2B - October 25, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Sparty a national title contender? Yuck. Michigan earns " season's first win against Rockets sasatdown on my own couch to watch college football on Saturday (thank you, bye week), I became pretty captivated with watching Michigan State's comeback effort against Northwestern. I had counted the Spartans out completely before they made their epic comeback, something xI had been doing fairly frequent- ly all season long. But then a thought struck RYAN me and has KARTJE festered since then. This Michigan State team is good. Actually scratch that. This Michigan State team is really good. Sure, there's some envy there. And being in Ann Arbor, I'm far from actually rooting for Michigan State. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take a second look and realize that Little Brother is doing some big things. If Michigan State beats Iowa next week, in what could probably be the most important football game for the Spartans in decades, this team is on the fast track to winning a Big Ten championship. But even more than that, it's not inconceivable that Mark Danto- nio's crew could be in the hunt for the national championship. I know, I cringe when I reread that sentence. But it's absolutely possible. in arguably the second strongest conference in college football, if the Spartans win out- which is definitely possible-they'll be competing for the spot with teams like TCU, Boise State and Missouri, all three of which play in weaker conferences. Yes, the Spartans don't play Ohio State this year. But it doesn't change that name recognition in the Big Ten says quite a bit when all is said and done. By MICHAEL LAURILA Daily Sports Writer After losing to Minnesota in its first dual meet of the season, the Michigan women's swimming and diving team captured its first victory on Friday, beating Toledo 182.50 to 112.50. Senior Natasha Moodie and junior Caitlin Dauw led the way for the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. Moodie took first place in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles and Dauw took first in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly. Both were also members of the two first- place relay teams. "I was trying to improve my stroke change in my hundred freestyle," Moodie said. "Usu- ally in my 100-free, by the second half of the race I'm just thrashing and trying to finish. I was really working on trying to keep an effi- cient stroke all the way through the race." There were a few other nota- ble performances for Michigan, including that of Lizzie Koselka, who took second place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1.50.78. "I think (Koselka) probably had one of her best in season swims of her life today in the 200 free," assistant coach Stefanie Kerska said. "She just came up short and got touched out at the end in that 200 free, but her time is really good and she is making some big improvements this year." As it is still early in the sea- son, the Wolverines' training schedule is very difficult right now. They are in the process of building an aerobic base, which includes demanding practices every day. "I think the team did a really good job of stepping up when they were in head-to-head races," Dauw said. "People put their head down and didn't breathe into their finish, trying to get their hand on the wall first. And I think we came in with a really good attitude about this meet. Like I said, we had a hard week of training and pretty much everybody stepped up to do what they needed to do to win." The diving team had simi- lar success at the meet. Junior Amanda Lohman took first place 0 in the one-meter dive and fresh- man Brianna Maroukis finished in second place. With Lohman being the only remaining diver from last season, Maroukis and fellow freshman diver Erin Bridgewater added * necessary depth to a depleted div- ing team. "I'm pleased with how they are progressing," diving coach Kz Li said through the athletic depart- ment. "They had to learn a com- pletely new technique, but they are coming along nicely. Erin Bridgewater has started to come around. "She dove off the three-meter board for the first time in her career today. Briana Maroukis did okay. She is improving and learning every day. Every meet experience she gets, it will help her." In the three-meter diving event, Lohman, Bridgewater and Maroukis finished first, second, and third, helping the Wolverines to victory. Concluding the meet, Michigan exhibitioned its final relay as it was leading by so many points. "The next two weeks are going to be really tough with Indiana and Texas, and then we swim number one and two with Flor- ida and Stanford," Kerska said. "Next week is going to be really demanding. "We're going to have to put the work in Monday through the time we leave, and then we're going to have to stand up and swim two of the best teams out there right now." ARIEL BC Senior linebacker Obi Ezeh makes a tackle in the Wolverines' 34-17 loss to Michigan State last month. As far as other teams who could snag those spots, Auburn and Ore- gon seem to be the two frontrun- ners. And with just one matchup against a ranked opponent left for the Ducks (they play Arizona at home in three weeks), I'll take the safe bet and say you'll see them fighting for the 'ship. So that leaves Auburn with half of an SEC conference sched- ule remaining, one that includes Alabama on the road for the Iron Bowl and the SEC Championship. The Tigers' path is significantly more difficult than Sparty and the Ducks. Obviously if they win out, there's no reason they won't remain atop the BCS. But if you crunch the numbers, there's a legitimate chance we could see Michigan State with its best chance at a national champi- onship since Duffy Daugherty's crew tied Notre Dame in the con- troversial final game of the 1966 season. The real question for Michi- gan fans, however, shouldn't be whether the Spartans merit a bid at becoming national champs, it should be whether that's a good thing or not for us in Ann Arbor. I found myself wonderingthis question as the Spartans walked off the field victorious and with just one big question mark left on the schedule. Should I be feeling sick to my stomach at the thought? With so much parity in this year's college football season, it's my opinion that Michigan State is not the No. 1 or No. 2 best team in the country. Oregon's offense would probably dismantle Sparty's 'D' and no one can stop Auburn's Cameron Newton. You could prob- ably make the argument that TCU or Boise State could take them down head-to-head, as well. So all biases aside, I have to root against the Spartans for the sake of the system working correctly, right? Yeah, that's what I'll do. With- out a logical and good reason to root for Michigan's rival, even if they are just a stone's throw away, there's no reason anything of the sort should be happening, right? Well, maybe Purdue or Min- nesota or Penn State will pull off a stunner and do what Michigan failed so miserably to do this sea- son. But until then, Sparty is on track for the national championship. And I don't know about you, but it's upsetting my stomach. Kartje can be reached at rkartje@umich.edu Blue shares conference title after loss to Bucks By STEVEN KELLNER For the Daily In a pair of home matches to wind down the season, the No. 12 Michi- gan field hockey OHIO STATE 2 team sal- MICHIGAN 1 vaged a UC-OAVIS 0 weekend MICHIGAN 2 split. Ohio State rolled into Ann Arbor for a Friday afternoon contest. With a victory over the Buckeyes, Michi- gan would claim first place outright in the Big Ten. However, Ohio State would get a share of the title with a win. The Buckeyes came in at 11-3 and 3-1 in the Big Ten, while Michigan was 10-5 and 4-0, meaning that the winner would be catapulted into the No. 1spot in conference play. The game started with a bang as freshman forward Rachael Mack hit streaking senior forward Zara Say- djari, who was denied by Buckeye goalie Ally Tunitis. Offensive pressure from Ohio State early on led to two shots from point blank range, both stopped by freshman Wolverine keeper Haley Jones. The first half ended in a 0-0 draw. The Buckeyes edged Michigan, 3-2, in both shots on goal and penalty corners. Michigan came out more aggres- sively in the second, controlling the ball for the first 10 minutes of the half. However, Ohio State's constant pressure could not be stopped. At 51:38, the Buckeyes passed around a corner eventually landing on the stick of junior midfielder Aisling Coyle who put it in the back left cor- ner of the cage. Some sloppy passing and missed opportunities by the Wolverines did not help the cause and gave Ohio State yet another opportunity. With just over seven minutes left in the game, the Buckeyes struck again, widening the gap to2-0. Michigan proceeded with a rapid comeback attempt in the final seven minutes, but to no avail. A penalty stroke by senior midfielder Meredith Way with eight seconds left provid- ed a glimmer of hope, but the game ended soon after in a 2-1 loss. "There's an awful lot to learn from not winning games," Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said. Michigan learned its lesson quick- ly; following with a 2-0 win Sunday over UC-Davis. The Wolverines began the game with offensive pres- sure on the Aggies. Familiar faces for Michigan provided the offense. Way missed on a few corner oppor- tunities, while freshman forward Rachael Mack was denied just out- side the goal on multiple occasions. "At halftime, we talked about really posting up as forwards and finishing. We did a better job, because it was 0-0 at halftime, we came through with two goals," junior midfielder Katie Adams said. Four minutes into the second half, Adams - playing in her final home game as a Wolverine - tallied the first goal of the contest on a rebound from a corner. "We had a lot of circle penetra- tion, but ... a lot of the time our shots are going wide or not on the goal," Adams said. Michigan finished the game with a total of 32 shots to UC-Davis's three. The Wolverines also compiled a substantial corner margin of 14-1, for a 2-0 victory. "The team has been working real- ly hard, putting ourselves in position to win the championship, and that where we are," Pankratz said. With the win on Sunday, the Wol- verines protected Ocker Field to the tune of a 9-2 record this season. Michigan improves to 11-6 on the season, and sits in a first-place tie with Ohio State in the Big Ten at 4-1. 0 0 0 ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily Meredith Way, shown here in an Oct.1 game against Michigan State, wasa first-team All-Big Ten selection last year. Way was among seven seniors honored before yesterday's game. Seniors recognized before Win By JAMES BLUM night before with a good theme Daily Sports Writer and they spend a lot of energy on it," Pankratz said. "But some- After suffering a devastat- times it's concerning that the ing loss to rival No. 6 Ohio State team will be distracted from all on Friday, the Michigan field of the excitement and I think hockey seniors took the field two the seniors get sentimental and days later with their parents to emotional because they love their celebrate their contributions to experience at Michigan so much. the team and take on UC-Davis. "But I thought our team did a While Michigan coach Marcia great job of staying focused com- Pankratz recognized the emo- ing out, following the game plan, tional aspects of senior day, working hard." she remained concentrated at Before the game, each senior the task at hand, defeating the walked arm-in-arm with family Aggies. hugged teammates and coaches "Senior day is awfully special and received bouquets from Pan- for the team. The freshmen do a kratz. number on the locker room the Redshirt junior Katie Adams - m . < .. s. F f F3 # .-' 3. CREES/IPC NOON PANEL SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES: ti R~ LJ~&~r~J~~ L WEDNESDAY Aneen & oen, Mtchea b1c Free & open to the public. REES MA/iD Candidate, U-M and RPCV (Armenia 206-8) MPP Candidate, U-M an(] RP(,,V Kyrgyz Republic 2004-06) Immigration Specialist, International Center U-M and RPCV (L''kraine )c ouns ) .EES MA/MPP Candidate, U-M and RPCV (Azerbaijan 2o6-o8) STUDENTS, NOW IS THE TIME! ADVERTISE YOUR SUBLEASES IN OUR OCTOBR8 who is sacrificing her final year of eligibility to graduate - was not distracted by the festivities or emotional introduction. Adams had a goal and an assist in No. 12 Michigan's 2-0 victory over the Aggies. "It was nice, I don't score too often." Adams said. "I go in on the corners, I insert the ball and then I was told to start going more towards the post and kind of get those scrappy shots to finish it. And that's what I did today and it was nice to get a goal on senior day on my last home game." The high number of players honored on Sunday may have serious implications for next year. The Wolverines will have to overcome the losses of Paige Lay- tos and Alicia Mayer, who were second-team All-Big Ten last year, and Meredith Way, who was first-team All-Big Ten last year as well as four other key players. While several freshmen have put together impressive cam- paigns - primarily forward Rachael Mack, who was named Big Ten Freshman of the week for the fourth time last week - Mich- igan may struggle to improve on its impressive season without the leadership, ability and maturity this graduating class brings. "All seven of them are solid, really important players to the program ... a lot of experience, a lot of great skill," Pankratz said. "Of course every year that you have strong seniors like that it's a transition in the team, but hope- fully the younger kids are learn- ing a lot from them and they will be able to step up and continue the tradition next year." 0 TtLy eeen%5yp&n4 of U-ha y ;a4,A I"2e~n of 4,pl- "ztkemt l5 skeyLie.v~-5 JL.~A~s5 y a t n SSx s , 01f. ri 3 a A.w.