4B -- October 25, 2010

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

4B - October 25, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daily
Junior outside hitter Alex Hunt played well in the Wolverines' weekend split.
Blue rebounds
after falling to
Hoosiers, 3-0
Setter Zimmerman two-set lead attributable to a hot
start from Hunt and undisciplined
delivers 58 assists in play from the Boilermakers.
However, Purdue (5-5 Big Ten,
close victory over 14-7 overall) drummed something
the Boilermakers up and took over defensively with
a persistent blocking game and
fewer mistakes. The Wolverines,
ByJAMES BLUM on the other hand, were off beat in
Daily Sports Writer the third and fourth sets.
"I don't think we made the
Off to the best start in program greatest choices," Rosen said after
history, the Michigan volleyball the game. "We stopped playing
team looked to prove it was wor- defense at the level that we had
thy of the top spot in the Big Ten been playing in game one and two,
during a weekend trip against and we weren't getting the kills
Indiana and Purdue. Instead the that we were getting in game one
Wolverines were served disap- and two. So, we just got a little
pointment. loose and sloppy."
The team managed to salvage The large Michigan lead slipped
a split out of what was thought to away as the Boilermakers pulled
be an off-week for No.13 Michigan ahead 7-6 in the fifth and final
(8-2 Big Ten, 19-3 overall). set. However, the Wolverine mid-
The Wolverines looked flat in die blockers rose to the occasion.
Friday's contest at Indiana (4-5 Big Freshman Jennifer Cross and
Ten, 16-5 overall), struggling on junior Courtney Fletcher led the
both sides of the ball. Defensively Wolverines to a dramatic victory
they were out of sync and offen- combining for 7 kills in the set,
sively they struggled with a feeble along with continued solid play
.093 attack percentage. They went from Hunt and Zimmerman.
on to lose in Bloomington (25-16, Hunt accounted for the game-
25-15, 25-21). winner - her 26th kill of the match
"(Indiana) played extremely - as Zimmerman posted a double-
well," Michigan coach Mark double with 58 assists, 12 digs and
Rosen said on Saturday. "We five kills. The Wolverines went
didn't do a very good job of forcing on to defeat the Boilermakers in
them to adjust and we just kind of five sets (25-19, 25-19, 21-25, 16-25,
let them play hot. We didn't play 15-12).
defense at the level that I know we "As a team, we knew that we
are capable of." needed to go out and win the
The Hoosiers dominated the net match after losing to Indiana the
with 12 blocks to Michigan's two, night before," Fletcher said. "We
taming the Wolverines' high-pow- knew what we needed to do so we
ered offense. While junior outside just went out and executed."
bitter Alex Hunt and senior set- With the split, the Wolverines
ter Lexi Zimmerman both posted drop out of a tie for first in the Big
solid numbers, the team struggled Ten standings with Illinois, but
and did not lead until a Hunt ser- continue their best start in team
vice ace put them up 5-4 in the history. Next week, Michigan
third set. will look to regain the top spot
After dropping Friday's match as it hits the road to take on No.
to the unranked Hoosiers, the 6 Illinois and then moves on to
Wolverines rebounded against Madison for a battle against the
Purdue. Michigan seized an early Badgers.
CROSS COUNTRY
Blue ends regular
season at Classic

Sophomore Evan King was the only Wolverine to continue to the final rounds of the ITA Midwest Regional Chanpionship in South Bend. He'll play again on Monday.
King lone bright spot after
mediocre team perfomance

By DANIEL WASSERMAN
For the Daily
Michigan men's tennis sopho-
more Evan King will take on Ohio
State's Blaz Rola today in a rivalry
that goes beyond the matchup
between the Wolverines and Buck-
eyes. Just two weeks ago, Rola
came back from match point to
beat King.
King has put together a string of
strong performances in the USTA/
ITA Midwest Regional Champion-
ships in South Bend, Indiana. On
Sunday, he defeated Ohio States
Balazs Novak to advance to the
semifinals, where he'll compete
with Rola for a spot in the finals.
He won all four of his singles
matches and will play Rola for a
spot in the finals.
King began his play on Friday,
defeating Cleveland State's Yan-
nick Goossens, 6-0, 6-1. He then
beat DePaul's Ben Hartman, 6-1,
6-2, and Notre Dame's No.69 Dan-
iel Stahl, 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3, on Satur-
day.
"I played well, fought pretty
hard," King said. "The Notre
Dame match was a little bit of a
scare. I didn't play my best tennis
in the first set. In the second-set
tiebreaker, both of us were pretty
tired. It went back and forth and
I was really pumped up when I

pulled that out. That gave me all
the momentum."
On Sunday, he continued his
success, coming away with a
quarterfinal victory over No. 104
Novak, 6-2, 6-2.
Aside from King, the Wolver-
ines left South Bend disappointed.
The No. 12 duo of King and senior
Jason Jung - Michigan's top dou-
bles team and one of the favorites
to win their draw - were upset by
Notre Dame's Spencer Talmadge
and Niall Fitzgerald in the third
round.
"I thought Evan and Jason, had
they played their best, were capa-
ble of winning the tournament,"
Michigan coach Bruce Berque
said. "But I knew that they would
have to play awfully well because
the competition was strong."
No. 25 Jung disappointed in
singles play, despite being a con-
tender to win the draw. The Wol-
verines' captain first beat Ohio
State's Peter Kobelt, 7-6 (3), 4-6,
6-4, on Friday. He then advanced
to the third round Saturday morn-
ing, before being knocked off by
Ohio State's No. 91 Devin McCar-
thy, 6-4, 6-2.
"In the match he lost, he got off
to a lead in the first set and got a
little sloppy," Berque said. "I don't
think (McCarthy) played very
well, but I don't think Jason's been

at the top of his game. But he's
experienced, he's a senior, and we
know he'll pick it up."
No other Wolverine advanced
past the second round in eitherthe
doubles or singles draw. But the
freshmen were a bright spot, play-
ing in the biggest matches of their
college careers.
Barrett Franks made a name for
himself this weekend, as he began
his singles play on Friday by upset-
ting Notre Dame's No. 112 Blas
Moros, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, before falling
in the second round.
"Barrett's been working really
hard," Berque said. "As a fresh-
man, you don't really know what
to expect and it's not uncommon
to put a little bit of pressure on
themselves. He got off to a slow
start against (Moros), but once he
felt his way through the match, he
played very, very well."
Franks, along with freshman
Justin Rossi, teamed up for an
impressive weekend in the doubles
draw. After a convincing 8-1 win
over Northern Illinois, the young
Michigan tandem nearly upset
Illinois's No. 21 duo. Rossi lost in
his openinground singles match to
Wisconsin's No. 19 Marek Michal-
icka.
"Even though (Rossi and
Franks) lost in a tiebreaker, they
played it really well," Berque said.

"That Illinois team is very good
and much more experienced, and
that was pretty impressive the
level our guys played at."
Freshman Shaun Bernstein
won his first-round match before
losing to Notre Dame's Stephen
Havens. Sophomore Chris Cha lost
his match to Illinois State's Timon
Reichelt. The two did team up in
doubles before falling to Notre
Dame.
Freshman Alex Buzzi also
played well, winning his three
qualifying matches, including a
victory over Michigan State's John
Stratton, before being knocked
off by Ohio State's No. 101 Suhei
Uzawa.
King is the lone Michigan play-
er standing in the regional cham-
pionship. Rola, a freshman, beat
King on Oct. Sin a match King felt
he should have won. After winning
the first set, King had three match
points, but couldn't put away the
Buckeye, who won the next set
convincingly. King is eager to
amend this loss, with a chance to
advance to the tournament's final,
which is also Monday.
"There's nothing better than
beating Ohio State," King said.
"They're the most hated school in
the Big Ten, especially at Michi-
gan. To take two of them outin the
same tournament would be great."

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Freshman forward Nkem Ezurike has been one of the Wolverines' most consistent players on offense this season.
Michigan splits pair of thrillers

By EMILY BONCHI
Daily Sports Writer
In the final event of the regular
season, the Michigan men's cross
country team sent six runners to
Eastern Michigan for the EMU
Fall Classic on Saturday.
The Wolverines, led by junior
Nick Thomas, held three of the
top 10 slots.
Thomas finished first for
Michigan in the 10,000-meter
(non-scoring) event, covering the
Dexter, Michigan course in 29:57.
The fifth-place finish also
earned Thomas the final spot on
the nine-man team, which will
represent the Wolverines at the
Big Ten Championships next
week.
Freshman Nick Kern took
eighth place with a time of 30:40,
followed by redshirt sophomore
Geoff Burns who finished in loth
place (30:52).
Michigan heads to Madison
next Sunday to kick off postseason
competition at the Big Ten Cham-
pionships'8,000-meter race.

MOODY EARNS FIRST
VICTORY AT EMU
Redshirt sophomore Kourtney
Moody landed her first collegiate
win this past Saturday at the EMU
Fall Classic.
Moody led the No. 21 Michigan
women's cross country team, fin-
ishing the 5,000-meter event first
overall with a time of 18:14.33 and
trimming 41 seconds off of her
previous 5000-meter time.
The Wolverines closed out their
regular season by taking all of the
top-three finishes. Behind Moody,
redshirt freshman Mackenzie
Adams finished in second place
with a time of 18:16.75. This was
Adams's first collegiate race after
joining the team just the week
before.
Freshman Taylor Pogue fin-
ished third at 18:19.78 in an unat-
tached effort.
Michigan initiates postsea-
son play next Sunday, as the team
heads to Madison for the 6000-
meter event at the Big Ten Cham-
pionships.

By ANDREW HADDAD
Daily Sports Writer
It was the best of times and the
worst of times this weekend for the
Michigan
women's MICHIGAN 1
soccer MINNESOTA 0
team.
The MICHIGAN 0
Wolver- WISCONSIN 1
ines upset
No. 23 Minnesota 1-0 in double-
overtime on Friday night before
losing at Wisconsin 1-0 in another
double-overtime contest on Sunday
to close a three-game road trip.
On Friday, freshman forward
Nkem Ezurike scored the game-
winner against Minnesota with
just 27 seconds left in double over-
time. Wisconsin's game-winner
Sunday came with only two min-
utes remaining.
Minnesota was the highest-
ranked team the Wolverines (3-2-2
Big Ten,86-3-4 overall) have played
all season, and Friday's match was
arguably the team's best perfor-

mance of the season and certainly
its most dramatic win of the year.
Conversely, the loss to Wiscon-
sin (6-1-2, 9-4-4), Michigan's first
in overtime all year, was its most
heartbreaking defeat.
"What I ultimately take from
this weekend is that we can com-
pete with any team in the Big Ten
and even the country," Michigan
coach Greg Ryan said. "The fact
that we're relying on underclass-
men to score all of our goals and we
can still play even with teams like
Minnesota and Wisconsin shows
how good this program is becom-
ing."
The Golden Gophers (2-4-1,
10-5-2) peppered Michigan's goal
on Friday, outshooting the Wol-
verines 21-9, but sophomore goal-
keeper Haley Kopmeyer stood on
her head to deliver the shutout. She
made seven saves in one of the best
performances of her career.
"Haley had a fabulous per-
formance," Ryan said. "But also,
most of Minnesota's shots came
from outside the box and had lit-

tle chance to go in, so I think the
amount of shots they had is mis-
leading."
Senior defender Jackie Carron
also made a terrific save onthe goal
line in the 72nd minute to deny
Minnesota agoal off a corner kick.
Despite the lopsided shot total,
Michigan clearly had the better of
play throughout the second half and
overtime periods. They created sev-
eral great chances, but couldn't put
one away until Ezurike's winner.
In the 109th minute, Ezurike
played the ball through to sopho-
more midfielder Eunnie Kim, who
fired a shot that missed the frame
by inches. Kim then intercepted
the ensuing goal kick and passed
to freshman midfielder Megan
Toohey, who laid it off for Ezurike.
Ezurike took one touch before blast-
ing the ball into the top left corner
from 16 yards out to win the match.
It was Michigan's firstroad victo-
ry against a rankedteam since2003.
"It's certainly one of the most
dramatic and exciting wins we've
had in my three years here," Ryan

said.
Saturday's match against Wis-
consin was a tense, physical affair
without many scoring chances for
either team. The Badgers had 12
shots to Michigan's eight, and there
were a total of 36 fouls from both
sides.
Kopmeyer played well again,
but gave up a rebound that created
Wisconsin's winning goal in the
108th minute to spoil her otherwise
perfect weekend and end the Wol-
verines' five-game unbeaten streak.
"It's a shame," Coach Ryan said.
"We played well overall, but we
made just one defensive lapse and it
cost us the biggame."
Michigan plays three more Big
Ten matches before the NCAA
Tournament begins on November
12.
"All we're thinking about at this
point is making the tournament,"
Ryan said. "If you had asked me
before theseasonIwould havesaid
we'd havereallysmalloddsofdoing
so, but I'd say we have a pretty good
chance now."

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