The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, November 30, 2012 - 5
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycomFriday, November 30, 2012 - 5
Volleyball holds off Vols
'M' heads to Big Rapids
looking to snap streak
By GREG GARNO
Daily Sports Writer
After cruising through its first
two sets against Tennessee, the
Michigan volleyball team ran to
its locker room like children run-
ning home for dinner.
But when Michigan returned
to play, there was a stronger,
much different opponent waiting.
The Wolverines managed to
walk away
victorious, MICHIGAN 3
overcoming TENNESSEE 2
the resur-
gent Volunteers to hang on to
their two-set lead and win a close
five-set match, 25-22,25-17,22-25,
19-25, 15-10 in the opening round
of the NCAA Tournament in Lou-
siville, Ky. With the win, Michi-
gan advances to the second round
to play No. 9 Louisville on Friday.
Thanks to a fast start in the
fifth set, the Wolverines (24-11)
were able to escape an early exit
following a strong regular season.
"I thought we did a good job
of just letting those first four sets
go, good and bad, and just play-
ing that fifth set really well," said
Michigan coach Mark Rosen.
"I'm very proud of how they
responded and looking forward
to moving on."
Michigan leaned heavily on its
leading hitters - junior outside
hitters Lexi Erwin and Molly
Toon - to take control. The two
accounted for more than half of
Michigan's points. Erwin fin-
ished with a game-high 26 kills
while Toon added 20.
The Wolverines came out
strong early, catching the Volun-
teers on their heels. Down 2-4 in
the first set, Michigan went on a
4-0 to secure a lead. Tennessee
had no answer to the Wolverines'
momentum in the beginning of
the game, unable to get a sideout
when needed.
For the rest of the set, Ten-
nessee could only answer with
Junior outside hitter Lexi Erwin finished with a game-high 26 kills as Michigan snuck past Tennessee in five sets.
one point to every two points
for Michigan, failing to stop the
Wolverines' momentum.
Strong hitting and a nearly
errorless second set allowed
Michigan to quickly head into
the locker room: The Wolverines
raced out to a 10-3 run behind
the strong play of junior middle
blocker Jennifer Cross. The Vol-
unteers never figured out how
to stop a team that hit at will, as
Michigan finished with a .300
attack percentage and only one
error.
"Jen is a student of the game
and loves to think through the
game," Rosen said. "There were
lots of times I could see her com-
municating with other players
and telling them what they're
going to do and setting our team
up to defend."
But Tennessee - 8-3 in five-
set games this season - was
accustomed to taking its time to
figure out opponents.
The Volunteers had over-
committed to one hitter by
gambling on sophomore set-
ter Lexi Dannemiller's decision
to continue feeding Erwin and
Toon. But Tennessee switched
its scheme in the following sets,
running two setters and a stron-
ger offense.
Michigan's hot hitting cooled
off following the break, ending
the set with a .108 attack per-
centage. Ahead 13-11, Tennessee
need only a 3-0 run to provide
the momentum to pull away.
The Volunteers mirrored
the Wolverines' strong second
set with one of their own in the
fourth, taking advantage of a
slew of serving errors - Michi-
gan finished with nine serving
errors on the night. Tennessee
jumped out to a 10-4 lead, mak-
ing several short runs to force
the fifth set.
"Even though Tennessee
was making a good run at us,
they were always coming from
behind," Rosen said. "I think that
still allows to be a little bit more
controlled and more composed
and know that we had the ability
to play at that level."
Added Erwin: "I think that it
was the first-game jitters, so not
everything was going as smooth
as it has gone all season. I think
we kind of just forgot the first
four games and started new."
Needing a sprint in the fifth
set, the Wolverines managed
a 6-3 on two service aces from
Dannemiller. The Volunteers
called a timeout hoping to
respond, but Michigan extended
its lead tot10-5, forcing yet anoth-
er timeout. Ultimately, using two
kills from Dannemiller, the Wol-
verines closed the game on akill
from Toon.
Dannemiller finished with
57 assists, and 16 digs as part of
her solid night. Freshman libero
Tiffany Morlaes led the team in
digs with 19, adding to her strong
freshman campaign.
"We had to learn as the match
went on," Rosen said. "I think
these guys, especially in the first
two sets, I could see them mak-
ing a lot of adjustments, just
from what they're watching. It's
something this team takes a lotof
pride on, they're good smatt vol-
leyball players, they're not just
playing the system."
By MATT SLOVIN
Daily Sports Editor
The Michigan hockey team
returns to CCHA play Friday
when it begins a two-game road
series against Ferris State (5-3
CCHA, 6-4-2 overall).
After play-
ing home-and-
home series Michigan at,
with the Bull- FerrisState
dogs the past
few seasons, the Matchup:
Wolverines will Michigan
5--1Ferris
play a full week- State 62
end in Big Rap-
ids for the first When: Friday
time since 2006. 7:05 p.m.'y
And because
Michigan has Where:
begun this sea- twiglehen
Ice Arena
son with an
abysmal 0-3-1 TV/Radio:
record away MGoBlue.com
from Yost Ice
Arena, the venue is perhaps more
foreboding than Ferris State's sta-
tus as reigning conference cham-
pions.
To neutralize the home-ice
advantage, Michigan coach Red
Berenson said the Wolverines
(3-5-1, 5-7-1) need to get on the
board first.
"It's huge, especially at a place
like Ferris State where it feels like
the crowd is right on the ice with
you," Berenson said. "For us to
play well there, we've got to keep
the crowd out of it."
Coming off yet another embar-
rassing loss, this time to Cornell at
Madison Square Garden, Michi-
gan also needs to return to the
fundamentals. Missed defensive
assignments led to too many Big
Red goals in the 5-1 defeat last Sat-
urday.
"It wasn't that (Cornell) made
great plays," Berenson said.
"These were broken plays. We're
not picking up sticks or doing sim-
ple things like that."
The Bulldogs sit in a tie for sec-
ond place in the league, and one
reason is because they've retained
their stellar goaltending. Last
year, sophomore C.J. Motte split
time between the pipes duringhis
with then-senior Taylor Nelson,
but now the job is Motte's alone.
He's posted a 2.20 goals-against
average and a save percentage of
.928.
In order to begin a crucial four-
game stretch of games leading up
to the Great Lakes Invitational
on the right foot, the Michigan
offense needs to find its scoring
touch. After scoring in bunches to
start the season, the Wolverines
have scored one goal apiece in
three of their last four games.
"Right now, goals for are pre-
cious and goals against are killing
us," Berenson said.
, But as he does every year,
Berenson recently looked back at
the team's first 10 games to evalu-
ate where it stands. What he found
was that goals scored, power-play
goals and shots against were all
similar to their totals from a year
ago. The main discrepancy came
in goals against. The Bulldogs
won't be the best offensive team
the Michigan defense has faced all
year, but they are still formidable.
Ferris State ranks third in the
CCHA, averaging 2.88 goals per
game.
"I think it's just our defensive-
zone coverage that's struggling
right now," said freshman defen-
seman Jacob Trouba. "It's just
something we need to keep work-
ing on in practice."
The defensemen have been
slow-footed so far, but the burden
also lies with the backchecking
forwards.
If Ferris State gets on the board
first, the Wolverines will have a
hard time digging out of the hole
at Ewigleben Arena.
Wolverines travel to Peoria in first true road game
By EVERETT COOK
Daily Sports Editor
Over the last week, the No. 3
Michigan basketball team played
two games in the famed Madison
Square Garden, won its first-ever
NIT Season Tip-Off and beat its
first ranked opponent of the sea-
son. And all three of those games
were on ESPN
in front of a
national audi- Michigan
ence. at Bradley
It's difficult
to judge a team Matchup:
when it plays Bra -0'
opponents like
Slippery Rock When: Satur-
or Cleveland day, 4 p.m.
State. Last Where:
week, the Wol- Carver Arena
verines went TV/Radio:
unscathed in MGoBlue.com
their biggest
stretch of the
young season, and it gets easier to
judge them when they play teams
like Pittsburgh and then-No.18
North Carolina State.
But this weekend, Michigan
gets a break from major-con-
ference teams. On Saturday, the
Wolverines travel to Peoria, Ill. to
take on Bradley, a team that went
7-25 in the less-than-illustrious
Missouri Valley Conference last
season.
It's Michigan's first true road
game of the year - the preseason
tournament last week was tech-
nically at a neutral site - but
Bradley has also never hosted a
non-conference opponent with
this high of a ranking in its his-
tory. You'd have to go back to 1982
to find the last time the Braves
played a team ranked top-three
nationally.
Bradley (5-1) finishes off the
month tied for the most Novem-
ber wins in program history, so
it's not like the Braves are in the
midst of a terrible season. Their
entire starting five is averaging
double-digits in points, and a
sixth player is averaging close to
nine.
Still, Michigan is expected
blow by this team without a prob-
lem. It's the No. 3 team in the
country against a team that has
wins over Upper Iowa and Texas-
Pan American among others. Ten
points and a hat tip to anyone that
can name those mascots.
There is the possibility of a let-
down game, just as there is a pos-
sibility of a letdown game when
any highly-ranked team plays a
mid-major on the road. This is
Bradley's biggest game ofthe year
- you can count on the building
being full and the Braves to come
out with some energy.
But Bradley, a private univer-
sity with 5,300 undergraduate
students, and Michigan, a public
university with 27,400 under-
graduate students, don't have
much in common.
The biggest similarity came
from a common opponent from
the middle of November - Indi-
ana University-Purdue Univer-
sity Indianapolis. Michigan won
that game by 37, Bradley beat the
Jaguars by seven.
Michigan coach John Beilein and the Wolverines are off to a 6-0 start and are coming off a 79-72 victory over No.18 N.C. State at Crisler Center.
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