The Michigan Daily j michigandaily.com March 29, 2010 Keep your head up, Michigan FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Shawn Hunwick stood with his back pressed up against his net, simply hanging his head in defeat. The Michigan hockey team and the junior goaltender had just lost their NCAA Tournament regional final to Miami (Ohio), 3-2 in dou- ble overtime, concluding the Wolverines' rollercoaster of a season. Looking back at the sea- son Michigan endured - hor- rendous two- MARK game sweeps BURNS at the hands BURN__ of the same RedHawks and Michigan State in early Novem- ber, the loss to RPI in the opening round of the GLI and finishing seventh in the conference - and adding up all those disappoint- ments, you have to ask yourself one all-encompassing question. On March 28 at just around 11:54 p.m., when that final, decid- ing goal made its way past Shawn Hunwick and into the back of the net, was this 2009-10 season a success for the Wolverines? And at first glance, most would say no. How can you say the rocky season the Wolverines struggled through could be labeled as a suc- cess in anyone's book? Well, there's no doubt in my mind that it was. I'll be the first to admit - I expected this team to crash and burn after its two-game sweep at Nebraska-Omaha in mid- February. After his slow start this year, I never thought junior Louie Caporusso would have a second half of the season that was on the same pace with last year when he was a finalist for the Hobey Baker. And when junior Bryan Hogan suffered a groin injury against Notre Dame on Feb. 25, I readily wrote about how Hunwick didn't belong on any Division-I team. But coach Red Berenson, Louie, 'Shawn and the rest of the Michi- gan hockey team, you proved me wrong and probably most of the Wolverine fan base, as well. You accomplished things no one thought you could after the first thirty or so games this season, and for that, you can hold your heads high on what was a somber night in Fort Wayne. You rode a walk-on, backup goaltender for the last 10 games of the season, winning eight of those contests. You traveled to East Lansing and stomped your intra- state rival in the second round of the CCHA Tournament, ending any chance the Spartans had at receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The following weekend, you defeated - hands down - the top team in the conference and the country in Miami (Ohio), in con- vincing fashion, before winning the CCHA Tournament. Media outlets and coaches across the country - including Northern Michigan's Walt Kyle and Bemidji State's Tom Serratore - called your team one of the hottest in the country. And then you found a way to place the RedHawks on their heels for much of last night's game. In the postgame conference, Berenson, a 26-year veteran coach, said he was the proudest he had ever been of a Michigan hockey team. Coach, your team battled adversity all year, espe- cially from the GLI and into February. And that was definitely something your Michigan teams hadn't been accustomed to doing over the course of your long career in Ann Arbor. But how your team handled itself in the midst of this season - when it looked like it wouldn't make the NCAA Tournament for See BURNS, Page 3B ARIEL BOND/Daily Sophomore forward David Wohlberg scores Michigan's first goal in the first period. Wohlberg also had two breakaway chances in the Wolverines' 3-2 loss to Miami (Ohio). Blown chanIlces costWolverines; By MICHAEL FLOREK Daily SportsWriter - FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Late Sunday night, the Michigan hock- ey team's season came to an end less than two minutes into the second overtime MICHIGAN 2 after MIAMI (OHIO) 3 Miami (Ohio)'s Alden Hirschfeld beat junior Shawn Hunwick on the stick side for the game-winning goal. But in some respects, the Wol- verines had lost the game in the twenty minutes preceding that point. Michigan launched 20 shots on Miami goalie Connor Knapp in the first overtime period only to see the puck kept out of the net in a variety of ways. Shots into the body of the goal- ie, unlucky bounces and stellar goaltending from Knapp eventu- ally ended their season. It started early in the period. Michigan had a 15-second power play to start the period and couldn't convert. But that didn't stop the Wolverines from carry- ing the play in the first overtime. This newfound jump was a sur- prise to almost everyone in Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The RedHawks had dominated the second half of the second period and the third period, but couldn't find 'a way to put in the clincher in the first overtime. When Michigan came out for the overtime, it looked like the team that outshot Miami 11-6 in the first period. "We were getting better in the overtime, which I think amazed the players even that they start taking the game over," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. As the Wolverines began to take over the period two minutes, into the game, freshman forward Kevin Lynch had an opportunity on a rebound, and this time he put the puck in the back of the net. But the referee blew his whis- tle moments before Lynch got it past Knapp. The goal that would have lived on in Michigan lore is now just part of a long list of missed opportunities in the first overtime. "We played so well, when you hit the cross-bar and when you're all over the goalie, just couldn't quite get the puck over him or through him," Berenson said. "Sooner or later, somebody's going to score, but we've seen the game enough where one team gets the chances and the other team goes down and scores." Things that were working dur- ing the Wolverines' seven-game run through the CCHA playoffs and the first round of the NCAA To rnament, suddenly weren't working anymore. Junior forward Carl Hagelin, who Berenson called "as a good a player as there was on both teams" had a breakaway midway through the period. He pulled the same move that worked a day ear- lier in Michigan's blowout against Bemidji State, cutting across the net and sliding it five-hole. This time, Knapp made the save. Two minutes later, junior Matt Rust let go of a rising wrist shot that hit the post. It was one of those periods for the Wolver- ines. "We tried to get pucks on net, we were outhustling them, and in that overtime, we just couldn't get the puck in the net," Lynch said. "We just couldn't get it in the net." Even when a high-sticking pen- alty was called on the RedHawks early in the period, Michigan See REDHAWKS, Page 3B 'M' blows out Syracuse, advances to semis WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS Blue wins Big Ten title for fourth straight year By ZAK PYZIK Daily Sports Writer With about 12 minutes remain- ing in the Michigan women's bas- ketball team's 78-52 blowout win over Syracuse in the WNIT quar- terfinal, freshman SYRACUSE 52 guard MICHIGAN 78 Dayeesha Hollins dove on a ball fumbled by an Orange player. After Hollins wrestled with a Syracuse player and came out with possession, she dished the ball to freshman guard Jenny Ryan from her back. Ryan and the Wolverines now had a four-on-one. Ryan passed it to sophomore forward Carmen Reynolds, who fed the ball to a wide-open Veron- ica Hicks under the basket. The junior guard drained the layup, scoring two of her 24 points before being fouled. She made it a 3-point play after she cashed in on the freebie from the charity stripe. Hollins's ferocious fight for the ball and Michigan's ability to share the wealth were key to the Wolverines' obliteration of Syra- cuse on Sunday at Crisler Arena. "I knew that we had to come out with energy," Hollins said. "I knew that with Syracuse we had to think of conversions. It was really easy for me to get back ondefense. It was a fast-paced game and that's what I'm used to." Michigan's first points came from Reynolds. She sunk a tri- ple from the wing to spark what became a 21-7 Wolverine run. She went on to score 20 points in the first half, and scored a career-high 26 points in Sunday's contest. "I never have started like this," Reynolds said. "It is probably because of the well devised plan that we had off of the bat. We knew that they were goingto come at us in the zone and we knew how to execute it. We just had people at the perimeter, and we passed it in and we passed it out." As the first half began to dwin- dle down, Ryan and Reynolds made back-to-back 3-pointers from about five feet beyond the arc, in the same spot. Both came with the shot clock at one second. "I was just really surprised that I got so many looks." Reynolds said. "Like I said it's because of the well- devised plan we had offensively. When the shot clock is winding down someone has to take it. It's good I was able to step up." In fact, it looked like the Wol- verines could never be stopped. See WNIT, Page 4B By STEPHEN J. NESBITT Daily Sports Writer, COLUMBUS - Spurred on by the roaring Michigan con- tingent seated above the floor of St. John Arena, the No. 9 Michi- gan women's gymnastics team battled a field of seven at the Big Ten Championships and emerged victorious for the fourth consecu- tive year. In a year of inconsistency for Michigan athletics, the squad has been a model of stability, bringing home the school's first Big Ten crown of the year. The Wolverines (10-1 Big Ten, 19-3 overall) posted a season-high score of 196.900on Saturday, tak- ing first place and avenging an earlier loss to No.17 Penn State on March 17, who accepted the silver medal with 196.525. Entering the final rotation leading by less than three-tenths of a point, all eyes fell on the Michigan team taking its spot at the beam - a troublesome event for the Wolverines early this sea- son - alongside the Nittany Lions at the uneven bars. "It doesn't get any better than that,R Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "When you get down to it being that close in a champion- ship and competing side-by-side like that, I was just really proud that when the pressure was on, we were able to rise to the occa- sion like we did." And the Wolverines impressed on the beam, with four of the five marks hitting at 9.900, including a stick by senior captain Kelsey Knutson to effectively seal the victory. Leading off for the Wolverines, senior Sarah Curtis knew that if the team could lay down the score that they were capable of making, it wouldn't matter how well Penn State (8-3, 17-9) did on the bars. "I was actually pretty nervous, having to start off the last rota- tion and knowing it was beam," Curtis said. "But I thought, 'This is what they need me for, I have to start this off right,' and thank- fully that worked out well." Curtis also hit a 9.900 routine on beam, setting her all-around score at 39.525, a season-high that See BIG TENS, Page 4B -MAxcOLLINS/Daily Freshman Dayeesha Hollins scored seven points in Michigan's win over Syracuse. She sparked the Wolverines with a loose ball recovery early in the contest. BASEBALL 1 U Wolverines sweep IPFW in home-opening weekend series behind stellar pitching. The sweep extends Michigan's winning streak to six games. See Page 4B. SWIMMING & DIVING U Junior Tyler Clary defends his national title in the 400-meter individual medley, while Michigan finishes seventh in the NCAA Championships. See Page 3B.