The Michigan Daily - michiganclaily.com
Friday, March 26, 2010 - 9
M ichgnadvances
to WNJT elite eight
Wolverines beat
Northwestern to
split with Wildcats
.C _ x on the season
00,
,, VA
SAD ALSALAH/Daily
Junior Louie Caporusso has taken off in the second half of the season, now leading the Wolverines in goals with 20.
Blue starts tourney
road against Bemidji
By MARK BURNS No. 2 seed. The winner will face
Daily SportsEditor either Miami or Alabama-Hunts-
ville on Sunday.
Its student enrollment hov- Coming into tomorrow's
ers around 5,000 and all of its matchup against the Beavers,
sports except for men's and wom- Michigan is on a six-game win-
en's ice hockey ning streak, having tore through
compete at the Mch n at the end of its season with backup
Division-II goalie Shawn Hunwick in net
level. So, to say Bemidji St. after losing starter Bryan Hogan
Bemidji State Matchup: to a groin injury on Feb. 25. That,
University is a Michigan combined with the loss of senior
school few peo- 25-17-1; Bemi- defenseman Chris Summers two
ple recognize dji St. 23-9-4 weeks later was thought by many
would probably When: Sat- at first to spell doom for the Wol-
be accurate - urday 8 p.m. verines.
before last year, Where: Allen "We've gotten into a rhythm
that is. County War here," junior center Louie Capo-
In last sea- Memorial russo said. "I think it's the first
son's NCAA Coliseum time we've got a consistent feel-
Tournament, TV/Radio: ing before every weekend, and
the Beavers Comcast hopefully we can continue that."
defeated No. The Wolverines will certainly
1 seed Notre have their work cut out for them
Dame and Cornell before advanc- as they square off against Dan
ing to the Frozen Four, where Bakala, a goaltender similiar
Miami (Ohio) eventually ousted in stats and hype to Air Force's
the heavy underdog. Andrew Volkening, an unknown
But Bemidji State - one of four netminder who shut out Michi-
teams that currently play in Col- gan and backstopped the Falcons
lege Hockey America, a confer- to an upset in the first round of
ence that will disband after this last year's NCAA tournament.
year - finally brought its pro- But according to Caporus-
gram into the national spotlight so, the formula for avoiding an
after playing at the Division-I early exit like last year is simply
level for just over a decade. "shooting the puck on net with a
For tomorrow's matchup, the purpose."
Michigan hockey team drew the "If we give him a lot of confi-
Beavers' card in the first round of dence and start building him up
the tournament in Fort Wayne, in our head, then it's only going
Ind. The Wolverines, after win- to make it harder on us," Capo-
ning the CCHA Tournament last russo said. "I find if you brain-
weekend in Detroit, received the wash yourself to believe that
No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region they don't have a good goalie,
with the Beavers grabbing the you're better off putting the puck
in the net."
Michigan coach Red Berenson
expanded on Caporusso's asser-
tion, saying that it all boils down
to heart and dedication in the
three-to-five foot range around
the crease. Berenson has said
time and time again that his team
needs to get those dirty goals,
scramble for rebounds, throw
traffic in front of Bakala and, ulti-
mately, make its scoring chances
count.
But while the Wolverines have
had their fair share of offensive
success in the six-game play-
off stretch thus far - scoring
28 goals in six games - extra
emphasis has been put on the
defensive front through the sec-
ond half of the season.
"We have to stay focused on
the things we have been doing
well," sophomore forward Luke
Glendening said. "The positive
team talk, playing hard defense,
that's important and that's what
our momentum comes from."
Additionally, Michigan has
successfully been able to roll
three lines, and sometimes four,
throughout the playoff run. That
quality could be a difference-
maker against the Beavers, who
trail the Wolverines when it
comes to overall talent and skill.
"They've got a line with 50
goals on it," Berenson said. "We
don't have anything like that. I
think all of our lines are going
to have to be rock solid against
their team. They come at you
hard with four lines, and you'll
see pressure we haven't seen this
year."
By ALEX HERMANN
Daily Sports Writer
Midway through the second
half of yesterday's WNIT third-
round
match- NORTHWESTERN 44
up, MICHIGAN 65
North-
western made a quick 8-0 run
to cut the Michigan lead to 11.
But any hopes the Wildcats had
about mounting a comeback were
soon stifled.
With eight minutes to go in
the game, freshman guard Jenny
Ryan got a steal on the left block
while sophomore forward Car-
men Reynolds nailed a 3 pointer
on the other end of the court,
catapulting the Wolverines on a
10-0 run of their own and effec-
tively sealing the 65-44 Michigan
victory.
The win was the team's second
overhNorthwestern in four match-
ups this season and advanced the
Wolverines to the elite eight of
the Women's National Invitation
Tournament (WNIT).
Defense was certainly the
name of the game for Michigan,
as it held the Wildcats to their
second-lowest scoring output of
the season.
"Our defense did a great job,"
Michigan coach Kevin Borseth
said after the game. "We played
with a lot of energy and we need-
ed to, they're a very good basket-
ball team. ... We came out very
strong, got out to an early lead
and just kind of built on that."
Ryan was a big part of that
defensive mindset.
In the Wolverines' last game
against Northwestern, the Sagi-
naw native demonstrated her
shooting touch by tying a career
high of 12 points.
Last night, Ryan had six steals
and recorded the team's only
block on a Northwestern 3-point
attempt.
"She deflects a lot of passes,"
Borseth said. "Every time the ball
is there, she gets a hand on quite
a few passes, deflects them, steals
them, gets some jump balls.
"She does a lot of the intan-
gibles that don't show up some-
times on the score sheet."
But Ryan wasn't the only play-
er to make an impact defensively.
CAN'T WATCH
THE HOCKEY
GAME?
Junior Veronica Hicks drives the ball down the court in Michigan's third round
WNIT win over Northwestern yesterday. The Wolverines play again on Sunday.
Senior center Krista Phillips kept
Northwestern center Amy Jae-
schke, who had dominated Mich-
igan in the first three matchups,
to just four points in the first half
and a quiet 12 overall.
"She is such a good scorer
around that basket, she just
requires so much attention,"
Borseth said. "I thought we did
a good job of really having active'
legs and getting to her and out in
her."
Phillips did it on the offensive
end as well with a game-high 17
points. It was the second game
in a row in which the offense
went down low, through Phillips,
which opened up things for her
teammates on the perimeter.
Three other players scored in
double figures. Reynolds scored
13 while freshman guard Dayee-
sha Hollins contributed 14 points
and junior guard Veronica Hicks
had 11.
"Any time (Phillips) does well,
obviously, around the basket
it helps us," Borseth said. "She
has that presence about her you
know. The key is to take good
shots. I think the ones she took
today were down inside that lane
attacking the basket as opposed
to standing outside flinging it at
the basket."
The game was eerily simi-
lar to the Wolverines' last game
against Northwestern in the Big
Ten Tournament. In that game,
Michigan jumped out to a big lead
early and went into halftime with
a 22-point lead. Yesterday, the
Wolverines went into halftime up
35-18.
The Wildcats didn't pose a
serious threat in the second
half of either game, and Michi-
gan looks to carry that momen-
tum into Sunday's matchup in
Ann Arbor against the winner
of tomorrow's WNIT matchup
between Virginia Common-
wealth and Syracuse.
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In final match before the
Big Ten Tournament, Jung
returns in loss to Stanford
By EVAN KARPUS
For theDaily
Forty-second-ranked junior
Jason Jung, back in action after a
week off due to playing time lim-
its, came into the Michigan men's
tennis singles matchup down 2-0
before making it a 6-3, 6-3 rout.
"I played through a couple
tough games where I was down
early. I tried to not think so much
about the score and just play my
game," Jung said.
Despite Jung's return win,
the Wolverines couldn't muster
enough to beat No. 15 Stanford,
losing 5-2.
Not only was this the final
match before the Michigan men's
tennis team fully dives into Big
Ten match play, but also the 18th
birthday for the 103rd-ranked
singles freshman Evan King.
King got down early in the first
set, recovered with a 4-3 lead in
the second set, only to fall to the
No. 8 Stanford sophomore Brad-
ley Klahn.
Michigan lost the doubles
match as King and Jung fell to the
No. 30 Stanford pair 8-5 as well
as sophomore Chris Madden and
freshman Chris Cha who fell 8-3.
"He's playing a very good dou-
bles team and all the players have
two, three years more experience
than him," Berque said of Jung.
"I was proud of him and the level
of competition he showed in the
doubles match."
Forty-sixth-ranked Michigan
doubles pair of seniors George
Navas and Mike Sroczynski bat-
tled the second-ranked Stanford
team in what turned out to be an
intense stalemate.
Down 1-4, Sroczynski and
Navas served back with multiple
wins to tie the match at 5-5.
Both teams faced multiple
advantage points, including an
ace by Sroczynski, before the
Cardinals edged out the Michi-
gan duo 8-7.
"They're both seniors and
they've played together since
their freshman year," Berque
said. "They're good friends,
study partners and roommates
for a part of their time here and
they've been through the ups and
downs together. They made a
decision before the season start-
ed to leave this program in better
shape than when they found it, so
I think they're playing with a lot
of pride."
Madden was the only other
Wolverine to score a victory in
the singles competition. Madden
exploded in the second set with a
6-0 victory after being down 2-6
in the first set to win 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Navas found himself in a nail-
biter that ended in a 6-3, 6-7 (10),
1-0 (10-6). On the sixth court, Cha
found himself battling back each
match 40-0, which resulted in a
3-6, 3-6 loss.
The Wolverines resume Big
Ten play this weekend with
matches against Minnesota on
Saturday and Iowa on Sunday.
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