2B - Monday, March 29, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Aft 2B - Monday, March 29, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom " qw n the way to Ft. Wayne Viefhaus's homers propel Blue 0 EN ROUTE TO FORT WAYNE, Ind. - ravel notes. Deep in the heart of middle America. Nothing but endless fields and, well, that's about it. Just hoping the battery in my computer lasts long enough to find some truck stop with a Wi-Fi con- nection (hopefully those exist) so I can send this column back before the puck is dropped. We decided late last night to make this trip. Home- work be ANDY damned (sorry REID Grandma), this is Michigan vs. Miami (Ohio) for a chance to play in the national semifinals, and, per my civic duty as a senior at the 'U,' I'm throwing caution to the wind and speeding to some ice rink in Indiana. By the time you're reading this column, we'll all know whether my spontaneous jaunt to the middle of nowhere will have been worth the trip or not. But win or lose (hope- fully the former, but even a loss in the second round of the NCAA Tournament is, at this point, a miracle, considering where this team was three weeks ago), I can't pass up this opportunity. It certainly helps that my dad volunteered to pay for this excur- sion, but that's what college is all about, right? Begging your parents for money? I fully plan on being with Mich- igan in Detroit in two weeks, if the Wolverines make it there, but I just couldn't resist being a part of the most unexpected, exciting run in Michigan hockey history. And, who doesn't like the chance to yell the "Ugly Words" chant - as Carl Hagelin put it dur- ing his freshman year - in a for- eign rink? And heckling Rico Blasi is a true passion of mine. All I know right now is this: last night, I got home from a long, strenuous day of work, and it wasn't a nice, hot meal or a tall, strong drink that helped me relax. It was getting home just in time to see Louie Caporusso net the Wol- verines' second of five goals in the first round of the NCAA hockey Tournament. The hockey team's little run - by far the most exciting thing that's happened in Michigan sports in a long, long time - has got me enthralled with the sport. Screw March Madness; this is way better. And I know at least a small contingent of Michigan fans agree with me. And that's not counting the kid in a penguin suit and the guy with a Viking helmet that the CBS Sports cameramen couldn't pry their lenses away from during the Bemidji State game. Saturday night, I yelled many a "Go Blue" to bar-hoppers along South Univer- sity Ave. who were sporting Michi- gan hockey jerseys (or sweaters, whatever). That's just not Michigan appar- el that you see very often, unless you're at Yost for a game. It's great to see people getting swept up in hockey fever. Full disclosure: I'm not a huge hockey fan. Somewhere, though I grew up around the sport, I never developed that Midwestern appreciation for the game. But, in complete honesty, I've only been this excited for a sporting event in my four years as a student very few times. All of the drama of the lacklus- ter regular season and the CCHA Tournament run and Red Beren- son's ever-growing legacy just has me totally geeked for this game. Let's just hope, when stacks of this paper hit Angell Hall tomor- row morning, we'll all still have some hockey to look forward to. - Reid really wants to spend a weekend in the RenCen in downtown Detroit. He can be reached at andyreid@umich.edu. By CASANDRA PAGNI Daily Sports Writer To kick off Big Ten Conference play, the third-ranked Wolverines beat No.20 Illinois in a decisive 7-1 contest at home on Saturday. Sun- day's game was cancelled due to weather, so Michigan enters next weekend's contest against Wis- consin with an unblemished Big Ten record. Illinois's roster promised an explosive offense - three hitters batting over .400 - but starting pitcher Jordan Taylor proved she was up to the challenge. The junior hurler fanned 11 Fighting Illini batters through seven innings of work, while walking just one. Taylor had both command and control of all her pitches on Sat- urday, holding Illinois to just one earned run on five hits. The Wol- verines used their one-pitch, one- play focus to stop the Fighting Illini from rallying back. "Our philosophy is we just throw our pitch," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "I believe our best pitch can beat most hitters. Good hitting teams like (Illinois) are going to get some hits and get some runs, but we need to hold home runs so far. them down. Our pitchers' job is "I haven't really been hitting to keep us in the game until our that great lately," Viefhaus said. offense can win it." "I just went out there with the The offense continued to be mentality of see the ball, hit the hot at Alumni Field, as the Wol- ball and be aggressive at the plate. verines backed up Taylor's effort That's what I did today." Hutchins praised Viefhaus's efforts, noting that with confer- ence play underway, it was good "M aggie works- time for her bat to heat up.a v yhardand "You like to see your seniors have their best year," Hutchins she's a great said. "(Viefhaus has) been hav- ing a great year. She's been a little player " cool lately, so it was nice to see her break out a little bit. Some hitters will be on their game and some won't be. The key is that we don't have them all off their game at with seven runs of their own. The once, and it's always great when hitters went a combined 10-for- they're all on their game at once. 28 with three home runs and Maggie works really hard, -and two doubles in Saturday's game, she's a great player." headlined by two home runs from Viefhaus has found success senior Maggie Viefhaus and one at home, going 3-for-7 with five from junior Dorian Shaw. RBI since opening play at home The co-captain Viefhaus took on Wednesday against Bowling two different Illinois pitchers' Green. deep, finishing 2-for-4 with three Against Illinois, Shaw went RBI. Saturday was the third base- 2-for-3, as did senior centerfielder man's first multi-home run game Molly Bausher. Michigan's sus- of her career, giving her 30 career tained offensive attack eventually put the game out of reach. "It's big to get on the board first," Hutchins said. "It puts pressure on the other team. But you've seen us, a number of times, get behind and come back -- any team is capable of that. So, you still have to stay in your moment. (Taylor) has the command the game, and the offense has to keep coming at them." After spending the first month of the season on the road, the Wolverines will enjoy their week at home before taking on Wiscon- sin at Alumni Field next weekend. The win over Illinois gives the Wolverines mompentum heading into next weekend's conference matchup. "We don't really prepare any differently (for a conference game)," Viefhaus said. "We have to treat it the same as any other game. It was very refreshing to get (conference play) started and come out together like that; everyone did really well. It was very refreshing to beat them like we did. It shows that we can beat anybody. Hutch teaches us to play one-pitch softball, and that's what we do." Michigan blows out Big Ten opponents By EMILY BONCHI Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's tennis team had a near-perfect weekend against Iowa and Minnesota. The sixth-ranked Wolverines (3-0 Big Ten, 13-3 overall) first took on No. 18 Iowa (0-2, 10-3) Saturday afternoon, defeating the Hawkeyes 6-1, the team's sixth victory this season against a top-25 team. On Sunday, the Wolverines expanded their winning streak to seven after they swept Minnesota (2-1, 9-7) 7-0. Against Iowa, Michigan swept all three doubles matches for the fifth time this season, with juniors Whitney Taney and Rika Tatsuno defeating the 23rd-ranked duo Sonja Molnar and Merel Beelen 8-2 at No.1 doubles to clinch the point. "Iowa is a really solid team and they came in pretty confident too," Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein said. "It definitely helps us to get a 6-1 over a team as good as them." On Saturday, Taney, the team's captain, won her sixth dual match in a row - her twelfth of the sea- son - moving up to No. 2 singles for the first time this season. She had a come from behind win against Lynne Poggensee-Wei 4-6, 6-1, 6-0. Taney was one of the three Wol- verines to clinch their match after having to go into a third set. "We won three out of four third sets and a couple of them were 6-0," Bernstein said. "It shows we're competing hard, and I think that's what this team does." Michigan won all the singles matches, except at No. 5, giving the Wolverines their sixth win in a row against Iowa. "Obviously taking wins is what we want," Taney said. "We use it as momentum going into our next matches." The team's second match this weekend, played against Minneso- ta on Sunday, was especially impor- tant to Taney, who is originally from outside Minneapolis. "It's really fun (to returnhome)," Taney said. "I'll have friends and family there and I've played on these courts so it's definitely great to be back in Minnesota." With her friends and family in attendance, Taney earned her sec- ond win at No. 2 singles, defeating Tijana Kaprivica 6-2, 6-2. Freshman Mimi Nguyen won her fourteenth match this season, and her eighth in a row, earning the first singles point for the Wolver- ines at No. 4. Senior Tania Mahtani clinched the match for Michigan at No. 5, deafeating Jackie Sperling 6-0,6-4. After this weekend, Bernstein is now 21-2 against Big Ten oppo- nents. The only team she's been unable to beat is Northwestern - the dominant program in the con- ference which has won the last 11 Big Ten Championships. The Wolverines look to end that as they travel to Combe Tennis Center to play No. 2 Northwestern this Saturday. Despite the team's recentsuccess, Michigan is not tak- ing anything for granted. "Nobody takes it easy," Bern- stein said. "And that's expected of everyone on the team." Defense sparks tournament win By JAMES BLUM verines' first game against Cal Daily Sports Writer State East Bay, Adamson cata- lyzed several golden offensive The two-team expansion was opportunities on the counterat- not enough to keep the Michigan tack. Her 10 saves led to several water polo team from dominating Wolverine breakaways and she the six-team Fluid Four tourna- tallied five assists. ment. The eighth-ranked Wolver- With both opening day rivals ines (10-0 CWPA, 18-6 overall) employing the "drop" - a defen- continued their undefeated sea- sive strategy designed to force son against conference teams outside shooting by taking away thanks to balanced play. the inside game - the Wolverines With redshirt senior goalie had tobe especially aggressive on Brittany May again out with offense. a shoulder injury, the Wolver- The drop is designed to force ines focused on defense. And it outside shooting by taking away showed. the inside game. Essentially Behind the goaltending of Mor- guarding the interior pass and gan Turner and Alex Adamson, double-teaming the two-meter Michigan held Saturday oppo- player. nents Wagner and Cal State East But while Michigan contested Bay to a total of five goals in Indi- the drop in its first two games, anapolis. the Wolverines struggled against "We played extremely well Gannon on Sunday, giving up a 2-1 against Cal State East Bay who lead early. up until this week was ranked in "Saturday both Cal State East the top twenty all season," coach Bay and Wagner were dropping Matt Anderson said. "Adamson on us and we were shooting very played very well. We were aggres- well," Anderson said. "Today sive and hard-pressed in the first Gannon was dropping on us in the game and it showed." first half and we weren't shooting Michigan's smothering defense very well. Against Cal State we and solid goaltending sparked a were 16 of 26 shooting, which is high-octane offense. In the Wol- amazing. Today we were 11 for 39 so you can see the difference. It's the same as in basketball. If you watched West Virginia last night, Kentucky could not make an out- side shot. That's how we were this morning." It took a comeback and a little fourth-period magic, but Michi- gan was able to eke out a win over the Golden Knights. After falling behind, the Wolverine bench was able to tie the game at five with one period to play. With the game tied, Anderson put in the starting line, which pulled away from Gannon, scor- ing six more to close out an 11-7 victory. With the Fluid Four behind them, all eyes turn toward the April 3 matchup against No. 16 Indiana at the Canham Natato- rium. It will be the first televised collegiate water polo game for the Wolverines. "Next weekend is going to be exciting," Anderson said. "We're all pumped for next weekend - its part of the reason you look forward to the championship part of the season, so much rides on a game like that. It's at home, Big Ten Network, going to be tele- vised, so we're excited." Kim, Wolverines disappoint down South a re company Creauve Project Public Event INSIGHT: WRITTEN ON THE HEA RT Reading and discussion of David Edgar's new play on the translation of the King James Bible. with members of the Royal Shakespeare Comp and the LAByrinth Company Tuesday, March 30 at 6:30 p.m. Blau Auditorium (Ross School of Business) 701 Tappan Street (off Hill Street) Free-no tickets required. More information: 508-498-7025 or pmuldoon@umich.edu By MICHAEL WELCH For the Daily Riding the confidence from pre- vious tournaments, everyoneon the Michigan men'sgolfteam expected a strong finish in Boca Raton at the Florida Atlantic University Spring Break Championship. The Wolverines got exactly the opposite. In the tournament, Michigan placed sixth out of 16 after main- taining third place for the first two rounds. "We just closed today with a terrible round," Michigan coach Andrew Sapp said. The first two rounds were far from what was expected as well. In the first round, sophomore Matt Thompson shot an 81. Thompson's quintuple bogey on the third hole derailed a consistent start to the round. In the second round,junior Lion Rim had five birdies and a great opportunity to bring the Wolver- ines closer to the scores posted by Illinois. Unfortunately for Michi- gan, two double bogeys down land- ed him a final score of 68 and the Wolverines trailed far behind the Fighting Illini. Playing in the final group on the last day, the Wolverines suc- cumbed to the pressure and post- ed a.nine-over round that caused them to slip down to sixth place. None of the Wolverines posted a score under par and the team fell from second to sixth after a poor final five holes. Coach Sapp hopes this tourna- ment helps his youngteam learnto deal with the pressure of the final round better. "We just have to go out there and do it in the final round," Sapp said. "You just hope that you can go out there when the pressure's on and take advantage and thrive under it." Elm said players making aggres- sive decisions down the stretch really cost them later on. As a lead- er on the team, Kim hopes to lead the younger players heading into the final tournaments of the year. "I will make sure that I talk with them," Kim said. "I will tell them that in these certain situa- tions you might want to take the safe route rather than an aggres- sive line." More than that, both Sapp and Kim agree that it comes down to players putting too much pressure on themselves to perform in tight situations. And with the Big Ten and NCAA Championships approach- ing, the Wolverines expect to use the Wolfpack Intercollegiate in two weeks to improve their play in pressure situations. "Mostly I think these guys just 4 need to be relaxed," Kim said. "(They should) not put too much pressure on themselves to per- form."