6E - Tuesday, September 6, 2011
NEW STUDENT EDITION
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
On softball: Hutch's approach
tried and true for M' softball
By MATT SLOVIN
Daily Sports Writer
March 7, 2011 - When Michi-
gansoftballcoachCarol Hutchins
earned her 1,200th career victory
Saturday - an 8-3 decision over
Ball State that improved on the
Wolverines' unblemished record
- it seemed that the milestone
may be just one of many reached
this season.
After all, it's no secret that No.
8 Michigan (22-0 overall) is very
capable of a special spring, show-
ing no signs of slowing down
while traveling across Florida en
route to a perfect trip over break.
The team completed its tour of
the Sunshine State with a 7-2 tri-
umph over host South Florida on
Sunday.
Hutch, as she's affectionately
known, doesn't like talking about
her accomplishments and gives
the credit for her success to vir-
tually anyone who will take the
spotlight from her.
"I don't really keep track of
that stuff," Hutch said of the
milestone. "It just means I've had
a lot of good kids in my program
and a lot of good assistants."
Of the 1,200 wins - many of
them coming in convincing fash-
ion like Saturday's 8-0 trouncing
of Arkansas - 1,177 have come
during her tenure in Ann Arbor,
so it's clear that success in Maize
and Blue is nothingnew to Hutch.
But this year has a different
feel to it.
Different from last year's run
to the NCAA Super Regional.
Different from the 2009 trip to
the College World Series in Okla-
homa City - where the Wolver-
ines hope to return this year.
Even different from 2005 when
Michigan completed its magical
run, coming back to beat UCLA
for the national championship,
giving Hutch her ring.
But anyone who knows her
knows one title isn't enough to
appease her will to succeed - a
deeply rooted desire that she,
in turn, lends to each one of her
student-athletes.
That's why nobody should
be surprised when, after lead-
ing Michigan to its best start in
school history, after being named
to the Michigan Sports Hall of
Fame, after claiming 13 of the
last 18 Big Ten regular-season
championships, Hutch refuses to
relent. I
The words "day off" aren't a
part of her vocabulary. She won't
accept from her players anything
less than their best. Settling for
less isn't what brought the Lan-
sing native from a two-sport
athlete at Michigan State down
I-96 to become one of the great-
est coaches in college softball his-
tory.
And the Wolverines have been
creeping up the national polls.
While the schedule thus far
hasn't been filled with national
powers, some difficult challenges
await Michigan. If it can over-
come them, the ascend up the
rankings will continue. But don't
tell Hutch - she doesn't read
them.
"We don't care about the
polls," Hutch said. "You play (the
games) on the field. We'll get our
opportunity."
This weekend, the Wolverines
will attempt to remain unbeaten
when they travel to Louisville
to play a pair against both the
Cardinals and Western Ken-
tucky. In order to remain one of
the nation's few unbeatens, they
certainly won't need to deviate
from the sound fundamentals
that Hutch preaches from the
moment her players put on that
uniform.
"We're just tryingto get better
because everyone in the country
is doing the same thing," Hutch
said.
And she hasn't given us any
reason to think otherwise. In
fact, she has given us 1,200 rea-
sons to believe.
ED MOcH/Daily
Lexi leaves legacy
By MARK BURNS 64 assists and 13 digs in a five-
Daily Sports Editor set victory against Hawaii in
front of 7,500 fans, Rosen and
April 13, 2011 - Not many the Michigan coaching staff
Division-I athletes can claim knew they possessed a special
to be named the best all-time talent in Zimmerman.
player ina particular sport. "When it's crunch time, she
But senior volleyball setter just finds ways to win. That's
and Program in the Environ- the recipe, that's what you're
ment concentrator Lexi Zim- looking for in players."
merman will graduate in a few On Sept. 24, 2010, Zimmer-
weeks as "the best all-time man became the program's
player in the history of Michi- all-time assists leader. Fol-
gan (volleyball)," according to lowing the completion of this
volleyball coach Mark Rosen. past season, she tallied 5,903
"It's a really great honor," career assists. During her time
Zimmerman said of being a stu- in Ann Arbor, Zimmerman led
dent of the year. "I'm just real- the Wolverines to some of their
ly proud to have represented most successful NCAA appear-
Michigan for four years." ances as well, finishing in the
When Zimmerman came to Sweet 16 twice and Elite Eight
Michigan in the fall of 2007 once.
from Barrington High School "There's no question that
in Barrington, Mo., she was she's had the most impact on
the nation's top setter. Over the elevating our program of any-
past four seasons, Rosen has body in the history of the pro-
been fortunate enough to have gram," Rosen said.
the talent of Zimmerman, the Zimmerman is currently in
2006 Gatorade Player of the the process of compiling her
Year. portfolio and studying for the
"The majors for athleticism GREs. She's considering the
- speed, agility, hand-eye coor- possibility of playing profes-
dination, balance, explosion sional volleyball while attend-
- all those things, she's off the ing graduate school at the
charts," Rosen added, speaking College of Architecture and
last fall about the three-time Urban Planning.
American Volleyball Coaches "Michigan was very under-
Association All-American. standing, and I was encouraged
"She's got the intangible quali- by the conversation," Zimmer-
ties. She's a great competitor, man said. "They really opened
she plays great under pressure." my eyes, and I could try and do
From her very first match on the two things I really want to
Aug. 24, 2007, where she tallied do at the same time."
King winsAll-American honors,
falls in Sweet 16 in singles, doubles
By ALEX STEINHOFF
Daily Sports Writer
May 13, 2011 - Sophomore
Evan King and senior Jason
Jung of the Michigan men's
tennis team made plans to stay
in Palo Alto, Calif. for Memo-
rial Day Weekend. They also
had their sights set on traveling
to New York in early September
- the location of the U.S. Open -
where the winner of the NCAA
Individual Championships earns
a wild-card spot.
But those plans were cut short.
King reached the Sweet 16 in
singles - something not done by
a Wolverine in 19 years - before
falling to the No. 5 seed, but not
without earning All-American
status. In doubles, King and Jung
also reached the Sweet 16, before
bowing out to the No. 5 seed as
well.
In the first round, King upset
No. 12 Tim Puetz of Auburn,
but Jung failed to do the same
against defending champion and
No. 9 Bradley Klahn of Stanford,
the school playing host for the
tournament.
After several hours of a rain
delay, King jumped out to an
early 4-1 lead, breaking Puetz's
serve early. But the Auburn Tiger
fought back to trim King's lead
to just one game. At 4-3, King
suddenly turned on the jets.
He cruised to win the next two
games, before winning all six
games of the second set.
The sophomore's victory gave
Michigan its first win in the
NCAA Individual Champion-
ships since Matko Maravic won
his first-round match four years
earlier. King, the No. 21 seed
in the tournament, would next
face Gonzalo Escobar, a player
ranked five spots below him.
Michigan's captain Jung was
unable to reach day two of the
tournament in singles wit}- King.
Against the NCAA iglee
defending champion, Jung ral-
lied off three straight games in
the first set to take a 5-3 lead. But
Jung was unable to close out the
set twice and Klahn pushed the
set to five games apiece, before
closing out the set in a competi-
tive tiebreaker which featured
spectacular shots from both
sides.
But once the second set start-
ed, Klahn kept the advantage.
Klahn broke Jung to go up 3-2
before cruising through the next
three games to eliminate Jung
from the singles draw.
"The second setgot away from
(Jung) a little bit, but what I saw
looked pretty good," Michigan
coach Bruce Berque said. "It was
a tough draw, but most draws are
tough draws in this tournament."
King kicked off day two of
the tournament with his singles
match in the morning. King
dropped the first set 6-3 and was
broken to open the second set.
But King responded with a
second-set victory, pushing the
match to a decisive third set, in
which Michigan's sophomore
sensation never looked back,
completing a six-game rally to
win the match.
The win propelled King to the
Sweet 16 and officially earned
him ITA All-American status -
an honor a Wolverine hasn't had
in four years.
Just over two hours after King
won to reach the Sweet 16 in sin-
gles, he stepped on the court to
do the same in doubles.
Originally slated to play the
No.1 doubles team from national
champion USC, King and Jung
caught a lucky break, as the Tro-
jan pair pulled their names from
the doubles draw. Instead the
Wolverine duo played the No. 32
pair in the country from UCLA,
Adrian Puget and Alex Brigham.
Despite dropping a tough first
set, King and Jung found their
stride winning the second set
before cruising to a three-set
victory 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. The win
over the UCLA duo sent King
and Jung to the Sweet 16 for the
second time as a doubles team,
despite not playing together
since April.
Day three of the tournament
started off with King's third-
round singles match against rival
No. 5 Blaz Rola. The freshman
No. 1 singles player from Ohio
State met King twice earlier in
the year, taking each match in
three sets.
Rola claimed the lead early
and eventually took the first
set. Rola broke King again two
games later to take a 3-0 lead and
a strangle-hold on the set and the
match.
"Rola was getting to him and
Evan was making errors," Ber-
que said. "If you make a few
errors and allow yourself to get
frustrated, it quickly translates
to more errors, and today, he
didn't manage his frustration
too well, and I think that was the
biggest difference between yes-
terday and today."
With the match seemingly in
control, Rola pushed his lead to
5-0 with stellar serving and solid
returns of serve before closing
out the set without dropping a
game and closing out the match
in straight sets.
"In this tournament, Evan
kind of made three steps forward
and one step back," Berque said.
"He lostcto a very good player, but
unfortunately it wasn't his best
tennis today."
The loss ended King's singles
season, but King's final 30-9
record was the best by a Wolver-
ine since 1998.
King later took the court with
Jung for their second-round dou-
bles match against No. S Roberto
Maytin and John Peers from
Baylor.
Maytin and Peers played the
majority of the first set from
behind, but broke King's serve to
knot the set at five, before hold-
ing serve to take a 6-5 lead.
But the Wolverines responded
to send the set into a tiebreaker.
Despite fighting off one set
point, the Wolverines dropped a
back-and-forth tiebreaker to lose
the first set for the second time in
the tournament.
"We had a chance to serve out
the first set but were unable to
do so, and that was a big turning
point in the match," Berque said.
"We had execution problems
with first serves and finishing
out some points, and then we got
into a tiebreaker and one or two
points changed the match."
But unlike the first round,
King and Jung's opponent
jumped out to an early lead, as
they broke the Wolverine pair in
the first game of the second set.
Later in the set, as King and
Jung were trying to claw back,
they were broken for the second
time in the set, surrendering a
4-1 lead to the Bears.
At 5-2, No. 5 Baylor was serv-
ing for the match. Jung missed
a forehand into the net at break
point, missing a golden oppor-
tunity to get back into the set.
At deuce, the Bears quickly won
the next two points to clinch the
game, set, and the match, 7-6,
6-2.
As disappointing as the loss
was for King and Jung, Jung
ended his Michigan tennis
career with 89 doubles wins -
just one win shy of the all-time
record - while King ended his
season with experience and All-
American honors in singles.
"(King will) be coming back
as one of the better players in the
country and I'm sure he's going
to improve over the summer,"
Berque said. "I'm looking for him
to be a great player for us next
year at the top of the lineup in
singles and doubles."
14
TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daily
Michigan's Master"
By KEVIN RAFTERY
Daily Sports Writer
April 13, 2011 - For most
University students, spring
marks a difficult time for jug-
gling homework, preparing for
exams and solidifying summer
employment plans.
But for Michigan men's golf
captain Lion Kim, this spring
has meant balancing the addi-
tional workload of participat-
ing in last weekend's most
esteemed PGA Tour stop -
The Masters championships at
Augusta National Golf Club in
Georgia.
Kim, a senior majoring in
general studies, qualified for
the Masters by winning the U.S.
Amateur Public Links Champi-
onship last July. He finished his
Masters debut at four over par
and missed the cut by just three
strokes.
Though he didn't make it
past the second round, Kimbeat
nine former Masters champi-
ons, includinghis playing mates
Davis Love III and Jose Maria
Olazibal.
What spectators didn't see,
however, is that his talent and
work ethic translates to the
classroom.
"I think his work ethic is
what really sets him apart from
so many players that I've ever
coached," coach Andrew Sapp
said. "He probably works as
hard or harder than anybody
I've ever been around, and
that's really what drives him."
Preparing for the Masters -
and missing a week and a half
of school in the process - put
Kim's time management skills
to the test.
But if there's anyone who can
handle the challenge, it's Kim.
"It's been a busy time of
the year with papers and mid-
terms and everything," he said
in March, two weeks before
the Masters. "It's been tough,
there's no question. But I'm
going to make sure that I divide
up my practice and really use
my time wisely."
Kim, who will graduate in
June with a bachelor's in gener-
al studies, hopes to eventually
turn pro. Right now, however,
he remains focused on school
and receiving his degree.
Despite his achievements,
Kim remains humble.
"It's a great honor," he said
of being selected a student of
the year. "I truly think that if it
weren't for my teammates who
pushed me every day, I wouldn't
be in the position I'm in."