4B - January 18, 201

The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com

Wolverines blank Western
in first match of the season

COURTESY OF COURTNEY DECKARD/IDS
Michigan coach John Beilein runs an offense similar to Northwestern's, who the Wolverines will play Tuesday night.
M ich igan looks to regain
Confidence on the road

By MATT RUDNITSKY
Daily Sports Writer
Western Michigan isn't exact-
ly a powerhouse in college ath-
letics, and tennis is no exception.
The No. 25 Michigan men's
tennis team defeated the Bron-
cos 7-0 on Sunday, marking its
eighth-straight win against its
westerly neighbors. Michigan
now leads the all-time series
52-8. And it was also the Wolver-
ines' eighth-straight win in their
season-opener.
But despite the lopsided score,
the Broncos didn't lay down to
the Wolverines - especially in
doubles play.
"It was a good effort; this is a
good Western Michigan team,"
Michigan coach Bruce Berque
said after the match. "They're
always competitive and well-
coached."
The No. 28 tandem of Michi-
gan senior captain Jason Jung
and sophomore Evan King won a
fairly routine match, 8-4, at No.1
doubles. However, in the fight for
the doubles point, the other two
matches went down to the wire.
The Wolverines' pair of fresh-
man Shaun Bernstein and sopho-
more Chris Cha eventually won
out at No. 2 doubles, 8-6, but it
took a late break to fend off the
Broncos duo of senior Kazuya
Komada and junior Zeyad Mon-
tasser. The win gave Michigan
the doubles point and an early
1-0 lead.
But Western Michigan won
at No. 3 doubles, where Michi-
gan's freshman duo of Barrett
Franks and Justin Rossi fell, 8-6,

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late break of serve. The was already decided, the third
ft the Broncos without a sets were each reduced to a
though, as only one point 10-point super tiebreaker.
ded for the winner of the Cha had an impressive 15-13
-three doubles matches. win in his super tiebreaker, and
ubles took a lot out of us," Rossi, playing in his first dual-
ein said. "(Western Michi- match as a Wolverine, won 3-6,
.me out with a lot of ener- 7-6 (2), 10-3 in an impressive
knew they'd be tough and come-from-behind victory.
re lucky to get through. "Justin's opponent was play-
atches were very close. If ing very well against him early,"
gotten a little tight at the Berque said. "He got down two
e could have easily lost the breaks and made some really
good strategic adjustments and
n in singles play, Michigan fought extremely hard.
ree straight victories to "I think that's what he's going
the match and move the to be known for; he's going to be
o 4-0. King won at No. 1, a lot of fun to watch in his four
won at No. 6 and Bern- years because he's so passionate
'on at No. 5 all in straight about what he does and works so
hard."
Michigan (1-0) will continue
its dual-match season with a
home match against No. 5 Texas
)oubles took next week. The Wolverines faced
a few Longhorns in last week's
tf out of us ... Key Biscayne Invitational, but
struggled, losing every match.
knew they'd "'m just pumped up for Texas
next week now that we won this
be tough." match," King said. "But the good
thing about already playingthem
is that now we're familiar with
all of their guys. We'll know what
pite the match being to expect, what their tendencies
d at that point, Western are, what they like to do in cer-
an challenged Michigan tain situations. But, I mean, they
'est of the singles matches, won all of the matches against

0S

By BEN ESTES
Daily Sports Writer
One might expect the young Wol-
verines to carry a negative mindset,
considering they had what Michigan
men's basketball coach John Beilein
termed Monday as
their "most disap- Mhiban,
pointing overall
performance" of at North-
the season on Sat- westn
urday in Bloom-
ington. Matchup:
But there's no Michigan
Bt1-7' North-
time for Michigan western 11-5
to feel sorry for
itself.When: Tues-
itslf.day9PRM.
Michigan (1-4
Big Ten, 11-7 over- Where:
all) fell to Indiana, Welsh-Ryan
80-61, at Assem- Arena
bly Hall and was TV/Radio:
never in the game BTN
from the opening
minutes. The Wolverines allowed the
Hoosiers to shoot 67.4 percent from
the field in Michigan's worst defen-
sive performance of the season.
Indiana (1-4, 10-8) missed just 14
shots, allowing few opportunities for
Michigan to get defensive rebounds.
The Hoosiers had an enormous 37-18
advantage on the glass, and the 18
boards were a season low forBeilein's
team.
The Wolverines will have to get
their defense back on track when they
stay on the road Tuesdaynight to take
on Northwestern (2-4, 11-5) in Evan-
ston.
"We did not play great fundamen-
tal defense (against Indiana)," Beilein
said in the Big Ten coaches' telecon-
ference. "We didn't defend the ball
screensvery well.
"We've been defending, at times,
very well. (But) we were very bad at

(ball screens), and that's a huge con-
cern because the ball screen is taking
over college basketball."
The Wildcats present a tough
challenge. Coming into the season,
Northwestern was pegged as hav-
ing a solid chance to make the NCAA
Tournament for the first time in the
program's history. Theteam still has a
decent chance of doing so. The Wild-
cats faltered early on in conference
play, losing their first three confer-
ence-games, but rebounded to defeat
Indiana and Iowa before narrowly
falling at Michigan State in overtime.
Northwestern coach Bill Carmody
compared his team's and Michigan's
offensive styles on Monday, noting
their similarities in terms of spacing
the floor and taking a lot of outside
shots.
"(Beilein)'s a very good coach, and
we probably think in a similar fash-
ion," Carmody said. "You move the
ball, you move the people. If you're
open, you shoot the ball. I've admired
the way his teams have played over
the years. I'm sure I've stolen a few
things from him, and maybe he's
looked at my stuff and said, 'I can use
that.'"'
But while the Wildcats and Wol-
verines possess similar gameplans on
the offensive end of the court, the for-
mer have been executing much better
this season.
Northwestern has attempted
fewer 3-pointers than Michigan
(378 compared to 433), but has made
more - giving itedges in both 3-point
shooting percentage (39.7 percent
to 33.3 percent) and total points per
game (77.2 to 66.9). The average
makes the Wildcats the second-high-
est scoringteam in the conference.
Wildcat guard Michael Thomp-
son (15.1 points per game) and guard/
forward Drew Crawford (13.8) are

threats, but of particular concern for
the Wolverines is forward John Shur-
na. The 6-foot-8 forward is extremely
versatile on the court, capable of hit-
ting from outside and scoring down
low. Shurna is third in the Big Ten in
points per game, averaging19.3.
Michigan dropped both contests to
Northwestern last season, with Shur-
na combining for 26 points. Shurna,
who played for the gold-medal win-
ning U.S. national team in the U-19
FIBA World Championship last sum-
mer, hasalreadyexplodedfortotals of
31 and 28 points in games earlier this
season.
"He's just become such an impor-
tant player for Northwestern and
a very good player in our league,"
Beilein said. "He's more than just a
shooter ... Our hope is that guys like
(redshirt freshman forward) Blake
McLimans, guys like (freshman
forward) Evan Smotrycz can play
in a similar fashion and grow (and)
improve as much as (Shurna) has in
the time that he's been at Northwest-
ern."
Michigan followed up its first two
losses of the season in Atlantic City
by winning on the road at Clemson in
its next game. And now, the Wolver-
ines hope they can bounce back from
their new low point again on Tuesday
night, as they try to halt their slide
down the conference standings.
And Carmody has seen the same
phenomenon with his own team this
season.
"I know we played Illinois and it
was about as bad as we could play,"
Carmody said. "We came back and we
started to play a little bit better. Cer-
tainly, that's on your mind.
"Right now, I'm still concentrat-
ing on just our own team ... (but a
Michigan turnaround) certainly
concerns me."

taking two matches into decisive
third sets.
Jung was pushed to a second-
set tiebreaker before eventu-
ally prevailing, 6-2, 7-6 (3), and
the Broncos split sets with the
Wolverines in the two remain-
ing matches. But since the match

"Granted, they were very
close, but we lost all of them.
But the whole team is going to
be pumped up, so hopefully we
get a pretty good crowd and get
some quality wins to help our
program."


0

Senior Jason Jung helped Michigan to sweep Western Michigan in the team's first match of the year.

Freshmen propel Blue past Chippewas, Boilermakers

Zeerip and Grajales
steal spotlight, help
Wolverines deliver
upset bid to Purdue
By DANIEL WASSERMAN
Daily Sports Writer
For the Michigan wrestling
squad, this weekend was full of
streaks, surprises and even the
chance to play spoiler.
On Friday, the 11th-ranked Wol-
verines rattled off 28 consecutive
points in their home win over
No. 21 Purdue. Then, on Sunday,
Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 6-2 over-
all) snapped a three-game losing
streak to Central Michigan, beat-
ing the 20th-ranked Chippewas
in its first match at a new home
arena.
And two freshmen - Brandon
Zeerip and Eric Grajales - stole
the show in their Big Ten debuts.
"Those two guys are going to
be a big part of our season, not
only this year, but obviously in
the future," Michigan coach Joe
McFarland said Monday. "Eric
went out there and scored a lot of
points. His conditioning is com-
ing around. Brandon keeps getting
better week to week. He broke that
kid Sunday, wore him out."
The Wolverines kicked off con-
ference play with a commanding
28-13 win over the Boilermakers.
After Purdue (0-2, 3-4-1) won
its first two matches to take a 9-0
lead, Michigan won the next seven
to put it ahead for good. It wasn't
until the meet's last match that
sophomore Mark Boyer lost, end-
ing the 28-point run.
Tenth-ranked sophomore Ben
Apland got things rolling for the
Wolverines with a 21-4 win, which

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with a pin. Sophomore Sean My family came to watch, as well
nd junior Zac Stevens used as other people from (Hesperia,
rts to keep the momentum Michigan), where I'm from."
higan's side. And Junior Michigan carried its momen-
Russell - the top-ranked tum up to Mount Pleasant, where
r in the 141-pound class - Central Michigan (3-7) opened the
sily, 20-4. doors to its brand new wrestling
came the freshmen, who facility - McGuirk Arena. But the
lisappoint. Chippewa fans left disappointed
up was Grajales, who saw by the Wolverines, who used a
iar opponent in the Boil- quick start to walk away with a
r's Sam Patacsil. Grajales 21-12 win.
T knocked off Patacsil a "We came up here and had to
ago in Las Vegas, and this wrestle in a pretty hostile envi-
was no different. The Wol- ronment," McFarland said. "The
won handily, 6-1. fans up here are passionate about
efinitely gave me a lot of their wrestling, and we had a nice
once, because I knew I'd be crowd out there.
beat him," Grajales said. "I "Our guys wrestled hard and
nt out there, wrestled solid wrestled well, but we lost a couple
red when I needed to." close matches that I'm still chew-
ip was faced with the task ing on."
ing a ranked opponent in But thanks to more dominat-
career dual-meet match. ing performances by the middle-
weights - Russell, Zeerip and
Grajales - Michigan built what
would become an insurmountable
hose two guys lead.
With the score tied 3-3, Russell
e going to be notched a win - his 22nd of the
year and 24th in a row- to put the
ilg part of our Wolverines ahead, 6-3.
"He had a great weekend,"
seaO n."? McFarland said. "He's focused
when he steps on the mat. Kellen's
just able to wrestle a solid, smart
match. He's just a guy I can always
the freshman seemed to count on for great success."
T the pressure, shining on With the lead, Michigan would
stage. After controlling never look back - thanks in large
f the match, he was able to part to the freshmen stealing the
opponent - 19th-ranked show.
Salazar - to capture the Grajales followed Russell with a
convincing win. He punished the
as pretty pumped," Zeerip Chippewa's Donnie Corby with
could kind of sense that he several big moves en route to a
rting to get tired, so I kept 20-4 win.
the whole time. "I've always liked bigger
mom was really excited. moves," Grajales said. "The crowd
my first team match, and I Sunday really helped me out. They
ppy because it was at home. were dressed up, yelling things at

Redshirt freshman Eric Grajales won his match, 6-1, against Purdue's Sam Patacsil, who he defeated a month prior.

our team. I fed off of all of the neg-
ativity towards our team. I loved
hearing people saying stuff like
that and people dressed up like idi-
ots because I fed off their energy
and went at it."
Zeerip stepped to the mat with
a tough-act to follow, but didn't
let his teammate overshadow his
strong performance.
The freshman controlled the
match start to finish, using nine
takedowns, to earn an impressive

19-7 victory.
"After I got that win on Friday,
my confidence definitely carried
over," Zeerip said. "I knew if I
went out as hard as I could with
the same mentality that I have
nothing to lose, then I could do
well again. It was definitely a good
weekend."
Sophomore Hunter Collins and
13th-ranked senior captain Antho-
ny Biondo also added wins for the
Wolverines.

Michigan hopes to build ontheir
strong start to Big Ten play when
another ranked squad, Northwest-
ern, comes to Ann Arbor.
"No question I'm pleased any-
time you can start the Big Ten
season with a win over a ranked
opponent," McFarland said.
"We've got to keep rolling and
keep feeding off these wins. Our
guys are wrestling with a lot of
excitement and passion, and that's
been great to see. We've just got to