The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com )Pol:,6ls Friday, January 30, 2009 - 7 i The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 30, 2009 - 7 ICE HOCKEY Wolverines face No.1 Notre Dame in rematch By NICOLE AUERBACH Daily Sports Editor Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson is hoping this season's series against Notre Dame can rep- resent a role reversal. Last year, the Wolverines held MicA n at the nation's top ranking for most Notre Dame of the season. Matchup: A path to the Michigan NCAA Cham- 18-8; Notre pionship game Dame 19-3-3 seemed almost When: Tonight guaranteed. 8:05 P.M. Notre Dame, Where: Joyce on the other Center hand, struggled through its regu TV: CBSports lar season. The Fighting Irish Blog: http:// were swept by thegame. Michigan in blogs.michi- January, finished gandaily.com fourth in the CCHA and snuck into the NCAA Tournament as a fourth seed in the West Regional. But Notre Dame got hot when it mattered, storming through region- al play and shocking the Wolverines in a 5-4 overtime win in the Frozen Four to reach the national champi- onship game. And this weekend's home-and- home series marks the first meeting between the teams since that semi- final game. This time, the Irish come into the matchup as the top team in the coun- try, unbeaten in 20 straight contests. The Wolverines (12-6-0 CCHA, 18-8-0 overall) are the ones with questions. Though they've won nine of the last 10 games, five of those wins came against CCHAbasement- dweller MichiganState,leadingsome to discount their recent success. "They're playing like we were last year, and we're playing maybe like they were," Berenson said. "We've got something to prove." Berenson hopes his team gains momentum heading into March, much like Notre Dame did last year. He knows it takes just a few back- to-back wins to advance deep into postseason play. "I hope we play our best hockey down the stretch," Berenson said. "When you coach, that's your goal - for everyone to improve, the team to come together and finally build to your best for last." Tonight is the start of that final stretch. Michigan has just 10 games remaining in the regular season, and if it hopes to secure a first-round bye in the CCHA Tournament, it needs to win almost all of them. The Wolverines probably can't catch the Irish, who have essentially locked up the top seed, but they could end up second with a strong finish. Fortunately for Michigan, it's playing its best hockey right now. The staunch defense is allowingjust 2.15 goals per game on average, and all four lines of forwards are con- tributing offensively. Early-season injuries have faded. Junior defenseman Steve Kampfer will return to the ice this weekend after a brief hospitalization for a head injury. Senior captain Mark Mitera practiced with the team this week for the first time since suffer- ing a knee injury in early October. He remains on track for a possible return before the postseason. The team has also stepped up in big games, making especially loud statements against rivals Miami (Ohio) and Michigan State in the past month. But tonight will be the biggest test so far this season, and the Wol- verines think they'll be ready to respond. Still, it will take near-per- fect play to pull off the upset. "If we don't play our best hockey, it's not going to be a good outcome," senior forward Tim Miller said. "We'llbringour best, and hopefully, that'll be enough." But Berenson isn't sure that atti- tude is the right approach to an opponent like Notre Dame. "I sense good things going on in practice, but we still have a lot to prove," Berenson said. "We can't just go, 'If we play our best, we'll beat this team.' We don't know. I don't know if we can." And while there's certainly bit- terness from last April's contest, according to junior acting captain Chris Summers, Michigan remains focused on what it must prove. "It's going to be huge," Summers said. "We have to make sure guys are going to come ready to play and show up (tonight)." ANNA BAKMA/Osf Senior Melinda Queen defends Ohio State forward Star Allen in last night's 52-44 loss. Queen had10 had a team-high 10 point Michigan can't stop Lavender, the michigan daily 'emal:>co" Con By TIM ROHAN Michigan was led. by Queen and Daily Sports Writer freshman guard Courtney Boylan, who both notched 10 points. The Michigan women's basket- Lessthanaminuteintothegame, ball team finally heeded the grade sophomore Veronica Hicks dove on school cheer: "Be aggressive, B-E the floor for a loose ball. She came Aggressive, B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I- up angry after being called for trav- V-E." eling and Benson quickly covered Unfortunately for the Wolver- Hicks' mouth, but she couldn't hide ines,theiraggressionwasn'tenough Hicks' intensity. The urgency was to clinch a obvious from the start. victory OHIO STATE 52 Hicks proceeded to score the against MICHIGAN 44 game's first points on the next pos- No. 15 session. Ohio State last night. Michigan Michigan drove to the basket attacked the basket with backdoor in the first half, finishing strong cuts, good positioning and nifty in the lane. Its efforts led to easy passes but couldn't pull out the vic- baskets and trips to the free-throw tory, losing 52-44 at Crisler Arena. line, and the team's first eight For the second consecutive points came on layups. The Wol- game, junior center Krista Phil- verines shot 8-of-11 from the char- lips started over senior Stephany ity stripe in the first 20 minutes. Skrba to defend a bigger opponent. Michigan led by one at halftime This time, it was junior Jantel Lav- despite not making a single field ender, the Buckeyes' best player. goal for the final 10 minutes and Not stopping her down the 32 seconds. The free throws made stretch proved to be the deciding the difference in the first half - but factor in the game. that all changed in the second. "I thought we did a good job The Wolverines didn't shoot a in the first half (defending Lav- single free throw after the break ender)," Michigan coach Kevin and Ohio State powered its way to Borseth said. "In the second half, the free-throwline,shootingl16-of- they shot 20 free throws. They shot 20 freebies in the final frame. a lot around that basket. ... They Trading basket for basket (just said) 'We're goingto throw it throughout the game, Michigan in there, and see if you can stop us,' cut the Buckeye lead to two with and we just didn't do it." just under three minutes to play. Lavender, who won her fourth Hicks started to bring the ball up Big Ten Player of the Week award the court but Ann Arbor native on Tuesday, came into the game and Ohio State guard Shavelle averaging a gaudy 21.6 points and Little tipped it away. Her effort led 11.1 rebounds per game. To put to a three-pointer by sophomore those numbers into context, seniors guard Brittany Johnson from the Melinda Queen, Carly Benson and left wing that created an insur- Skrba came into the game averag- mountable Buckeye lead. ing 24 points per game and 12.7 The Wolverines proceeded to rebounds per game combined. turn the ball over on their next Lavender finished the game two possessions and Michigan with 17 points and nine rebounds. was outscored 14-5 in the last 10 minutes of the game. TheBuckeye winimproved Ohio State coach Jim Foster's record to an impressive 10-0 mark against Michigan. He could have learned the secret to success from his pre- decessors - the Buckeyes have now won 45 of the 51 all-time matchups between the two schools. Though Ohio State's defense gave Michigan trouble in the two teams' first matchup, the Wolver- ines handled the scheme well on Thursday. "I thought we handled (the pres- sure) a lot better tohight," Borseth said. "(Little) got a steal and to me, that was critical. That led to a three-point shot. That was huge." * Michigan shot 2-of-20 from beyond the arc, with Boylan respon- sible for both baskets. But when the Ohio State defense tightened during crunch time, the Wolverines con- tinued to take 3-pointers instead of driving to the lane. Borseth defended the "in rhythm" shots and shrugged his shoulders at the fact that the shots didn't fall. Michigan stays at home to face Wisconsin (4-6, 14-7) on Sunday. A few weeks ago, Michigan lost by four points inMadison, which was the loss that sparked their current six-game losing streak. And the Wolverines will find out how much heart they really have soon enough. ' "It is pretty easy to show up to practice after you win games," Borseth said. "But when you lose games time after time, then you find out a lot about yourself. "It comes down to tomor- row. I'll be able to see when they walk through that door whether they have fire in their eyes or fire in their belly. That's what they need." WWW.800FULLER.COM (734) 769-7520 1 & 2 bdrm., modern, clean, quiet 5 mm. walk, MED, DENT, and Campus SPACIOUS 1 BDRMS at Hi11 and Church. $825 -$925. 734-260-4003. WE BUY CAMPUS RENTAL HOUSES want to sell your student rental house (248) 626-0614. WE WILL BE there - will you? U of H Housing Fair, Michigan Uoioo ball- room 02-04-09 12-4:30; we will have deals, specials, giveaways, and fancy dress! Stop by and find your S housing for next year ...now! 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Call Ryan 1 (800)626 - 6304. www.theislandhouse.com Wolverines have a lot of questions to answer before the Purdue game For Saturday, Jan. 3t, 2009 ARIES (March 21lto April 19) Delays with career plans or important deals with bosses are over. Now you can count on people being more receptive to your new ideas and-new ways of doing things. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Everything related to publishing, the media, higher education, medicine and the law will start to be more efficient and have fewer errors. (Thank heavens!) GEMINI (May 2110o June 29) New ideas about loans, mortgages, inheritances, insurance matters and any- thing to do with shared property might start to get off the ground now. The delays ond mix-ups will be far less now. CANCER (June 21to July 22) Important discussions with partners and close friends can go forward with 'reater success now. Delays involvine rehashing old business are almost over. LEO (July 23 to Aug. 22) It's been a headache at work lately. Confused communication, delays, silly errors and glitches have been frustrating. Now these are coming to an end. Finally! (Whew!) VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22) Creative projects can get the green light now. Distractions with old flames and romantic partners from the past are over. Plans for vacations look promising. Forward ho! LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22) Visiting relatives have now gone home. It's tite to reclaim your domestic routine and make friends with where you live (so that it (eels right to you.) SCORPIO (Oct. 231to Nov. 21) The past six weeks havebeen prone to errors, accidents, delays and transporta- tion breakdowns. All these snafus and mix-ups will be greatly reduced from here on. Glory hallelujah! SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22to Dec. 21) Money matters are more predictable in the immediate future. Past business and delays with checks being late in the mail and whatnot are behind you now. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan. 19) I's been frustrating dealing with silly errors, delays, transportation break- downs and confused communication with everyone. (You almost felt like a fool.) Thank heavens this time is now AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18) You feel more confident about your future. You have a stronger and clearer idea now about how things are going to play out. PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20) Although you've been thinking of old goals, now it's time to return to those bright, "new" ideas you had about your future. Let yourself get revved up again about those hopes and dreams you were nurturing before. YOU BORN TODAY It's important for you to be heard or seen for whatever you do. You need recognition for your work. Because of your excellent social skills and attractive demeanor, it's easy for you to get the admiration you seek. At this stage in your life, it's important for you to learn something new and valu- able. You'll be able to do that this com-. ing year! Birthdate of Nolan Ryan, baseball Hall-of-Famer; Zane Grey, author; Suzanne Pleshette, actress. N none would argue that the Michigan men'sbas- ketball team isn't drasti- cally improved from last year's squad. The Wol- verines lost a program- record 22 games last * year and weren't even good enough to earn an ANDY invite to REID the College Basketball Invitational, the tournament that takes teams not good enough to play in the National Invitational Tournament, which is for teams not good enough to make the NCAA Tournament. This season, Michigan has, at times, looked like a legitimate Big Ten title contender, topplingteams like Duke, UCLA and Illinois to build one of the best early-season tournament resumes in the nation. Sophomore Manny Harris was on his 'A'-game, putting up big numbers while still finding ways to dish the ball to teammates. Junior DeShawn Sims looked like one of the most improved play- ers in the Big Ten. And Michigan coach John Bei- lein was enjoyingthe peak of the "rollercoaster" - an analogythat he has used all season. Since then, the ride's been a bit shakier. Wednesday night, the Wolverineswere manhandled by a taller, more physical Ohio State team and began to look more and more like last year's team. "Sometimes, thingsjust don't go our way," Harris said after the Wolverines' 72-58 loss to Purdue on March 9, 2008. "This year, it hasn't been going our way, and we haven't been playing all 40 minutes of bas- ketball.". Harris may as well have been talking aboutthe team's Big Ten slate this year. Just five field goals, 18 points and 12 turnovers in the first half Wednesday night against Ohio State. Shooting12.6 percent from 3-point range in a loss to Penn State. Scoreless for almost nine min- utes in a win over Northwestern. Tomorrow, Michigan travels to Mackey Arena to take on the Boil- ermakers for the first time since that game, and the same problems seem to be plaguing the team as it enters arguably thetoughest part of its regular-season schedule. The Wolverines are struggling to play a full 40 minutes - and it's imperative that they start now. Michigan's next 10 days look like this: at Purdue tomorrow, home against resurgent Penn State on Thursday, at Connecticut Saturday and home against Michigan State on Feb. 10. Purdue is a team on a mission, coming in at No. 2 in the Big Ten in both scoring offense and scoring defense and winning games by an astounding average of 13.8 points. Coming into the year, the Boil- ermakers had just aboutthe loftiest goals a team can have. "Oh, a national championship," junior Keaton Grant said when asked about what he expected from this season atfBig Ten Media Day in October. "That's it. Nothing less, nothing more. A national champi- onship." When told about Grant's state- ments, Purdue coach Matt Painter couldn't help but laugh athis mis- sion. "He's got high goals," he said at Big Ten MediaDay. "We've had some tough days at Purdue. We've continued to stay positive and work hard to make strides....We do have high goals, to win a championship and put ourselves in the best posi- tion to make the NCAA Tourna- ment." Even though the Boilermakers may not look like ateam that will be cutting downthe nets in March, the team is vastly improved from last year, especially in one particu- lar department that Painter has been focused on all season: "Rebounding," Painter said suc- cinctly at Big Ten Media Day. "We have to be a better rebounding team." The Boilermakers are second- best in the conference atcgrabbing boards, snagging more than 36 a game. That could makethis contest even tougher for the Wolverines, since Beilein's 1-3-1 zone defense rarely emphasizes rebounding, meaning the Boilermakers may eas- ily extend several possessions with offensive rebounds. But Michigan can't afford to start sluggish, toss up too many ill- timed 3-point attempts, fail to box out or simply not score for extended periods of time. And the team's back-to-basics approach needs to start tomorrow againstthe Boiler- makers. - Reid can be reached at andyreid@umich.edu. 1-3 PERS. APT. May-Mid-Aug. Great location! 3rd floor at U-Towers. Furnished, . FREE cable/inter- net/heat/water. $1100/mo. 810.923.0964 / dkaz@umich.edu ser v iCes Ig A U-M PH.D. offers expert science/tech- nology editing for dissertations, re- search papers. SciTech, (734) 668- 7864 or srhtech@comcast.net THESIS EDITING- LANGUAGE, organization, format. 25 yrs. U-M exp. 996-0566 or writeon@iserv.net 0 2009 King Futeares Syndicatetnc.