4B - March 22, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4B - March 22, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
WNIT
From Page l B
far greaerthan what her pointtotal
indicated.
In the second half, Hicks was the
primary defender of Toledo guard
Naama Shafir, who torched the
Wolverines for 23 points, including
going 6-of-7 from three. She scored
13 in the first.
"(Shafir) is as good a guard as
we'll play anywhere," Michigan
coach Kevin Borseth said. "She
is just, she's off the charts. ... We
thought we were doing a good job on
her but she justgets away from you."
But when Hicks utilized her
length and quickness to keep the
ball out of the Israeli native's hands,
she kept Shafir scoreless for the first
14 minutes of the second half.
"We just together as a team saw
the damage that she was doing to us
in the first half," Hicks said. "We just
wentlike, youknow,we can't get beat
by one player. ... We knew that she
was the key to stoppingthem."
And stopping Shafir became the
difference. The Rockets shot just 22
percent from the field in the second
half, compared to SO percent in the
first. The team was held without a
second-half field goal for more than
12 minutes coming out of halftime.
But Michigan had its own shoot-
ing troubles.
The Wolverines (19-13 overall)
jumped out to an early lead as Phil-
lips scored nine points in the first
four minutes. But when the 6-foot-6
Sophomore Veronica Hicks helped stop Tsledo's best player, Naama Shafir, as the
Wsoverines cruised Is a 72-17 win seer Toledo in the secand raund of the WN IT-.
Jung out, 'M' still wins
center picked up her second foul, the
smaller Toledo (25-9) lineup took
advantage and forced Michigan to
shoot just 35 percent from the field.
"She scored on the block today
and a lot of times we don't use her
down there and people wonder
why we don't use her down there
at times," Borseth said. "Today she
was very effective."
When the Wolverines went back
to Phillips in the second, it sparked
the run that ultimately won the
game.
Before the season started, in a
closed-door scrimmage, Michigan
took on Toledo in its first matchup
of the year. The game was played as
if it were the first game of the year,
and at that time the nerves of a team
with six freshmen were evident.
"We scrimmaged them early in
the year and they handed it to us,"
Borseth said after the team's win
over Kent State on Friday. "They
had us down by about 15 so we have
to make some adjustments before
we are ready to go."
Yesterday's 15-point win repre-
sents the progress the Wolverines
have made, from the beginning of
the season to where they are now.
The victory is especially impressive
when you consider the surprisingly
large number of Toledo fans, band
members and students that made
the short trip up US-23 forthe game.
With the win, Michigan advanc-
es to the third round of the WNIT
and will play the winner of today's
matchup between Northwestern
and St. Bonaventure.
By BRIAN MECHANICK
For the Daily
Coming off a manhandling
by No. 5 Texas last weekend, the
Michigan men's tennis team came
home looking to take out its frus-
tration on an in-state rival.
In the team's Big Ten opener,
the Michigan men's tennis team
trounced Michigan State, winning
by a score of 6-1. With top player
junior Jason Jung sitting on the
sidelines, freshman Duncan Muil
made his dual meet debut.
The 110th meeting of these sto-
ried rivals got off to an intense start
in doubles, which was no surprise
to Michigan coach Bruce Berque.
"It's always a little bit different,
these big rivalries," Berque said.
"Like football or any other sport,
Michigan State is right up there
with Ohio State and Notre Dame
as far as rivalries go. We knew
we were going to get their best
tonight."
Since Jung was sitting out due
to playing-time limits, Berque was
forced to realign much of the team.
All singles players moved up a spot,
and the pairing of seniors George
Navas and Mike Sroczynski moved
into the No. 1 doubles spot.
Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 5-6 over-
all) fell behind early when the No.
3 pairing of freshman Chris Cha
and Muil lost 8-4. Michigan's No.
2 pairing freshman Evan King
and junior Chris Madden were in
a back-and-forth match until the
tenth game, when the duo was
finally able to break serve, going on
to win 8-4.
With the first two doubles
matches drawn, Michigan's No.
1 pairing's match would decide
who would take the first point.
After falling behind early, the pair
was able to rally back and take the
match 8-6, givingthe early point to
the Wolverines.
"It definitely was tense," Sroc-
zynski said. "We had to move up
from second doubles to first so that
put on some added pressure. When
we're playing a big rival like Michi-
gan State they want to beat us, so
it was big to come through at the
end."
In only his second No. 1 singles
match of the season, King won 6-1,
6-3.
"It doesn't matter if you play at
No. 1, No. 2 or No. 6," King said,
"You are going to face the same
type of player, same competition.
You've got to be ready."
After King, the matches ended in
quick succession to clinch the Wol-
verine victory over the Spartans
(0-1,11-5). The captain Navas, play-
ing No. 4 singles, won in straight
sets. The clinching match came
soon after in No. 2 singles as Sroc-
zynski came from a first-set deficit
to win in straight sets.
"I was just trying to fight
through the first set," Sroczynski
said. "He had chances to win the
first set 6-3, but I had some good
shots and stayed solid enough that
it could go my way."
But the Wolverines didn't let up,
as No. 5 Cha came back after drop-
ping the first set to win. Madden
ended the day in style, as the lefty
won in three sets. Only Muil came
up on the losing side for the Wol-
verines, losing 7-5, 6-4, after re-
aggravating an ankle injury early
in the first set and not being able to
overcome it.
The importance of starting of
Big Ten Play with a victory was not
lost on Berque.
"A goal for our team is to com-
pete for the Big' Ten Champion-
ship," Berque said, "We have
Minnesota right around the cor-
ner and then Iowa, both teams we
lost to last year. We know every
match in the Big Ten is going to
be tough, but it's really nice to get
one."
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