 12 at 7:00 p.m. Celebramos la misa en espa"ol todos los domingos a las 2:00 p.m. St. Mary Student Parish S 331 Thompson St. (At the corner of Thompson & William) 734.663.0557 www.stmarystudentparish.org Michigan Head *Pain & Neurological Institute is Conducting a research study evaluating an investigational W medication for the treatment of migraines. Participants must: 4 Be 18 years or older + Experience 1to 8 headaches per month for the past 2 months If you qualify, you will receive study related exams and study medication at no cost to you. In addition, you will be compensated for your time and travel expenses. For more information, please call a study coordinator at (734) 677-6000, option 4. Learn more about participating in research at www. MHNI.com.