The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
September 3; 2013 - 9B
Michigan sweep gives Rosen 500th win
By ALEXA DETTELBACH
Daily Sports Writer
The No. 7 Michigan volleyball
team picked up where it left off
last year in its first weekend back
on the court, winning its first
three games. The weekend culmi-
nated with Michigan coach mark
Rosen earning his 500th career
win.
"One of the coolest things is
that it's about those people that
won those matches, because I
didn't win any of those matches
from the standpoint of playing,"
Rosen said.* "We've had a great
group of people throughout my
career, but certainly throughout
our time here at Michigan."
The seventh-ranked Wolver-
ines opened their season at the
three-game tournament at the
Xavier Invitational in Cincinnati.
They faced off against Clemson
and Xavier on Friday and North-
ern Kentucky on Saturday - and
Michigan swept the competition
without dropping a set.
A dominant win over the Norse
on Saturday gave Rosen his 500th
career win as well as an invita-
tional title for the Wolverines.
Rosen is the fourth active Big Ten
coach withA00 career wins. In his,
15th season with Michigan, Rosen
boasts a record of 291-177 and last
season he led the program to its
first Final Four appearance.
Rosen's players continued last
season's success on Saturday,
where the Wolverines opened the
first set against Northern Ken-
tucky (0-3) hitting .342. A 7-1 run
ultimately led them to winning
25-19 win in the first set. Ulti-
mately, senior outside hitter Lexi
Erwin paced Michigan (3-0) with
16 kills, while fellow-senior out-
side hitter Molly Toon added 11
kills and six digs.
The Wolverines finished the
match hitting .343 and committed
just 11 errors. Junior setter Lexi
Dannemiller earned the MVP
award and senior middle blocker
Jennifer Cross joined Dannemi-
SHer as a selection for the All-Tour-
blocks and acouple kills and really
impacted the game very quickly
and significantly and she contin-
ued that the first two matches."
Only one of the other freshmen
- middle blocker Gabbie Bulic -
saw playing time on Saturday. She
contributed in the third game,
registering nine kills and a .529
hitting percentage.
"Gabbie played today and she
did a really nice job and worked
evenly into the college game,"
Rosen said. "There are still some
things she's a little behind on, but
offensively (she) did a great job
and really did a nice job of getting
better as the match went on."
The Wolverines continued to
look like a top-10 squad against
Xavier (2-1), winning the first
set 25-18 while hitting .571. The
Mountaineers opened the second
set on a 6-1 run before Michigan
climbed back to take the set25-22.
The Wolverines went on to win
the match in straight sets for the
second game ina row, completing
the perfect first day of play.
Against Xavier, Dannemi-
ller led Michigan with 37 assists
and eight digs, while sophomore
defensive specialist Tiffany
Morales added a team-high 12
digs. Leading the offense were
senior captains Erwin and Cross,
who had 11 and 10 kills, respec-
tively.
"I think we're fearless,"
Dannemiller said. "There wasn't
a moment in time in the last two
matches that we ever doubted
ourselves or got down on our-
selves. We just looked really fear-
less."
Next up for the Wolverines is
the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge,
where they will face Oregon State
on September 6 and Oregon on
September 7 in Cliff Keen Arena
for their home opener.
"I'm excited," Dannemiller
said. "I think we have a great sea-
son ahead of us and we proved it
after these last few matches. Just
being able to play someone else for
a change and see the success, it's
just really exciting."
PATRICKJhArkON/Daily
Junior setter Levi Dannemiller earned the MVP award of the Xavier Invtational over the weekend and said that the team loeked "fearless."
nament Team.
"Jen was great," Rosen said.
"She played very consistent,
dominating as an attacker and as
a blocker. And Dannemiller was
running the offense as well as
anyone's ever run it here. She'sjust
doing a great job. It's really fun to
watch her become such a mature
player now that she has two years
of college under her belt."
And just like they ended it, the
Wolverines started the weekend
on fire beating Clemson (1-2) in
straight sets and hitting .476 in
the match's first set. Sophomore
middle blocker Krystalyn Goode
had acareer-high eightblocks and
added four kills.
"I thought all of our returners
did a really nice'job this week-
end," Rosen said. "We really made
some changes in our lineup today
to give our younger players some
experience and I really wanted
our older players to carry a big
load to help that process and they
did really well."
. Overall, Michigan opened the
tournament in dominant fashion,
hitting .315, while holding the
Tigers to a meager -.033.
Michigan has now won its sea-
son opener for the eighth straight
season. Dannemiller led the Wol-
verines with 35 kills, five digs
and two blocks in the first game
against Clemson. Meanwhile,
freshman middle blocker Abby
Cole registered nine kills in her
first college appearance.
Cole, the top recruit for the
Wolverinesthis season, is expect-
ed to contribute immediately and
help fill the void of Claire McEI-
heny. The freshman also played
in the second game against Xavier
but did not see action in the third
game because of a lingering knee
problem that the team wants to
monitor.
"Abby looked great," Dannemi-
ller said. "She didn't seem scared
at all, she just wanted to go out
and kill the team and she handled
it really well, a lot better than I
expected."
Added Rosen: "Abby Cole on
the first series of the first match
of her career she had two or three
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