The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
January 25, 2010 - 3B
" Hogan struggles after
shutout in first game
By MICHAEL FLOREK
Daily Sports Writer
BIG RAPIDS - Usually, things
don't melt on ice.
But junior goalie Bryan Hogan
did, faster than snow in the oven.
Less than a month ago in the
Great Lakes Invitational, a puck
bounced off his glove and into the
net as Hogan's mistake put the
game nearly out of reach. In Sat-
urday's first period against Ferris
State, Ewigleben Ice Arena was
already preheating.
In a goal that was eerily similar
to the one that got him pulled in
the GLI, a manageable wristshot
from the top of the circle found its
way just above Hogan's left pad and
under his glove.
But despite his history, Hogan
didn't crumble in the heat created
by the Ferris student section locat-
ed behind his net.
He rebounded from the early
goal Saturday to return to his Fri-
day-night shutout form, making 29
stops and keepingMichiganwithin
reach of the Bulldogs.
"He gave us a chance to win,
that's all you can ask for a goalie to
do," senior defenseman Chris Sum-
mers said.
After getting a lot of defensive
help on Friday en route to his third
shutout of the season, Hogan was
forced to make two saves on break-
aways to keep it tied at 1-1 midway
through the game Saturday.
With eight minutes left, Ferris
State's Casey Haines drove around
sophomore defensemen Brandon
Burlon, only to meet Hogan's poke
check.
About three minutes later, a
long pass out of the Bulldogs' zone
beat freshman Lee Moffie and left
Hogan one-on-one with the shoot-
er. Hogan got his left pad on the
backhand shot, and after a late goal
in the second that occurred when
Hogan had to contend with traffic
in front, the Wolverines escaped
the period down by just one.
"Hogan kept us in the game,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson
said. "We got great chances and
their goalie played well. Both goal-
ies played well. I didn't think we
finished."
The Wolverines finally capital-
ized on one of their many scoring
opportunities' with just over two
minutes remaining. But Hogan's
work wasn't finished as he was
forced into the spotlight one final
time as Michigan took a penalty 14
seconds later.
With just 24 seconds left, a one-
timer from the high slot trickled
through Hogan's legs into the net
for the final goal, winning the game
and overshadowing Hogan's stellar
weekend in the net.
"It was heartbreaking for our
team after battling back from a def-
icit and tying the game in the last
minute and a half," Berenson said.
"It's a tough pill to swallow because
we're right back in the game and
we have the momentum."
A day before, Hogan didn't feel
the heat, stopping 22 shots in a
shutout of the top offense in the
CCHA.
It was the sixth of his career.
In a low-scoring game, it was the
defensive effort that made the dif-
ference.
"Hogie played outstanding
tonight, stood on his head, made
some bigsaves forus," senior defen-
semen Steve Kampfer said after
Friday's game. "To shutdown that
(Blair) Riley kid was a huge step for
us. That was our goal all week."
Even with the 'oven ready'
light off, the red light behind the
net ultimately stayed on, despite
Hogan's play in front of it. Even
with the 'oven ready' light off, the
red light behind the net ultimately
stayed on, despite Hogan's play in
front of it.
AARON AUGSBURGER/Daily
Freshman Nya Jordan drives tothe basket against Ohio State last Thursday. Jordan has contributed off the bench this season.
Wolverines avenge
early loss to Indiana
Beam dooms Blue again
With lead for most of
match, Michigan
loses to Nebraska
By STEPHEN J. NESBITT
Daily Sports Writer
Entering their final rotation, the
No. 16 Michigan women's gymnas-
tics team held a meager lead, but
with just three performers left,
their Achilles' heel once more led
to their downfall.
The Wolverines led by one tenth
of a point as they approached the
balance beam. All three Wolverines
toppled off to give No. 9 Nebraska
a 196.025-194.725 home victory on
Sunday.
"Obviously, overall I'm disap-
pointed because we didn't hit beam
again," Michigan coach Bev Plocki
said. "But that being said, I was
very pleased with the other three
events."
The event almost led to a similar
demise in last Wednesday's contest
against Michigan State, when three
falls from atop the beam almost
gave the Spartans a late victory.
"Thebeam is definitelyour prob-
lem area, and has been our problem
area for the last couple meets,"
junior Kylee Botterman said.
"We're disappointed. We're upset.
We just need to find the swing of
things, and we just haven't found
it yet. We have such talented girls
on beam, we just need to find what
works for us to hit six-for-six every
time."
Even with the slips, a few ath-
letes stepped up and competed
very well in an underdog role on the
road. Senior captain Kelsey Knut-
son took first place on the beam,
and freshman Natalie Beilstein was
runner-up on the vault.
Botterman had the strongest
showing ofthe afternoon, pacing the
team by winning the individual title
on the uneven bars, taking two sec-
ond-place spots and capturing the
all-around award with a 39.350 total.
"Kylee had a great meet every-
where," Plocki said. "She is a very
powerful athlete, so she was able to
adapt to equipment changes pretty
well."
Against such a high-profile
squad in Nebraska, it was essential
for an all-around athlete to show-
case her talents.
"It wasn't my best day by any
means," Botterman said. "ButI had
four solid performances, and I'm
happy with that. I'm glad that I can
contribute for my team when they
need me."
As a team, Michigan (2-0 Big
Ten, 3-1 Overall) set season-bests
on the floor exercise, despite some
differences with the equipment in
Nebraska (4-0). Both players and
coaches agreed that warm-ups
were not crisp due to the challenge
of overcoming the floor exercise
mat.
"The equipment here was very
different," Plocki said. "I thought
that the athletes did a great job
from warm-ups adjusting to the
equipment and coming through
to perform like we did in the first
three events."
Looking ahead to their next
meet - a tri-meet matchup in Iowa
against Iowa State and BYU next
Friday - the Wolverines under-
stand that they have plenty of ele-
ments to refine.
"We just have to continue to
keep working," Plocki said. "We
need to reevaluate the lineup and
make sure we're practicing under
pressure and are just preparing
ourselves to get better."
By AMY SCARANO
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's basket-
ball team was up by 14 points with
just14 seconds remainingin its game
against
Indiana INDIANA 56
at Crisler MICHIGAN 70
Arena yes-
terday, and it was safe to say they
would come out victorious.
But that didn't stop senior Krista
Phillips from diving for a loose ball
when freshmen guard Dayeesha
Hollins overthrew a pass to Phil-
lips. The result of the hustle play
wouldn't change the final result, but
Phillips dove regardless.
Even though the ball rolled out
of bounds and the effort failed, the
Wolverines certainly did not, notch-
ing a 70-56 win and showing their
dedication along the way.
"I was laughing for the last 15
seconds of the game," sophomore
forward Carmen Reynolds said.
"We are taught to always dive for
the ball, give it your all and grab it.
So that's what she did."
Michigan (3-6 Big Ten, 11-8 over-
all) hasn't had much to laugh about
recently. The win ended a three-
game losing streak and was the
team's first against Indiana in six
tries.
But when the Wolverines were
down 27-22 at halftime, Michigan
went to the locker room with expec-
tations of a victory kept in check.
The Wolverines are all-too famil-
iar with mediocre first-half perfor-
mances and they weren't going to
settle for another close loss, espe-
cially after losing their last two
games by a combined five points.
In their last game against Indiana
(4-5, 11-9) less than two weeks ago,
Michigan was down by as much as
11 in the first half before they came
back in the second.
But when a layup at the buzzer
that would have sent the game into
overtime rolled out of the rim, the
Wolverines dropped the comeback
effort.
And this time, it was halftime
modifications that saved the Wol-
verines from another loss.
"(At halftime) we decided to
push the ball, penetrate and keep
the lane open," Hollins said. "We
had noticed that the lane was pretty
much wide open and our goal (in the
second half) was to penetrate. For
me to get myself involved was easy
when the lane was wide open."
Hollins did just that. And with no
one in the Indiana post to block her
under the basket, Hollins was able
to score 6 points in the paint in the
second half.
Fastbreaks by Hollins and junior
guard Veronica Hicks within a min-
ute of each other opened the second
half and set the pace for the remain-
ing20 minutes.
Michigan went on a 20-7 run to
take an eight-point lead. The Wol-
verines never looked back from
there, improving their lead to 20
with two minutes remaining.
"In the locker room we all looked
at each other and had kind of a 'not
again' moment," freshman guard
Jenny Ryan said. "We were like,
'We've been through this, we know
what it'slike to lose and we don't want
to do it again.' You could sense it that
we justweren't losing this game."
Michigan's lead ballooned with
help from Hicks, who got hot from
behind the arc in the second half.
She finished the game with a game-
high24 points, 20 inthe second half.
Reynolds led the team in 3-pointers
with four, two of which were Michi-
gan's only 3-pointers in the first half.
Ryan picked up her game in the
second half as well. After a couple of
misread passes in the first, she fin-
ished with a game-high 11 rebounds.
"It was just one thing after anoth-
er," Ryan said. "Once it's done it's
done, I can't go back and fix it. So
when I came out in the second half
I knew the first half was over and I
just wanted to play from there."
With their record and tenth-place
ranking in the Big Ten, Michigan
must string together a few consecu-
tive victories in order to entertain
thoughts of postseason play.
But with the pressure off, the
Wolverines can just look ahead one
game at a time.
"Words cannot describe that
we are back on a winning streak,"
Reynolds said. "Hopefully we will
be able to continue that in Illinois."
Ohio State ends Wolverines
25-year win streak in rivalry
Brunemann leads
Blue with two
victories, but team
loses in dual meet
By FELIX CARREON
Daily Sports Writer
Heading into this weekend's
matchup with Ohio State, the
Michigan women's swimming and
diving team hadn't lost a dual meet
to the Buckeyes in 25 years.
Since 1985, the Wolverines have
won 16 consecutive dual meets
against Ohio State and they were
looking to extend that streak
against their rivals this weekend.
But despite a strong perfor-
mance from fifth-year senior
Emily Brunemann, Michigan was
on the wrong end of a dominant-
ing performance, falling 162-132 in
Columbus.
Brunemann led a fatigued
Wolverine squad into McCorkle
Aquatic Pavilion with three event
victories. The fifth-year senior
captured event victories in the
1000-yard freestyle and the 500-
yard freestyle. The distance
specialist also displayed her ver-
satility, touching the wall first in
the 400-yard individual medley,
an event she's been itching to com-
pete in.
"My freestyle is kind of tired
right now which is evident in my
1000 and 500," Brunemann said.
"And normally when my freestyle
is tired, my 400 (individual med-
ley) is pretty good."
After a strong performance last
weekend against Northwestern,
senior Margaret Kelly stepped up
once again. Kelly won the 100-yard
backstroke but came in a close sec-
ond in the 200-yard backstroke,
losing by nearly five tenths of a
second.
"I don't care if you play Ohio
State in tiddlywinks or football or
swimming," Richardson, who had
never lost to Ohio State in his 25
years as head of the program, said.
"Anytime you compete with Ohio
State, you're part of the greatest
rivalry in the sport. If you pay the
price on Monday, Wednesday and
Thursday sometimes you don't
have a whole lot to give on Satur-
day.
"I don't have any complaints
about the effort we gave."
But the Wolverines didn't leave
Columbus empty-handed. They
made progress in fulfilling the
lack of depth at breaststroke.
Freshman Julia Andracki
started the 200-yard breaststroke
strong, leading with 50 yards to
go in the race. At that point, fresh-
man Mattie Kukors was in fourth
place. But then, she stole the spot-
light. Kukors finished the final 50
yards in 35.39 seconds, coming
in eight hundredths of a second
ahead of second place. Andracki
wasn't far behind, grabbing
fourth place.
Michigan also received a strong
performance from sophomore
Alexa Mehesan. She captured an
event victory in the 100-yard but-
terfly and finished second in the
100-yard backstroke.
Despite some individual suc-
cess, Brunemann lamented the
streak's end.
"I was pretty disappointing
because we haven't lost that meet
since 1985," Brunemann said. "I
know it was a dual meet but our
main focus is Big Tens and I know
we're going to be really prepared
to kick butt there."
Cherie. mour
corset ( IPant
0I99?
JANUA %aLOi AN
f4J0-
STDET ICETTJST$1 OXUSBOFFICE.O C,
AVAILABLE ONLYA
PRCE:$3, 2, IT6.T AE757 'OR OLIE TCOLLEGE 'HOCKEYARTE
TICKET CSCA NBYCALLINGg313.39 553 1. ASK FlIR THE CLEI t~f5 A
R LO CALIG 8C3
ALL TICKETMAT R$OC A lIONS,
5PIAL IT ELARATES ARE A i AE I' AR NAA EEs A rcE
$pEC CiBLEl.LEENG
inw
Al ER y A