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Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 7B

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 7B


'M' starts season off
with intrasquad meet

Intense heat and
humidity take
toll on runner
performances
By EMILY O'DONNELL
Daily Sports Writer
While most stayed indoors
to avoid the high temperatures,
the No. 13 Michigan women's
cross country team showcased
its talent at the Michigan Open
on Saturday.
The intrasquad meet, which
was held at Hudson Mills
Metropark outside of Ann
Arbor, featured a winding
5,000-meter course.
Fifth-year senior Danielle
Tauro finished first, with a final
time of 18:02.40. Trailing sec-
onds behind was junior Rebecca
Addison, at 18:11.85.
"Danielle and Rebecca real-
ly stood out today," Michigan
coach Mike McGuire said.
"Danielle did a great job leading
us."
Redshirt sophomore Megan
Weschler held her own by plac-
ing third, proving herself as a
formidable runner for the rest of
the season.
"Megan had a huge improve-
ment today fromthe same course
she competed at last year,"
McGuire said. "She dropped 49
seconds today in much tougher

condit
Tho
a strai
The 95
ity way
the ru
"We
about

in
spC

ions." But McGuire emphasized
se tough conditions put that the point of the intrasquad
o on the athletes' ability. meet was not to go out and earn
i-degree heat with humid- personal bests across the board.
s definitely a roadblock for "Our goal is to keep getting
nners. better as the season progresses,"
were all a little worried McGuire said. "Our main objec-
the heat," Addison said. tive is to win Big Ten Champion-
ships.
"We've still have a long way
to go off of today, but there's
W e weren't 10 other teams in the Big Tens
making that same statement."
Sthe best of In order to achieve that goal,
bef re the athletes put an emphasis on
)irits be fe pushing each other to become
faster and stronger.
the race." "We have healthy competi-
tion in practice," Tauro said.
"There's no rivalry, but we just
want everyone to keep moving
'eren't in the best of spir- forward. A lot of people did bet-
ore the race, but once we ter today than last year."
d the race, we were ready Added McGuire: "The work-
outs will get tougher as the sea-
ro cited the first 800 son goes on.
s of the course as espe- We will be 10 weeks better 10
challenging since there weeks from now. If at 11 weeks
o shade in that part of the we are only five weeks better,
then our chance of achieving
e heat made it dangerous our team goal of Big Tens is
," Tauro said. "Our goal lower. I want to keep the team
D be conservative, but to healthy and getting better."
a good effort, as well." The team continues its season
t wasn't the only obstacle at the Illinois Orange and Blue
ng in the Wolverines' way. Preview in Urbana, Ill. on Sept.

"We w
its bef
starter
to go."
Tau
meters
cially
was nc
course
"Th
to run
was tc
put in:
Hea
standi

* Senior outside hitter Alex Hunt was named to the all-tournament team after collecting 37 kills in Utah.

AND/Daily

Michigan dominates at
Utah Valley Invitational

The team was also exhausted,
having just returned from train-
ing camp up north in Pellston,
Mich., where the temperate cli-
mate was ideal for running.

16.
It will compete in the 4,000-
meter race, the same distance of
the race at the Big Ten Champi-
onships in November.

By NEAL ROTHSCHILD
Daily Sports Writer
Like a juggler, Michigan vol-
leyball coach Mark Rosen con-
tinues to add more pieces to the
Wolverines' attack as the young
season progresses.
But this weekend in the Utah
Valley Invitational in Orem,
Utah, Rosen must have been jug-
gling torches because his offense
was on fire.
No. 24 Michigan (6-0) bran-
dished a balanced attack and
made easy work of the four-team
tournament field.
The Wolverines recorded dou-
ble-digit kills from at least three
players in each of the matches
and dropped only one set on the
weekend.
Redshirt junior right side
Claire McElheny led the charge,
posting 38 kills on the weekend
to earn MVP honors. But she
wasn't the only one taking home
hardware at the end of the week-
end. Senior libero Sloane Don-
hoff won Defensive Player of the
Tournament, putting up 46 digs
in the three matches.
Senior outside hitter Alex
Hunt and senior middle blocker
Courtney Fletcher were also
named to the all-tournament
team. Hunt put down 37 kills
on the weekend to pad her team
high of 66 on the season.
"The past two weeks, we've
been working on the setter-hit-
ter connection," McElheny said.
"Last weekend, it was more try-
ing to build trust and over the

past week we got a lot of confi-
dence in our setters. All around,
our offense really stepped it up
this weekend. It just felt good.
Everyone looked confident and
felt confident, and we're begin-
ning to trust everyone a lot bet-
ter."
Freshman setter Lexi
Dannemiller set the tone for the
weekend, putting up a double-
double on Friday evening against
Utah Valley (4-2).
Michigan proved to be the
superior Wolverines and cruised
to a victory in straight sets. In the
last frame, Michigan overcame a
"A lot of
players are
making huge
contributions."
24-22 set point to win 27-25 and
grab its first win of the weekend.
Dannemiller had at least
40 assists in each of the three
matches in Utah and took home
Big Ten Freshman of the Week
honors.
On Saturday, Michigan lost its
first set of the weekend to Santa
Clara (3-3) to even the match at
1-1.
But the Wolverines quickly
turned up the heat and sailed
through the last two sets, win-

ning by 10 and 12 points, respec-
tively. Cal Poly (3-4) was no
match for Michigan on Saturday
evening, losing in straight sets.
"A lot of players are making
huge contributions," Rosen said.
"Lexi Dannemiller as a fresh-
man, coming in and taking the
reins early, she's done a great
job. This weekend, we got great
offense out of Claire McElheny.
"We were getting more work
out of our middles and our
offense became a lot more bal-
anced."
With two weekends complet-
ed, Rosen is starting to get away
from what he called the "vanilla
offense" and add more complica-
tions and different looks.
"We changed a lot of things
in our system in the last six-to-
nine months and we need to
keep developing our offensive
options," Rosen said. "We were
pretty developed the first week-
end and this weekend we started
stepping it up a bit.
"Butwestillhave alotofthings
we need to add to our offense to
be able to beat the high-level Big
Ten teams."
Next weekend will mark
Michigan's first game against a
big-conference team when the
Wolverines head to Dayton, Ohio
to take on Florida State, Pepper-
dine and Dayton.
"It's early in the year so there's
still a ton of things for us to work
on," Rosen said. "I'm pleased
with the progress but very
understanding that there's a lot
of things for us to get better at."

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